One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Paranormal Romance; Alternate Universe; Futuristic
Series: Psy/Changling, Book 10
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 432 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle


He wants her. There's no use lying to himself about that. Hawke aches to possess her with a single-minded intensity that has his wolf starving for the most intimate of skin privileges. But he's not going to take her. He's a mature wolf changling, alpha of SnowDancer, and significantly older than she is. But damn, he wants her.

PsyNet defector and cardinal X-Psy Sienna Lauren is an adult in the pack, and given her past, she's older than her years. She is the ultimate weapon, one that requires unimaginable discipline, and it makes her crazy that the one man she wants, Hawke, refuses to see her as anything but the child she was never allowed to be.

As attacks by an aggressive faction of Psy known as Pure Psy are leveled against SnowDancer and the winds of a burgeoning war start to blow in their direction, Hawke's focus is torn between his pack and his desire for the one woman he refuses to take. His resolve is legendary, but even he has to see that a woman who can fight for her pack, risk her life for them, is old enough to decide who she lets into her bed.

She has to do something to show the stubborn wolf she is more than the child he sees. Even if it endangers the woman she's become.


I can't tell you how many times I've highly anticipated a book in series only to have that book disappoint in some way or another. You'd think I'd know better than to ever let myself feel that anticipation, but it's a lesson I seem to need to keep learning. Or maybe it's books like this, those rare awesome books that are highly anticipated...and manage to deliver for me on every front...that keep anticipation burning.

Don't know. Don't care, either, at the moment. I'm too busy being thrilled with this book.

Obviously, as I'm still reading this series at the tenth book, both the series and the author are favorites of mine. Some of the books in this series have been more beloved than others, and I do slightly prefer Singh's Guild Hunter series to the Psy/Changling series, but both are two of my favorite ongoing series and I highly recommend both for fans of well-written and imaginative paranormal romance/urban fantasy romance.

I loved everything about this book. The complexity of the plot and the myriad of plot threads that Singh wove together throughout the story were impressive. There's so much that goes on, and so many characters involved in so much of it, with a rock-solid foundation built by every one of the preceding books, that I would definitely not recommend a reader new to the series start here.

It could be done, Singh has a gift for condensing necessary exposition and fitting it in well with current developments, but so much of the emotional impact would be lost that it just shouldn't be.

I adored the relationship arc and character developments for Hawke and Sienna in this book. It wasn't what I would call a traditional romance, really, and that's what I love about Singh. She has such a gift for creating stories that fit perfectly with the characters featured in it. Hawke and Sienna have known each other for a while, have battled and locked horns, have struggled against their attraction for years, so the relationship between them is in a completely different place and needed completely different things than, say, Judd and Brenna did in their book.

The pack, the past, who they are, what they're responsible for, what they can do, the issues each have with how they feel, the threat of the Psy, all of that plays a significant role in each character's definition and development, not to mention on their romance. It was frustrating at times (very frustrating at times). It was enlightening at others. There were moments that made me mad and moments that made me laugh. Sometimes it just flat-out broke my heart. For me, though, all the sublimely well-crafted pieces that factored into their personalities and into every moment of their relationship arc worked...perfectly. I loved every second of it.

I was also very much in love with the secondary romance between pack healer Lara and Walker, Sienna's uncle. Where the relationship between Hawke and Sienna was rocky, fiery, raging with emotion, and practically shouting its passion and angst, hurt and strength, stubbornness and pride, Lara and Walker's relationship balanced that with its quiet implacability, its soft moments and tender touches. The frustrations were more internal, the feelings more subdued. That relationship created such a wonderful counterpoint to Hawke and Sienna's point that I can't imagine what the book would have been like without it.

By no means is this book, or any of the books in this series, focused solely on the romance, though. This one definitely provided some forward progression on the Pure Psy threat and the continuing degeneration of the Council and the PsyNet. There are so many, many balls up in the air in this series that a single book can't really touch on every plot point without being six hundred pages long, but there were certainly a lot covered here. Singh manages to keep me guessing on some things, keep me horrified about others, and still manages to introduce new story elements all the time.

