| Title | : | Archangels Blade (Guild Hunter, #4) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0425243915 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780425243916 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 310 |
| Publication | : | First published May 8, 2011 |
| Awards | : | All About Romance (AAR) Annual Reader Poll Most Tortured Hero (2012), RITA Award by Romance Writers of America Paranormal Romance (2012), Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award (RT Award) Best Paranormal Vampire Romance (2011), Goodreads Choice Award Romance (2011) |
The severed head marked by a distinctive tattoo on its cheek should have been a Guild case, but dark instincts honed over hundreds of years of life compel the vampire Dmitri to take control. There is something twisted about this death, something that whispers of centuries long past…but Dmitri’s need to discover the truth is nothing to the vicious strength of his response to the hunter assigned to decipher the tattoo.
Savaged in a brutal attack that almost killed her, Honor is nowhere near ready to come face to face with the seductive vampire who is an archangel’s right hand, and who wears his cruelty as boldly as his lethal sensuality…the same vampire who has been her secret obsession since the day she was old enough to understand the inexplicable, violent emotions he aroused in her.
As desire turns into a dangerous compulsion that might destroy them both, it becomes clear the past will not stay buried. Something is hunting…and it will not stop until it brings a blood-soaked nightmare to life once more…
Archangels Blade (Guild Hunter, #4) Reviews
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Remember how I always say that I like alpha men as long as they don't cross that line into dick-dom? Well, Dmitri crosses that line and then dances in dick territory while flipping me off. Yeah, I pretty much wanted to kill him this whole book.
Yes. While I was reading this book, this seemed like the most rational response..
So, instead of focusing on Elena and Raphael during this book, we get to have a story about Dmitri, Rapael's second and a vampire. Dmitri has always been a total dick to Elena, and he is into pain and sex. I thought I would like to read his story....but I was wrong. I was really pissed off for most of the book. Why?
The love interest is Honor, a female Guild Hunter who was abducted and tortured by vampires in a basement for two months. She was raped, tortured, starved, and fed upon. It was so bad that she had to have surgery to fix the internal damage done to her body.
Really? She's the one who is chosen to be with the vampire who likes bondage and pain during sex? Cuz, for some reason, I think this is a bad idea...
But, it would be okay if he treated her with kindness and sensitivity (since he knew exactly what happened to her). Of course, he didn't. Instead, he pushed her, kept bringing up her pain, threatened her, told her that he was going to "have her", and even restrained her in the way she was restrained during her ordeal. All this while saying that he was planning on using her and then throwing her away. Call me crazy, but I find this a bit insensitive to victimized women.
So, I couldn't get into this story because it was impossible to believe that a woman who had been held prisoner and victimized in every way would be attracted to this guy who was just another abuser. If she was, she needed some serious psychological help because there is something really wrong about that. And, then the story took a weird route to try and make it all okay, but I didn't care for that either. It was like trying to justify a relationship that was obviously wrong by writing in this special circumstance that means it was meant to be. But, truly, the way Dmitri treated Honor was not okay at all. I just couldn't believe or understand the love story in this one. -
I’ve tried to figure out how to write my review honestly without giving spoilers, but I just can’t. My major dislike involved a plot point that I would consider to be a spoiler, so be wary and don’t read it unless you really want to know.
Dmitri, I’m happy to say, is still the same guy we first saw in
Angels’ Blood. He’s wicked and naughty, and still has that disturbing vein of cruelty. He was, I have to admit, one of the members of the Seven that I was least interested in, but I really got to know him here and grew to love him. He’s dark and dangerous, but what really swayed me were his memories. That guy, the one his memories, was the one that really made me fall for him. If we wouldn’t have seen him as he was then, I’m not sure how much I would have cared for him in the present. As I said, he had a vein of hard anger and cruelty in him that had me shying away. Rafael could be cruel and cold to Elena and others, but he didn’t seem to relish it the way Dmitri did, and that seemed to make all the difference for me.
I tried not to compare their relationship to Elena and Rafael, I really did. And I succeeded for the most part. It was weird seeing them from the sidelines and only having a few scenes with them, but the author was smart not to let any of the other characters accidentally dominate Dmitri’s book. We got to see Jason and Illium and Venom, but the scenes with them seemed few and far between. What we did see of Illium continued to hint toward a worrying fixation on Elena, though. Just like in the last book, I’m not sure what I think of the continued mention of this subject. It’s making it into a bigger thing than I want it to be and I keep hoping it will be dropped.
Honor and Dmitri both have had to learn to cope with the horrific abuse they’re suffered. Dmitri is, of course, further along in the game than her, but he has had way more time to adjust. Honor is still jumpy and can’t control her occasional involuntary fight or flight reaction around him. Although Honor would seem to be the more wounded of the two, being that her experience was more recent, Dmitri really stole the show. His constant flashbacks exposed us to a pain and a yearning that has never healed in him. It has been so many years and he’s still not over his wife. He longs for the happiness and the love he felt when he was with her, and he just about broke my heart. That’s really what leads into why the relationship between Honor and Dmitri left me dissatisfied.
Dmitri was clearly not over his wife, and honestly, I don’t blame him. The flashbacks we were shown were incredibly compelling and it broke my heart to know that he didn’t have that anymore. Although he started to make a connection with Honor, there was so much time devoted to memories of his prior life and Honor’s similarities to his dead wife that I felt that the present relationship was shortchanged. I mean, we even had flashbacks during the scenes where Honor and Dmitri were getting frisky! I ended up being more interested in the past relationship than the present one and wished I could have read that romance, because they had something beautiful.
Other than that, I also felt that the story was a little slow and that the plot wasn’t really important. It almost seemed like it existed only to give Honor and Dmitri an excuse to be around each other and to give Dmitri a compelling reason to reveal pieces of his past.
Although I wasn’t thrilled with this book, I still enjoyed it. The Guild Hunter world is an awesome place to be and I enjoyed getting to see more of Ashwini and getting to see the storyline for Holly (Uram’s victim) developed further.
Favorite Quote:"Like to push, don't you?"
"If I don't," he purred, leaning down to kiss her while he plumped and shaped her breast with a proprietary hand, "how will I ever get you to a point where you'll let me tie you up and use a whip on you?"
Review originally posted on
Fiction Vixen. -
Almost rated this 2 stars, but then we got to the ending and it was so retardedly cheesy that it's now 1 star. Let's list all the ways I hated this book.
1. Dmitri is an asshole and I haven't liked his stupid vampire ass since book 1. I had little to no hope that he'd be worthy of a book and pull his head out of his ass for a beloved. I was right, he's still a douche, even when in love. His crappy personality doesn't change.
2. Who the hell pairs up a BDSM evil vampire (Dmitri) with a Hunter (Honor) who was captured, imprisoned, and severely brutalized for two months by vampires? That's like pairing an alcoholic with a brewer, or an arachnophobic with a half spider man. So stupid and unbelievable.
3. Honor could've been interesting, she's an academic and a Hunter, but also an idiot. She's been traumatized, has PTSD, yet she's totally cool with hanging out with vampires and having the king of bdsm vamp macking on her. What is wrong with you, Honor? Is this some hair of the dog that bit you shit? She obviously hates being around vamps and flips out near Dmitri, but somehow very quickly (a week or less), she's all aboard his pogo stick. No way.
5. The plot is about vampires. The title lied to me, made me think it was going to be fun with archangels again. Nope. Raphael and Elena make brief cameos. Illium and Jason are present, but they're majorly sidelined here.
6. Constant memory flashbacks of Dmitri's life before he was a vampire. Sure, it's nice insight, but does it have to take up half the book? It felt like every other page was a repetitious flashback. Stop.
