Nalini Singh
ISBN #: 978-0-425-24013-7
Publisher Name: The Berkley Publishing Group/Berkley Sensation
Date Released: February 2011
Genre: Urban Fantasy Romance
Book Format: Print

BACK COVER BLURB:

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux and her lover, the lethally beautiful archangel Raphael, have returned home to New York only to face an uncompromising new evil . . .

A vampire has attacked a girls’ school- the assault one of sheer, vicious madness – and it is only the first act. Rampant bloodlust takes vampire after vampire, threatening to make the streets run with blood. Then Raphael himself begins to show signs of an uncontrolled rage, an inexplicable storm darken the city skyline and the earth itself shudders.

The omens are suddenly terrifyingly clear.

An ancient and malevolent immortal is rising. The violent winds whisper her name: Caliane. She has returned to reclaim her son, Raphael. Only one thing stands in her way: Elena, the consort who must be destroyed. . .

COVER SNARK:
I actually like this cover. I like the expression on her face. She looks fierce yet vulnerable. She looks like Elena.


FIRST LINES:

Swathed in the silken shadows of deepest night, New York was the same . . . and altered beyond compare. Once Elena had watched angels take flight from the light-filled column of the Tower as she sat in front of the distant window of the cherished apartment. Now, she was one of those angels, perched high atop a balcony that had no railing, nothing to prevent a deadly fall.

LYNETTE'S TWO CENTS:

I don’t know what to say. I just didn’t get ARCHANGEL’S CONSORT. Just didn’t get it. Now I’m going to try to explain why and I’ll probably fail horribly, so excuse me.

There is a lot going on in ARCHANGEL’S CONSORT and a lot of it is good and interesting, but it all didn’t fit together cohesively for me. Am I talking out my butt? It sounds like it doesn’t it. Seriously, I’m trying to figure this out as I type.

I loved Elena and Raphael’s relationship in ARCHANGEL’S CONSORT. You will be happy to know that I have finally forgiven Rapheal for being a complete jerk in the first book. I loved the push/give exchanged between them and the respect that they showed each other. Respect, I felt, that was lacking in the previous books in the series.

Another one of my favorite aspects was the evolution of Elena and Raphael’s relationship with their parents. All was not as it seems for both of them and I enjoyed how that played out.

So why when I loved that did I have such lukewarm feelings about ARCHANGEL’S CONSORT? I think it was the suspense. While it was there, it didn’t seem as interwoven as it should have been for Rapheal and Elena. What should have been the forefront of the novel (what’s going to happen if the ancient rises – no spoiler as it’s in the back cover blurb) the major plot seemed to be a minor subplot compared with showing how great Elena and Raphael were together and to set up the next book in the series involving one of the Seven.

See why I’m confused. If I were to take ARCHANGEL’S CONSORT apart piece by piece, I liked it very much but as a cohesive novel, I didn’t.

Make any sense? Probably not. My bad. But’s that’s my .02.


WHERE PURCHASED:

Borrowed from my local library because the freaking copy that I PRE-ORDERED from Borders still hasn’t arrived.

RATING: