Archangel's Storm by Nalini Singh

*Genre* Paranormal Romance
*Released* September 4, 2012
*Publisher* Berkley

*Review*

Jason, Raphael’s illusive spymaster, takes center stage in Archangel’s Storm (Guild Hunter # 5). The book comes on the heels of Archangel’s Blade which was one of the better books in the series and showed a whole new side to Dmitri and his love towards Honor a Guild Hunter.

As we open Archangel’s Storm, Dmitri and Honor are getting married and the important characters in the series like Raphael, Elena, Illium, Venom, Ransom, Ashwini, Janvier are either there in person, or are mentioned. I actually smiled when Ashwini and Janvier were mentioned. It seems that they only get parts in novella’s which leaves lots of room for tying up their story in a way that will leave readers happy.

The story quickly switches gears when it is discovered that the Archangel of India’s consort appears to have been murdered. Jason volunteers to travel to India and find out the truth behind what happened. Blood bound to Princess Mahiya for the duration of his investigation, Jason travels a dangerous road fraught with the possibility that he won’t be returning to Raphael any time soon.

While Archangel’s Storm was a decent enough addition to the Guild Hunter series, Jason isn't close to being Dmitri or Raphael for that matter. Jason is supposed to be in the background as Raphael's spymaster and part of his group of Seven. Jason is a quiet character that really isn’t comfortable as the main character in a full length novel. Because of Jason’s ability to bend the darkness to his will, you find out that this story is a bit slower than its predecessors.

While Jason's back story regarding his own families’ tragedy and how he came to be Raphael's spymaster was interesting enough, again, it wasn't Dmitri or Raphael or even Illium for that matter. It was almost too easy to guess who the overall villain of the story would be, and what would happen between Jason and Princess Mahiya.

I should empathically state that I didn’t hate either Jason or Princess Mahiya. Both of their backgrounds are stepped in sadness and heartbreak which makes you more willing to allow for more room for Singh to tell her story. I can also see where Elena and Mahiya will quickly become friends which will lead to all sorts of new situations to discover.
 
Some readers may find the whole Dmitri/Honor situation as a distraction to Jason’s story. I was actually happy that it was added to the book. I was happy to see Dmitri leaving Honor a way out of her agreement to transition to vampire. I found this absolutely awesome in that he firmly loves Honor with all his being, and would give up everything to be with her no matter what the situation is. Of course, I immediately skipped ahead to their parts in the book and read as Honor made the decision of a lifetime. One can only hope that Singh won’t leave readers hanging and will allow us to discover what happens next with the couple be it in a novella, or part of the next book in the series.

I'm happy to see that Singh plans on going back to Elena and Raphael in the next book which hopefully means answering questions regarding Raphael’s own mother Caliane, and her part in the Cadre of Ten gaining extraordinary new abilities which we find in both Neha and her twin sister Nivriti as well as Jason and Mahiya.