One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Paranormal Romance; Futuristic; Alternate Universe
Series: Psy/Changeling, Book 2
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 352 Pages, 5024 Locations
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle



Powerful Romance In An Imaginative World

As a powerful F-Psy, Faith NightStar is worth billions to to the NightStar clan. She predicts the future with nearly perfect accuracy and is responsible for the business assets of thousands of Psy companies. The F-Psy, one of the rarest and most mentally fragile of the Psy designations, don't stay sane long and are doomed to loose their mind as early as middle age, but while they are productive they are pampered, sheltered, and monitored extensively...as any high dollar commodity would be.

Though far from middle age, Faith is afraid, and as a member of the emotionless race, that alone is enough to cause something akin to panic. Visions of darkness, evil malignancy, and murder have begun haunting her dreams, ripping her out of sleep with terrorized screams locked in her throat. When her biological sister is slain by the source of those visions, Faith is motivated to slip the gently-but-tightly-held bonds of her captivity and slide into the woods behind her heavily guarded home. She searches for a Psy called Sasha Duncan, a cardinal Psy who escaped from the PsyNet and is rumored to have survived. Hoping for answers, hoping for help, her mental shields in danger, Faith steps into a wild world and comes face to face with a jaguar changeling.

Vaugh D'Angelo, sentinel of the DarkRiver pack of leopards, is a solitary jaguar, but he is drawn to Faith as he's never been drawn to another. Recognizing her as his mate, the wildly passionate and nearly feral changeling is torn between his beast side, who wants to rollick with the fragile F-Psy and claim her as his own, and the man, who can plainly see that even the slightest physical contact threatens to shut down her psyche and cause permanent damage.

Faith will have to trust a jaguar and turn her back on everything she's ever been taught for even the first hope of a short lived happiness before madness claims her...either when her own mind turns traitor on her, or a killer stalks her and hunts her down. And all that stands between her and capture by her very financially motivated race is a jaguar with the ability and willingness to kill everyone who dares threaten her.

Singh continues to develop the imaginative, futuristic world of the Psy and the changelings in this second book in her series, and again entertains with a passionate and intense romance between two races so ill suited for each other on the surface, but so imperative to each other in every way that matters. I'm impressed with the originality and attention to detail Singh is in command of here. So often romance falls into formula, and paranormal romance too often follows familiar and worn ruts. Singh has changed the game entirely with this series, and offered a new and fresh vision and an exciting voice to the genre.

I wasn't as entranced with the romance between Faith and Vaughn as I was between Sasha and Lucas. Faith is far more firmly entrenched in the emotionless void of Silence than Sasha was at the beginning, and her frailty was a little off putting for me. I prefer strong heroines in my romance. Faith did evolve, and made some tough but necessary choices, and I did admire her intellect, but it took a while and I had some trouble warming up to her at first.

I enjoyed seeing the solitary Vaughn form such an unwavering bond to her, but he didn't have as much that made him unique to me as Lucas did. Of course, Lucas is pack alpha, I suppose I could cut Vaughn some slack, but knowing Singh's gift for character creation, and already having met some of the other changelings who do interest me quite a lot, I wouldn't have minded waiting a bit for Vaughn's story in lieu of one of the more intriguing options already presented.

What I did like about this book was the widening development of the world and a better understanding of both the Psy, the PsyNet, and the dangers threatening to destroy that race. The hubris and ego involved, the casual cruelty inherent, and the flickering glimpses of rebellion stirring in a dark but starry metasky were fascinating. Though the serial killer plotline felt much like a retread of the first book, with one or two small exceptions, overall the non-romance threads of the book proved more entertaining to me than the previous book, and was easier to wrap my mind around. And I loved the introduction to the NetMind and the glimpse of the Web of Stars.

This is a book with some hefty meat on its bones, and Singh has proven herself adept at divvying up hearty portions for happy readers. Beyond offering sizzling romance (and believe me, it is that - yowza!), there are also thought-provoking issues such as the definition of humanity, the connection between thought and emotion, and capacity for cruelty in the absence of empathy. Combined as they are, they add depth and dimension to the plot of the book, and are a big part of the originality and uniqueness of the series.

Singh is particularly adept at forming and fleshing out the world in tandem with developing the characters who inhabit it. I'm patient enough and captivated enough to settle back and enjoy her gift as the series progresses and look forward to an even greater understanding of a world that sometimes seems too antiseptic in some areas to really wrap my mind around. There is so much rich, fertile soil for development inherent in this series and in the characters, so many ways to go and things to explore. I'm looking forward to experiencing more.

