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A review by mastersal
Archangel's Kiss by Nalini Singh
2.0
Goodreads ate my review:
Now in much shorter summary. While better than Book 1 as some of the rules governing this world settled and there are some interesting concepts, like Elena learning to be an angel after her transition, she spends an inordinate amount of time being condescended to and being threatened. All her interactions will pretty much all the character fall into this trope (with one exception).
This book sets up this juxtaposition between danger and sexy violence; everyone Elena meets is dangerous in a sexy way. The Seven prance onto the book like “fierce” models you see on catwalks. They prance on stage, make some silly pose and walk on – the overwhelming feeling is one of artifice than of warmth. Ms Singh can draw cool characters and if she picked up the pace this would be a better book.
There is so much emphasis on this Sexy-Dangerous trope that not much else happens.
Yes, I know - move on. I don't think there was one smile in this entire book - smirks yes but not smile. And smiling at baby angels don't count.
The so-called central mystery doesn't really factor into the book. It's mostly an excuse to drop dead and/or mutilated bodies into the pages so Elena has a chance to do her scenting thing. The prime mover doesn't matter as it could have been anyone for the difference it would have made. This was my biggest problem with the novel. The violence is less an exploration of the world or an treatise on the necessity of violence but a ploy to give Elena something to do. It left me cold but I can see this working for others who connect with what Ms Singh was trying to do.
Overall, fans of paranormal will like this better. I could have used less obsessing over Raphael and more general plot. Still there are enough cute parts that I got through it - Bluebell and the baby angels saved this for me. Some of the snarky lines were genuinely funny that it made me wonder if I should read book 3. This is a testament to Ms Singh - even though I know this is not a book I will really like but I keep wanting to read on.
Now in much shorter summary. While better than Book 1 as some of the rules governing this world settled and there are some interesting concepts, like Elena learning to be an angel after her transition, she spends an inordinate amount of time being condescended to and being threatened. All her interactions will pretty much all the character fall into this trope (with one exception).
This book sets up this juxtaposition between danger and sexy violence; everyone Elena meets is dangerous in a sexy way. The Seven prance onto the book like “fierce” models you see on catwalks. They prance on stage, make some silly pose and walk on – the overwhelming feeling is one of artifice than of warmth. Ms Singh can draw cool characters and if she picked up the pace this would be a better book.
There is so much emphasis on this Sexy-Dangerous trope that not much else happens.
Yes, I know - move on. I don't think there was one smile in this entire book - smirks yes but not smile. And smiling at baby angels don't count.
The so-called central mystery doesn't really factor into the book. It's mostly an excuse to drop dead and/or mutilated bodies into the pages so Elena has a chance to do her scenting thing. The prime mover doesn't matter as it could have been anyone for the difference it would have made. This was my biggest problem with the novel. The violence is less an exploration of the world or an treatise on the necessity of violence but a ploy to give Elena something to do. It left me cold but I can see this working for others who connect with what Ms Singh was trying to do.
Overall, fans of paranormal will like this better. I could have used less obsessing over Raphael and more general plot. Still there are enough cute parts that I got through it - Bluebell and the baby angels saved this for me. Some of the snarky lines were genuinely funny that it made me wonder if I should read book 3. This is a testament to Ms Singh - even though I know this is not a book I will really like but I keep wanting to read on.