7. The mystery was way on the back burner, I felt like the whole plot was actually about Dmitri getting into Honor's pants. It seemed 70% of the book was about those two and their attraction, 10% mystery, 20% flashbacks. Blah.
8. Honor has a lot of TSTL qualities. Some are negotiable because she's a hunter, so yeah, she's used to running into danger, but who the hell says to the immortal vampire, "let me go in first." Are you an idiot? The 1,000 yr old vampire can easily survive a barrage of bullets, you, puny human, cannot. That means the vampire goes in to danger first, duh.
9. Dmitri does several WTF things to Honor, even after knowing her backstory and being angry about what was done to her. He still does several things that are blatant trigger issues with someone with her past. Why? Because he's a douchey bastard.
10. The ending. The ending is so cheesy j want to hurl. I was mollified with Dmitri becoming nicer and thought I'd give this 2 stars, but then that ending. No. Stop pulling this cliché trope. End it now.
11. This "plot twist" cliché trope that's concluded in the last chapter, it's beyond blatantly obvious from the beginning. I felt like I was being hit on the head with all the clues to this ending and I hate repetition and easy to solve plot twists. Not happy here.
I sincerely hope that there are no more vampire couples in these books. I hate the vampires in this series, they're all mostly male and douches from what I can tell. And everyone is boring in comparison to an angel. As to Honor and Dmitri, I'd use a flamethrower to scorch out their overwhelming cheesiness.
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*** 4 ***
Another Wednesday, another UF-PNR gem for the BB&B's.
Dmitri. Really, Nalini? From all the wonderful and fascinating characters you could have gone with for the fourth book of the series and you choose Dmitri??? The one obviously sick, deprived, misogynistic, and antipathetic vampire whom we all wonder why Raphael is tolerating as his second? Wow! I actually thought that Nalini had lost her mind and had decided to commit series suicide with this choice for a leading man. And even worse, for his love interest we are presented with Honor, a Guild Hunter who is not hunter-born, but thought. She is strong, but she has been just recently broken, or at least deeply hurt, by a gang of vampires who had her chained, tortured and abused for their entertainment for over 2 months... How is this going to work at all??? It just did not seem possible... Shows you how much I know:):):)
In the previous books, and especially book 1, I got to develop a healthy dislike for Raphael's second in command, the 1000 years old vampire Dmitri. He is a very arrogant and mostly uncaring jerk. But starting with the first page, when we get some of his background, I knew Nalini is not going to let me dislike him for long... If not anything else, she was determined to make him justified in the way he is now, because of his horrible and very, very tragic past... After all, he was never one of the immortality hunters. All he ever wanted was a regular life span with a life of having and providing for his wife and family... Until the day Isis entered his life and chose a different destiny for them all in the most brutal way possible. From a happy life of work and love, his life transformed into hell of pain, darkness and despair, eventually overtaken by lust for revenge and deep hatred for a living he never wanted to be a part of... Now his existence is so far away from human, his persona so far away from the loving parent he once had been... And it suits him just fine.
When Dmitri first meets Honor, she more than underwhelms him. He finds her to be weak, lacking in strength of character and running like a rabbit from reality. He can taste her fear and loathes her inability to face her demons head-on, but sees her as huddling in her corner, instead of taking her time to heal and get stronger. After all, she is just a female, one of those creatures who fall all over themselves to please him, feed him, and satisfy every and all of his whims. However, by letting us into his history by means of flashbacks, Nalini shows us that he is as cold and ruthless as he is, because his heart has always belonged to only one woman - his wife from the life he lost long ago... All other women pale in comparison. But something in this weak mortal creature Honor brings sparks of life back into his heart and he is disoriented and for first time in millennia, vulnerability creeps into his soul... Since he refuses to acknowledge his weakness where she is concerned, he chooses to concentrate on bringing her torturers to justice and this puts the two of them in close quarters while investigating together.
Honor is recovering from the horrific vampire attack, but fear is still the driver behind her current choice of life. She is only up and at it because of her friends nudging her to reclaim her power and freedom, despite wanting nothing else but to stay home and hide. Dmitri frightens her to her very core not only because he reminds her of her captors, but he is using sex and feeding as weapons and she knows she is vulnerable to him. And she feels this is worse than plain hating him.
Archangel’s Blade is a dark, angsty, and overwhelming on the emotional front book. After reading the first flashback from Dmitri's old life, I was already more emotional than I have been in all the 3 previous volumes. It was not an easy book to read for me. Along with pain, murder, torture, revenge, forgiveness and redemption, there are so many contradicting emotions, that I felt I needed to take brakes often in order to stay sane. I am not sure that I would want to read another book with that much pain-inducing situations, because I do want to keep whatever sanity I have retained as of yet:):):) Dmitri provides a tough-love approach to supporting Honor which might seem too rough or cruel at times, but I think Nalini was able to find the perfect anchor for the hunter to find her own core of strength and build on it. At the end, even with some convenient revaluations, we see no other way the book can have gone and how once again Ms. NS masterfully turns a seemingly hopeless pairing into the perfect couple. Wow! I should have never questioned her choices!!!
Happy Reading to all and enjoy the wonderful Fall weather!!! -
didn't love this one... but not for the usual reasons
this is going to sound bad but im not entirely convinced that nalini singh knows how to write a steamy romance. sure there is sex, confessions of love, etc. but where is the romance???
i really enjoyed the plot in this one and i enjoyed how this story felt more complete than previous installments (probably since this couple only gets one book) but the romance was so lackluster for me. i think other reviewers were unhappy with dmitri as the love interest but honestly i wasn't bothered by his alpha male behavior. none of his actions were shocking or even offensive to me. i guess i will admit that nalini does a good job at making her love interests alpha without crossing the line into sexually aggressive....
but i didn't feel a strong connection between the characters. the romance seemed inevitable and not in a cute way. it was just "wow they spend a lot of time together and he's inexplicably attracted to her." idk... i wasn't impressed and now im starting to question if the rest of the series will feel the same.
i guess i'm used to the brash and LOUD paranormal romances from JR Ward and Sherrilyn Kenyon but this was just very meh for me. -
Let me start by saying that Archangel’s Blade may be Nalini Singh’s best work to date and quite possibly her best hero she's created with the vampire Dmitri. Yes, ladies and gentleman, while I read Archangel’s Blade I forgot about my favorite Singh character, Kaleb, from Nalini’s Psy/Changeling series. Now that’s something astonishing because out of all Nalini's male characters, Kaleb is the end all and be all for me (Lucas Hunter from Slave to Sensation comes in a close second). Dmitri is unlike any hero I’ve read this year. He’s been an important character in the Guild Hunter series since the beginning as the archangel, Raphael’s second in command. Dmitri is a dark, almost villainous creature who uses sex and violence to get what he wants. Some may say he doesn’t have a soul from what we’ve seen of him so far. When I heard Nalini was going to give Dmitri his own book, I really thought it wouldn’t work. How could she make Dmitri stand on equal footing all her other wonderful heroes? Dmitri is one slick, and at times, slimy mo fo. Well, Dmitri is a cut above all her heroes and more so. Dmitri will slip deep into your heart and not leave. What you think you know about him is so very wrong, and when you figure out who he really is and why he acts the way he does, you may end up in tears because it’s so heartbreaking.
Archangel’s Blade is not an easy book to read. Nalini throws everything and the kitchen sink in here in regards to Dmitri and the heroine, Honor. These two have gone through hell and back and have barely survived. Their pasts are full of torture, violence, death and disturbing acts placed on their person and their psyche. Only when they both come together and find love and understanding with one another is where they’re able to fully heal. This is a powerful story that shows how love can heal all wounds.