Psy/Changeling Series:

   

Genre: Light/Comedic Romance
Series: N/A
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 379 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle


Footloose and free spirited Merry Olson didn't expect that the guardianship agreement she signed on a napkin a decade ago would ever result in her pulling up stakes in Minnesota and haring across the country to Oakburg, Virginia, but when the lawyer of her friend Charlie called and informed her of his sudden death, she had exactly one thought: to get to his daughter as soon as humanly possible and wrap her up in as much love as the eleven-year-old could stand. Not that the young, childless Merry had the first clue about raising children, but she'd been a girl of eleven once and she knew the pain of losing a parent at a young age, so she figured she could relate, and she was sure that all Charlene needed was understanding and love, sympathy for her tragic loss, and some girl bonding. And that's exactly what Merry was going to give her.

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for Merry to realize that she is completely out of her depth with the unnaturally reserved tomboy with the shaved head and over-sized clothes and who wants to be called Charlie, has no clue how to handle the soccer mom gig in an upper class suburbia so far outside of her ken as to resemble foreign soil, and is terrified by the legal mumbo jumbo related to the court appointed guardian ad litem who she's convinced will judge her unworthy to care for Charlene. Merry is way over her head and sinking fast. Thank goodness her neighbor Jack Mackinnon is such a hero. She doesn't know what she'd do without him.

The woman is a big fluffy female menace who gets lost trying to navigate her own driveway and is a danger to herself and everyone who knows her. It took Jack all of about five minutes to figure Merry out. Well, five minutes and the fully decorated pink Christmas tree...in the middle of January. Still, it's like his new neighbor is some mysterious vortex and he just keeps getting sucked in. Maybe it's because she's so darned pretty. Maybe it's because she's so obviously clueless but so determined to provide for his friend's daughter. Maybe it's just because Merry touches his heart in a way that he hadn't realized he'd needed his whole life. Whatever it is, he's captivated, and the longer she's in his life, the more he realizes he doesn't ever want her to get away.  Telling her that, though, may be a little harder than he'd ever dreamed.

Every once in a while I come across exactly the sort of book I most need at exactly the point I most needed it. Laid up with the flu for days, coughing up a lung (or two), feeling icky and ready to do just about anything to brighten my mood and take my mind off everything, I went looking for a light romantic comedy or a light contemporary romance. I was hoping for something on the empty-calorie side of brain candy. My sweets craving got more than satisfied by Blame it on Cupid.

I have to admit, as a longtime and proud tomboy myself, I related a little more with wounded Charlene (and I'd want to be called Charlie, too, regardless) than pink bunny slipper-wearing, petticure-loving, fluffy Merry, but there was something about the woman that drew me in. Flighty women like her usually annoy me pretty quick, but she was so big-hearted, so earnest in her care for Charlene, so dedicated to do as good a job as possible...and funny. Merry was funny. By the end I sort of adored her.

And then there was Jack. Sweet, clueless, hit-by-the-Merry-truck Jack. A bit of love 'em but don't love them sort at the start, a guy still feeling the sting of an ex-wife who cared more for her job than him so he doesn't get emotionally invested, he's also the guy that stomps across the yard in the snow, cursing Merry the whole way, only to shut the door she forgot to close, or the guy going over to the dark house to find out why the electricity isn't working despite having a date, or the one who is slipping into his jacket to go lend her a hand even as he's questioning his sons about why they think he'd do exactly that.

I loved him. I loved them together. And I flat-out adored how Greene developed their relationship among some other very valid and sometimes surprisingly deep plot points and threads. Issues such as the unique pain of losing a parent at a horrendously young age, gender identity, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, the heartache of first love, raising children in a modern age when sleepovers are coed, the often ravaging but sometimes subtle damage that divorce and parents' choices can have on impressionable children and teens, and several more very significant and relevant issues were all touched on to varying degrees. They added a surprising amount of depth and quite a bit of meat to a story that could have stuck with a more superficial but humorous romance and still been entertaining.

There was just so much I enjoyed about this book. Yeah, I had the flu, and I sure wasn't feeling at all good when I read it, but it kept me entertained through it all, and kept my mind off feeling cruddy. Call it chick lit, call it fluff, call it brain candy... I'll just call it a whole lotta fun when I needed fun the most.