Review: “Archangel’s Viper,” Nalini Singh

Pros: Interesting plot and characters
Cons: A little too much sniping
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Nalini Singh’s Archangel’s Viper (A Guild Hunter Novel) is not a good place to jump into the series; make sure you’ve read other Guild Hunter books first. It’s best to have some background on both of these characters and their unique places in the ongoing plots. That said, Singh includes enough detail that even if it’s been a little while since you’ve read other books you should be able to make your way through this one without a problem.

In the latest installment of the Guild Hunter books (book 10) we get to finally find out more about Venom, a rather unique vampire, and Holly, who is maybe/sorta a vampire and unique in her own right. No one really knows what she is right now so they’re protecting her while keeping a wary eye on her. And with good reason–there’s something powerful and maddening growing inside of her and she doesn’t know how to control it yet. When someone tries to kidnap Holly and the characters learn there’s a $5 million bounty on her, it becomes much more urgent that they find out what’s going on with her.

Romance books in which the leads snipe at each other constantly as they fall in love are not my favorite kind. Partly I find it harder to buy into. Partly the tone just grates on me. Maybe, having been through a recent divorce myself, I just get depressed when I see the negative aspects of relationships right now. That said, Nalini Singh is one of the few authors who can pull it off without tuning me out.

I have to reiterate that Singh’s depiction of a world filled with vampires and angels is quite unique. It isn’t just our world with a little twist–the power structures and people’s lives have some serious differences from the world we’re used to. Angels and vamps aren’t something that just showed up; they’ve been around forever. Angels create vampires to serve them, and angels can go quite power-mad. The Guild Hunters exist to keep vampires in check, although the recent close alliance between New York’s archangel and its Guild chapter is new. It’s a unique ecosystem that I love to explore. I missed a couple of books before this one and I’ll have to go back and catch up, because I’ve loved this series since the very beginning.