Hello Readers, welcome back to my blog.

I have been away for a couple of months to take a break from reading and recharge my battery. It is very healthy to step away from the online world very once in a while and take stock of your reality, enjoy the things and people that are around you because you don’t know how long you will have to enjoy them. This pandemic has really taken a toil but we should all hang in there, change is always guaranteed in life.

I started my reading year with the thirteenth book of the Guild hunter series released in November 2020.

SUMMARY

The Archangel of Death and the Archangel of Disease may be gone but their legacy of evil lives on – especially in Africa, where the shambling rotting creatures called the reborn have gained a glimmer of vicious intelligence.

It is up to Titus, archangel of this vast continent, to stop the reborn from spreading across the world. Titus can’t do it alone, but of the surviving powerful angels and archangels large numbers are wounded, while the rest are fighting a surge of murderous vampires.

There is no one left . . . but the Hummingbird. Old, powerful, her mind a broken kaleidoscope. Now she must stand at Titus’s side against a tide of death, upon a discovery ore chilling than any other. For the Archangel of Disease has left them one last terrible gift . . .

The wait is over, we now see what the world is life after the war that killed more than one archangel and mortally wounded a lot of others to the extent that rather than a cadre of ten there are only seven awake and functioning archangels to rule the world.

Aside from Elijah, Titus has always been one of the other archangels that piqued my interest when I first started reading this series. He is so open and loud that it is impossible not to like him for his honesty. And his ability to string curses together is poetic, his best insult that I loved was when he called Charisemnon “the boil on the hind leg of a rabid pig”. There are a lot more than this, he gets very creative with his insults whenever it comes to Charisemnon. Before the war he was the archangel of the southern parts of Africa and Charisemnon’s territory was the northern part but after the war Titus has to take responsibility for the whole of Africa.

The northern part of Africa has been long used to Charisemnon’s form of rule which was cruel and despicable. Titus has to get this new region to trust him, adjust to his rule and expect better from him than they got from their previous archangel but Titus doesn’t have the patience to subtly win them over.

Lady Sharine also known as the Hummingbird, mother to Illium is known as a treasure to all angelkind because of her art and her kindness. She has been living in a world of her own because of a sequence of tragic events in her life which she wasn’t prepared to deal with at the time. She has been cuddled and treasured but everyone has been aware that she is a creature no longer a part of the world but the one in her head of her making.

The world is in chaos so every old and powerful angel has to be utilised. The Cadre sent the hummingbird to Lumia previously to repair the damage done to a human settlement there and get them to trust angels again. This was lady Sharine’s first task to guard the art work of angelkind but with the war Titus is in need of help and there is no one to send but her.

Titus and his court are expecting a pampered fragile angel that they will have to protect so all angelkind don’t hate them and shorn them for eternity, in order words an extra burden not a helping hand. To their surprise Lady Sharine is waking up from her sleeping mind and remembering the strength that lies within her which has lain dormant for longer that she cares to count. Not only is she of great help with powers she didn’t know she possessed but she is also a huge help in terms of smoothing the rough edges of Titus and charming everyone she meets.

Africa is the worst region that has been infested with the reborn and to their surprise the angels are not immune from infection but the devastation that an infected angel can cause is far worse than others. Charisemnon left a last gift in the form of a baby girl who will save angels from this infection if she allowed to grow as a normal baby. All regions of the world have to rebuild itself especially china which is now under the governance of the newly ascended archangel Suyin. Will she be able to bring hope to her people despite the fact that she looks so much like the archangel that caused the worst devastation? I can’t wait to find out.

My favourite quote:

“You’ve been sent by my sisters.” A horrified stare. “They cannot torment me in person, and so they’ve sent you to torment me by proxy.”

This quote made me laugh so much, it embodies the relationship between Titus and his sisters as well as shows that Lady Sharine is awake in a glorious way that drives Titus to distraction. Aside from Neha and her twin we have not heard of another archangel with siblings, Titus is the last of five children from his mother and they all have a healthy relationship were they all have their individual talents but are supportive of each other.

I enjoyed this book even though it didn’t have as much action as the other books and by the standards of the other books it was much more sedate but very interesting. Reading about a world that is surviving an infestation of reborn while we are going through the current pandemic was a novel experience.