Review: Archangel's Kiss by Nalini Singh

Back Cover Blurb:

New York Times bestselling author of Angels' Blood 

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux wakes from a year-long coma to find that she has become an angel-and that her lover, the stunningly dangerous archangel Raphael, likes having her under his control. But almost immediately, Raphael must ready Elena for a flight to Beijing, to attend a ball thrown by the archangel Lijuan. Ancient and without conscience, Lijuan's power lies with the dead. And she has organized the most perfect and most vicious of welcomes for Elena... 

For fans of: Angels’ Blood , the prequel to Archangel’s Kiss; Nalini Singh

In the Angel’s Blood, Elena is a Guild Hunter. What that means is she hunts down vampires who’ve run away and she returns them to their masters, the angels. See, in this world, angels aren’t really religious icons, but instead, basically rule the world. Angels create vampires to serve them by giving certain humans a toxin that they produce in their blood. In exchange for immortality, a human vampire-to-be signs away their freedom for a couple of centuries. Hunters are humans tasked with making sure the vampires stick to their contracts of servitude.  Elena is the best Hunter out there, which brings her to the attention of Raphael, the Archangel of New York. He’s one of seven of the most powerful angels in the world and he has a job for her. He needs her to hunt down another Archangel who has gone insane. In the process of doing this job, Elena and Raphael fall for each other, leading to massive complications and the next book, Archangel’s Kiss.

I’m a huge fan of Nalini Singh. I stalk her on her website and on an awesome urban fantasy author blog called Odd Shots. I’ve read just about everything she’s ever written.

That said, I was a little disappointed with this book. I enjoyed Archangel’s Kiss for the insight it gives us into Elena’s childhood traumas. In the first book, we were left wondering what had really happened to Elena and her family as a child. Nalini Singh finally answered that question in this, the second book in her Guild Hunter series. I enjoyed seeing Raphael and Elena’s relationship progress into more of an equal footing and watching them mature and deepen their love. I loved seeing Elena start to learn about being an angel and I loved how she dealt with all of the changes.

What I had problems with were the plot progression and climax. The plot seemed too jumpy to me. It was like it didn’t flow well when I read it. Ms. Singh had too many plot threads and she would alternate between main threads leaving me unattached to any of them. And unfortunately, the climax was completely anticlimactic. I was looking forward to the final confrontation with Lijuan and her army of the dead but it lasted for all of five pages and Elena played almost no part in it. And who destroys a city in one sentence? It was all, Beijing is no more. I just had problems with that.

I did have fun reading this. I love Elena because she’s so bad ass and refuses to take crap from anybody. I love that she’s independent and doesn’t rely on Raphael all the time, but doesn’t get into stupid situations because she’s too independent and won’t rely on others when she needs help. Raphael walks that fine line between arrogant jerk that no one likes and yummy alpha male that everyone wants. I probably will read this again, if only for the characters. I am still definitely looking forward to reading the next book in the series, which sounds like it will be set in Manhattan. I can’t wait to read about the reactions of her family and friends to her new angel wings. I hope it can come out sooner!

My Grade: B-

Review: Inked by Karen Chance, Marjorie M. Liu, Yasmine Galenorn, and Eileen Wilks

Back Cover Blurb:

Four of today's hottest urban fantasy writers together for the first time!

From today's most provocative authors come four tales of urban fantasy and paranormal romance exploring body art that is more than it seems-in a world of magic and mayhem that always leaves its mark.

This captivating tattoo theme surrounds each author's popular characters and worlds: Karen Chance's war mage Lia de Croissets, Marjorie M. Liu's demon-hunter Maxine Kiss, Yasmine Galenorn's Otherworld Intelligence Agency operative Camille D'Artigo, and Eileen Wilks's Lupi world.

I’m going to review this anthology novella by novella in order to fully cover each author’s work (mostly because I really liked some of the stories, and didn’t like some of them, so I can’t just do a catch-all review). So, on to the first novella!

Skin Deep

For fans of: Anything by Karen Chance

The first book in the Cassandra Palmer series:

Review:

Karen Chance wrote the first story, which follows war mage Lia de Croissets. Lia’s story is set in the same time period (and world) as the Cassandra Palmer series (see the link to Karen Chance’s website above), and is mostly told in other anthologies. Lia’s dad is a war mage and her mother was a high-caste Were (as in werewolf), giving Lia magical ability and a disease that prevents her from ever fully changing into a wolf. As a result, Lia has shunned the Were part of her heritage and has wholly embraced becoming a war mage, one of the best of the best when it comes to magic. At the beginning of the story, Lia is recovering from a battle that uncovered a traitor to the war mages, whom she killed. Lia is going stir crazy because she isn’t allowed to leave headquarters until her boyfriend Cyrus’s brother Sebastian, the leader of the Were clans, tells her that Cyrus has gone missing while he was doing dangerous undercover work on behalf of Sebastian. Lia sets out to find him and in the process discovers more about her relationship with Cyrus, her Were heritage, and a plot to take over the Were leadership.

