Angel’s Blood by Nalini Singh

When is an angel….not really an angel in the true sense of the word? The answer: when they are corrupt beings bent on ruling over an entire race and using their immense powers for personal gain. In Nalini Singh’s book the angels portrayed walk a fine line between the age-old battle of good and evil.

The angels here are powerful entities who are capable of transforming humans into vampires, but only on the condition of absolute submission for years to come. Most vampires comply, but some refuse to obey and their insubordination must be halted. The leaders of the angels, the archangels, have supreme authority and rule the earth.

This is where heroine Elena Deveraux, a young, talented vampire hunter, comes into the picture. As a sort of freelance hunter, Elena uses her top-notch skills and dead-on instincts to capture rebellious vamps for the Guild and bring them home to their respective owners.

When Elena is called upon by Raphael, an archangel so powerful that no one dares cross him, she begins to question her own skills but knows she must carry out his daunting task….and succeed at any cost. Raphael is dangerous and seductive, and at the same time Elena is irresistibly drawn to him, she is in fear for her very life.

Singh paints a powerful picture of Raphael, perhaps the most complex and dark character in the book. He longs to be a moral and responsible leader, and most of the time he is. But at times his position forces him to commit dark acts, and always one feels he is capable of utter destruction. He is multi-faceted, cold and remote, darkly seductive, and surprisingly susceptible to human emotions.

His challenge to Elena involves tracking not a vampire, but an archangel – one of the oldest and strongest angels who are as dangerous as Raphael himself. The Guild does not reveal why one of their own must be captured but then again, Elena is not in a position to be asking questions. She only knows that she must succeed, or die trying.

Angel’s Blood is a wonderful paranormal romance novel with main characters that are caught in a web of dangerous desire. But Singh manages to make it more than that, and readers will be excited to learn that many more intriguing aspects of the story have yet to be revealed.