Honor is a member of the Guild Hunter just like Elena, the vampire hunter turned angel who is mated to Raphael, the powerful archangel of Manhattan. Honor is recovering from a horrific vampire attack, where she was held captive for months and was drained of her blood, raped and tortured for no reason. She lives in fear and can barely function, going as far as blaming herself for her attack because she was forced to feel pleasure from some of the tortures she went through. Her boss, as way to push Honor to stop hiding, orders her to investigate a possible serial killer targeting vampires. Honor will have to work alongside Dmitri, who frightens her to her very core not only because he’s a vampire, but one who’s seductive and close to amoral as you can get.
Dmitri is not impressed with Honor at first because he can sense her fear and loathing. He really doesn’t have a high opinion of woman because they fawn all over him and allow him to use their bodies for sex and other degrading acts, or so we’re led to believe. His heart belonged to only one woman back when he was mortal and he will never love another with such devotion again. But as he gets to know Honor, the walls around his heart break down. He wants to avenge Honor for what she went through while he comes to terms with his own guilt over the senseless murders of people he loved before he was changed into a vampire. Honor begins to see the true Dmitri and how he’s scarred like she is. Honor wants to take what Dmitri is offering. She begins to heal also and comes to the conclusion that Dmitri is her salvation, and so much more.
Archangel’s Blade is a book where revenge and forgiveness go hand in hand. This is also a very dark and angst ridden read. What Dmitri and Honor have gone through will numb your heart because it’s so disturbing. I raged alongside both of them when they tell one another about their suffering. Dmitri makes no excuses for what he does. But the one thing that makes him redeemable is his undying devotion not only to Raphael, but the memory of a woman who was once his entire life. To explain why this is so important would be a big spoiler and is better left unsaid. I will tell you this, when Dmitri loves, it’s unlike anything you will have read before. Watching him and Honor first as adversaries who eventually become each other’s yin to their yang is a thing of beauty. Their love and passion is an accumulation of two souls who have been searching for one another for far too long.
There’s a big twist regarding Honor that may seem ridiculous and too convenient, but it works when all is said and done. When it’s revealed, you may break down in happy tears because it’s the ultimate happily ever after.
Awe. I am simply in awe of this book, with Nalini’s imagination, characterizations and over storyline and plot. Kudos, big big Kudos to Nalini for Archangel’s Blade. I announce my favorite phrase with this one- I want to have babies with this book it’s so damn good.
I bow down to Nalini for writing Archangel’s Blade. I had tears in my eyes, which doesn’t happen very often. Archangel’s Blade will be in my top 5 for 2011 and a book that will stick with me for years to come.
PS- I still heart Kaleb from Nalini's Psy/Changeling books, but for a short moment of time, he took a backseat to Dmitri. -
I am amazed by this book. I had been looking forward to it but Dmitri was actually my least favourite of Raphael's Seven so it was more a case of reading this one to get to the next one. Which me brings me back to the amazement. I loved this book and it is actually my favourite in the whole series so far.
Dmitri in the previous books is lethal and beautiful, sensual and cruel and in this book he is no different, he is all those things, but he is also more. You see a different side and you see how he became the almost immortal he is, it was heartbreaking and you begin to see him from a different perspective.
Honor was also another female character that Nalini Singh has created whom I liked, she was similar in character to Elena, a Guild Hunter, strong, tough but with a human heart. But she has also been broken by months of being captured and tortured and raped by vampires and one of the best aspects of the book was watching her become stronger through out the book with Dmitri's sometimes cruel assistance and some good old fashioned vengeance.
Now for the romance between them, frack me but that was hot! They sexual tensions was well drawn out you can feel the chemistry rise between them getting under their skin, this one of those books where you may need emergency knickers whilst reading! But much like Elena and Raphael's book this books romance isn't sweet and romantic, it is intense, raw and brutal, you feel a little bruised afterwards but it is worth it.
I can probably go on forever about this book but I really loved it but it isn't for the weak of heart, it is violent both emotionally and physically but all the better for it.
League of The Seven
I know you are all dying to know how my affections lie with the Seven, so here is teh League table at this juncture of the series!
1. AODHAN! I don't know why but he has been my fave since he was first introduced
2. Venom Just loooove his wicked sense of humour and his eyes
3. Jason I just wanna pet him
4. Dmitri Read the Ode to Dmitri which is this review
5. Illium Gotta love Bluebell!
6. Galen Wanna see more him!
7. Naasir (to be fair, we have only had a glimpse) -
Solid 4.5 Stars
Read with the Wednesday UF crew at Buddies Books & Baubles
Dmitri’s book….I thought that his character had the most growth potential so far and I was not wrong. Were/Are you scared to read Dmitri’s book because in the first three he seemed like an unapologetic arrogant ass? I mean his actions thus far towards Elena have made him questionable in my eyes but then there is that fierce devotion to Raphael he has so I always felt that he couldn’t be all bad.
Well well well I was not disappointed. Dmitri is a complex character with a pretty heart wrenching backstory that explains
❶ - Why Raphael and he are so tight and have complete trust in each other.
❷ - Why he has been throwing his scent around toward Elena and altering between trying to seduce her or kill her.
❸ - What happened to the family and children he once had.
I was captivated by this story that is so much darker than the prior ones. When Dmitri meets Honor the Hunter assigned to help him capture a foe thought long dead he feels a spark that he hasn’t felt for a women in over a millennia. Honor has her own dark story and abuse to overcome. She was held hostage by a group of vampires for their ‘enjoyment’ and is still dealing with the PTSD she is suffering from that.
I liked Honor and how hard she started to work to put her life back together after hiding out for almost a year after her tragic attack. She was a strong woman who went through a horrible tragedy so it was easy to see why she and Dmitri would connect on some fundamental level as details from his past surfaced too. You could tell that even as he was being hard on Honor he was actually helping her deal with the residual issues she was having.“Those who say vengeance eats you up are wrong—it doesn’t, not if you do it right.”
Being in Dmitri’s head also helped understand his motivations better and now I actually like the strange way he is working to help Elena to become a stronger consort and mate for Raphael. Please don’t think for a second that he is all sunshine and rainbows and kittens. He definitely isn’t, he is still brutal, hard and not mortal. But I know get the places that everything about him comes from and I really liked his dark and twisted story.“Ever had a woman say no to you, Dmitri?”
“Once.” He turned the corner with a smile that made her want to cup his face, trace those beautiful lips with her own. “I married her.”
Add to that a little more development for a few other side characters and this is my favorite story from this world so far. I’m pretty sure I know who Venom will be matched up with later and since she threatened to chop his head off I will really enjoy that courtship when it happens. There was also a little more on the guild hunter Ashwini and the Vampire that is currently pursuing her. It does appear that Vampire courtships are aggressive and maybe a bit violent but definitely never boring.
I don’t want to say that I didn’t like Raphael and Elena’s story so far because I did but it was really nice to get a broader few of the world from a few other character PoVs in the story. I look forward to discovering Jason’s story next.
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I can't believe I'm about to do this. Not about a Nalini Singh book. But Archangel's Blade was a HUGE disappointment. So much so, that I nearly gave it ONE star. NEVER before have I given an N.S. book less than 3...and usually she gets 5 stars from me. It makes me sad, but here it goes...
Reincarnation? Seriously? I'm all about suspension of disbelief. After all, my favorite genre is rife with vampires, werewolves, fairies, wizards and sassy, kick-ass women who somehow attract impossibly gorgeous para-men. And it's not even just because I don't believe in reincarnation (though, I really really don't), but the way it was done.
