Lord of the Abyss by Nalini Singh

The Royal House of Shadows series saved the best for last – Lord of the Abyss by Nalini Singh was absolutely amazing.

As the dark Lord who condemns souls to damnation in the Abyss, Micah is nothing but a feared monster wrapped in impenetrable black armor. He has no idea he is the last heir of Elden, its last hope. Only one woman knows—the daughter of his enemy.

Liliana is nothing like her father, the Blood Sorcerer who’d cursed Micah. She sees past Micah’s armor to the prince inside. A prince whose sinful touch she craves. But first she has to brave his dark, dangerous lair and help him remember.

Because they only have till midnight to save Elden.

Lord of the Abyss was one of the cutest, sweetest, love stories that I’ve ever read. That being said, there were two huge, epic battles and several fights/skirmishes throughout that kept the plot from being overly sweet or even dragging.

Like the rest of the Royal House of Shadows series, Lord of the Abyss is a fairy tale retelling. This time it was a backwards Beauty and the Beast mixed with Cinderella and The Ugly Duckling. Liliana wasn’t the fairest of them all, but she was kind, courageous and never let anything stop her from her goal. She did have some self-esteem issues, but no one could blame her, especially after seeing just how horribly her father treated her. Liliana was a strong yet vulnerable heroine, and she fit perfectly with Micah.

I was completely smitten by the stunningly handsome Micah. Having lived alone in the Dark Castle all by himself for the past twenty years, he hadn’t learned how to live with other people. He was sometimes harsh or forceful and a bit spoiled; he would claim that he deserved everything because he was the Dark Lord and his word was law. Despite that, Micah was a total sweetheart. He never held a grudge against anyone and would sometimes even let kind souls stay in his castle instead of moving on to the other side.

My favorite scene in Lord of the Abyss was when Micah told Liliana that she needed to make him happy became moments before something she had said made him terribly angry and he didn’t want to be angry anymore. That’s one of the things I loved most about Micah and Liliana. They worked out their own problems quickly then worked together to fix the other challenges/obstacles in their way.

My only complaint with Lord of the Abyss was that I would have liked to see more of the other siblings during the final battle against the Blood Sorcerer. All four of them were together there at the end, but their part of the battle was never told.

Lord of the Abyss was not only my favorite book in the Royal House of Shadows series, but quite possibly my favorite novel by Nalini Singh (though I haven’t read all of her books yet, so that might one day change.)

Read Order:
Lord of the Vampires by Gena Showalter
Lord of Rage by Jill Monroe
Lord of the Wolfyn by Jessica Andersen
Lord of the Abyss by Nalini Singh

Also reviewed by: Reading between the Wines Book Club, Romancing Rakes, I Smell Sheep, saz101, Heroes & Heartbreakers