Angels' Flight by Nalini Singh [Book Review]
Admittedly, I don't read much paranormal romance these days, unless you count Hellsing fanfiction. Still, the summary of this collection of novellas caught my interest, despite not reading Angels' Blood or anything in this series. Angels' Flight has four different stories set in the same world: Angel's Pawn; Angel's Judgment; Angel's Wolf; Angel's Dance.
The diverse (many characters are not white, which is rarely seen in paranormal romance) fantastical world Singh sets up is intriguing. While I don't tend to like creatures that are called angels that aren't really connected to religion, I enjoyed how Singh's angels were both beautiful but terrifying. Particularly in the first story, there were aspects of the world and how the angels operate I found uncomfortable until, from reading the subsequent short stories, I realized I was meant to be uncomfortable.
I love succinct stories. However, there were times the short lengths of these stories came to their detriment. For example, Angel's Pawn felt like it ended abruptly because of the lack of a Happily Ever After, or HEA. I understand that Ashwini and Janvier's romantic plot will likely be explored in a full-length novel, but a novella should still begin and end well on its own terms. Still, for the most part, despite not knowing anything about this world, I learned as I went along with little difficulty; I caught on to how characters connected to one another not just in a single story, but in all of them.
For me, the strongest story is Angel's Wolf; it has a strong emotional core and a traumatized hero, Noel, who heals not through reasserting his masculinity, but by showing compassion and empathy; the story subverted my expectations and surprised me. It explores grief and a dominant heroine whose reputation of being icy is because others fear her power. And also, she loves cats. Her story and her cats, Queen and Mimosa, quite frankly, made me tear up, and even the main story explores trauma and compassion. I laughed, I awwed, and I teared up, so this was by far the most potent tale for me. I was entirely invested in the characters, and out of the four stories, this one stuck with me the most, so much so I had trouble getting into Angel's Dance because I still had a story hangover with Angel's Wolf. This story's moving softness and the fascinating world are enough for me to recommend checking this collection out if you like paranormal romance.