First off, Honor's story was good. I liked her struggle to get back to her life after being a torture victim. But all that progress, all that strength was obliterated when she got all of the memories from her former life. Totoally overshadowed what she went through. And...okay, if reincarnation existed, does it make sense that suddenly, for no discernible reason, you would get ALL of the memories from your other life? ALL OF THEM!?!?
And what a cheap, easy-out for Dmitri. No internal turmoil necessary. 1000 years later, he can't fall in love with someone new. Nooo, let's make it easy for him. Let's make the new chick his DEAD WIFE REINCARNATED.
BLECH!
The pathetic love story aside, what a strange conglomeration of mysteries they solved. Who imprisoned Honor? It was this guy, no THIS guy, no, blame it on the twisted mother. And then the Isis thing. I guess I just didn't see the bigger picture, the intertwining point to it all. It just seemed like N.S. had all these half-ideas of things she wanted to touch on in the Guild Hunter series, so she put bits of all of them into this book.
ALONG WITH A CRAPPY REINCARNATION LOVE STORY!!
Personally, I want a do-over. Nalini Singh is way better than this. She should take this garbage (which is, like, a National bestseller, so clearly I'm in the minority here) and make it BETTER! Have Ingrede be the villan. Yeah, have her be the one pulling all the puppet strings. Hmmm, how about, Isis turned her into a vamp and she's been plotting revenge on her husband for leaving. Yes, and so she was the one dropping bloody vamps in Time's Square and SHE'S the one who imprisoned Honor...and infected her with something so she would be tortured by Ingrede's memories...to screw with Dmitri's head. Yes...I would read that book.
That is all. -
A huge letdown.
**Possible spoilers ahead**
This was probably the first book with a reincarnation plot that didn't work for me. Not at all. The suspense and action part were ok, but the romance totally fell flat. There was seriously no chemistry between Dmitri and Honor in the present day. Not that there was much of it found in their past lives either.
I didn’t find any of the bad guy’s character very convincing, and his vengeance didn't quite make sense to me. Blame it on his insanity? Hmm…maybe, but…still weird.
It was a crying shame that I couldn't care less about this book. It wasn’t what I expected from Dmitri’s story whatsoever. Too bad, the previous installments were good. Now I’m pretty hesitant to continue with the series.
Two out of five stars is the best I can give this book! -
"5-My Blade is Yours, Stars!"
This book broke me.
In the first books in the series, Dmitri is portrayed as a cold-blooded, pain seeking, brutal leader.
But, once you read this book and get his backstory and history, your heart breaks for the things he's had to endure and what he's had to live through (and without) for almost an eternity.
I absolutely loved Dmitri and Honor's story!
Honor is perfect for Dmitri in every way. -
5 stars – Paranormal Romance
WOW! Once again I bow at the altar of Nalini Singh. Seriously, she is an author goddess who has created not one, but two amazing, unique series that I love. Archangel’s Blade is another phenomenal read that I devoured in one sitting and savored like the finest dark chocolate, which is fitting with a complex hero like Dmitri.
Vampire Dmitri is in two words...sexual chocolate. He’s dark, alluring, enigmatic, seductive, dangerous, addictive, powerful, ruthless, sensual, calculating, and cold and cutting as a sharp steel blade. He’s rare diamonds, rich champagne, silk sheets, bubble baths, chocolate covered strawberries, scented oils, fur-lined cuffs, velvet whips, and exotic truffles all rolled into one erotic feast for the senses. Yet underlying his sensual magnetism is a cruelty honed from centuries of pain and suffering that has bled out nearly all traces of his humanity.
Honor is a Guild hunter who’s struggling to mend her broken fighter’s spirit and heal emotional wounds resulting from a brutal captivity and torture at the hands of evil vampires. She’s deeply scarred, but her strong, compassionate survivor’s heart captivates Dmitri. But can Honor ever trust the touch of a vampire, especially a lethal killer and predator like Dmitri? And can tenderness from a caring human woman like Honor reach his embittered soul?
It’s a dark, violent, emotionally powerful, and sensual romance about two broken souls inexplicably drawn together. I loved it! Another 5-star winner from Ms. Singh! -
I hope Nalini Singh brings Elena and Raphael back in her 5th book... Its not that I wouldn't love to read Dmitri's story (4th book) but I kind of got attached to Elena and Raphael <3... I want to know how they "get along" with Raphaels Mom... :)) and I realy, realy, realy want to know if there will be a little Raphelena xD... Them having a baby would be such an amazing development to the story (in my opinion) :)
But nonetheless... I'm waiting excitedly for this talentet writer to bring out her next book(s)... -
5*+++
This book broke my heart. To learn about both their past was heartbreaking!
Dmitri stayed true to his new self, he wasn't that man from the past anymore and I loved NS for not trying to tone him down.
From the start finding out about Honor was very hard. What she had to go through made her more... just more. I loved that she was able to tell him this even after all she went through:
I want a hundred lifetimes with you.
It was unexpected seeing the mortal, ex one, Holly Chang in the book, and Ashwini too. I am thinking Holly'll end up with Venom in the end(just speculation on my part) :D I hope Ash will be in the rest of the books also :>:>
In the end this book was a 5* experience.
Reread: 10th-14th March 2012
I just finished re-reading Dmitri's book and I still think it's epic :D
Re-read 2 22nd August 2013
As soon as I listened to this song I thought of Dmitri:
Within temptation - Lost [this band is AMAZING, one of my favorites, y'all should listen to them]
My Dmitri and Honor:
My home-made chocolate truffles that work perfectly with Nalini Singh
This series... I love it more every time I re-read it.
Reread October 2016
Buddy read with Maru, Sarah and Ange -
12/10/2016 Buddy reading with my awesome friends over at BB&B. I would not have survived this gutting book without them.
“I will love you even when I am dust on the wind.”
A severed head with a distinctive tattoo, leads Raphael’s second, vampire Dmitri to cross paths with Guild Hunter Honor. And to a fierce attraction he hadn’t felt in a thousand years.
Even though Honor has never met Dmitri, she has been obsessed with him since she was old enough to understand the violent emotions he made her feel. But Honor is so broken after being brutally tortured for two months, and she might not be ready to face the seductive Dmitri.
Something is hunting in Manhattan, and these two will have to work together to uncover an evil plot intent on bringing a bloody past back to life. And the powerful desire between them is a compulsion that will either destroy or save them.
“I don’t intend to break you, Honor. I intend to seduce you.”
It’s been a while since I’ve been so completely devastated by a book. Even now as I’m writing this review, remembering the painful things Dmitri has survived makes my heart weep. I adore this author’s writing, she’s my happy place, but this book killed me with all the painful emotions it caused. This is definitely a dark I never thought I would read from this author. But as always she made it work.
Honor was becoming too important, a compulsion that wasn’t only sexual, wasn’t only physical.
Dmitri has been the only member of Raphael’s Seven that I haven’t liked. In fact, I actually despised him. He is cruel and lethal in his sensuality, and his love of pain and use of his luring scent has always disgusted me. I really had my doubts that Nalini could make me like him. But as always this author proved why she’s the queen of romance and my favorite author. The first few chapters in I still didn’t like Dmitri, and how cold and unfeeling he was. But slowly Nalini started revealing the man Dmitri was before he was Made. A man who loved his wife and his children so completely that the beauty of it stunned me. And all of the painful and heartbreaking things that happened to him and his family shattered me. It explained so much about who Dmitri now is. The strong has no choice but to survive, and above all else Dmitri is a survivor. And the person he is today is the only way he knew how to survive. I honestly couldn’t see at the beginning how Dmitri would be the right man for Honor, how a man who had only loved one woman for a thousand years, would be capable of loving again. But I can tell you now that the only man ever perfect enough for Honor was Dmitri, and by the end of this book I was completely in love with their romance.