Honestly, I don't know how she does it. I don't know how this series, even at the tenth book, feels just as fresh, just as original, just as intriguing and compelling and a thousand times as complex as it did in the beginning. I open a Psy/Changling book and feel like I'm visiting old, beloved friends who I care about very much...even if I wouldn't want to catch a meal with them. In particular, I want to thank Singh for the gift of seeing Lucas and Sasha's newest development meet the world.

I'm so incredibly invested in this series. To me that's the mark of a series that is a step above, one that has just that little extra that makes it stand out among a huge crowd. This, its tenth installment, is perhaps the best of them for me. It certainly did not disappoint.

Quotables:

"Do you really think I'd let you go that easily?"
An implacable glance from eyes that were suddenly decades older than him. "I'm not yours to let go."

"Walker doesn't glare...He just looks at you until you obey."

"You're in my every breath and every thought, intertwined so deep inside me that love's not a strong enough word - you have my devotion, your name branded on my soul, my wolf yours to command. A hundred years? It'll never be enough. I want eternity."

Genre: Fantasy Romance
Series: Royal House of Shadows, Book 4
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Length: 264 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Harlequin via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




He was the youngest of the four royal children of Elden when the Blood Sorcerer conquered his kingdom and slaughtered his parents. Prince Micah had been saved along with his siblings by the powerful spells the king and queen cast with their last breaths. Saved, but thrust far from his homeland, no memory of who he is or what was done to him almost twenty years ago.

He knows only that he is Lord of the Black Castle, Guardian of the Abyss, powerful in both form and magic. He hunts the souls of evildoers, casting them into the Abyss beneath his castle to suffer unending torture for their sins. He is darkness, feared by all and alone in his reign.

Then a homely young woman shows up in his castle, full of prickly attitude, daring to look at him and speak to him as no one ever has. It perplexes and intrigues him.

Liliana has secrets she's keeping from the imposing master of the castle, and time is running out. She has risked everything to find Micah. Now she's got to stir the memory of a prince who has no recollection of his past, no knowledge that her own father killed his parents, destroyed his homeland. And she can't ever let him know that she is truly her father's daughter, a blood sorcerer like him.

The horrors that her father visited on her as she was growing up are unspeakable, but they forged in Liliana a fiery determination to end his existence. She will do whatever it takes to bring Micah back to himself, get him to Elden. Only then will her father's brutal reign end and the four royal siblings be able to reclaim their heritage and heal their land.

And Liliana understands and accepts all the impending sacrifices that will be required of her to assure it.


The Royal House of Shadows series has had highs and lows for me, but overall, I ended up liking the concept of the series more than the books included in it. Until this one, anyway. I waited a long time to read this, despite Nalini Singh being one of my favorite authors. I just wasn't convinced even her considerable skill would deliver on what would have to be, by design, the most important book of the entire set.

Yeah...about that... My bad.

I loved the story of Micah and Liliana. Loved it. And I loved them. Singh kept the storyline relatively simple, focusing on the main characters and their evolving relationship, with a few threats from the Blood Sorcerer thrown in for good measure, including a few scenes of Liliana's past that were...suitably horrifying.

That simplicity served the tale well, giving Micah and Liliana a chance to spend quality time together. There were tons of priceless moments between them and I loved every one. Unburdened by much in the way of secondary characters, the relationship the two of them forge while awakening Micah's memory and falling for each other was fabulous for me.

Micah is an oddly innocent man-child in ways, one that's also scarily powerful and commanding, comfortable in his role as Guardian but oblivious in interpersonal niceties. He lives a very black-and-white existence that I found compelling. Liliana is resolute and self-sacrificing, but also surprisingly strong and delightfully impertinent when dealing with the growly Micah. I loved that she is a homely young woman, and I loved that Micah thought she was beautiful.

