I was so excited about this anthology that I instantly dropped everything else I was reading the moment it appeared on my Kindle - these authors are among my very favorites. I was pretty hyped for this, which might have worked a bit against me, I enjoyed the four stories, three of which are connected the authors' series, but I was surprised that with so many of my top favorite authors, the new to me Sharon Shinn's story was my favorite. The stories in Angels of Darkness weren't super romancey even though there were romances in each story, but the personal aspect of the relationships was more the focus. FYI, the Andrew's story is the only one that didn't have an angel in the lead, just two brief references to 'angels'.
Here's just a quick bit about the stories in the order I read them....
Singh's Angel's Wolf - Noel, the vampire who was brutalized in an earlier Guild Hunter book and who is healed in body but still not recovered emotionally from his ordeal, is sent away from Raphael's Tower to guard the deceptively fragile looking Nimra whose territory is New Orleans - but Noel knows that no angel rises to power by being weak. - Singh does a really good job of developing the characters and the relationship in this short - though the romance aspect of the relationship doesn't have the tension filled build up of some of Singh's other stories. I really liked both of the leads and it was nice for a change that the power imbalance between angel and vampire isn't so great as the immortal/human pairings in the other Guild Hunter books. My only nit, and it didn't stop me from enjoying the story - and probably wouldn't have struck me the same way if I hadn't recently read Archangel's Blade - was that I am now really ready for another Guild Hunter story where one (or both) of the leads hasn't been savaged to the extreme in the past. 4 stars)
Sharon Shin's Nocturne - A despondent blind angel is brought back to life by a woman who is no fan of angels. - This story ended up being really sweet, and the relationship is really well built as both of the leads come to trust each other and learn to move beyond the past that has limited their lives. The love scenes are left mostly to the readers imagination but the thought of the heroine being enveloped in the angel's wings adds fuel to fire that imagination. I haven't read anything by Shinn before, but recognized that this story is set in the world of her angel series, but this actually turned out to be my favorite story. (4.5 stars)
MelJean Brook's Ascension - Concerned for her former friend, Radha drops in on fellow Guardian Marc who is on the hunt for what Marc suspects is a Demon 'poisoning' the minds of humans in his territory and though Radha is the mistress of illusion, after 140 years, it may be time clear up the misunderstanding that ended their friendship - I am a huge fan of the Guardians, which is up to book seven and only one more story away from being complete. For newbies Brook has tried really hard in this story to catch new readers up on the whole Guardian mythos, fans who have just finished up Demon Marked - which had also had a pretty thorough recap and a lot more space to weave it in - probably won't appreciate this as much as fans who need to come back up to speed in preparation for Michael's book. (3 stars)
Ilona Andrews' Alphas: Origins - An ill fated pit stop, changes a field trip mom's life forever. Now her survival and that of her daughter depends on her bond to the frightening, Lucas, who is part man and part beast. I think that this is a prequel for a new series from the Andrews, and the world is a fusion of paranormal and sci-fi. I always enjoy stories like this in which a 'weak' heroine discovers her strength and also finds the hidden vulnerability in the man who is nearly a beast, and I am sucker for a hero who appealingly leashes his primal nature in order to give his heroine a choice. I would have like this one better without the conversation that did an info dump to explain the series mythos.(3 stars)
- MP3 CD
- Publisher: Tantor Media Inc; Unabridged edition (4 October 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1452653577
- ISBN-13: 978-1452653570
- Product Dimensions: 13.5 x 1.5 x 18.8 cm
- Boxed-product Weight: 22.7 g
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