“You sure I have a soul?”
“It might be battered and scarred, but it’s there.”Honor was a fantastic heroine. A hunter who was tortured for two months at the hands of depraved vampires. But she is strong, and just like Dmitri, she’s a survivor. And I loved her right from the beginning. I loved how she stood up for herself against Dmitri, who has no problems pushing her, taunting her, and while I wanted to kick him in the balls for this, I cheered her on all the way. She’s been alone all her life, in a way that nothing and no-one could fill the void, and has been drawn to Dmitri for many years in a way that did not make sense. I loved that she saw more to Dmitri than the asshole he presented to most. She knew without a doubt that this man was capable of more.
Body and soul, she owned him. “I’m yours. Always.”
The romance was prefect for these two. I loved the sizzling chemistry between them, and how attracted Dmitri was to Honor, in a way he hadn’t felt since his wife. After the terrible things done to Honor, intimacy was difficult for her, and it’s says a lot about Dmitri that he never pushed her in that area. He was so patient with her, and I loved that. The things Dmitri had survived and done, changed him and most of it not in good ways. But luckily Honor came into his life to save his heart, his battered soul. She’s more than tough enough to handle him and to remind him of the loving man he used to be. I ADORED the twist at the end, which thinking back was glaringly obvious right from the start, and I am so immensely grateful for it. Honor is the only woman perfect enough for Dmitri.
“Someday,” she said in a voice as serene as a high mountain lake, “I’m going to break your neck. Then I’m going to saw it off with a hacksaw so I can take my time.”
Venom’s grin creased his cheeks. “I knew you had it in you, kitty.”There was a lot of Holly, who changed her name to Sorrow, in this book. The things Uram did to her, changed her in ways that no one knows how much she will evolve still. It was amazing the way Dmitri was with her, it showed a side to him I didn’t expect. And I loved the banter between Sorrow and Venom. I really hope that these two will eventually end up together.
As always with every book in this series, Nalini gives us a little more info on the Seven. I’m ecstatic that Aodhan is moving to Manhattan, and so heartbroken about the small reveal she gave us about his past. And beautiful Illium and how he had watched over the mortal he loved was heartbreaking. I really hope Bluebell will get his HEA. And I especially loved that we learned more about the friendship and loyalty between Dmitri and Raphael. It’s so sad the things these two has survived together, but also so beautiful.
This was such a beautiful, dark and heartbreaking book. And nothing less would have been good enough for Dmitri and Honor. This author continues to amaze me with her ability to write such captivating plots and characters, and her ability to write the most powerful romances. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
-
Fuck this book for making me cry every other chapter.
This book has made me utterly devastated and scared and heartwarmed, and more conflicting, mixed emotions. It is a book that is heavy on the torture and trauma and inhumane acts. It is also a book about survival and changes and romance and friendships. I appreciate seeing Honor fight – to get angry at those who dared to make her feel like an animal – and yet, she still has good in her. She didn’t let them make her into a monster too. This book has a theme of monsters making monsters. And then, there’s Honor who has been broken but not destroyed.
Poor Dmitri. I seriously felt for him. His past sucks. Seriously. There are no words to aptly describe such horrors. There is one scene in particular, totally emotionally-charged between Dmitri and Honor, and it had me bawling like no tomorrow.
WARNING: Spoiler-ish, but it’s like predictable spoilers.
I have to say that this is my leastttt favorite from the Guild Hunter series so far. This is ironic because I just recently declared that I’m in love with this series, and BAM this happened. Anyway, it’s not a terrible book. It just isn’t my preference (as stated in the spoiler above). It is emotional and heart-breaking and it is truly fascinating writing, but just not to my taste. 2 stars.
Things that you might want to know (WARNING: Spoilers below)
Is there a happy/satisfying ending?
Love triangle? Cheating? Angst level?
Tears-worthy?
Humor?
What age level would be appropriate?
--------------
I love that feeling of officially being addicted to a series.
However, I am a bit skeptical about this new protagonist though.🙈 -
There was a good reason for my abandoning this book a couple of years ago: too much pain and suffering, which isn't exactly what I have issue with. It's the way these things are written about that bothers me. You can't slip in sexy times or eye-sexing in between episodes of PTSD, or while on a hunt for a depraved killer, and expect me to take the story seriously. Bad timing is incredibly bad here.
So many issues, but where to begin. I have to emphasize one thing right away though. This book is not representative of the previous three, which were good. They have their own issues, but they're good (for PNR). This one though... There's something about it that's quite disjointed. It was not so much content but the pacing that did it for me. I kept getting pulled out of the story every few pages. It was to either roll my eyes or facepalm because of all the inappropriately timed sexing going on. Like seriously, is that all these characters think about? Even while chasing a bloodthirsty psychopath?
There were things that bothered me about this series as a whole, but the world building and mythology were interesting enough that they overshadowed them. This book, though again, I don't know. It feels to me like Nalini Singh took all the problems of the previous books and ramped them up, but she neglected to bring back the things that made the previous books memorable. So all that's left is pain and misery... and a lot of--angsty?--sex*.
As interesting as the world and mythology and angels are**, I cannot put up with Singh's oversexed writing style anymore. It's just so over the top and takes itself too seriously. It's ridiculous and quite comical how dramatic everything is. Doesn't help that the main characters keep stripping each other with their eyes. *facepalm* These two really know how to ruin a moment... and a whole book.
A big thanks to
Milda for reading this book with me because otherwise I would have abandoned it for the second time.
* There isn't really that much literal sex. It just feels like there is because Dmitri and Honor keep thinking about it.
** They really are--so much so that I wish another author had written this series
The more I think about it, the more I think this series could be amazing in Max Gladstone's hands. -
If you’ve read the first three Guild Hunter books, you’ve met Dmitri. The dark and dangerous vampire that is Archangel Raphel’s second in command. He loves to wrap his strong arousal scent around women and has had many, many go through his bed. He teases and seduces Raphael’s mate, Elena, but this is allowed to happen because Raphael trusts him with his and his mate’s life. But Raphael also knows Dmitri’s secrets and what happened so many years ago that broke him.
Dmitri has not always been a cold hearted man, who from the outside appears to never have a deep feeling of emotion. Throughout the book, we get flashbacks into Dmitri’s life and as you read, you start to understand why Dmitri acts the way he does and why his bond with Raphael is so strong. And then he meets Honor. Honor (a guild hunter who specializes in ancient languages) was tortured herself by vampires, held captive for weeks as they raped and fed. She survived, but with a lot of internal scars. But when the head of a young vampire is discovered with a tattoo that only Honor will be able to decipher, she is forced to work with Dmitri. The fear of working so closely with another vampire almost debilitates her. Working for the guild, Dmitri is no stranger to her, she even had a strong attraction to him – before she was tortured by vampires. Now she can barely look him in the eye without falling apart. But Honor decides she is not going to let her memories best her. And when Dmitri offers revenge against those that hurt her, she decides it is the only way to move her life forward.
My favorite thing about this book (and there is so much to love) is that Dmitri is so dark and wicked. SO DARK. Are we understanding how dark he is? The first time he meets Honor, he pushes her, invades her space and in a panic, Honor cuts his face with her knife:
******
She held her position, a ragged attempt to erase the humiliation of the panic attack. “I’m fairly certain you’re not a nice man at all.”
His answer was a slow smile that whispered of silk sheets, erotic whispers, and sweat-damp skin. The unhidden intent of it had her heart slamming hard against her ribs. “No,” she said, voice raw.
“A challenge.” He wasn’t touching her and yet she felt caressed by a thousand ropes of fur, soft and lush and unmistakably sexual. “I accept.”
