Friday, July 14, 2017

Review: Archangel's Legion and Archangel's Shadow (Guild Hunter #6-7)

Yet even as they fight desperately to save the city, an even darker force is stirring, its chill eyes trained on New York…and on Raphael. Rivers of crimson and nightmares given flesh, the world will never again be the same…

Archangel's Legion, by Nalini Singh, is the sixth novel in the Guild Hunter series. It is the brink of an arch-angelic war. Angels are falling from the sky in New York, struck down by a vicious, unknown force. Vampires are also dying of an unknown disease. Guild hunter-turned-immortal Elena Deveraux and the archangel Raphael must discover the source of the wave of death before it engulfs their city and their people, leaving New York a ruin and Raphael’s Tower under siege by enemy archangels. As they fight desperately to save the city, an ancient dark force is also stirring with its attention directly on Raphael.

This hunt must be undertaken with stealth and without alerting their people. It must be handled by those who can become shadows themselves…

Archangel's Shadow, by Nalini Singh, is the seventh novel in the Guild Hunter series. Archangel Raphael and his hunter consort, Elena Deveraux, are dealing with arch-angelic 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—correction should not—be walking the streets.

Meanwhile, the plot centers on two Guild hunters who work strikingly compatible as partners to defeat the evil that lurks the night. Ash is a gifted human tracker 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 200-year-old 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 dark family secret that threatens to destroy them both.

Singh drops a bomb in Archangel's Legion when an ancient evil awakens that even stuns our hero Raphael. I will not spoil the news but it is news worth finding out. Singh does an excellent job building the world of archangels that makes their politics both intriguing and amazing to read. Additionally, I absolutely adored this couple, Ash and Janvier! I was initially reluctant to read Archangel's Shadows because I had never heard of their names in Singh's previous novels. Much to my surprise, they worked well together seamlessly as a team and as lovers. Javier knows how to cherish Ash in ways she has never imagined, which is a positive attribute in a soulmate. I hope to encounter them more in future novels and short stories (novellas) because they are now one of my favorite couples in the Guild Hunter universe. I recommend the Guild Hunter series to the older young adult crowd (over age 21) because the brutal dystopian aspects can be bit nerving for younger readers.

Stay tuned for the next novel in the Guild Hunter series, Archangel's Enigma.

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