Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Berkley (January 25, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0425240134
ISBN-13: 978-0425240137
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Book #3 in Guild Hunter series
Main Characters: Raphael and Elena
Buy at: Book Depository Store

Cover Summary:
Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux and her lover, the lethally beautiful archangel Raphael, have returned home to New York only to face an uncompromising new evil…

A vampire has attacked a girls’ school—the assault one of sheer, vicious madness—and it is only the first act. Rampant bloodlust takes vampire after vampire, threatening to make the streets run with blood. Then Raphael himself begins to show signs of an uncontrolled rage, as inexplicable storms darken the city skyline and the earth itself shudders.

The omens are suddenly terrifyingly clear.

An ancient and malevolent immortal is rising. The violent winds whisper her name: Caliane. She has returned to reclaim her son, Raphael. Only one thing stands in her way: Elena, the consort who must be destroyed…


Archangel's Consort gives us a third chapter to devour in the romance story of Archangel Raphael and Guild Hunter Elena. With that I cannot guarantee a spoiler free review and only advice readers to start at the beginning with Angels’ Blood and work your way to this release which I can tell you will be quite the ride!

From the beginning there was an undeniable attraction simmering between Raphael and Elena and this had not diminished in any way in Archangels Consort. Next to their deepening relationship they both have to deal with family issues as well. From the get-go I fell hard for the synergy between Raphael and Elena. Their dialogues are full of wit and barbs, their personalities clashing at times in dominance and the sensual vibe is like a live wire between them. Over the course of the evolving storyline I witnessed their trials and tribulations, their strength, vulnerabilities and flaws, but at the foundation a love grew that encompassed them wholly.

In Archangels Consort, Nalini Singh demonstrates how utterly good she is at bringing characters to life and exploring their personalities. Raphael is a male character who isn’t quite the anti hero nor “just” one who can be branded an Alpha, he transcends these character type’s with his attitude that is born from his ancient age and view on life. He is without a doubt “other”. He is an Archangel who makes me shiver with all of his personality traits and each reader should experience his personality first hand to understand what makes Raphael, Raphael.

To be the love interest of such an Archangel takes quite a woman but Elena holds her ground in her own unique way. She knows how to get through to Raphael when he goes all Archangel attitude and makes him more accessible to the softer side of emotions. Even though Elena has a strong backbone, even when she goes all warrior woman, she also is a sensuous woman and has her vulnerabilities. It is the sensual and emotional interplay between them as a couple that shows this the most. This story definitely created room for the romance part, for conflicts and the fiery passion that often set the pages ablaze. When two angels choose to dance the skies it is a sight to behold!

The one thing that was subdued was the mystery. Practically up front did I know what was going on and it lessened the thrill of the suspense. It made certain events less dangerous and I missed the one-two punch Nalini Singh can deliver when romance and suspense work as one and I can’t read fast enough to know what’s happening. Of course I did get a few small surprises in the end, creating possibilities for future installments but in this story it was the interpersonal relationships that did it for me.

Next to murders, some dangers, romance and challenges there was also Raphael’s Seven. Each of these Seven is a compelling and intriguing character but like many avid readers of this series I have my favorites. My heart skips a beat with the uber powerful vampire Dmitri, I have a wicked grin on my face whenever Illium aka Bluebell, enters the stage, my curiosity is piqued with Aodhan, but it is Jason who yanks all of my chains. In this installment Nalini Singh tantalizes me with small snippets of mystery revolving his, and many other characters, from the Seven. I can’t wait for her to start writing up their stories!!

Nalini Singh’s is one of the powerhouse authors who rule in the Urban-Fantasy genre. Her imaginative writing never fails to invite me into her dynamic world. I get to go on adventures with her characters, enjoy the temperamental dialogues and feel every single shred of emotions sizzling between them! Archangel’s Consort was a wonderful return again to the Guild Hunter world!

Quote Elena:
Now, she was one of those angels, perched high atop a balcony that had no railing, nothing to prevent a fall. Except of course, she would no longer fall. Her wings were stronger now. She was stronger.

Flaring out those wings, she took a deep breath of the air home. A fusion of scents – spice and smoke, human and vampire, earthy and sophisticated – hit her with the wild fever of a welcoming rainstorm. Her chest, tight for so long, relaxed, and she stretched her wings out to their greatest width. It was time to explore this familiar place become foreign, this home that was suddenly new again.

Diving down from the balcony, she swept across Manhattan on air currents kissed by the cool bite of spring. The right green season that thawed the snows that had kept the city in thrall this winter , and now held court, summer not even a peach-colored blush on the horizon. This was the time of rebirth, of blooming things and baby birds, bright and young and fragile even in the frenetic rush of a city that never slept.

Home, I’m home.

Quote Illium/Elena:
“I know I’m your favorite.” He brushed his wings over hers when she didn’t reply. “I swear to god,” she muttered, fighting a laugh, “If you’ve dusted me with blue , I’ll tie your balls in a knot and hang you up by them on the nearest sharpest object I see.” The last time he glittered blue angel-dust over her wings, Raphael had – eventually – seen the humor in the situation. She couldn’t guarantee Illium’s health if it happened a second time. Illium dipped low, stroking back up with movements that looked lazy but took considerable muscle strength. “Be nice to me or I won’t give you your present.”