******
Dmitri knows Honor was tortured at the hands of other vampires, but he never pities her, or babies her. He is angry on her behalf, but his solution – hunt them down, one by one and torture them back. Let Honor be a part of it, let her unleash her anger on the ones that hurt her. They slowly build a trust. Little by little, Honor lets Dmitri in. And Dmitri very slowly starts to reveal a little of his past to her. They both come from places of extreme hurt and pain, and they form a bond. Dmitri carries so much guilt from his previous wife’s and children’s death, and these memories slam into him. They are written so brutal – at some points it was almost too much. But I think to understand the extreme violent way that he lost his family, allowed me as the reader to accept him and his actions in current day.
I also must say that Nalini Singh is the queen of writing sexual tension. She somehow turned Dmitri, who has come off a little sleazy in the previous books into a sexual god. The tension between Honor and Dmitri gave me shivers. Repeatedly. I refer to one of my favorite scenes in the book as the “Ferrari Scene” – I’ll give you a tiny taste:
******
It did something to her that he’d hardened immediately under her touch, made her even bolder. “Try not to drive beside a semi or a pickup,” she said, closing her hand over him and squeezing just enough that his jaw turned to granite, “or they’ll get an eyeful.”
“Fuck that.” He punched something on the dash and the car’s roof unfolded over them with a smooth electronic hum, locking into place in under half a minute. A second press and the windows were up and opaqued.
Good God. “How much is this car worth?”
Putting his own hand on hers, he urged her to pick up the pace.”You can’t have it. Not for a hand job. Maybe if you use your mouth.”
Her toes curled, desire igniting liquid and hot in her abdomen. “You can’t come,” she warned, pumping him with her hand. “Or you’ll have to drive all the way back to change.”
Clenching his fingers on the steering wheel, he hissed out a breath. “I won’t forget this, Honor.” It was a threat.
*******
Oh Dmitri. A friend of mine who had read the book, told me Dmitri is nasty, but in the best possible way. This is so true! And the best thing- he stays nasty and wicked. He doesn’t necessarily change – it’s just that Honor and him find in each other what is missing in their lives.
Why am I giving this book an A- rather than an A? Well, the details lead to a spoiler area, but I will say I didn’t love how something is wrapped up at the end with Honor. You discover something about her and it felt too easy and perfect. Not the end of the world or anything, but I just didn’t love it.
Final thought – Read this book! Even if you haven’t read the previous three, I think there is enough back story to fully engage in this world.
Rating: A- -
June 9, 2012: 2 stars
Oct. 19, 2016: 1 star
I did my best to go into this with an open mind. The details of the book were hazy at best, but I remembered quite well my dislike of it. I liked some of the other books in this series better the second time around, so I figured it may be the same with this. Boy was I wrong. It was sheer torture to get through this, and I skimmed it like crazy.
Dmitri deserves a special place in hell where he can suffer for all eternity.
He is a cold, rotten bastard, and that’s putting it nicely. There is no redemption to be found for him. Love doesn’t change him. He didn’t soften up the slightest bit.
The way he treated women who had been through trauma was deplorable. If they had a hard time dealing with it, they were weak. Well FU Dmitri! Having emotions doesn’t make someone weak. He must equate strength with being heartless since that’s what he is. He provoked Honor to get a rise out of her, which was cruel IMO.
Likeability was certainly an issue with Dmitri. To combat that problem his oh so tragic back story was introduced. Apparently the loss of loved ones was supposed to excuse centuries of douchebaggery. It didn’t fly with me. Plenty of others had lost more and turned out better.
It didn’t help that Honor was boring. The way other characters viewed her wasn’t how I saw her. She was a survivor but aside from that was ordinary. Nothing about her and Dmitri made sense until the cheesy romance trope came into play.
I figured out their special connection about a third of the way into the book. I didn’t want to keep reading after that. Dmitri was too alpha to have such a pathetically endearing love story, and he’s just not the kind of character I want to find happiness. Eternally brooding over his misery suits him better. Nothing about this book was worth reading. There wasn’t even anything useful about the overarching plots with the angels to be learned. -
OKAY so listen, this author serves up smutty stuff in fantasy/sci-fi worlds, and I read it unashamedly, the worlds are so well-drawn that I can't stop reading, even though the naughty bits go a BIT far for my personal taste. I particularly am enjoying the Guild Hunter series even more than the Psy-Changeling series. So this sort-of spinoff in that universe was so exciting to me. Dmitri has been a cruel bastard but an interesting character, and the intro of Honor's fragile background was different from the other lady protagonists, which I liked. So I'd say overall I liked 60% of this book. Oh but the other 40%...
SPOILERS:
First, I thought Honor's assault trauma backstory was really a hard and scary choice to make the author to make for the lead character, but for the most part I thought it was a nuanced, tasteful exploration, kudos on that. Oh that is until the VELVET WHIP THING CAME IN AT THE END AFTER THEY FINALLY HOOKED UP?!! Who would believe a character could be ok with that kind of aspect in a relationship so quickly after she had been tied up and captive and assaulted for MONTHS?!?! OMG no way.
Ok, that was annoying, and then it kinda turned into a book that felt kinda REALLY porn-y, it was all about sex and revenge and felt a bit like a Kill Bill movie in the middle. Oh and then the whole re-incarnated wife flashback thing was a SUPER interesting tie-in through the whole book, but I felt like it wasn't spread out properly and then the last 50 pages totally threw away the amazing potential reveal to Dmitri, and any proof that she could offer legitimately, he just totally accepted this CRAZY assertion WHILE THEY WERE DOING IT!
I really thought there was great potential here that bailed the last 1/4th of the book, just made me feel weird that I invested so heavily, like the rug was pulled out from under me.
Ok, well, hopefully the next spinoff book is Illium and I can be really happy, because hot angels with Blue eyelashes are interesting to me. From a character POV, ahem. -
I will love you even when I am dust on the wind
Archangel's Blade is the last book I read for 2011 and I'm happy to end 2011 with a great book. Kudos to Ms Nalini Singh who again delivered a masterpiece with her new installment of the dark, gritty, cruel, lethal and sensual series,Guild Hunter. Yet its beautiful and romantic, make me don't want to stop reading her books.
I'm never like Dmitri since the beginning, and prefer his sire Raphael (sigh). But I'm glad Ms Nalini do him justice at his own book. He's stil cruel, sensual, lethal without mercy, but finally he find his peace in the tortured green-eyed Hunter, Honor. For the ending, I know many people seems find it "meh" or don't get it. Why Nalini do that. But as for me, I do believe everyone have second chance. Dmitri and Honor must have a second chance too for their miserable life. The future not too certain for them, but at last they have each other.
My cast of Dmitri :
Dmitri and Honor
His name is Milan Krouzil, and I guess he is from Eastern Europe, so he will fit for Dmitri. But I think Atesh Salih can be a good Dmitri too :
Ahhh,of course I still prefer Raphael ;). Even I want to read his and Elena's story, its good to know about The Seven's after all.
But yeah, I still dislike Dmitri, LOL! -
And NS does it again!
I just can't help but ADORE Nalini Singh. She always gives me what I have been waiting for, I still have to find a book from her which I don't infatuate about. Each and every single of her books have been unique and special and all of them fascinating.
Let's talk about the hero...
I must admit I didn't like Dmitri before I started to know him better, not one bit. But then we got to read a whole book about him and I just got so badly obsessed and in love with him. How not to? Dark & handsome hero with a wicked sexiness and personality. He was alpha to the core, almost a thousand years old and sure of what he wanted in life.
That is until he met Honor...
Honor, a heroine which will surprise you...
