Friday, February 27, 2009

A personal plea regarding Nalini Singh's Angel's Blood

I first heard about Nalini Singh's Angel's Blood (book one of the new Guild Hunter series) on one of the livejournal blogs mid January. The premise had me hooked. What's better than vampires, vampire hunters and archangels. I love the tag line "When archangel's play, mortals break." I couldn't wait for it to come out. It immediately went on the list I gave my local indie bookstore of books for them to get me.

A week went by and Nalini announced a contest. The prize, one of the ARC's (Advanced Reader Copies). I put my name into the hat. On Jan 20, I found out I was one of the winners. It arrived two days later. It doesn't have the pretty artwork. It's bright yellow and sticks out on my bookshelf.

When it came, I told my kids "This is the neatest thing ever." Their response, "I thought we were the neatest things ever." After I assured them that Mommy loves them, I went upstairs and devoured the book. I've been trying to figure out my review of it ever since.

I told myself that it was because I wanted to read it again. It was the first book I've read this year, where the urge to immediately reread it was overwhelming. I reread it and still wasn't able to write my review. Last night, I figured out my problem.

Writing this without being spoilery is next to impossible. The writing is superb, the characters are interesting, the pacing is dead on and everything else that makes a book great is there in droves. I can picture every detail from gleaming Angel's Tower with the angels taking off an landing right down to the beauty of the angels' wings. This book is truly beautiful. I want to see it made into a movie, just to see the various angels' wings. She creates a world that both makes the angels fit into our world, yet at the same time keeps them elevated. Oh, and these aren't cherubs with harps.

That isn't what I want to talk about. No, strike that, that isn't what I need to talk about. It is the relationship between the vampires and angels that has me emailing her to ask her how she came up with the idea. It is the ending that has me needing to know where the series will go. This is one of the most creative ideas I've ever seen.

I wanted to win that ARC very badly. Well, be careful what you wish for. Since I got an ARC, I can't go online and talk about this. Never since Buffy the Vampire Slayer went off the air has the need to talk about something been so great.

So here's what I want you guys to do (see me on my knees), please please go out and buy this book. It's available officially March 3, but I saw it in Waldenbooks Wednesday, so you may be lucky. Please, read it so I have someone to talk about it with. Then come back here and talk to me.

If you don't, I'll explode.

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