Angels' Blood (Guild Hunter #1)

 

By: Nalini Singh
Release Date: March 3rd 2009
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Series: Guild Hunter #1
Rating: 1 out 5

Elena Deveraux doesn’t consider herself a vampire hunter. Hired by a dangerous Archangel Raphael, a being so lethal that she fears for her life. Only one thing is clear—failure is not an option… even if the task is impossible. Given the task of hunting, a rogue angel has gone bad. The job will put Elena in great danger. Even if the hunt doesn’t destroy her, succumbing to Raphael’s seductive touch just may. For when archangels play, mortals break… This is some of the worst writing I’ve read in a long time. There was no depth, no finesse, and it was completely lacking in subtlety.

The plot revolves around a vampire hunter named Elena being hired by an angel because she is the very best there is, however she’s hired to hunt an angel who has lost it and not a vampire. The angel is on a violent spree that she, and somehow the archangel who hired her, has to stop.

The problem with this story is the main heroine. We are told repeatedly what a hardcore badass hunter she is, and not like the other girls. In reality, she’s weak, vulnerable all the time, and badly taken advantage of.

 

 The first half involves her either showing up or being summoned by Raphael that hired her. She is fleeing from him or his minions, desperate to prevent being harmed or violated. We don’t get much information about the job, more than a line or two.

Angel’s Blood is catering to a specific audience, with each scene involving her saying no and him crossing it. It’s just repeated over and over. The constant rape tendencies and asshole behavior are constantly overlooked.

Halfway point, Singh seems to have remembered there needs a plot. During the hunt, Elena ends up being a damsel in distress, and Raphael who hired her ends up saving her. Then she was drugged in an effort to coerce her to give in to him. So fearful of him that she armed herself.

When she starts intimacy in a compromising situation, the book acknowledges for us, so we all know that it’s compromised consent, completely overlooking their problematic power dynamic.

Anyway, the bottom line is I won’t be reading any Nalini Singh in the future.