Review ~ Archangel's Blade by Nalini Singh

Title: Archangel's Blade
Author: Nalini Singh
Series: Guild Hunter (Book 4)
Length: 310 pages
Publish Date: 6th Sept. 2011
Publisher:  Berkley Sensations

New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh is back in the shadows of a deadly, beautiful world where angels rule, vampires serve, and one female hunter must crawl out of the darkness to survive… 

The severed head marked by a distinctive tattoo on its cheek should have been a Guild case, but dark instincts honed over hundreds of years of life compel the vampire Dmitri to take control. There is something twisted about this death, something that whispers of centuries long past…but Dmitri’s need to discover the truth is nothing to the vicious strength of his response to the hunter assigned to decipher the tattoo.

Savaged in a brutal attack that almost killed her, Honor is nowhere near ready to come face to face with the seductive vampire who is an archangel’s right hand, and who wears his cruelty as boldly as his lethal sensuality…the same vampire who has been her secret obsession since the day she was old enough to understand the inexplicable, violent emotions he aroused in her.

As desire turns into a dangerous compulsion that might destroy them both, it becomes clear the past will not stay buried. Something is hunting…and it will not stop until it brings a blood-soaked nightmare to life once more…

Read an excerpt

So this is gonna be a quick, short review. I'm not going to dig deep in the story, because the blurb tells basically everything you need to know about the main plot and it would be hard to write a long review without giving away spoilers, and I so don't want to do that with this book, mainly because in this case, it could truly ruin your experience with Dmitri's book. But let me start in the beginning...

I am a huge fan of this series, since I discovered Angels' Blood - the first book in the GH series -, that was in February, 2011. The first three books in this series are about the Archangel, Raphael and His Guild Hunter, Elena. I absolutely loved the first book and the characters -Especially Raphael *sigh* - and the World, Nalini created. I always hated the descriptions in the books, of course I know they're necessary Evil (to me), but I always want to skip them and hop to the dialogue and action scenes. However Nalini has a special gift. The way she describes this world, how the angels' wings look like, how they're flying above the tower it's absolutely stunning. 

Like I said Elena and Raphael's story sucked me in, even though the third book isn't my favorite. So when I finished Archangel's Consort - the third book - and saw that the next is gonna be Dmitri's book, I felt a little... no... VERY disappointed. I was like "You gotta be fucking kidding me!! " I mean C'mon!! Archangel's Consort felt a bit rush and it hadn't a true ending.

But I found Dmitri's character to be interesting enough to pre-order Archangel's Blade. So as a birthday gift (My birthday is on 3rd September, btw...) I bought it from the Book Depository. The book arrived a week later and I immediately fallen in love with the cover. Yes the mysterious dark, shirtless predator with 6packs in a long black leather coat and with a gun in his hand can be really eye catching, but that isn't the only thing that I love. I love the scene settings, the colors, the whole set up makes an awesome contrast. And the embossed, color of copper "Archangel's Blade" title wasn't a bad idea either. So I thought it'd look stunning on the shelf... aaaand it remained there until yesterday. That means I haven't touched it for nearly 6 months!! Not even once! How could I not pick up this treasure??  Oh yes. I was scared because it is not about the two main characters from the first 3 books who I already loved. 

Man! I soooooo didn't want this book to end... I've never thought Dmitri's story would suck me in as much as Elena's and Raphael's did... that bloodsucker bastard!! The weird thing is, that Archangel's Blade was very similar to Angel's Blood ,which is my favorite in the series, so maybe I'm a little biased. We get to see Elena and Raphael in a few scenes along with Illium, Jason and Venom. And we get a tiny information about Raphael's mother too, but Nalini has carefully made sure that neither side character could overrun Dmitri's story.

Both main character have a past that comes with so much pain and scars on their souls and bodies as well. 

I'm happy to tell you, that Dmitri is still that snarky, dangerous, naughty predator as he was in the previous books. But his memories about his past makes you to want pull him into a hug and to make him forget those memories even though he scares the shit out of you...

They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger... Honor's case is the opposite. She was strong, a guild hunter, she thought nothing could break her. She was wrong! After two months torture, nearly killed by vampires, gets assigned to Dmitri to solve a mystery murder case. And when Dmitri crosses a few lines, well.. there would be some scars on him if he wouldn't be a vampire...

While there's a main plot (the mystery murder case) and also a subplot (Honor's attackers' ID) I could say the focus is on Dmitri's real personality and the main characters' relationship- what is a nicely built relationship- And then there's a twist, something special in Honor, what I've really speculated and did not see coming. I'm not sure I liked it or not, it seems a little out of place, not totally fits in the series' world, but it's sweet though. 

Most of the readers say, a book is great when there's something unique, something new in it. Which is true, BUT, I say a book is even better, when despite the fact it's really similar to an other, there's something in it, that keeps you away from putting it down and You still like/love it instead of saying "Oh no.. not again!!"

My advice is, if you love this series, don't be afraid and while you're waiting for the next E+R story, go on, pick this up and give a chance to this dark, wicked vampire to seduce you too. I can't promise, he won't bite, though :P

And yes, seems that I just can't write a short review... *sigh*
Whatever, I'm really, really, really looking forward to read Archangel's Storm, the next GH book, and in that case you haven't heard it yet, it's gonna be Jason's -the black winged Angel with extremely talented spying skills- story. Expected publication: September 13th 2012 (another birthday present... CAN'T WAIT!!) 

Of course that means we still have to wait at least 1 year(!) for the next book about Elena and Raphael. But until then, Angels' Flight comes out in February 28th 2012 which is an anthology including Angel’s Wolf, Angels’ Judgment, Angels' Pawn and Angels' Dance.