“Idiot.” But he was her favorite of the Seven. How could he not be when he saw her human heart not as a curse, but as a gift. When he would lay down his life for the archangel’s who was Elena’s? When he laughed with the same easy joy as the children from the Refuge?

Paperback: 352 pages

Publisher: Berkley; Original edition (November 2, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0425237796
ISBN-13: 978-0425237793
Book #12 in Psy/Changeling series
Purchase at: Book Depository

Cover Summary:
In his position as tracker for the SnowDancer pack, it’s up to Drew Kincaid to rein in rogue changelings who have lost control of their animal halves—even if it means killing those who have gone too far. But nothing in his life has prepared him for the battle he must now wage to win the heart of a woman who makes his body ignite…and who threatens to enslave his wolf.

Lieutenant Indigo Riviere doesn’t easily allow skin privileges, especially of the sensual kind—and the last person she expects to find herself craving is the most wickedly playful male in the den. Everything she knows tells her to pull back before the flames burn them both to ash…but she hasn’t counted on Drew’s will.

Now, two of SnowDancer’s most stubborn wolves find themselves playing a hot, sexy game even as lethal danger stalks the very place they call home…

My Review - Note: Since this is book twelve you really need to be invested in the Psy/Changeling series to understand the underlying currents with the characters and to see the complete picture. I’m not saying you can't read PLAY OF PASSION as a standalone but as always with a series the reading experience can be so much more rewarding if you’ve read the previous novels.

PLAY OF PASSION is an intense romance alive with fierce possessiveness, wolf pride and mischievous play. This Psy/Changeling story is all about the romance and has a minor but nonetheless important part for the continuance of the overall plot arc. The pace of the story took a notch down with lots of time to meet new and old members of the SnowRiver pack. It gave me a sense of the interconnected relationships, the structure and rules, and it allowed me to feel the bond they share. The banter going back and forth only emphasized on how deeply connected each member of the pack is, from the youngest to the Alpha leader Hawke. It didn’t take long for me to be absorbed by the SnowRiver pack dynamic and the courtship unfolding.

Drew and Indigo have a great combustive energy together. The dominance issues cause for both internal as external struggles that Indigo and Drew have to deal with. Though it isn’t easy on either of them I loved the fact how the SnowRiver pack participates in the courtship of Drew and indigo. Nobody ever said it was easy to become the mate of a SnowRiver lieutenant but Drew is up to the challenge and has plenty of determination to see it happen. Even though Indigo’s wolf has doubts whether the four year younger Drew with an obscure rank can handle all of her. It is their clash of dominance, their erotic synergy, their playful dalliance that created situations which got me from smiling, to laughing and fanning myself a time or two too.

Drew is the Hunter of the pack but where he truly stands in the hierarchy remains a mystery. It is a very steep problems for Indigo to deal with but Drew has some tricks up his sleeve that will get any woman weak in the knees. Some stunts he pulls to prove himself worthy are unadulterated romance yet other stunts backfire, giving him a lesson in what it means to court a dominant she-wolf. Still, Drew is more than cheeky mischief and a charmer, his love runs soul deep and he is giving his all and then some to mate with the woman who claimed him long ago. To see him romance Indigo made him another cherished character within the Psy/Changeling cast.

Indigo, as a SnowRiver luitenant, doesn’t have many males higher up the food chain. To feel an attraction for a younger male with an unknown rank screams trouble for her. Still, she is a woman who is strong, can handle just about anything you throw at her but there is also compassion, combined with the fiery love and loyalty that burns in her heart. She has a few lessons to learn and she becomes a worthy heroine in her successions and her failures.

The interaction between Indigo and Drew is rife with everything they feel. There is playful banter, all-out wolf-to-wolf collisions of dominance and sexy bed-play. The beautiful setting of the woods gave room for their wolf to stretch and let Indigo and Drew connect on that level too. The vibrance of how they experience life, love, sadness, their animal side which is such an integral part of their being, it made their personalities leap of the pages. Their distinctive personalities spiced up the attraction, it fueled the sensuality between them but also the need for a deeper love to finally take those first careful steps to a bond as mates.

As the warmth and the familiarity of the characters and pack enveloped me there were also threats clouding the horizon giving a suspenseful edge to the story. The plot may have a supportive role in this Psy/Changeling episode but it imbues the romance with a mystery to unravel that threatens the pack. There are no big revelations in this story but the small twists and turns are intriguing, it deepens the awareness something cataclysmic is going to happen only from where, who or what is still very much in the grey. Of course I have suspicions like anyone else up to par with this series. Clues are given but Nalini Singh really keeps the reader guessing and ultimately gave a surprise in the ending.

