Review: Archangel's Kiss by Nalini Singh

Title: Archangel’s Kiss
Series: Guild Hunter, Book 2
Author: Nalini Singh
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Length: 685 KB (Aprox. 340 Pages)
Publication Date: February 2, 2010
Reviewed Format: Kindle Edition, Paperback, Mass Market Paperback, Audiobook, eBook.
Source: Bought
My Rating: ★★★★☆
Get it @: Amazon | Book Depository

Book Description:

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux wakes from a year-long coma to find herself changed—an angel with wings the colors of midnight and dawn—but her fragile body needs time to heal before she can take flight. Her lover, the stunningly dangerous archangel Raphael, is used to being in control—even when it comes to the woman he considers his own. But Elena has never done well with authority…

They’ve barely begun to understand each other when Raphael receives an invitation to a ball from the archangel Lijuan. To refuse would be a sign of fatal weakness, so Raphael must ready Elena for the flight to Beijing—and to the nightmare that awaits them there. Ancient and without conscience, Lijuan holds a power that lies with the dead. And she has organized the most perfect and most vicious of welcomes for Elena…

The story opens with Elena trying to adapt to her new wings and new lifestyle. After spending a year in a coma as a result of both her near death and Raphael’s kiss that turned her, she most learn to retrain her body and her new feathery appendages. She also needs to catch up in her history and learn the rules that govern the angelic culture. But just because she is at the Refuge, a place –like the name implies– that is sacred to all angels, doesn’t mean that life and political machinations won’t try to destroy her.

Archangel’s Kiss is a race against time to try to discover the perpetrator(s) behind the attack on an angelic child, the most horrible of offenses. That is obviously part of a power play to take possession of the newly vacant seat in the Cadre left after Uram’s demise. I love the story; we get to know more about Raphael and the angelic culture as well as we begin to get an inside look into the men that compose The Seven with the introduction of new characters. We also learn more about Elena’s family and past as well as the Cadre in and on itself. Elena and Raphael’s relationship deepens while they both learn to cope with the change and possible ramifications off of it.

My only problem with the book is Elena. She went from a kick ass character to a highly insecure girl. She still fights for her freedom and independence (she is a warrior after all), still meets Raphael head on when she knows she is right. But there is a good chunk of the book where she keeps wondering “how this immortal being could be with her, have chosen her”. I would have actually expected that on the first book, when they are getting to know each other, not after they both almost sacrificed each other for one another and accepted their love for what it is.

In all, is a great book, a good sequel that develops the characters further while making sure it packs a some good old action scenes in between.

*The book includes a special preview at Bonds of Justice, a Psy-Changeling Novel, at the end.

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