Thursday, February 14, 2013

Awesome Characters: Elena and Raphael - Guest post by Kat Ellis


Today I have the happy privilege of presenting you with Awesome Characters: Guest Post Edition! My CP Kat Ellis is here to tell you about two awesome characters who I am definitely going to check out and you probably should too!

Check out Kat's blog and Kat on twitter. She's brilliant.


First of all, thanks so much to Bridget for inviting me to write a guest post for the Awesome Characters series.

I’ve chosen two characters from my all-time favourite series: Elena and Raphael from Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter series. I also have to say at this point that Nalini Singh is my favourite author, and if you enjoy PNR/UF and haven’t read any of her books, DO.

This is the blurb for ANGEL’S BLOOD, the first in the series, on Amazon:

“Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux knows she's the best - but she doesn't know if she's good enough for this job. Hired by the dangerously beautiful Archangel Raphael, a being so lethal that no mortal wants his attention, only one thing is clear - failure is not an option . . . even if the task she's been set is impossible.

Because this time, it's not a wayward vamp she has to track. It's an archangel gone bad.

The job will put Elena in the midst of a killing spree like no other . . . and pull her to the razor's edge of passion. Even if the hunt doesn't destroy her, succumbing to Raphael's seductive touch just may. Because when archangels play, mortals break . . .”

The story begins with Raphael – the Archangel of New York – hiring Elena to track a rogue angel on a killing spree in his territory. Elena is a Guild Hunter, a tracker with scars in her past and a natural ability to hunt vampires – not angels – and she is at first put to the test by the Archangel to see whether she is up to the job.

The first scenes where Elena and Raphael meet are just electric. She has a healthy fear of the powerful Archangel, and isn’t stupid enough to think she can beat him if she tackles him head-on, so uses her cunning and lots of verbal sparring to get her own way.

Raphael is ruthless, cold, and the sexiest character I have ever read about. Every word he says is deliberate, calculated and meaningful, and it makes it all the more exciting seeing the two main characters clash mentally as well as physically before the sparks flying between them become an absolute inferno.

I won’t spoil the ending to Angel’s Blood, but I will say that throughout the series Elena becomes even stronger as she develops and continues to do battle against various enemies alongside the Archangel. And that’s a key point – they fight together, and Elena holds her own even when in the company of much more powerful beings.

This is the only book I own which has become dog-eared, because I keep recommending it and lending it to friends. I hope you read it and fall in love with Raphael and Elena as much as I did.