It's rare that a long-awaited book meets my high expectations let alone exceeds it like this powerhouse second installment of Elena and Raphael's love story. One word sums it up = WOW! This book was everything and MORE I wanted to see for these two characters.

Rachel became a little more humanized, still scary as hell, still extremely alpha male dominant and possessive, his MINE sends a shiver down my spine. He can be scary powerful but he more than proved in this book his absolute love for Elena with his tender care during her nightmares and his respect for her plea to have some privacy AND especially his opening up about his own troubled younger years. I fell MORE in love with him in second book. I really love how Singh penned this extremely strong archangel struggling not to smother his angel-made woman b/c he didn't want to change her or break her warrior woman spirit.

BRAVO to Singh for penning Elena as emotionally fragile yet at same time with such a core inner strength she slayed her darkest nightmare come to life. Bravo to Raphael for not doubting her strength and letting her serve the killing blow. Bravo to Elena for not being too stupid to live and respecting these powerful supreme beings and her own limitations. She wasn't that rashly foolish Elena as much as one a smart, warrior woman who knew when to fight and when to run.

Singh managed to build a real deep bond of utter trust between them, and they came out far more equal than I expected. Elena stared down Raphael's darkness and instead of flinching as he expected, she vowed to be his conscience, his inner light, to keep him anchored to humanity.

Finally, I've loved Singh's PsySeries but often when finished reading one of those books I feel the relationship development comes way too secondary plot to the world building. Such was the case in 1st book of Archangel Series and while I loved it, I was thirsty to read more focus on relationship and in THIS book the relationship is ALL... the plots, even the background of the characters are all woven brilliantly to develop and build and build upon the growing love AND trust between Elena and Raphael.

Elena made Raphael far more mortal and he made her stronger, more immortal. They met in the middle in a way I didn't expect this early in the series. How rare a true alpha male meets his alpha female partner, and that's how the book ends, in no doubt whatsoever these two are warrior soulmates and the sensuality between these is off the scales HOT!

WOW!

Nalini Singh proves what an amazing writer she is again in Archangel's Kiss, the next book in her Guild Hunter series.

It has been a year after the climactic events of Angels' Blood. Elena Deveraux has woken up from her year-long coma. She is no longer a mere mortal with hunter skills; instead, she is now an immortal angel, a very weak, immortal angel unfortunately. But with her lover, and powerful archangel, Raphael wise, and emotionally with the characters. I liked this book even more than the first in the series because I felt like the author was given a chance to dig into her characters, rather than just setting up the romance and basic world building of the novels. Elena is perhaps at her weakest she has been in a long time so she has to rely on Raphael.

Equally, Raphael for all he purports to love Elena realizes he has to start opening up to her. Trust and equality is not a one-way street and Raphael needs to start letting her in. This is hard for him, hard for her, but they make it work. They want to make it work and that makes all the difference. Powerful, immortal beings or not, love is a gift neither expected and they don't want to lose it.

Nalini Singh played up many of the secondary characters again, making them more interesting than ever. I know I'm intrigued by Raphael's Seven more than I expected.

There are also touches of whimsy and delight in this book. The power of flying, the laughter of children, and the growing intimacy between Raphael and Elena all add up to combat and help negate the growing darkness.

I swear, everything Nalini Singh writes turns golden. I was completely absorbed in this world, these characters, and their struggles. I'm excited to read more about this world, about Elena and Raphael, and I have a feeling I'm not alone. Too bad it looks like the next book in the series won't be out until 2011.