I was less surprised by Jason's story as I was by Dmitri's. Dmitri's story just came out of left field for me. In Archangel's Blade, Signh took a character that I hadn't really cared for at all in the other books and made him a character I really liked. A character I actually became interested in learning about; his past, his thoughts, etc. 
 Jason was always a character I liked, just mysterious. I think all readers knew there was a story there to be told (as there obviously is with all the character Singh has created in this world). So unlike with Dmitri (where I really didn't think I would want / like to read his story), I was looking forward to learning more about the dark angel. 
 After learning of the murder of archangel Neha's consort, Jason and Raphael, in an effort to keep Neha from going insane in her grief, agree to Jason's presence in her court in order to find the culprit. Neha, not trusting another angel from another territory (esepcially Raphael's spymaster) agrees to Jason's presence only if he swears a blood oath to Mahiya, her dead consorts illegitimate daughter. 
 Jason, always withdrawn from ever caring about anyone with his heart, he agrees to the oath, fully understanding that Mahiya's job will be to keep an eye on him to ensure he doesn't go to Raphael with any information. What he finds with Mahiya is an angel who for hundreds of years has been treated as less than worthy because of her parentage. Someone who has endured much hatred and physical and mental abuse because by both her father and Neha because her very existence reminds both of them of infidelities. 
 Where Mahiya could have turned into a cold heartless person with spiteful vengence on her mind for the wrongs done to her, she is really a warm and caring person even through all the torment. She knows to give thought to hatred makes her worse than those enflicting the pain. In her Jason sees a strong warrior and they are drawn to each other. But how will they navigate their growing feelings for each other when Jason is not interested in being kept under anyone's heart? 
 Besides the growing romance in the story, we also have the murder of Neha's consort to solve and why. Other, too, start to go missing. Could there be a bigger picture going on than anyone suspects? 
 I really liked seeing Jason and Mahiya navigat through their growing attraction for one another. I liked that, as with the other male leads in the series, Nalini Singh doesn't sacrifice their masculinity just because they find love. If anything it's even more enforced. They don't become sinveling, whining, overly emotional versions of what they used to be as I've read in some romances. I don't know about you, but just because I like a guy I don't want him to suddenly turn sappy because he likes me too. Instead Jason's subtle revelations of his vulnerabilities about his past and his feelings for Mahiya feel like a very natural step for him to take and it doesn't negate the fact that he is still very powerful and can be very dangerous as well. 
 I also liked that Mahiya was a strong heroine in her own right even with everything she's been through as well. In fact, Singh does a great job on both sexes. Not demoralizing them just because they finally decide to bear their souls to another. 
 I also liked that interspersed throughout we get little snippets of the goings on with Raphael / Elena and Dmitri / Honor. At the end of Dmitri's book we know he and Honor will marry and she has agreed to become a vampire. We get to see them work through that monumentous decision in more thought and detail when not caught up in the moment. 
 At the end of the book there's a note saying the next book will be back with Elena and Raphael at the foreground. I only hope we still get more background goings on with Jason and Mahiya. In this book it was just enough (usually those chapters were only a couple pages) that we knew where their story was going but it didn't detract from the main focus of Jason and Mahiya. 
 This continues to be a series that delivers quality individual storylines all the while building upon an overall story arc that I think we'll see in an Elena and Raphael novel (since they are the original couple of the series). Until Then!