PLAY OF PASSION is a fantastic return to the SnowRiver pack where you’ll meet changelings who are fierce, loyal and lethal yet also love with an unrelenting force that will make anyone take risks to be on the receiving end of that love. Nalini Singh is a constant in her delivery of a ‘sweep-off-your-feet’ shape shifter romance which will engage the reader from first till last word! Be prepared to succumb to Drew and Indigo’s story!

Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Berkley (July 6, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0425235440
ISBN-13: 978-0425235447
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Book #8 in Psy/Changeling series
Main Characters: Max Shannon and Sophia Russo
For sale at: Book Depository Store

Summary:
Max Shannon is a good cop, one of the best in New York Enforcement. Born with a natural shield that protects him against Psy mental invasions, he knows he has little chance of advancement within the Psy-dominated power structure. The last case he expects to be assigned is that of a murderer targeting a Psy Councilor’s closest advisors. And the last woman he expects to compel him in the most sensual of ways is a Psy on the verge of a catastrophic mental fracture…

Sophia Russo is a Justice-Psy, cursed with the ability to retrieve memories from men and women so twisted even veteran cops keep their distance. Appointed as Max’s liaison with the Psy, she finds herself fascinated by this human, her frozen heart threatening to thaw with forbidden emotion. But, her mind filled with other people’s nightmares, other people’s evil, she’s standing on the border between sanity and a silken darkness that urges her to take justice into her own hands, to become judge, jury…and executioner…

Leontine's review: Will I ever get enough of the Psy/Changeling series? This is something I wonder with each book I read and savor. Every book explores the depth of romance, each story takes the overall story arc a bit further and all characters become utterly cherished. BONDS OF JUSTICE took me back to this world I love to step into, and this time I met Max Shannon and Sophia Russo.

Nalini Singh at once ensnared me with a meeting between J-Psy Sophia and a sociopath serial killer named Bonner who has committed atrocious crimes. This situation not only bared how significant this case was to Max but also showed how straining the work was for a J-Psy and specifically what it did to Sophia. From those first pages I don’t think this story let go of that faced-paced storytelling. The mystery surrounding Nikita, Bonner who plays his diabolical games, Max and Sophia getting very close and various DarkRiver characters coming to aid the leading couple in their case, it all blended together in a whirlwind of emotions and suspense.

With each story I’m amazed at how three dimensional the characters become. The reasoning behind their actions is an everlasting and bold dance between logic and feelings. It’s a dance I never grow tired of witnessing and Nalini Singh’s characters do make me feel a part of their story, every single time. Max Shannon is very human but has a fierce side to him that signals he’s a man, and a cop, to be reckoned with. He bears all the markers for a leading male who grabs the attention; he has heart for his job, he is stubborn, compassionate, emotionally wounded and has a flirting streak too. Max is a male who gets under my skin very fast, with very little effort, and I gave in to him instantaneously.

Sophia Russo has witnessed hundreds of terrible crimes as a J-Psy yet she hasn’t ever experienced the beauty in life. The Psy’s journey to feel again is a step-by-step progress that is heart breaking yet also speaks of courage and it always affects me. Sophia is at the core the kind of female Psy character I’ve got acquainted with a few times before; A Psy who is on the brink of the abyss, Silence is failing and she faces a permanent rehabilitation. It was her character and Psy designation that gave a new flavor to the familiar story thread.

Though Max and Sophia might establish a different romantic vibe in this story with their human-psy match, they fully come to life for me via the voice of Nalini Singh. Effortlessly a perpetual sensuality is imbedded in the romance that adds a sizzling hunger to an already combustive pull of a man to a woman and vice versa. The romance affected me, perhaps not as intense as other Psy/Changeling couples, due to the somewhat easy solution for Sophia’s problem, but nonetheless a gripping romance all together!

Another thing that I enjoy so much are the additional characters; Sasha, Lucas, Dorian, Clay, Faith, they all add their unique voices creating a warm blanket of familiarity. Which each novel my attachment to the extensive cast of characters gets deepened. It’s no longer a singular driven need to read about the main couple or the mystery in this series. I crave to catch-up with recurring characters, to see their mating bond intensified and their interconnected relationships strengthened.

There is an everlasting quality to the storytelling that makes Bonds Of Justice a one-sitting-read. Not in the least it is the mystery that compels to turn the pages. Between the case of Psy councilor Nikita and Bonners case there were hints dropped that there’s something else going on. Nothing tickles my curiosity more than a mystery, I want to find out who-where and when, so a whodunit plot keeps my eyes riveted to the pages. The tension of the actual cases and the overall story arc is excellently intertwined with the sensual romance creating a rich satisfying story.

BONDS OF JUSTICE gave all that is important to me as a reader along with two memorable characters I got to fall in love with. Nalini Singh is one of those rare authors who is a constant supplier in stories of great caliber. 

Quote:
“Max.”
“Yes?”
“Will you remember me?”
His heart broke into a thousand pieces. “Always.”

Quote Max:
“We fit, you and I,” he whispered looking into that haunting gaze. “Two broken pieces making a whole.” It wasn’t the most romantic of statements, but it was torn from his soul.