Valerie Twombly's "An Angel's Torment: (Eternally Mated Prequel #1)" is a short - eight chapters - story that apparently begins laying the foundation for the full length books in this planned series. One of the premises built within this foundation is one of helping to create the future mate's for angels. Full-blooded angel's are always male; a child born between an angel and a human female - a Nephilim - is a daughter and future mate for an angel. The Seven Sisters, all Nephilim's, help choose the future Nephilim mothers and keep a close eye on planned lineage to keep the angel line pure. Tegan plans to ask the Seven to bestow the mate mark on Ana so that she will become his eternally bonded mate; Tegan had fallen in love with Ana before they had created their daughter. Twombly created likeable and believable characters in elite angel Tegan and his love interest, Ana, although she gave a bit more depth and detail to Tegan, compared to the character Ana. In this story, readers learn that Tegan has loved - and lost - three important women in his lifetime. His mother, also a Nephilim, was eternally bonded to his father; his father fell from grace and turned to darkness before his death. Tegan's mother, readers are told, allegedly becomes Lucifer's mistress and offers not only intriguing insight into Tegan, but also the possible beginning storyline of a future book. (Wouldn't that be a thrilling read? A Nephilim once bonded to an angel, now sharing Lucifer's bed?) Tegan and Ana's daughter, Ashley, will be the female protagonist in the first two books of this series, "Fall Into Darkness" and "Veiled In Darkness". Her future mate is Eli, Tegan's best friend and best Hunter. Hunter's are elite angels tasked with battling demons, creating new Nephilim's, and keeping humanity safe. It is unclear at this time if the future books will also be short stories or novella length, versus a full-length novel. Tegan is described as a strong male, beautiful to look at as well as loving and caring to be around and the sex scenes between Tegan and his love, Ana, were titillating. This short story left this reader wanting more, which should be the goal of any good writer. Twombly answered most questions poised in the short story, but left one important detail - well, important to this reader, at least - unanswered. This reader intends to follow this series and hopes that one question will eventually be answered in Ashley's story, so highly recommends this planned series. ** Review originally posted to Amazon reviews on July 8, 2016. **
