Angels' Blood

Author: Nalini Singh
Published: March 3, 2009 (Berkley)
Category: Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
Series: Guild Hunter #1
Rating: 9/10

In a departure from her hugely successful Psy-Changeling series, Nalini Singh has created a new world in the one we know, where angels watch over humans from skyscrapers and create vampires regularly. I know, it sounds very very strange, but once I started reading, I was sucked into this odd version of New York City.

In the Guild Hunter series' world, angels are overseen by a Cadre of Ten archangels. Angels also have the ability to grant immortality to humans by turning them into vampires as long as the human is acceptable. After being turned, the new vampire must fulfill a 100-year service. Some vampires decide they don't need to honor the contract and jump ship; this is where Guild Hunters come into play. They don't hunt vampires in the traditional sense (i.e. staking them), rather they act as bounty hunters, returning the wayward vamps to their sires for a certain fee.

Elena, a natural born hunter (not one that learns how to hunt and develops the skills), is one of the best, and has been selected by Raphael, Archangel of New York City (he also oversees North America) for a super secret and super dangerous mission tracking an archangel gone rogue. Elena is attracted to Raphael, but they have a rocky start, where he keeps using his powers to suggest things inside her head. He, as an immortal, has lost a good bit of his humanity and it takes a stubborn hunter to bring it back. As I was reading, I agreed with Elena. Sure, Raphael is hot, but he might kill me, or drop me from the sky. But then he realized his fascination and attraction to her made him more human and gave him the ability to see the downturn of the Cadre's members.

I don't want to say much more because I don't want to give away the ending, but the next book in the series, Angels' Kiss is coming out in 2010 and it can't be soon enough for me! In fact, it is the continuation of Elena and Raphael's story, which is another new thing for Singh, as her books are usually standalone.

Surrender

Author: Amanda Quick
Published: October 1990 (Bantam)
Category: Historical Romance
Rating: 5/10

I know, it's been a long time since I posted. I have a huge backlog of books to review and am not even sure if I can get back to them after all this time. I went through this weird period where no book I read was good enough to finish, and I was also dealing with being newly engaged and wedding planning. However, all the major planning stuff is done, so I have no excuse now!

Victoria Huntington is twenty-four, an heiress, and very independent. She's rather looking forward to being a spinster so people will stop thinking she's a complete hoyden. She meets her match in Lucas Colebrook, the Earl of Stonevale. He happens to be hunting for an heiress to restore his family's estate, and the only heiress that catches his interest is the one who has no desire to marry, especially to a fortune hunter.

Lucas uses Victoria's wild tendencies to his advantage, promising her midnight adventures that would normally be unavailable to a young lady. He figures she just wants to dine out dressed in men's clothes or go to Vauxhall Gardens, but she has bigger plans, going to brothels and gaming hells. At each of their adventures, she makes Lucas get into more trouble, insisting that he save some poor victim at these locations.

I got tired of Victoria trying so hard not to admit her love for Lucas after their hasty marriage. She argued with him all the time, and she was a supposedly smart character, so most of her arguments sounded like they were coming from a stupid person. Lucas, having long realized that he loved Victoria, couldn't tell her he loved her because upon discovering he was poor, she'd think he was going to say anything to make up for hiding that fact. So for a good part of the book, you deal with a married couple that is constantly fighting despite the fact that they love each other and Victoria's pride is all that stands in the way.

I was too annoyed to fully enjoy this book, but it had a nice ending.