Review - Archangel's Blade by Nalini Singh

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…

“Honor?”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to do things to you now that a good girl definitely shouldn’t let a man do to her.”

When I first heard that Dmitri would be getting his own book, all I thought initially was - ok. Of all the supporting characters in the Archangel world, I hadn’t thought of him having his own story, at least not at this point in the series, but oh how wrong I was. From the start, we’re drawn back into this world and into Dmitri’s life. He’s surrounded by darkness, he’s ruthless, to the point, and he shows no softness. We learn why through flashbacks and pieces of memories that Dmitri has kept buried for years. His past is heart breaking and filled with cruelness and he’s basically shut himself off to love and kindness keeping only one true friend, in Raphael, close to him. 

Honor has survived a horrific ordeal. She’s a Hunter and while all her past training helped her to survive, it was her will alone that made it possible for her to stay alive through everything that was done her. When she’s brought in to help Dmitri on a case, she really begins to start living again, something she hasn’t been able to do for the many months following her rescue. Honor and Dmitri both awaken feelings in the each other that neither can explain, and even when they try to fight everything emotional that’s happening between them, the pull is too strong and they both begin a long journey of healing.
 
There were two separate cases our hero and heroine were working on. The first, and most important to Dmitri, was tracking down every vampire involved in Honor’s capture and making them pay. While he and Honor were following leads, they were also trying to track down a killer, one that ends up hitting much closer to home for Dmitri then he ever thought possible.
 
Honor is a heroine that you will love instantly, care about and root for hard. I fell in love with her from the start, and while her capture takes place before this story happens, we get bits and pieces of what happened through her nightmares and flashbacks. Calling it horrific earlier is an understatement and I’m beyond glad that Nalini didn’t include the actual capture in the book. We get enough detail about it to know exactly what happened and we’re even left knowing that it was much, much worse than the parts we learn about. We know pretty early on that this story will follow Honor and her path to healing and moving past this event with the help of Dmitri, but I wasn’t prepared to watch Dmitri need to do the exact same thing. He long ago buried the pain of a tragic event and Honor unlocks that part of him, the loving Dmitri that’s been gone for centuries. Following these two strong people from a very hesitant meeting, (Honor still having a strong negative reaction to being around vampires, it took some time for her to warm up to Dmitri) to seeing them come to need each other and understanding why that was at the very end, it’s a perfect kind of love story.

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“Put down the belt, Honor.” A sexy smile. “Unless you plan to use it.”

Stomach clenching, she dropped the belt and stepped back between his spread legs. “I had a feeling you’d be into belts and ropes.”

When she reached forward and pushed up his tee, he remained in his sprawled position, a pasha waiting to be served. His skin was the same dark tan shade on his abdomen as it was on his face. “Is your skin this tone all over?”

“Only one way you’re going to discover the answer to that.”

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One pleasant surprise was all the supporting characters we get to catch up with. Raphael and Elena have a little page time, Illium is in and out through most of the story, and we get even more hints about his fascination with mortals and another painful past for our Bluebell. I was most taken with Holly, a young woman we first met when she was captured by Uram and rescued with Dmitri taking responsibility for her. She’s terrified of being what Uram was, and with the help of Honor and even Venom, she’s starting to move forward. Hers will be a story that continues to evolve throughout the series and I have such a soft spot for her and hope we get her story someday.

Dmitri is not an easy man, and even when Honor becomes a more important part of his life, his outward personality does not change. We still have a vampire who will make the hard decisions, do the jobs that need to be done, but seeing him with Honor as they become closer, they save each other. It’s a wonderful story that I’ll be rereading, probably many times, and it’s one that as I finished the last page, I couldn’t help but hope that Dmitri and Honor will have another book sometime in the future.

Release date: September 6, 2011
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
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