Nalini Singh: Lord of the Abyss

I've been hearing the name Nalini Singh for ages now, but I never seemed to get around to actually read one of her books.
Now I have Netgalley to thank for my first opportunity. :) Loved it too.

By the end of the book, I realized it's part of the series as it brings together brothers and a sister in order for them to save their land and the Lord of the Abyss is the youngest one so the others had to come before.
Now, I'll have to go back and read from the beginning (what a terrible chore!). ;)

Anyway, I can't help but put in some slight, possible spoilers.

Lord of the Abyss reads to me like a beauty and the beast story. Only in this case, the beauty is ugly, and the beast is beautiful and only gets beastly when the curse is upon him (which isn't often).

In retrospect, for a book that is romantical fantasy, it actually got me feeling quite strongly (and by that I mean the actual feeling of my stomach clenching in certain situations).
N. Singh certainly painted the childhood of Liliana in such dark and gruesome details that I shivered and almost cried with incredulity that she would do something so awful to such a good character in her book. But unfortunately, it did fit with the father. :(

Micah, or the Lord of the Abyss is an interesting character because he has many traits that I would detest if they weren't combined in him with kingly ethic and goodwill toward all the people and the land. And his lover.  They seem to be, character-wise, made for each other.

I really enjoyed the destroyed world of Elden (they only got to fix it in the end, like I said, last book in the series) and I also think that because this was the last book, I lost some of the world building which probably happened in the beginning but I didn't have a problem following the story (did wonder a bit about parts of the world they inhabit).

Basic line is, I am happy I got introduced to N. Singh's novels and I want to read more - starting with Royal House of Shadows 1 (which btw I just realized wasn't written by her but is a series written by some other authors I wanted to get to know). :)