I stopped caring how these books fit into the series a couple of books ago, but still enjoyed the closer connection to those story elements. The familial connection between Liliana and her father, rotted and corrupted as it was, made this book seem more relevant to the quest to defeat him.

Maybe that's why the climax of this story was such a disappointment to me. For all that I loved Micah and his Lily, the great battle between the siblings and the sorcerer that has been building through four different tales was utterly anticlimactic and abrupt. Maybe it had to be. Maybe the nature of four books by four different authors demanded that it be so. I had hoped otherwise and was disappointed.

It was, though, my only disappointment in this particular story. The romance between Lily and Micah and the whole of their tale up until its climax was a thrilling and satisfying read in every way. This book includes a second story by Singh, Desert Warrior, originally released back in 2003. That story was not to my personal taste in any way and I skimmed through most of it. My dislike of it, however, did not impact my appreciation for Lord of the Abyss, and my rating is for that first story only.

Genre: Paranormal Romance; Alternate Universe; Futuristic
Series: Psy/Changeling, Book 9
Rating: 3 Stars
Length: 356 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle


Tensions between the Psy and the changeling have never been higher as Silence continues to fracture and the insidious Pure Psy movement grows. The SnowDancer pack and their allies DarkRiver are bracing for increased hostilities and surprise attacks. It's definitely not a good time for hormones to be raging out of control, especially if you're a dominant female wolf and one of the pack alpha's most trusted lieutenants.

Indigo Riviere doesn't have time to play around with pack flirt and charmer, Drew Kincaid. He's declared his interest in her but he pushed too far and is too obviously looking to work off some stress in the naked and sweaty way. Problem is, he's younger than her, also dominant, and his position in the pack is...complicated. It's confusing her wolf. Hell, it's confusing her, too. She doesn't want to lose his friendship, there's no doubt he stirs her blood, but Indigo may just be too dominant to ever accept him.

Andrew Kincaid has bled for his pack and he's killed for them. His job demands it. He deals with the dark weight of responsibility by smiling, flirting, and having a good time. It's a coping mechanism, and it has its own purposes, but it doesn't for one minute mean he's the harmless young rogue Indy thinks he is. Drew is a dominant wolf who knows exactly who his mate is and he will use every bit of charm at his considerable disposal to convince the stubborn woman, no matter how long it takes. Indigo is his, and not even she can say otherwise.


Let me just get this out of the way before I go any further: Singh is one of my favorite authors, both her Psy/Changeling and Guild Hunter series are two of my favorite series, and I love how she writes. I need to say that first because I this book didn't really work for me, and within the parameters of the series, it was a little disappointing. I'm not saying I think it's a bad book. In any other series by any other author, I probably would've liked it just fine, but in this series the bar has been long-since set extremely high, and this one didn't reach it for me.

First, the characters. I was a little surprised at how flat and two dimensional both Indigo and Drew seemed to me. That's nothing near normal in this series. Hell, even the characters I haven't liked since the series started have gotten more fleshed out than these two. Their relationship evolution, as well as the requisite conflicts between them, also seemed limited and lacking depth.

She's a dominant; so is he. She's older than he is, and his pack position isn't quite clear in the hierarchy of SnowDancer. That's the whole of the relationship conflict that gets hashed out throughout the romance arc of the book. Oh, and he's charming and she's stubborn.

There's something wrong when I can sum up both Singh's main characters and their relationship conflict in a couple of sentences. And this is something I never thought I'd say, but I was a little bored by the will they/won't they mating dance. It was just too limited to really seem like a question with consequences.

On the other hand, the "they will" moments were chock full of lusty good times and smoking hot sex scenes!

