Archangel's Viper by Nalini Singh

Dark and exhilarating as two prickly souls find each other

Wow-ee. I feel like I just scoffed down a dark chocolate cake – a really rich one with ganache and maybe a bit of raspberry. I wanted more of it just so I could glory in its beauty. This is book 10 in Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter series and it’s a cracker.

Venom and Holly have great chemistry. They’ve been striking sparks off each other for a few books and their constant banter is a delight to read. The entire book is a delight to read, come to think of it. I loved the growing feelings between the two; the scene where we finally get under Venom’s skin? Amazing. Nalini has taken one of the more reserved, unreadable characters and shown the heart he’s been hiding for so long.

The pain and beauty of this series lie in the evaluation of time – what you do with it and what happens when you have more of it than the people you love. Once again, this book hits those themes right in the feels.

For some background: this series is a combination of romance and fantasy, so some books introduce new couples while others return to the main couple. This book introduces a new couple, though the characters have both appeared previously. As such, it’s one of the better entry points to the series – there are a lot of characters to keep track of, but the plot is relatively self contained. I’d still recommend starting at the beginning, but it that’s not available, this one’s good, as long as you don’t mind some spoilers. My only complaint is the amount of exposition at the start. I felt like we didn’t need to know all that detail and it seemed a little heavy-handed – contrast Honor’s story for background drama that didn’t require infodumps.

I loved this book and cannot wait to read more in this series, particularly about Illium and Aodhan, though their time is yet to come. I also want a meet-the-parents scene, because that got teased a couple of times and I think that’d be delightful.

Five poisonous stars (because between these two, poison is totally a compliment)

I received a copy of this story from the author through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.