Archangel’s Shadow by Nalini Singh (Guild Hunter #7)
Released: October 28, 2014
Paranormal Romance
Berkley

Reviewed by Mandi

Nalini Singh has built such a fascinating world in this Guild Hunter series. She writes such wonderful descriptions that I get the most vivid images in my head as I read. As we are on book seven of this series, not only do we get a HEA between hunter Ash and Janvier but we also get pages devoted to Raphael and Elena, Dmitiri and Honor and one of my favorites from this book, Naasir. So I’m going to break down the review into segments.

Ash, Janvier and the romance: From page one, Ash and Janvier love each other. They might not have ever said the words or acted upon their fondness for each other, but it’s definitely there. Janvier flirts and charms his way into Ash’s heart. She wants him so badly, but she has a secret. A deep, dark secret that involves her brother and it just kills her that she must choose to not get involved with Janvier, otherwise the result could break his heart. The first half of the book deals with this – so the romance is a bit slow to move along. Ash has to find the courage to finally tell Janvier (and the readers) what is holding her back from living her life to the fullest. Once the secret is out, then watch out *wink*

Ash was born with the ability to read someone (thoughts, previous events in their life etc..) by just touching them. Some are immune to her, as Janvier is, so she is ‘safe’ to touch them. I think this ability is a little weakly explained in the first half of this book. At times I forgot she even had it. I wish a little more emphasis had been put on it. This ability scares Ash as if she touches someone who is deeply troubled, their negativity could suck her in too deep.

Thankfully Ash can touch Janvier in all his naughty places.

Janvier is cajun (YUM) and calls Ash ‘Cher’ (YUM) and is super, super sexy. His devotion and patience with Ash is unwavering. Ash is a vampire so his life will be super duper long. Ash is a hunter…unwilling to be changed into a vamp. This does not sit well with Janvier.

The mystery: Very well done. There are two things occurring – first, a new drug called Umber is being distributed and it makes the vampire who takes it go into an extreme blood lust/rage. It’s hard to come by, so it’s not out of control, but it’s being used enough where the angel tower is getting angry. There is also a gruesome murder of a young female vampire who is found drained of all her blood – to a mummified state. Ash and Janvier are put on the case to find out the who and why. It’s very violent and creepy, but that is what I love about this world. Singh has built a dark, violent world where actual dark, violent things happen. She just doesn’t have her characters tell us about them, we see it as they do. She doesn’t sugar-coat the fact that these angels and vampires are not human. You are always reminded of this. It’s one of my favorite aspects of this series.

Naasir: Oh Naasir, what a great character. Naasir is a vampire and….other. The other, we don’t know yet. He is very smart and can be very violent, but he also has this naive, child-like quality to him. He takes things very literally. He is curious, impulsive and doesn’t always understand body cues. He eats people sometimes. He may seem playful and he is to those he trusts, but just don’t get on his bad side. He hunts with Ash and Janvier, and adds so much to this story.

Raphael/Elena/Dmitri/Honor – We see glimpses of these fine folk in this book. Elena has a few amusing scenes where she has to play hostess that gets her all stressed out. Raphael is more relaxed in this one, even cracking a joke or two. Dmitri is….Dmitri. (My favorites in this series).

Bluebell: Makes a few appearances and made me smile. Not a lot of page time though.

There are times in this book the angels remind the vampires who are really in control, and that gave me the good shivers.

“It appears,” Dmitri purred to a rapidly paling Adele, “that the Made need to be reminded that the Tower never stops watching.”

Adele’s swallow was audible. “Who will die tonight?” she asked on a whisper of sound.

“All those who have forgotten that they are not the apex predators in this city.”

The first half of the book – there were times I don’t know if I should say the story lagged, but to me it didn’t flow as smoothly as the second half. I think if I had a character glossary with just names and whether the character was an angel/vamp/hunter and what continent they were from, that would have helped me out a lot.

Overall, Archangel’s Shadow is a nice addition to this series. One of my favorite paranormal worlds.

Rating: B

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