Artist: Ni Anluain. Inspired by Nalini Singh's character Archangel Raphael
★★★★✩ I read Angels' Pawn. For me, this was a disadvantage; while I loved Elena in this story, Raphael was not a very likeable character in that one, IMHO, and I wondered not how, but if Ms. Singh was going to be able to covert me to a Raphael fan. She did, but the going was rough.
I liked the story and was glad I finished it. In all honesty, I kind of lost interest there at about 75% of the way through and might not have finished it – or maybe just skimmed it – had this not been a “buddy read”. There was a bit of rehashing and the frustration of knowing my questions were not going to be answered this go round. Planning for the next book in the series in our “buddy read” schedule, I had looked at it and saw Elena was an angle – kind of hard to miss, when she’s on the cover with a pair of black wings!), so I was interested to see how that happened and at the same time dreading a “cliffhanger” ending.
Sometimes I felt I was being led in one direction in the story, only to have it turn in another. And, in an unfair way, not in a neat, surprising-turn-of-events sort of way. Like with Lejuan, for example. She was coming across as this all-wise, ever-evolving archangel and instead – poof! – she’s suddenly making zombies? Then there is the unrevealed mystery of the deaths of Elena’s mother and sisters – and the resultant issues and effects this has had on Elena. Huh?
There could have been fewer characters and more development of those pertinent to the story. Loved Illium, the angel with blue wings. I actually enjoyed the companion novella, Angels' Pawn was 4 stars for a little over half way, then it dropped to 3 ½ stars there for a while; however, it redeemed itself in the end, so I’ll stick with the original rating and hesitantly give it ★★★★✩.