I love Karen Chance’s writing, and I’ve really enjoyed following Lia’s story in all of her anthologies. I liked that, while there was a back-story that sounded interesting, I didn’t need it to read Skin Deep. The action is fun, Lia’s funny, and the romance was sweet and steamy at the same time. I really loved starting the anthology with this novella.

My Grade: A-

Armor of Roses

For fans of: Marjorie M. Liu’s Hunter Kiss series

The first book in the Hunter Kiss series:

Review:

Maxine Kiss has five demons that are tied to her life. At night, they roam around and help remove evil demons from unknowing hosts, but during the day they sleep under Maxine’s skin in the form of tattoos and make her impermeable to injury. Maxine and her boyfriend Grant are on the way home from a party for charity when they find an old man stabbed and dying against Maxine’s car. He claims to have known Maxine’s grandmother and says that whatever he helped Maxine’s grandmother with, it’s not over. Maxine has to figure out what he’s talking about and keep the other people who helped her grandmother during WWII alive.

This novella by Marjorie M. Liu is a continuation of her Hunter Kiss series, which I haven’t been able to really get into. I have read one of the Hunter Kiss novels, but I just couldn’t seem to follow along and spent most of the book very confused. Unfortunately, I had the same problem with this story. I felt like I definitely needed a back-story for the novel, and I just didn’t enjoy the way it was written. I almost gave up on the story, but I pushed through to the end because I’m stubborn like that. I’m sorry, but I just did not like this story.

My Grade: D

Etched in Silver

For fans of: The Otherworld/ Sisters of the Moon Series by Yasmine Galenorn

The first book in the Otherworld/ Sisters of the Moon series:

Review:

The prequel to Yasmine Galenorn’s Otherworld series (or Sisters of the Moon series, depending on who you talk to), this novella explains how Camille and Trillian, some of the main characters of the series, first met and fell in love. Camille is assigned to hunt down a dangerous serial rapist for the OIA (Otherworld Intelligence Agency) and along the way has some troubles with unwanted suitors.

Inked came out on the same day as Ms. Galenorn’s seventh book in the Otherworld series, Bone Magic, which also features Camille but is several years in the future. I really like the series, so I found it interesting to get a glimpse of what life was like for the D’Artigo sisters before they went Earthside. Since this was a prequel, there is no back-story necessary, but there is a ton of foreshadowing and if you’ve read the series, you’ll definitely pick up on it. I wasn’t as fond of this novella as I was of most of Ms. Galenorn’s other novels, but it was decent. It just felt a little short (compared to the other novellas, not to a full length novel) and the action that is plentiful in her other books just didn’t have the same intensity here. Also, there was a scene that introduced a new possible plot thread, and now I’m racking my brains trying to decide if that just foreshadowed something already in the series or if it has yet to occur. I’m thinking it has yet to occur. Anyway, I mostly enjoyed this novella, especially after the previous one.

My Grade: B-

Human Nature

For fans of: Eileen Wilks’s World of the Lupi series

The first book in the World of the Lupi series:

Review:

I have never read any of Eileen Wilks’s novels, so this was a pleasant introduction. Former-cop-now-FBI-agent Lily Yu travels to California at her boyfriend Rule’s request in order to investigate the suspicious death of his friend. The thing is, Rule and his friends are Lupi (another word for werewolves) and his friend was killed in an anti-Lupi stronghold. Lily has to determine whether this was a hate crime or something else, hold her relationship with Rule together, and try to avoid a political minefield.

I’m kind of excited to try reading this series now. I keep seeing the first book in the series though I haven’t yet tried it. This definitely makes me want to read the rest of her books. While I wish I knew the back-story, I don’t feel like I needed it to understand what was going on, although some of the terms were a little confusing. It sounds like the novella also introduced a new power of some sort to Lily, which could be an interesting plot thread in the next full-length novels of the series.

My Grade: B+

Overall Anthology Grade: B-

I'm back, kind of

So I know I haven’t posted anything in about a month, and I apologize for that. Life just got a little crazy for a while and I got distracted. No worries though! I have my latest reviews ready for you. I will be posting one today in a few minutes. Sorry about the wait, but in the meantime, I give you: cute bunnies! [Note: I am not trying to promote gambling, the NY lottery, bunny abuse, or any horrible thing that you might infer from the video. I just liked the cuteness.]