While I thought she would be boring because, let's face it, what heroine can be interesting coming after Elena? But boy was I wrong... Not only did she amazed me but I ended up really caring for everything going on in her life. I loved it that from the beginning it was clear there was something strange with her, not that having been raped multiple times by vampires in any way you can imagine wasn't enough, but from before the awful event. Since she could remember a thing she always felt the need to do some weird things, and a big hole she just couldn't fill. She was then ravished and abused in all possible ways and still she was strong enough to get better. She did it though, in a way that helps us believe it. It's not like she got over it and became a mentally healthy person with a strong will, just because. No, she suffered for months, didn't thought she would get better at all, had terrible nightmares and couldn't face even the most easy and everyday situations. But she made it, little by little, and she was proud of it. She stood up against unimaginable fears and enemies and still prevailed. So how not to love a heroine like that?
Now let's talk about the good stuff...
OMG, of course I mean the romance and connection between this 2 astounding characters. There's nothing better than a couple who comprehend each other perfectly, not needing even to say a word. Well, just like this was the connection between Honor and Dmitri. This hero who swore never to love anybody else and managed it for more than 900 years, never stood a chance against a girl like Honor. She just knew him, knew what he was, what he needed and always was ok with it. Not in the yeah, sure, kill anybody you want, I don't care way but in the remember not to get lost in your actions kind of way.
If there's anybody who knows the meaning of SEXUAL TENSION that's Nalini Singh. God, she's just too good to be true. I still remember the day I picked her book 1 in the Psy-Changeling doubting if I would like it, LOL. The good old days, when I was still discovering the pnr-romance genre.
***SIGH, this was amazing. I tried to read it very slow, took me even 3 days to finish it because I wanted to savor it and make it last. But now it's over and I will be dying again to get more from this TERRIFIC author. -
Sensual.
Beautiful.
Lethal.
These are the words that Nalini uses to describe Dmitri and these are the same words that I’d use to sum up this book.
Archangel’s Blade steps out of the Elena and Raphael story arc and into Dmitri’s world. While Dmitri wasn’t my favourite of the Seven at first, this book completely changed my mind. I knew that there was going to be something dark about Dmitri’s past. But never would I have guessed that it would turn out the way it did.
For one thing, Nalini stays true to Dmitri’s character. Just because he is the hero of this book doesn’t mean he suddenly changes into a less intimidating man. In fact, Dmitri in this book is much more darker and dangerous than I have ever seen him in the past. So much so that Dmitri is equal parts menacing and mesmerizing. This is due to Singh’s ability to lace sensuality in her descriptions.
Here’s a perfect example of what I mean:
“I’m fairly certain you’re not nice man at all.”
His answer was a slow smile that whispered of silk sheets, erotica whispers, and sweat-damp skin. The unhidden intent of it had her heart slamming hard against her ribs. “No,” she said, voice raw.
That alone makes my body parts quiver. And we’re not even at the sex scenes yet!
There is one thing that Nalini Singh does so well in each of her books – and that is writing sexual tension. From page one, the sexual pulls between Dmitri and Honor, a Guild hunter is apparent. Throughout the entire book, this is played out, never once getting boring or too teasing. Singh teases just enough to keep readers wanting more. Wanting Dmitri.
And Honor is the lucky one who gets to indulge.
I’m so in love with Honor. From her first appearance in that phone call scene with Sara, I knew there was a quiet strength in her. She was a fighter even before the book began and she continues to get better and better as the book progresses. I absolutely love the women in this series. They are always so strong, despite the dangerous men they dabble with. It’s fun to watch these powerful men be brought to their knees by a strong woman.
I know some people had some issues about the ending of this book. I thought it was fine. Singh laces this book with many flashbacks into Dmitri’s past, showing readers a time when Dmitri was a mortal whose life was full...until it was taken away from him. At first, I wondered about the purpose of the flashbacks, questioned why they were so detailed. But it made sense in the end. And I have no problems accepting it.
It was clear that Dmitri hadn’t loved someone for a long time, despite bedding humans, angels and vampires alike. Honor, a mere mortal was able to bring forth memories of a time when he was happy. It is this fact and another pivotal scene in the book that set Dmitri’s love for Honor in stone. I won’t mention what scene in particular, but you will know when you read it because it’s probably the most emotional part of this book.
Archangel’s Blade is a true gem. I savoured this book, reading it slowly. Sometimes rereading sections of the book to make it last. Angels’ Blood was my favourite book of the series, but I may have to reconsider that after this one. One thing is for sure...Archangel’s Blade is the best book I’ve read this year.
Read my special team review with Suzanne on
Under the Covers! -
Raphael ve Elena hikayesi okuyacağıma öyle emindim ki elime alıp da Dmitri'nin ağzından okumaya başlayınca ne kadar şaşırdım siz düşünün. Konu okuma huyum böyle seri kitaplarda pek olmuyor, bodoslama dalınca da kalakaldım. Ama gerçekten güzeldi, Honor ile olan işin nasıl bağlanacağı belliydi de Dmitri'nin çektiği acılar benim bile moralimi bozdu. Bir de her bölümde mi geçmişi hatırlar bir insan :D Sonraki kitap Jason'ın, dersime çalıştım, sırada o var. Sonra da anladığım kadarıyla Elena ve Raphael dönüşü :)
-
Good story, a little too violent sometimes.
2nd read: I liked this even better this time! -
I somehow do not want to read anything but those books. They are just so very very readable and I am so through with the year and just want something fun.
Review to come. -
Seriously. Between this one and Archangel's Shadows, that I haven't reviewed yet, I'm not sure what's going on with me. But it does give me a handy excuse to re-read the series...because I could never just re-read the two books that need reviews. Nooo. That would be impossible. Nicely, I've also been re-reading with a bunch of friends over at Goodreads - some who've read the series/books before and some newbies. It's always so much fun to talk about books with other people, I'm enjoying this series more than ever.
Having just finished this book I can see why it didn't get a review from me the first half-dozen times I'd read it. It's beyond emotional, beyond heart-wrenching, it breaks me every single time, over and over again.
Trigger warnings: Captivity, rape, abuse, violence against children (and innocents)
Not only does Honor have to overcome a vicious history, that struck me on many different visceral levels, but Dmitri's past is just as horrific. These two characters are damaged. But what works for me is that they're handled with care. Dmitri and Honor are who they are, they've been hurt - beyond belief - and came out the other side. Not always for the better, but they came through. And sometimes that's enough to give you time to get better. Better might not be what one would think before such atrocities have touched their lives, it might not be sunshine and roses, but it can be happiness, security, love, and contentment.
And because this book does give them love and happiness again, without making it perfect and, worse, as if the trauma in their lives never happened, I absolutely adore this book. Even while I rage against and my heart cracks from the pain that each is suffering, I'm completely invested in seeing them both find a way through. It's not easy, and Dmitri makes one horrible move, but I even liked how that was handled between the characters. It could have been unforgivable, and in the hands of a lot of people would have been. Some readers might find it unforgivable still. It worked for me though, because the contrition was immediate and forgiveness asked for without pride.
Though the world is still the same, amazing world that we've been living in for the past three novels, and the plot is tragic and suspenseful, the real draw here is the characters. I've loved and been excited for Dmitri's book for a long time. He was the broken one, with more than a touch of cruelty, that I wanted to see have some happiness again. So I was a little surprised when it turned out to be Honor that I adored and fell in love with.
This woman has a core of strength that, quite frankly, astonishes me. I related to her, though my experiences have never been anywhere near this level, and I loved watching the way she fought to come back from it. It wasn't easy, wasn't gentle, and she needed some of the tough, no-nonsense treatment that she got from others, but she fought to be herself again, to show them that they didn't get to own the rest of her life, no matter what they'd done. From the first moment we meet her, where she's not sure she wants to step out into the world again and some small piece of pride pushes her to take that first, hesitant move, I adored her. I understand her. I love her. She deserves everything she fought so hard to achieve in this book.
