A somewhat impressionistic review of Angels' Blood, plus an easy way to win books.

I ordered Archangel's Kiss today, by Nalini Singh. I know I'm going to love it. I love knowing I'm going to love it. I loved Angels' Blood.

One of the things I loved most about Angels' Blood was how fresh it felt. I don't have any specific reasons to say that, and sure, people have written about angels and vampires about a billion times before. It's more like a residual feeling about this book. As though the book is fresh in the sense of being somehow pristine.

Like the characters and story are humming at a perfect pitch, and resonating with true things. Sort of like snow that doesn't have any footprints or dirt on it yet, and it's perfectly what it is.

I don't mean that the book itself is absolutely perfect. I don't even know what that would be. I just mean that it's fresh and true in an excellent way I loved.

I love the mad saturation of brightness at the center of the cover. It feels fresh and unusual and special in the way the book does to me. I love looking at the cover and thinking about the book at the same time. I borrowed this copy from my friend Chris, who won an oversized bound mss, so my cover picture is HUGE, and that suits me just fine. Aside from the part where I have to give the thing back to her, probably this Friday when we do our Dresden Files marathon part 2 - hopefully with Thai food. What do you think about that, Chris? Oh, look this is a test to see if she reads deep into this post. Because I'm sure it's kind of a boring post, with all the "I loves." Now, where was I? Oh yeah.

I love the shining nobility and compassion of Elena, a mortal and a vampire hunter in this novel, and the contrast she makes with the archangels, who are ever so slightly corrupted or oblivious. Some not so slightly. Elena's nobility reminds me a little of Buffy's nobility, though not in a derivative way, and Elena doesn't specifically remind me of Buffy.

I love how, at the beginning of the book, we learn she has her condo situated in such a way, so that she can watch the archangels fly in and out of angel tower though her giganitic plate glass windows. I love that she loves that. Somehow, it felt refreshing.

I love the deft bigness of everything here, too. The cranked up personalities and stakes. The power imbalance I noted in an earlier post. It all worked really well for me.

Like I say, I will be ordering Archangel's Kiss, but I really mourn the retreat on the cover here. It sort of has that palette, but less of the balls-to-the-wall brightness saturation. Is it an ironic commentary on the change in her status? Or just a marketing decision? I don't know.

Be entered to WIN WIN WIN a bunch of books by doing one easy thing!

You can win just by signing up for an email reminder for the Paranormal Roundtable. Here's what you would win:

• one copy of Men of the Underworld by Kelley Armstrong *One of my faves of 2009!!
• one copy of Blood of the Demon by Diana Rowland
• one copy of The Devil’s Playground by Jenna Black
• one copy of Spellbent by Lucy A. Snyder
• one copy of Night Tides by Alex Prentiss
• one copy of Mind Games by Carolyn Crane

But, WAIT! There is an even better reason to sign up for the email reminder--so you don't miss the actual event, a fun and lively (hopefully) roundtable discussion between the authors above, which includes yours truly! I hope I don't make a fool of myself. Hey, Armstrong, you wanna pass the salt? Jenna Black, you gonna eat that those French Fries? No? Can I have them? What's that you say, Rowland? Stop talking with my mouth full?

Just kidding. It won't be a real table. It will be an online table at SUVUDU at 4pm ET on THIS COMING WEDNESDAY, February 17th. You can sign up here.