Angels’ Blood

I’ve heard about Nalini Singh’s books for quite a while, so when she started a new series, I wanted to try the first book. It actually took me three tries to get into it. I don’t usually persevere, but I’ll admit that the enthusiasm people had for this book and its sequel, Archangel’s Kiss, spurred me on to try that third time.

And I’m glad I did.

I found the world-building interesting and fresh. The angels felt alien (some more than others), which is what you want with immortals who take a different view of the world than a regular human. I like it when immortality has an effect on the character. (It actually wasn’t until we had a scene in the hero’s point of view that I became hooked by the book, as the first few chapters were in Elena’s point of view.)

The hero, Raphael, needs Elena, a vampire hunter, to go after a rogue angel. And while that plot doesn’t fully develop until the second half of the book, I enjoyed evolution of Raphael and Elena’s relationship which is not easy. He does things like force his mind upon her and she shoots him, endangering his life. I quite enjoy this kind of rocky start to a relationship when the two people are supposed to have such different values and priorities. (They do eventually find common ground.)

I should back up. This a world where archangels (older angels with more power) rule certain areas of the world. There are also vampires who are made by angels, but who must serve one hundred years of servitude before gaining their freedom. Elena is a vampire hunter—she can smell them—and she returns rogue vampires, usually ones causing great harm to humans, to their angels.

Raphael is an archangel with all the attendant worries such power gives him. Another archangel has gone crazy (this is a bit of a secret) and he needs Elena to help him track the rogue archangel down.

Anyway! There’s quite a bit of plot and quite a bit of world-building. I had feared at the beginning, and this is probably the reason I stopped reading it twice, that the relationship between Raphael and Elena wouldn’t be that interesting. Kickass woman matched with overpowering alpha male—well it felt quite familiar. But Singh goes on to do some interesting exploration of that, I felt.

Both Elena and Raphael have damaged pasts, although these are not dwelt on, even if they’re important. I wouldn’t call this angsty at all, and yet I teared up at one point with totally surprised me.

I definitely plan to continue reading this series. By the way, there’s a fair amount of violence, even if it doesn’t feel gratuitous or overdone.

Dear Author gave a B+
AAR gave a B+
Mrs. Giggles gave an 80

Stolen by Kelley Armstrong

About ten years ago, I walked into the my local library and saw a book on the new-books table entitled Bitten by Kelley Armstrong. It was about a woman who was a werewolf. It was horror and I never read horror. But I had started writing a werewolf romance when there weren’t too many werewolf romances around, at least that I knew of, so I picked it up from the library.

I got sucked right into the story. Bitten wasn’t an entirely successful read for me. I skimmed a lot of the second half, and I was a bit frustrated by Clay and Elena’s relationship. Still, it made an impact.

A while later I tried Stolen and couldn’t get into it. But then I got it in my head that I really wanted to read Armstrong’s Otherworld series, especially after loving Exit Strategy and hearing people rave about all her books. So I picked up Stolen again.

I know I found the prologue difficult. It’s about someone who is doomed, and it’s a little disturbing, as it’s meant to be. But I kept going this time and I found Stolen a satisfying read. I’m excited to read the third book in the series, Dime Store Magic.

Anyway, Stolen is about a psychopath who collects people of the otherworld: werewolves, witches, shamans, sorcerers and half-demons. It’s an introduction to a whole array of paranormal humans who weren’t present in Bitten. It’s kind of like Bitten was very focused on werewolves living and hiding among humans, whereas Stolen opens the world right up.

Elena meets witches, vampires, and half-demons. At first some of them gather together to try to address the threat from this man who is collecting these individuals. But then Elena herself is kidnapped—stolen.

(I didn’t actually remember that Jeremy could communicate with Elena in dreams, but then I guess I’ve forgotten a lot of Bitten.)

It was a bit difficult at times to watch how Elena is treated by a group of quite terrible people. It’s nothing she can’t survive, but it isn’t easy. Nevertheless, she keeps fighting, she meets others, including a twelve-year-old witch she wants to save, and I’m right in there cheering for her to escape and make the villain pay.

I’m a Clay fan too. At least I am in this book. But we’re also introduced to the witch Paige, and I’m looking forward to learning more about her in Dime Store Magic.

I realize this is more a ramble than a review, but hey.

Amazon pricing in Canada

I’ve been following, to some degree, the fight that broke out over the weekend between Amazon and Macmillan.

There have been a series of posts at Dear Author. There’s a long thread at Making Light.

While there are all sorts of opinions, there does seem to be a rough split down a certain line, with readers and Amazon on one side, and writers/publishers/editors and Macmillan on the other side.

But I suspect people outside the US aren’t so enamored of Amazon. At least here in Canada, I’ve found the customer service of Amazon.ca inferior to Chapters online. Plus the Kindle books are marked-up rather than discounted. For example my book Feral is sold for $6.40 rather than $5.50 at MBaM. Both American dollars. At least, I’m assuming the Kindle prices are all American dollars, because while Amazon.ca is selling Kindles, I can’t find Kindle books on their site.

If I look at something like Larissa Ione’s new book Ecstasy Unveiled. Kindle is $7.59, Kobo is $6.29, while paperback is $8.99. An older Larissa Ione book at Kobo is $7.59, so the above Kobo price may not last.

These books are US$6.99 at ARe and Fictionwise, which isn’t too different than Canadian $7.59. (I chose Ione’s books mainly because I keep meaning to read them!)

There’s no $9.99 limit. Stephen King’s latest offering is on sale for $11.99—which may be the limit. I should add that print books have always been more expensive in Canada than the US. In large part because of the dollar, which is now fairly close to par.

Anyway! My point, and I do have one, is that Amazon is hardly offering us Canadians excellent prices for ebooks and doesn’t even offer ebooks on the Canadian site as far as I can tell.