Wow, ARCHANGEL'S PROPHECY is Nalini Singh's Guild Hunter book 11- the mind boggles. This book feels both fresh and new yet also like a well-loved and broken-in pair of comfy socks. It's got so many of my favorite characters giving me that comforting feeling of home, yet manages to ratchet the tension up on the high stakes game of chicken that Elena is playing with The Cascade. Well done, Ms. Singh!

The Guild Hunter series is centered around incredibly powerful Raphael, the Archangel of New York and his consort Elena, who was once a Guild Hunter tasked with tracking down rogue vampires but is now a newly-created Immortal gifted with wings. Heavily interwoven are Raphael's Cadre of Seven, who are powerful angels or other supernatural beings that assist Raphael in running his vast empire. This is an utterly compelling world of vampires, angels, and other fantastical beasts that will simply blow your socks off. I adore Elena! She's a smart self-starter who has managed to propel herself to success through combining grit and compassion. I love how she has softened Raphael and made him so much more than the remote angelic being he used to be.

I don't want to say too much about the cause of the book's main tension, because I'd like every reader to be just as gripped by this tension as I. The Cascade is happening right now, a time of great upheaval in the angelic world, when random cataclysmic events tend to propel various angels into unforetold powers and rock the supernatural world. Raphael and Elena are being caught up in the changes in ways that may become unspeakable. I will say I was on tenterhooks for the duration of the book, filled with anxiety in wondering if Elena and Raphael would be able to survive. Some of Singh's books have more epic battles between Archangels and their followers and a few have even been somewhat cerebral. ARCHANGEL'S PROPHECY has the usual self-contained mystery that the main characters solve, but has more local feel, with Raphael's territory being the main focus. This probably contributes to the homey feel I get from this book despite the great anguish the characters are going through.

As always, I can't do anything but rave about Singh's latest release. Singh is one of my favorite authors, and again she manages to knock this one out of the park. ARCHANGEL'S PROPHECY will keep your heart in your throat while you laugh, cry, and swoon over the marvelous Guild Hunter world.