There were plot threads that could have added some depth or insight into the characters, but they were dropped or lacked development. Drew speaks with Indigo's mother and she mentions he needs to meet Indigo's sister and someone else that she keeps nameless for a time. I got the impression that meeting these two were supposed to give Drew insight into Indigo's personality. He never met the sister, and I think the nameless one was supposed to be Indigo's aunt Aida, but when he did meet her, nothing was mentioned that hearkened back to that conversation between Drew and Tarah, so I wasn't sure.

Another problem for me with this book was the limited page time the characters were given for their relationship to evolve. Between the shifting focus in the narrative from plotlines that encapsulated the pack's issues and the Psy Council antics, neither of which were particularly cohesive, nor furthered the series storyline arc in any significant manner, the whole book felt jumpy and jerky and a little disorganized to me. It also seemed largely inconsequential to the series big picture.

It did, though, serve as a very nice prologue to set up what I can only guess is going to be a cataclysm of storytelling in the next book. Hawke's book. Sienna's book. The one I've been waiting for since the series started. The tension between those two has been ratcheting up, over, and off the charts for several books now and I can't wait to see how it all plays out. But not at the expense of this one, and that's exactly how I felt about this book at the end. That it was little more than cannon fodder for the next.

But I stand by my opening comment. Singh's a favorite. So is this series. While Play of Passion may not have lit my fires, there's just been too many fantastic reads so far to get upset about it. Every series has its transition books, books that seem more to change the series direction than further the established series arc, and maybe that's exactly what this book was intended to do. It would've been a great book in any other series or world. Just wasn't quite enough to make me happy in this one.

Genre: Paranormal Romance; Alternate Universe; Futuristic
Series: Psy/Changeling, Book 8
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Length: 348 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle



Thrilled by Bonds - Series Still Going Strong

Psy Councilor Nikita Duncan is having a bit of trouble keeping good help lately. Her top advisors seem to keep popping up dead. A car accident here, a suicide there...nothing suspicious, really. Unless you happen to be one of the most suspicious people on the planet with more than a handful of utterly deadly enemies. Of course, if you're Nikita Duncan and you have suspicions, you can command instant resources to figure out who is targeting you and your empire, even if getting those resources means pulling top Enforcement agent Max Shannon, a human with a natural shield against the Psy, and Sophia Russo, a Justice Psy on the edge of needing complete rehabilitation, off the complex multiple homicide case they'd both been assigned.

Max Shannon is not a fan of the Psy. He hates them rather a lot, in fact. So being pulled off a case he's been working for years to provide a little hand holding and a little case solving for a Psy Councilor doesn't sit at all well with him. Not that he has a choice. The enticing Sophia Russo, however, may be the one exception to his anti-Psy rule. She's a J Psy who doesn't seem as Psy to him as others he's known, and he's drawn to her in ways that defy explanation. Max has every intention of getting her used to his touch...as soon as she acknowledges the fire kindling between them.

Her abilities are deadly. Her secrets legion. Her death imminent. Sophia Russo has always known her expiration date is looming, her mind rising up against her as her shields slowly shred. A J's job forces him or her to take the memories of the vilest evil and vicious crime from the minds of monsters. Those memories act as toxic waste on Sophia's psyche and she's at her limit. Silence is already beyond her, even though she goes in for reconditioning regularly - full mental collapse isn't far behind.

Then there's Max. He touches her in ways she couldn't have possibly imagined. He stirs her. Makes her feel alive. Compared to that miracle, being targeted by a psychopath is nothing. Stopping a series of politically motivated murders are a cinch. Loving a man, loving that man...and being loved in return...is an exquisite gift - with an inescapable...and terminal...price tag.


By now, eight books into this complex, imaginative, passionate series, nothing surprises me about Singh's talent. Amazes, yes; surprises, no. Still a fresh story, still an evolving and expanding world, yet this book, like all the others, contains delicious threads of continuity in character and series plot that locks it firmly in place alongside its predecessors. I love this series.

