Hopefully you will like #2 better than I did. Jane loved it. I am glad you enjoyed #1.

I can definitely see that. I suppose I’m willing to give it some kind of pass, if you will, since I find 1000 years of living unfathomable anyway. But that doesn’t mean there couldn’t have been more there.

I’m wondering how I’ll find the violence in book #2.

I recently read the sequel, Archangel’s Kiss, and though overall it worked a lot less well for me than Angels’ Blood (too much violence for me), I felt that the fleshing out of Elena’s childhood trauma helped show some of what she and Raphael had in common.

I’m still not 100% sold on the fact that he never fell in love the same way in the thousand years before he met Elena, and I still wish it had been explored further, but I understand the attraction a bit better now.

At least, that’s how I suspended disbelief over the huge gap in age and power between the two of them.

Thanks for the review and comments!

Thanks so much for posting your thoughts!

LauraJane — Elena’s smartassery didn’t bother me so much because it seemed like bravado, like she was trying to muster her own courage. But I did feel that I needed to see more of what it was that made her so special.

Amy — I think I said something similar in this part of my review:

It was thrilling to see Raphael's feelings for Elena humanize him, though I would have liked to understand better what it was about Elena specifically that gave her the ability to engage Raphael's emotions more deeply than any of his other lovers (all warrior women) had done in his millennium of existence.

I loved the mixture of elements in the book, but this is where I feel that fitting in the Seven, the Guild, the Cadre of Ten, and the detective story didn’t leave as much room for the relationship development as I would have liked. I agree that Raphael’s age, which IMO was part of what made him such an interesting character, also made it harder to believe that Elena was the love of his life. I think I could have been convinced though, if the relationship development had been given more pages. But since I enjoyed the other parts of the book so much, I don’t know that I would want that to come at their expense. Maybe the book could have benefitted from being a bit longer.

I actually enjoyed this one more than Slave to Sensation — I liked that book but I had bigger problems with it such as for example not finding Sascha entirely believable as someone who had repressed her emotions her whole life.

Astute review, Janine, particularly your comment on the clash of the young vs. the old.

Helen – Glad you loved it! What is A Vampire’s Claim? Is that another Singh book or novella?

Hilicia — I did read Angels’ Blood before Angels’ Pawn. I did enjoy it somewhat, thought it was entertaining and agree that it is probably better to read them in that order (the worldbuilding stuff is probably a lot clearer that way). But even so, at the risk of giving away anything that wasn’t in a review, I was disappointed that there was no HEA or HFN ending, and failing that, not even a single sex scene. Also, for its length, the novella seemed a bit overpriced. I did like Ashwini and Janvier, though.