Book: Archangel’s Heart by Nalini Singh

Published November 2016 by Berkley|396 pages

Where I Got It; I borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: Guild Hunter #9

Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance

New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh takes us into a dangerous and exhilarating world where a deadly, beautiful archangel and his once-mortal consort are caught in a fury of twisted darkness…

One of the most vicious archangels in the world has disappeared. No one knows if Lijuan is dead or has chosen to Sleep the long sleep of an immortal. But with her lands falling into chaos under a rising tide of vampiric bloodlust, a mysterious and ancient order of angels known as the Luminata calls the entire Cadre together to discuss the fate of her territory.

Accompanying her archangelic lover Raphael to the Luminata compound, guild hunter-turned-angel Elena senses that all is not as it seems. Secrets echo from within the stone walls of the compound, and the deeper Elena goes, the uglier the darkness. But neither Raphael nor Elena is ready for the brutal truths hidden within—truths that will change everything Elena thinks she knows about who she is…

Nothing will ever be the same again.

I really liked this one!  I’m glad we got back to Raphael and Elena, because I’ve really missed seeing them in a book.  It feels like it’s been a while since we’ve had a book focus on them.

This book is set a couple of years after the last one, and things start off pretty normal.  They don’t stay that way, of course, but at least things aren’t completely crazy.  At least initially.  There’s a lot going on in this book and with everything that happens, it makes me wonder what will happen in the next few books.

I think what I liked most about this book was learning more about Elena’s family.  We’ve learned some things about her dad’s side of the family- basically, the hunter ability comes from him but this book focuses more on her mom’s side of the family.  We learn about (and meet) her grandparents, and it’s nice to know she’ll have some family around long after her siblings and friends go.  We finally learn where the vampire in the family comes from, and I’m glad it came up.  I was wondering if we would ever see that come up again, and we actually did.  I’m glad that it went somewhere.

The Luminata were a pretty interesting group.  They turn out to be not so great, of course, and they definitely deserved what happened to them.  Hopefully, they’re able to turn things around and do better then what they’ve done.  There is quite the mystery surrounding them and it was nice to see it get solved.  I’m not surprised that it had to do with Elena, because they did act pretty strange around her.

We don’t get a lot in terms of the Cascade and how much it’s changing things- as Elena said, it was on pause, but it makes me feel like things are going to get super-interesting going forward.  With not knowing what’s going on with Lijuan, and if she’s really dead or just Sleeping…who knows what the future holds for these characters?  Actually, I’m pretty sure Lijuan isn’t dead, because I feel like we’d know it if she was.  After all, how many times have we tried to kill her and it doesn’t seem to work?  Not having a clear answer on where she is and what she’s doing is not a good sign, and I have the feeling she’s just going to pop up out of nowhere stronger than ever.

4 stars.  I really liked Archangel’s Heart, and I can’t wait to see what happens next!