Archangel's Kiss by Nalini Singh

Archangel's Kiss by Nalini Singh

Second in the Guild Hunter series

5 stars
Vampire hunter, also known as Guild Hunters, Elena Deveraux wakes up for a year-long coma to being an immortal angel. Raphael, one of the strongest and most powerful archangels of the U.S., is official her lover and it’s hard for Elena to accept his authority and control. After the powerful and oldest archangel, Lijuan, sends out an invitation to a ball for Elena’s “coming out” as Raphael’s mate and the first Made angel in existence. Elena is struggling to maintain this new world, its brutality, her new body, wings, new history, love, and finding out who is hurting angels on the Refuge, an area that is meant to be a safe haven for angels. Lijuan also has a surprise for Elena, a surprise better left dead. Whohoo! Nalini Singh does it again. After reading the disastrous Strange Angels, it’s good to read a book that I loved reading and didn’t want to end. I loved getting to see more angels and Elena’s interaction with these new beings.


The main female character is once again Elena. Elena is still a strong character in my eyes, but this is her weakest and most vulnerable time. She wakes up from a coming to discover she’s an angel with wings and that her body is completely than it used to be. Nightmares from the murders of family are starting to surface again along with having to deal with angels and archangels games. She still stayed strong and level-headed. I didn’t really like the Refuge though, it wasn’t Elena’s element and she seemed out of place. I liked learning more of Elena’s childhood and what really happened.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 9.5

The main male character is Raphael. Raphael was such the first few pages. He was a dominate and controlling jerk and then I remembered that’s who is. He’s an archangel. Archangels get what they want when they want it. After that Raphael started to grow on me and he stopped being such a jerk. I like the banter and teasing between him and Elena. It’s nice to him joke around because he’s usually so serious. I can’t wait for Raphael to start revealing more about himself to Elena. I also can’t wait to see more about his theory on his mom. I have a feeling about that and I think he’s right.

Swoon Worthy Scale: 9.5
The Villain- Moral of the story angels like to play games and they don’t care who they hurt, especially humans because they are weak and can be easily replaced in their eyes. Lijuan plays a sick, twisted games dealing with reanimation and resurrecting the dead. Lijuan is unstable; I know she’s really old, but that is no excuse for being obsessed with the dead. Micheala is still being a bitch and wants to destroy Elena because Elena is stealing her attention. Then they have the central villain wreaking havoc across the Refuge in hopes of traveling of the ranks from angel to archangel. There was also the villain from Elena’s past in flashbacks after regaining memories she blocked off from the event that hurt her family. Angels kind of scare me; some of them are just straight up ruthless.


Villain Scale: 9.5

Illium, AKA Bluebell, is one of my favorite angels. I want to see his wings so bad; they sound like they would be beautiful in person. Venom is such an interesting vampire and I want to see more of him. Galen seems like a jerk, but it’s obvious that he doesn’t trust Elena which is why he’s distant around her, which worries me because what if he hurts her and that would definitely piss off Raphael. Neha scares me to death and I have feeling she’ll be doing some crazy stuff in the future. I miss Sara and the other Guild hunters and hope to see them in future books.

Character Scale: 9.5
One of my favorite parts of the book was when Sam, a child angel who was viciously attacked and Elena gives him a dagger and tells him the story of a dragon. I love the story for some reason and it’s so interesting and it felt real. As I mentioned earlier, I liked reading about Elena’s family before and during the attack on them. It was such a sad thing, but I felt like it gave more depth and light to Elena’s story. Raphael talked a little bit more about his story, too and I can’t wait to see where that goes. Overall this book left me with anticipation and after I read it, I went to the library and they didn’t have Archangel’s Consort, but they had the fourth and fifth book. Does that make any sense?


That means I don’t get find out what happens until I actually feel like requesting a book, which I hopefully do soon. This book was perfect and I can’t wait to read more about the Guild Hunter world.


Cover Thoughts: I like this cover a thousand times more than Angels’ Blood. The setting fits the tone of the world better, but I don’t really like how Elena’s wings look.