5 - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Witch, you are,” he said, dipping his head to claim her lips in a kiss that held both the sweetness of the sunshine—and a good dose of raw sex. “In my bed, Honor. That’s where I want you.”

Call me a masochist but Angel's Blade hurt me in the best way.

I didn't know what to expect with Dmitri's story, I knew it would be dark but I wasn't ready to be swept by an intense wave of emotions.

Without any exaggeration, this turned out to be my favorite installment in the series thus far.

We had very little glimpses into Dmitri, there were barely any cracks in the formidable shields he kept around him. This brazen Vampire displayed nothing but an unholy indulgence in depraved sensuality and cruelty.

But behind the shields was once a mortal man who lost everything he held so dear to him in the most unimaginable cruelty a thousand years ago.

A Guild Hunter named Honor was his undoing.

Honor is a 29-year-old Guild Hunter who is recovering from a traumatic event that happened not long ago involving Vampires. She was violated for two months until she was rescued and what remained was a shell of a person she used to be.

Now, a mysterious case arises that requires Honor to work with the Arcangel's right hand man but the truth is that despite Dmitri being a Vampire, she was drawn to him way before she was violated and tortured by any.

From a reluctant partnership to a brutal passion that sweeps them both, Honor and Dmitri are haunted by ghosts of the pasts and enemies old and new that are waiting for the chance to tear them apart.

And when I say this is by far the DARKEST book in the series, it truly is.

We get flashes of Honor's horrific torture sessions and Dmitri's tragic past that can be both heartwarming or heartshredding.

Both Honor and Dmitri are sexual assault survivors so it's interesting to see the dynamic of how and immortal or a mortal deal with it. Dmitri was honed to be a lethal weapon while Honor did not allow her assault to define her or what she is capable of doing and feeling.

Honor and Dmitri had such an intense tension and I devoured their interactions, in a way they felt like kindred souls who saw each other through the cracks.

And I absolutely, ABSOLUTELY loved seeing glimpses of Dmitri's soft side, and that man is also utters pure filth.

There are scenes that were hard to read because I did not expect Nalini to write a graphic description of it.

I finished the book while I was sitting in a public place and I was fighting the urge to not cry, because you could see my tears ready to make their descent.

Content warning: graphic violence, r*pe, torture, kidnapping, PTSD, death of adults and children.