I'm especially pleased to say that after a slight disappointment in the previous book, Bonds of Justice came roaring back strong. I enjoyed the external plot conflict that brought a traditional - relatively speaking - mystery thread to the fore, offering a romantic suspense feel to this installment of the series. It was a unique element that fit well with cop Max's and J Psy Sophia's characters. Not only that, but it set up a solid foundation for Max and Sophia's relationship, connecting them on several layers both personal and professional.

They fit well together, and for the first time in the last couple of books, I thoroughly enjoyed both the male and female as leads. Max was fairly typical for the series - alpha male type, passionate and protective. His character was contained nicely, though, and his humanity didn't tread too close to the shifters' fierce animalism, an issue I had with Dev in his book. Sophie was also strong, even as she dealt with the fallout of her fracturing shields. I never got the sense of helpless victim from her as I have some of the other Psy females. She was a weapon in her own right and used her abilities in a way that kept her character swathed in shades of gray - something that always appeals to me.

There are really only one or two things that bugged me a little while I was reading, one of which is an issue I've had with this series since the earliest installments. Too much time in the narrative of the books that feature Psy as one of the romantic leads is devoted to the crises of their impending doom. In all fairness, that's where all the emotional intensity of those books comes from, but it keeps the relationship evolution feeling fairly two dimensional. Each romance starts fast, burns hot, and gets intensely physical - which is great, don't get me wrong. I'm all about the hot and intensely physical. I would just like to see a little more attention and story diversity given to the characters' relationship development beyond the want-take-have stages.

The irony is that we do see glimmers of that in each book for a romantic couple - but it's the couple that was introduced in the first book, Sasha and Lucas. I love seeing their relationship stretch, evolve, deepen and intensify, and seeing them work together is fantastic. Their continuing story line is invaluable to the series. I just don't understand why the featured couple's books can't include something similar.

Regardless, I'm fully invested in this series and thirsty to find out what comes next for the Psy, changeling, and humans. That's the most impressive thing for me, actually. I often get bored with long series. They tend to get stale and their books can start to seem regurgitated after a while. I could name several that I never read beyond book five because I just lost interest. Yet here I am, done with the eighth book of the Psy/Changeling series, and I'm still having to force myself to wait before grabbing the next. I'm anxious for it, but determined to savor the journey through the series, and I don't want to catch up to the newest release too quickly. A series that keeps me that interested must be doing something very, very right.


Psy/Changeling Series:

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Genre: Urban Fantasy Romance
Series: Guild Hunter, Book 4
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 348 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle



Dark, Seductive, and Powerfully Emotional

He is not a good man. At nearly a millennium in age, the vampire Dmitri is not a man at all, but a cold and conscienceless killer who lost his soul long ago and who now walks a razor's edge between being the sharpest weapon for the Archangel Raphael...and being a monster. And the sanguine seduction of the monster grows ever stronger.

More than capable of controlling Raphael's New York City territory for the Archangel in his absence, he places a call to the hunter's Guild when the decapitated head of a very new vampire is plucked from the Hudson. The vampire isn't one of Raphael's and the tattooed markings on the face look vaguely like a language of some sort. One that Dmitri doesn't recognize. Requesting assistance from the Guild is only logical given their resources.

The first scent of acrid fear and gritty determination he catches from Guild hunter Honor St. Nicholas, however, punches through his logic and rakes talons along his predatory need for blood and sex. The instant want of her is manageable, barely, and the seductive games he intends to play with her are those that he has honed over the centuries. Except Honor is damaged. Traumatized after two months of vampire-inflicted brutality that smacks hard against every single one of Dmitri's very few lines. She is unable to accept even the most casual of touches from him without an instant fear response that has him dodging her blades.

The rage that erupts in him like a volcano of furious reckoning at the knowledge that the torturing rapists still live is eclipsed only by a cold and deadly certainty that they will not be doing so for long. He is a monster unleashed and he is the thing that other monsters fear.