And Dmitri is lucky to have her. Luckily, he knows it.
This book battered me at points, thankfully it gave just as many happy, sigh-worthy moments as well. I loved it, beginning to end.
Review also available at
The Book Eaters -
Buddy read with the Hunters of
BB&B !
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
At first I didn't think that pairing Dmitri and Honor would be a good idea. In fact I thought it's an awful idea. Because Honor is the survivor of a vicious vampire attack and months of torture at their hands. And as we all know Dmitri is a sick SOB with a sadistic streak a mile wide. The pushy bastard doesn't know the meaning of the word mercy or when to back down. Part o me always hated him a little for the way he treats Elena and I was eagerly awaiting the moment when he will be the one in love and have a "weakness" as he likes to put it. But he is also a man deeply scarred by his past and I was curios to discover what makes him tick and what happened to forge such a strong bond between him and Raphael.
And I gotta tell you it was brutal! The fact that he's able to have any sort of meaningful relationships, that he's not an even bigger monster, is incredible. All those flashbacks made my heart bleed for him and his lost family. Yet despite the pain and hopelessness he had found a way to cope. Not the most healthy of ways strictly speaking but a way that works for him nevertheless. So I have to respect the guy for that. And it's that inner strength, that steel core of a survivor that recognises Honor and finds a way to help her pull out of the dark pit of despair and numbness. True, in a way that made me want to scream and bash him on the head with an axe more often than not, but it was still something that no one else had been able to do for all the months after Honor's attack. His special brand of "tough love" is more akin to an outright sadism but, hey, it helped. And most importantly Nalini Singh actually made it work. I was worried that it'll feel too artificial but somehow she pulled it off.
One of the things that bothers me about this book is the time frame. Too little time had passed since Honor's attack for her to be able to really start to heal. Not simply cope, but a real healing process. After she's first introduced to Dmitri things progress at a speed that's simply put unrealistic. People who have survived something like that need years to get to the point when they can be in the same room with someone who reminds him of their attacker. And they most definitely don't fall in love and in bed with that person mere days later. So that's one of the reasons I was considering rating 3 stars. Another reason was Dmirti's many fuck ups. Including one that drove me into a rage. He had a reason to suspect foul play at the moment but it still doesn't excuse the cruelness of what he did and how he used Honor's trust in him to almost break her. Still I gave this 4 starts because I couldn't put the book down. That usually means an automatic 5 star rating but I can't ignore the issues Dmitri's behaviour brought to mind. The truth is this only worked because this is fiction. In the real world so much pushing with so little time to process and internalise the lessons of those pushes would have further broken the victim. And yet there were some really sweet moments when Dmitri showed that he is in fact capable of love and other softer emotions. That he's not just a monster on a leash held by the Archangel of New York. So I'm happy with the way things were resolved at the end and would be glad to see cameos from the couple in the following books. -
Archangel’s Blade brings a slight shift to the Guildhunter series with Raphael & Elena not being the main focus, but rather Dmitri & Honor taking center stage. This shift is paired with a tonally much darker story and as such was definitely harder to read than the previous books, but still fascinating nonetheless. There is a murder mystery plot, and some nice little cameos and interactions between established characters, but the developing relationship between these two and a deeper insight into Dmitri’s past is what this one is all about. If you are looking for more archangel story, move on.
As for the characters, Dmitri did not endear himself to me in any way or shape in the first few books and I admit I was reluctant to read this one. His character is very hard to like, being, to put it lightly, a major asshole who pushes and pushes and pushes. He is also a cold blooded enforcer and pretty much the top dog vampire. Granted, some of his behaviour is for very specific reasons and his motives are right in that regard but…. No. He is not someone I will ever love. I suppose my dislike of vampires skews my view as well, but there you have it. Not happening. BUT. I did take him off my hate list and gave him a new home on the Ok,-fine-I-like-you list. (Not to be confused with the I-like-you list*) So this book did help his image. The main reason for this change is the reveal of the monstrous things done to him in his very distant past. The Dmitri as we know him, is the product of this anguished and tortured past and very different from the man who was born with this name. It is hard to judge him harshly for this evolution. That guy I could have really liked. Sadly that man is dead.
Honor is much easier to like, but is recovering from severe trauma. This hunter is so very close to the edge of despair and in danger of becoming a wasted, pathetic version of herself due to what was done to her in the very recent past, but she is fighting to extricate herself from that dark and bottomless pit. She might need a little help though, and Dmitri is the one who holds out a helping hand even though she is hesitant to take it. She has an unexplained attraction to him and at times feels like she really knows him, but who he is seems to be at odds with what she needs. They will both need to learn to trust in order to give themselves a chance at happiness.
I did initially have some problems with the book apart from just not liking Dmitri regarding the pacing of the romance and Honor’s recovery. At times the romance seemed to be moving unacceptably fast, and as such, difficult to accept, but the way it played out in the end made sense of it and was more than likely the only way this story could have worked. I think the same applies to Honor’s recovery. Some of the sexual stuff she participated with in the end felt very contrary to what should have been acceptable to her in this short recovery period, but as with the romance pacing, the reveal takes care of this with trust overcoming the emotional obstacles that should have been present.
Unexpectedly, this was another one of Nalini Singhs’s works that I enjoyed and I am happy to have read it!
*These characters have been liked from the beginning as opposed to characters on the Ok,-fine-I-like-you list who started out as unliked ;) -
As a fan of Singh's Guild Hunters I am ashamed to admit that I was not looking forward to Archangel's Blade. Raphael's Second, vampire Dmitri, with his taste for pain and the way that he has wielded his deadly sensuality as a weapon in previous books, was just too cruel for me to imagine as a leading man, so I did not expect to like his story. However, the first third of Archangel's Blade was so captivating that even though I still wasn't sold on Dmitri, I found myself turning the pages as Singh weaves Dmitri's history and the pain he has carried with him for a thousand years into the two hunts that make up the background story. After that point, Singh begins the subtle shift that manages to turn the monster into a hero, still cruel and violent - because that is necessary when dealing with wayward immortals - but a hero still to his heroine, and to those who have earned his trust and protection.
As much as I was surprised by how much I liked Archangel's Blade, and Dmitri himself once we get an idea of 'who' he really is, I was almost as surprised by Dmitri's heroine Honor. Honor, the Guild Hunter who had been held captive as a blood toy and continuously and violently violated by vampires during her imprisonment, starts out so broken and withdrawn that she is barely functional. It is rare that an abused heroine's return to life and sensuality is handled well in romances, but somehow Singh manages it - and she does it without the repetitive torture filled flashbacks that were a bit distracting with Elena. I think that the reason it works so well here is that Singh doesn't hurry Honor through her recovery - there are breakthroughs, and relapses, and defining moments until finally Honor ends up even 'more' than the person that she was before. And I really liked that somehow, as Honor – with Dmitri's help - tracks down her abusers and slowly regains herself, Honor also gains a power over Dmitri in that she truly 'sees' him for the loyal protector he no longer believes himself to be. For me this re-balancing of power was crucial in allowing me to believe in a happily ever after for the pair.
Like the other Guild Hunter books, Angel's Blade is dark, and has the graphic aftermath of extreme violence but in the end it is an excellent entry to the series and makes me glad that Singh has decided to give us more insight into the Seven. As much as I love Elena and Raphael, I don't mind them moving to supporting roles in order to get more of the Cadre's back stories, and it's exciting to see the foundation being laid for future books.
