Angels' Blood by Nalini Singh

Holy crumb it took me forever to read this book.

My bad.

Or maybe it was the messy first half that had me scrambling.

I have to be honest and say I would have 'quit' this book much earlier if someone hadn't posted a small excerpt of Raphael and Elena's love scene. Seriously, I was reading to get to that scene and when it finally showed up?

Meh.

Cindy Blurb: Elena is a Hunter-Born which means she's like a hound dog and can sniff out vampires and track them. Why would this be something needed?

Not for the reason you are thinking of.

See there are angels in this world and they create vampires whenever the mood strikes them but these vamps have contracts with the angels that last the first hundred years. Well, I guess that's an awful long time so vamps run off and the angels need to have them back. Angels can't track I guess.

Then there are archangels. I guess they are the really powerful mofos. Raphael is one of these (there are 10) and he has a job that only Elena can help him with. Elena, not being a fan of super authority is fearful of the archangel (as everyone should be) and there is a dance between them.

There are secrets, immortals who have lost their humanity and a world that feels seriously off kilter.

Here's what I can tell you about this book. The first half needed to be cut or seriously edited. See Elena is a hunter and is contracted for a job that's pretty important in the 'holy crap end of the world' kind of way. Now it could be just me but if someone told me that I had to track a super killer cause he could end humanity as I knew it, I would probably buckle down and get my head in the game.

This doesn't happen.

Instead, Elena hides from Raphael cause he's scary and the reader is introduced to a bunch of people. Then Raphael finds Elena and the reader meets a bunch more people who are vampires and angels and archangels. There was a scene I have yet to understand in the grand scheme of the story. Raphael takes Elena to see vamps and humans intermingle. WTF?

How am I as a reader suppose to worry about the 'Big Bad' that's coming if the characters in the story are acting like nothing big is happening.

The spine of the book reads 'Urban Fantasy Romance' and yes, this is urban fantasy but it was schlocky and slow in the beginning. Actually, for most of the book, questions that I had were left unanswered. Why are there angels? Where did they come from? Why are 'hunters' born? The reason for why there are vampires is answered in the last few chapters.

Everything else?

Don't know.

Do Elena and Raphael fall in love? Apparently. But it's one of those stories where I don't get why they fall in love.

When the 'Big Bad' does finally show up on the scene I didn't care.

There was this sense by the vamps and angels that humans were expendable.

You know, just there. This feeling never leaves the story so when human characters besides Elena showed up it was like watching little ants on the scene. All I kept thinking was ' you have no way to protect yourself and you are only alive because you're not a nuisance'. For me, if you build up immortals to such great heights then what shot does a human have?

Immortals in most stories have a weakness and now I know why. If there is no weakness, if they can't be killed by anything other than their own kind, what's the point?

This one is tough to grade. I would have stopped reading if I hadn't already had a sneak peek at an excerpt, after I got to that scene I didn't want to finish the book but because I'm stomping out a slump I knew I had to finish it. The last few chapters were the best because there were some answers and stuff actually happens but is it a case of too little too late?

Okay, C-

I considered a D but after thinking about it D books make me crazy mad and this story just left me feeling nothing but meh.

That said, I love the Psy books and will definitely be buying the next one in July. This series though? I think I'll be reading reviews of the next one before making a decision.

Go here to read Rosario's review which as always, will tell you much more eloquently what this book is about.

I haven't read any other reviews yet so I'm off to see what others thought. I did glance through Rosario's review when I thought to myself 'where's the plot?' and yes, she mentions this in her review.