Veena’s review of Archangel’s Shadows (Guild Hunter, Book 7) by Nalini Singh
Urban Fantasy published by Jove 28 Oct 14
Ms. Singh is an incredible writer and I feel blessed to have her novels be a part of my reading life. This novel, though, in my opinion, needs to be savored slowly to get the most out of it. I actually had to read it twice before I picked up all the nuances. While the author gives us a deeper look into many of the characters who’ve been introduced along the way, we still have more questions than answers, and I, for one, am looking forward to learning a lot more, especially about Aodhan and Nasir’s back stories as the series continues. Janvier and Ashwini, who kicked off the series in the prequel novella, Angels Pawn, finally have their story, and it definitely lives up in every way to the promise from so long ago. Each pairing in the series is incredible, and these two definitely hold their own as they deal with their dark pasts and forge a future together.
At the heart of the story is Elena’s continued evolution into her role as Raphael’s consort. This is underscored in more ways than one when Elena finally gets a nod of acceptance from Raphael’s mother, the feared elder Caliane. While she continues her role as a guild hunter, supporting her friends in new ways thanks to her winged strengths, she’s also becoming the bridge that brings a different perspective to allow vampires and angels accomplish their objectives differently, leveraging some of the inherent strengths of humans that they’ve heretofore ignored.
I enjoyed the fact that we actually get to know the legion a lot better. They arrived so late in the game in the last book that it was almost disappointing, so I am pleased that the author spends so much time giving us more facts and details about them. It is fun discovering their love for nature and seeing how their future residence is being built to give them gardens and atriums in the heart of New York. I am looking forward to getting to know individual members as they find their own voices, thanks to Elena’s challenge.
With everything else going on, this story also provides thrills and chills as we team up with Ashwini and Janvier in hunting down the perpetrators of the crimes that are holding the city back from making a full recovery from the rigors of the hard-won battle just ended. The nature of the crimes is horrific, both the drugs and their impact on the vampires, as well as the disappearing single women. Janvier is a great hero. His love story proceeds slowly and carefully as he burrows under Ashwini’s defenses and makes a place for himself.
It’s very cute how, during this time when he doesn’t want to drink from any other live donor, it’s revealed that he, along with the other tower vamps, use bottled blood from a blood bank that Elena has a business interest in, which she acquired in a previous book. It’s the attention to these little details that lift Ms. Singh’s books out of the ordinary.
Elena’s famous dinner party and her ten questions to Nasir have only whetted my appetite to learn more about this very mysterious and yet very lethal member of Raphael’s cadre. I don’t know who’s book is next, but definitely since he’s determined, based on the relationships that he sees around him, that he’s going to find a mate, I hope it doesn’t take too long for us to go along with him on his quest.
While Ms. Singh stays true to her fans by continuing to deliver stories in all her ongoing series throughout various intervals during the year, I can’t seem to get enough and it’s hard to wait for the next one.
Grade: A
Summary:
Return to New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh’s sensual and painfully beautiful Guild Hunter world in her new novel of sacrifice, loyalty, and the choices of love that can shatter the heart.In the wake of a brutal war, the archangel Raphael and his hunter consort, Elena, are dealing with the treacherously shifting tides of archangelic politics and the people of a battered but not broken city. The last thing their city needs is more death, especially a death that bears the eerie signature of an insane enemy archangel who cannot—should not—be walking the streets.
This hunt must be undertaken with stealth and without alerting their people. It must be handled by those who can become shadows themselves…
Ash is a gifted tracker and a woman cursed with the ability to sense the secrets of anyone she touches. But there’s one man she knows all too well without a single instant of skin contact: Janvier, the dangerously sexy Cajun vampire who has fascinated and infuriated her for years. Now, as they track down a merciless killer, their cat-and-mouse game of flirtation and provocation has turned into a profound one of the heart. And this time, it is Ash’s secret, dark and terrible, that threatens to destroy them both.
Other books in this series:
