This review was written by Zulma. This story was nominated in the Best Paranormal Romance category.

The summary:     

Once upon a time…the Blood Sorcerer vanquished the kingdom of Elden. To save their children, the queen scattered them to safety and the king filled them with vengeance. Only a magical timepiece connects the four royal heirs…and time is running out.…

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.

And here is Zulma's review:

I wanted to wholeheartedly love this book because Nalini Singh is one of my favorite romance writers, but Lord of the Abyss had many contradictory elements that failed create a satisfying whole for me. I read this the last in the series first, then went back and read the other three, which were authored by different writers. I thought the idea of converging stories was clever but taken individually they failed to leave a lasting or pleasurable impression.

The two main characters in Lord of the Abyss are interesting constructs. Liliana, daughter of the incredibly evil Blood Sorcerer, has come to the Black Castle to rescue Micah, the tormented and ensorcelled hero of the book, and bring him back to save his kingdom. Liliana has suffered nightmarish cruelties at the hands of her father who now rules the kingdom of Elden. It was hard to believe that she survived such torments and turned out to be the sweet and giving young woman in the book. It was also difficult for me to read some of the things that her father subjected her to; things that he didn’t do to his enemies. After a while it was like, I get it! The Blood Sorcerer is evil! Enough already! She is also, interestingly enough, unattractive and “mismatched”- beak of a nose, small breasts, large butt, uneven legs, matted black hair, slashing gape for a mouth. So what then does Micah, the Lord of the Abyss, find attractive about her?

When Liliana first sees the Guardian of the Abyss her impression is that “he was the most beautiful monster she had ever seen.” Micah, whose “eyes are full of nightmares” and who causes the dead to quiver when “confronted with his visage” turns out to quite not the monster despite his job of steering the souls of the dammed through the gates of hell and the black armor that is slowing creeping over his body. Liliana captures Micah’s interest because she dares to look him in the eye. I found it hard to reconcile his night job with his and Liliana’s relationship. But then again maybe it is this disjuncture that allows these two to develop this unlikely relationship.

Both characters are sympathetic; their backstory made me root for them; their quest to end the reign of the Blood Sorcerer kept me just interested enough to see how it would play out; and the ending wrapped everything up nicely. Yet…I found the entire story boring. I had a hard time connecting with these characters and found myself impatient to get to the end of the book.

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