Honor's damaged soul stirs him in fascinating ways, disturbing ways, as they work together to solve the mystery of the too-young vampire deaths and investigate the grievous crime perpetrated against her. Memories long, long buried are like echoing footsteps along the path they follow towards not one, but two of the world's worst evildoers. They are awakening parts of Dmitri's soul he'd thought excised by the brutal selfishness of a master predator dead for centuries. Those memories may draw him back from the edge of true madness or they may just hasten his descent into blood and death. And much to Dmitri's surprise, he realizes that it is one human woman who will tip the balance either way...either by loving him...or betraying a past she couldn't possibly know.


I have to admit, not even my love for Singh's writing was enough to make me rush to read this latest addition to my beloved Guild Hunter series. I was aware that there would be a reincarnation theme in the plot and I am not in any way a fan of that theme. I haven't read one yet that didn't, to varying degrees, seem to devalue the current life of the character who is or has a reincarnated soul. In the worst cases, the disregard of a character's present individuality has also been an issue. For that reason I try to avoid the theme.

Avoiding Singh, however, is an impossibility. I just dig her work too much. But I admit, I delayed.

And I also admit, for almost all of the book I was kicking myself for that delay, because I was both pleasantly surprised and more than a little elated at how deft and crafty Singh was in addressing and dealing with that theme. It wasn't until the very end that I felt the familiar twinges of dislike and it was only related to one scene. I can live with that...though I do wish that one scene had been different. The power of the writing and the almost effortless emotional firestorm the book generates made up for it, though. I love Singh's characters and the keenly brilliant world she's created for them.

I'm probably one of the minority who has never particularly liked Dmitri. I haven't since his unrelenting negativity about Elena became common knowledge. That being said, I don't have to like a character to love a character, and both Dmitri's complexity and the dangerous line he walks between monster and man has held me enthralled on a visceral intellectual level. In short, he's fascinating, and I have nothing but admiration for how Singh so masterfully maintained his utter lack of humanity even as she was crafting his very sympathetic history.

The chemistry between Dmitri and Honor burned at the fingers holding my Kindle as I was reading and I thoroughly admired Honor's strength in the face of abominable defilement. She was sharp, bright, and had a core of decency that soothed the sharp edges of Dmitri's almost sociopathic nature...until the story served to blunt much of that sociopathy and Dmitri's darkness started to wane just a touch. I enjoyed them together very much, even though I felt a lack of the dark humor that so charmed me in the relationship evolution between Raphael and Elena.

This may sound odd, but I don't really read either of Singh's highly popular series for the story being told so much as for the characters and the depth of emotion found in every one of her books. I do, obviously, still pay attention to those stories. Some appeal to me more than others. This one fell about middle ground for me. I found it more cohesive and less strained than the previous book in the series, Archangel's Consort, but not as thorough and well-developed as the second book, Archangel's Kiss.

Flashbacks were handled well, and the plot thread concerning the search for the monsters responsible for Honor's torture - as well as her slow and painful recovery - was very well done, though I thought it ended on a slightly anticlimactic note. I also felt the plot thread dealing with the dead newbie vamps and all subsequent issues took on a too-ancillary role and wasn't a significant factor in the book until too close to the end to have much impact. The timing of that particular crisis, as well, at a time when Honor was perfectly situated to come into the picture in Dmitri's life, raised my eyebrow a bit. I couldn't help but feel that after nearly ten centuries to stew, Kallistos' actions were awfully convenient in stirring up Dmitri's past. That sort of convenience made that plotline feel contrived to me.

Despite the plot of the book not being completely successful for me and my dislike of the reincarnation theme, I thoroughly enjoyed Archangel's Blade and consider it a solid addition to the series. And I didn't even like Dmitri all that much. I can only imagine how much fun I'm going to have with some of the characters I'm either truly fond of, like Bluebell, or utterly fascinated by, like Aodhan. I have no doubt there is going to be just as much truly spectacular reading entertainment to be had as the series progresses as there has been to date.


