Archangel’s Storm by Nalini Singh

The angels and archangels who reside over the world Nalini Singh has created in the Guild Hunter series are certainly a force to be reckoned with. Even more so when an archangels’ consort is brutally murdered — leaving the world at the mercy of said archangels’ wrath. Not good. So when powerful, poisonous, and brutal archangel Neha’s consort is murdered Raphael quickly reacts by sending spymaster Jason to cool the situation down before it boils over.

But what Jason doesn’t expect to find is a mystery in Neha’s adopted daughter Mahiya — who he’s forced into a blood vow with in order to keep the peace while staying within Neha’s territory. Mahiya surprises Jason at every turn and he finds himself slowly feeling things for her that he never thought himself capable of feeling.

I really enjoyed this story and it’s one of those books I sat down with and couldn’t stop reading. The mystery surrounding Neha’s consort’s murder was intriguing at every turn and I didn’t know who to suspect for the majority of the book. But what really struck me was the very subtle and almost low-key romance between Jason and Mahiya. Jason is very much an introvert and while he is always respectful of Mahiya, the idea of romance and being in love is very much foreign to him. So I enjoyed the very small breaks in his walls that happened throughout the book. Even by the end of the book you can tell it will take more time for him to heal from the life he’s lived, but if anyone can help him through it it would be Mahiya.

Mahiya very much surprised me. I suppose I was expecting a carbon copy of Neha’s other daughter who we had the “pleasure” of meeting a few books ago I believe. But she’s quite the enigma. Despite living nearly 300 years at the hand of Neha’s various abuses and out-lashes towards her she maintains a very positive and glowing persona, which is a miracle given what she’s had to live with. But not only that, she has hope and she knows deep inside her that the best way to repay Neha for the abuse she’s dealt with is to live and love her with all her heart. I really loved that about her, she’s very much an inspiration.

So this was a different kind of romance. While there were certainly steamy moments here and there, Singh is bringing together two very broken people (or angels as it were) in this book, and I like that they weren’t miraculously healed because of having sex with each other but are slowly learning to move beyond their pasts and forward to their future together. I think it made them that much more real and made me love them as a couple even more. I definitely enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to the next book — another one about Elena and Raphael!

Read more reviews & Buy it up!