Late to the Angels' Blood Party. But I brought pointy hats!

Great moments from last night's reading

Angels' Blood by Nalini Singh

Page: 58

Spoiler level: nil

I am just settling into this book, and I may be staying up quite late tonight--it's hooked me in a way other books haven't lately. The writing is lovely and dense, the world is so freshly imagined, but it's the H/H conflict that has really captured my imagination.

Again, I'm only starting it, so I may be off on some things. The plot, in short so far: Elena, tracker and hunter of vampires, has been hired/forced by uber-powerful Archangel Raphael to take a suicidally difficult job.

Here, a passage I came across last night. Raphael flies her to his office rooftop to discuss details of the case. Elena says:

If you think I'm going to follow you around like a puppy..."

He glanced over his shoulder. "I could make you crawl, Elena." No trace of any humanity in his face, nothing but the glow of such power that she wanted to shade herself from it. It was an effort not to take a stumbling step backward. "Do you really want me to force you onto your hands and knees?"

At that second, she knew he'd do exactly that.

And later:

Around her burned a million city lights, but up on this roof, there was only darkness--except for the glow coming off him. She'd heard people whisper of this phenomenon but had never thought to witness it. Because when an angel glowed, he became a being of absolute power, power that was usually directed to kill or destroy.

The power imbalance here is so colossal. At times I'm like, could Raphael truly be the hero? But yes, clearly he is. I found myself thinking there is no way this can work. He's far too insanely powerful a being to be in a relationship with this heroine, who isn't the type to be bossed.

And then I get to thinking: Will his power diminish? Will Elena's grow? Will love create a balance of some sort? Because, of course, love makes great beings vulnerable. What does Nalini Singh have in store here?

I'll report in later on this, but I want to say that everything seems so impossible in such an interesting and challenging way--the relationship, the hunter task. I feel engaged, and curious. This book is so much fun, right out of the gate. Definitely no reading slump in the Crane house tonight.