  

 

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Genre: Paranormal Romance; Alternate Universe; Futuristic
Series: Psy/Changeling, Book 7
Rating: 3 Stars
Length: 400 Pages, 5483 Locations
Formats: Paperback, Kindle






Blaze Didn't Quite Reach Full Conflagration

She was dumped at his doorstep like so much garbage after having been nearly tortured and starved to death. She has no memory of who she is, but Devraj Santos knows exactly what she is. She's Psy. That means one thing for the leader of the Shine Foundation: she's the enemy. For the man, though, it means something far different. She is his.

Deeply traumatized by the brutality inflicted on her by her captor, Psy scientist Ekaterina is dead. Her heart still beats, her mind still works...mostly, but she is not who she once was. She knows she's dangerous, knows that the Psy counselor Ming did heinous things to her, but she doesn't remember exactly what those things are. All she knows with any measure of certainty is that who she was is dead. Now she's Katya. And she's deeply concerned that the longer she remains both patient and captive of the enigmatic and dual-natured Dev Santos, the larger a threat she poses to him and his people, the Forgotten.

Dev's not stupid. He doesn't doubt Katya is a perfect Trojan horse. There is no other explanation that makes sense. And the Forgotten have to be too careful to risk letting the Psy female know any valuable intel. She may not know she's a weapon, but she's the most deadly sort there is, because the longer Dev is responsible for her, the more resolute he becomes about keeping her, despite knowing that the deadly sleeper agent Katya has become will be prodded into awakening and making her move. To kill him.

Gah, I hate to say this, but Blaze of Memory is my least favorite of the first seven books in the Psy/Changeling series. It wasn't an issue of liking the characters. I liked Dev and Katya just fine. They struck me as pretty standard lead characters for the series, nothing exceptional that made them stand out like some of my favs, but nothing annoying that detracted, either.

My problems with the book weren't the characters. It was pretty much everything else.

I'm a huge fan of this series and of Singh's writing style. She writes some of the most emotionally powerful and complex paranormal romance out there today. Her Psy/Changeling world is rich, vibrant, and darkly realistic given the futuristic timeline and alternate earth history. Her plots in this series have been nicely layered and full of depth. Such was the case in this book. But for the first time I felt the layers didn't slide together as seamlessly as I'm used to from previous books.

The romance plot thread seemed oddly stunted, maybe because of Katya's amnesia, maybe Dev's reticence, but for whatever reason, I didn't quite buy into the depth of emotion that was supposed to exist between them at the end of the book, and their storyline seemed overburdened by the threat of what was done to Katya. The risk she posed got a bit belabored and, as it was the main conflict in the relationship, it limited the depth of that plot line.

By this seventh book, I was hoping for more series arc progression, or some resolution on a few of the secondary and ancillary threads. Instead, this book gave some fresh insight into the original break between the Psy and the Forgotten and continued to add development to the Psy Council threads. What was suspect to me was the odd lack of setup for Katya's torture and the disregard Ming seemed to have for both his "weapon" and the agenda he had for her once he'd had her dropped at Dev's. That never tracked for me given what a precise tactician Ming is. We also got a few more scenes with the notorious Psy rebel, Ghost, various Council machinations, and instead of anything being drawn to conclusion, new threads were added.

In previous books the various threads wove together to add weight and significance to the romantic plotline, but I didn't get that in this one. Instead, all the secondary and ancillary plot points seemed forced, crammed into the book between scenes with Dev and Katya, pulling attention away from them. And instead of fitting together tightly or transitioning seamlessly, it was like looking at a jagged jigsaw puzzle where none of the pieces quite met.

