“How long have you been with Raphael?”
“You ask a lot of questions for a dead woman.”
“What can I say? I prefer to die well-informed.”
Angel’s Blood – Nalini Singh
It’s hard to believe, but I started reading this series nearly a decade ago when the first book – Angels’ Blood – was published. There are now 12 books in this series and I have to confess, I haven’t yet gotten around to reading the last 3. This is strictly a time issue though, for if my to-read list was a little shorter and my free-time a little longer, I’d have devoured these all long ago.
I’m a fan of supernatural books, but the trick for me is to make two things in particular happen: there must be characters that I can relate to, a world that I somehow recognise and balanced against this supernatural creatures that truly feel as alien as they are. It’s a difficult line to tread and one that I rarely find is sustained throughout an entire book, let alone a whole series. Nalini Singh, however, writes beautifully realised characters that I can empathise with and sets them in a world that is just similar enough to our own that I can imagine inhabiting it, whilst being frighteningly different to the point that I wouldn’t want to.
Nalini Singh also has another long-standing series that I’ll be reviewing in the near future (her Psy-Changeling Series) and it is set in a different, though equally enjoyable, world where there are rules and norms that are established and understood. For me, this is one of the great benefits of long-running supernatural series. There’s plenty of time to establish the world and make it real to the reader so you can be sucked into the story so much more quickly each time.
The main character in this series – Elena Deveraux starts off as a vampire hunter, hired by an Archangel named Raphael. Suffice to say she ends the first book in a very different place and the series continues to explore the ramifications of the first, dramatic entry for some time. There’s an ever-expanding cast of characters to enjoy and many find themselves explored in much greater depth as the series progresses. I think this series is well worth the time I have already invested in it and I’m looking forward to spending some more time in the near future, catching up with some old favorites.
Book Travels 