The strength and quality of a series is certainly not predicated on one book. That's a good thing in the case of Blaze of Memory. And for the record, while I may not have liked this one as much as the others, we're still talking about Singh, here. She's one of the best in the genre. Even though this one didn't thrill me, it was still a complex read that added layers to the continuing struggle between the races. I wouldn't have wanted to miss it. I'm glad I didn't. I just hope the next one is a bit more cohesive, that it starts tying up one or two of the ancillary threads, and that the romantic relationship is given the same sort of depth and attention that we got from the best of the previous novels.

Genre: Paranormal Romance; Alternate Universe; Futuristic
Series: Psy/Changeling, Book 6
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 345 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle



Didn't Quite Reach Full Conflagration

DarkRiver sentinel Mercy Smith is the most dangerous women in her pack, a dominant predatory female leopard. As a dominant, her leopard is very picky in her choices, so even though Mercy's suffering from long months without the physical contact she needs, there just aren't any unmated males in her pack strong enough to serve those needs. To compound the problem, the only male in the general vicinity who stirs the juices of both her and her cat should be off limits for the very fact that he's not pack, not even cat. Riley Kincaid is an equally dominant...maybe even slightly more dominant...male wolf, SnowDancer lieutenant, and second in command to his pack alpha, Hawke.

Though her cat is ready to play with the big bad wolf, there is more than just the alliance between the DarkRiver cats and the SnowDancer wolves that is at stake. Riley is still deeply affected by his little sister Brenna's abduction and near death, and his past has chiseled him into a man who desires nothing more than a changeling version of a fifties housewife for a mate...nineteen fifties. Mercy is well aware that possessive nature is going to lead her to a broken heart if she gets involved with Riley.

Unfortunately, Mercy's relationship angst doesn't put the bigger picture on hold. The changelings are engaged in a quiet but intense war with both the Human Alliance and Psy, though the Council has been suspiciously quiet for months. When a changeling youth is stolen from his family, Mercy and Riley are paired up to head the DarkRiver and SnowDancer task force investigating the kidnapping, as well as disturbing but seemingly unconnected deaths and random acts of violence perpetrated by several Psy. As the danger rises and the chips fall, relationship complications between two dominant predators will have to be the last on either of their minds...if they want to survive.

I'm a huge fan of Nalini Singh and love this series, and I liked this sixth installment, Branded by Fire. I needed to say that up front, because that being said, I wasn't as fond of this book as I've been of its predecessors. It's not that I didn't like Mercy. Quite the opposite, actually. I enjoy truly strong female lead characters, and Mercy is the embodiment of a strong female. She's confident in her skills, easy in her skin, and very self aware. I also liked and appreciated Singh defining the line between a dominant female member of a pack and a submissive, keeping well away from falling into a pit of equating submissive with being weak.

As for Riley, I took no issue with him either, at least not directly. The dominant wolf was a strong male lead, and I thought he was well matched for Mercy.

Where this book started to loose a little luster for me was in the development and evolution of the relationship between them. In every previous book, the lead characters have had a nice balance of personal development on both sides of the gender line. Each have issues they deal with as the relationship progresses. It's given each lead in the romances a very nice depth and complexity and added a nice robustness to their mutual storylines. That was missing for me in this book, as I felt the romance plot revolved around Mercy's dominance at the exclusion of balanced attention to Riley's character.

Also a little less cohesive were the threads of the Human Alliance and the Psy. I've always enjoyed how the machinations of the Council and the threads of revolution have been woven into the book, adding a consistent line of development that supports and progresses the non-relationship arc of the series. In this case, while interesting and revealing in spots, those aspects seemed a bit muddled and I was left feeling a bit confused as to the purpose of the Human Alliance plot in the big picture.

I can't express enough, though, just how much I'm enjoying this series, how much I love the depth, the layers of plot in each book, the attention to detail, the continuity, and the originality. Some of the previous books have been among my favorites in the whole of the paranormal romance genre. Branded by Fire isn't destined to be a favorite, but still, I liked it. Just not quite as much as the others.

Psy-Changelings Series (as read to-date):