Thursday, June 9, 2016

Really Short Reviews: Psy-Changeling #11-12

As you all know, I've have become hopelessly obsessed with Nalini Singh's books. I cannot begin to tell you how much I have come to love them but I can tell you that I have reread this series five times since I first marathoned it last June. See? I told you I've become obsessed.

The fifteenth book in the series is set to come out this month and in celebration of its release I've been reviewing two or three books in the series at a time. There's less than a week until Allegiance of Honor is out! I was lucky enough to get a copy of it for review and I've already read it! It was SO good! Since I don't have enough to say about each book to warrant a full review, I'm going to do Really Short Reviews of the series so far! Today, I'm reviewing the next two books! If you haven't started this series yet, you still have time to do so before the next book is out!



Tangle of Need
(Psy-Changeling #11)
Nalini Singh
Release: May 29, 2012
Discover the exhilarating risks of passion in the breathtaking new Psy-Changeling novel by Nalini Singh, the New York Times bestselling “alpha author of paranormal romance” (Booklist)…

Adria, wolf changeling and resilient soldier, has made a break with the past—one as unpredictable in love as it was in war. Now comes a new territory, and a devastating new complication: Riaz, a SnowDancer lieutenant already sworn to a desperate woman who belongs to another.

For Riaz, the primal attraction he feels for Adria is a staggering betrayal. For Adria, his dangerous lone-wolf appeal is beyond sexual. It consumes her. It terrifies her. It threatens to undermine everything she has built of her new life. But fighting their wild compulsion toward one another proves a losing battle.

Their coming together is an inferno…and a melding of two wounded souls who promise each other no commitment, no ties, no bonds. Only pleasure. Too late, they realize that they have more to lose than they ever imagined. Drawn into a cataclysmic Psy war that may alter the fate of the world itself, they must make a decision that might just break them both.
Review by Rose Red:

I liked this addition to the Psy-Changeling series a lot more than I thought I would after I read the first couple chapters. It definitely feels like a transitional book. The two main characters only get page time for about half the story with the rest of the world and a previous couple taking up the rest. In a lot of ways, I liked that but I also wished we could have got more time with Adria and Riaz than we did.

We first met both Riaz and Adria in Play of Passion. Riaz had just come back from lone wolfing it in Europe where he had found his mate who is devastatingly already married and in love with her husband so there's not a chance for them to be together. Adria, Indigo's aunt, was in a toxic relationship that has nearly destroyed her sense of self. There's a lot of want and desire between them from page one but that desire is something neither of them is sure they want. That choice is something they have to figure out soon because they can't seem to stay away from each other.

The romance here ended up being better than I was expecting. Honestly, I didn't like how the interactions between
Riaz and Adria at first so I wasn't invested in them. In fact, I thought Adria could do better because Riaz was being a bastard. When he finally got his head together, things started to look up. I liked their relationship after that. It was slow-growing but that was more because the book wasn't really focused on them. 

It didn't take long until I absolutely adored both Riaz, with his strength and warmth, and Adria, with her quick mind and warm heart. What I immediately noticed, even as I worried about the resolution, was that their relationship was going to be unlike any other we've seen in the series. There were real challenges that really increased the odds of Riaz and Adria's love not working out. Nalini Singh resolved these conflicts in a believable way that didn't feel cheap and made me believe in their love even more. In fact, these challenges to their relationship is one of the reasons that I really love them together. It goes against that soulmate destiny/mating bond stuff that is so prevalent in the previous books. It was nice to see that other sorts of relationships occur in this world.

This book is also an excellent example of how Nalini Singh is a master of weaving together multiple plots and threads throughout each book and the entire series. We get to see a whole lot of our favorite characters from previous books without them feeling like filler. Actually, a good chunk of this book revolves around Hawke and Sienna who are finally settling into being mated after all of the events of the last book. It was wonderful to see more of their story and how they're making it work. Honestly, their parts were my favorite. Sorry, Adria and Riaz! Additionally, we see a lot of Kaleb (who I am just fascinated with), Judd, Mercy, Riley, and many others. 


Tangle of Need was a book that just made me plain happy. I spent nearly the entire book grinning like a fool and giggling to myself. Gah! I just love this series so much!
  1/2
  4.5 / 5 Stars!



Heart of Obsidian
(Psy-Changeling #12)
Nalini Singh
Release: June 4, 2013
Step into New York Times bestseller Nalini Singh’s explosive and shockingly passionate Psy-Changeling world…

A dangerous, volatile rebel, hands stained bloodred.
A woman whose very existence has been erased.
A love story so dark, it may shatter the world itself.
A deadly price that must be paid.
The day of reckoning is here.

From “the alpha author of paranormal romance” (Booklist) comes the most highly anticipated novel of her career—one that blurs the line between madness and genius, between subjugation and liberation, between the living and the dead.
Review by Rose Red:

So... I'll admit that I didn't know much about this series before I started it last year. Actually, the only thing I really knew about it came from Vampire Book Club's Alpha Showdown and it was just that everyone really loved Kaleb. So I had high expectations for this book and they were definitely met!

Heart of Obsidian is Kaleb Krycheck's story. Yes! We finally get to learn more about the enigmatic Councillor! From the beginning, we know that Kaleb is not good. In fact, we have no idea how not good he is. No one becomes a member of the Psy Council at so young an age without being ruthless and Kaleb is considered to be one of the most ruthless and Silent of all the Psy. Not to mention, his past has been found to have ties directly to Enrique Santano, the evil serial killer Snowdancer and Darkriver were hunting in book one. Because of this, there are a lot of questions about his character and whether he has followed in his mentor's footsteps.

Turns out Kaleb has a big secret. For the last seven years he's been looking for someone and he's finally found her. I never expected his secret to be Sahara. She has been held captive in a tiny cell this whole time and can't remember much about her life prior to her imprisonment. She and Kaleb obviously have a past and the book slowly unravels their history and their relationship to each other while building on their current chemistry and attraction. As it turns out, Kaleb is not so Silent after all.

If the last book focused more on the world than on the characters, this book is the exact opposite. Everything that didn't directly involve the relationship between Kaleb and Sahara seemed like background noise. I'm a big fan of romance books in general but one thing I love about Nalini Singh's books are the amazing relationships she writes. Each one is unique and heartfelt and they feel real. That is very much in evidence in this book. Kaleb and Sahara's relationship is so beautiful! They save each other, but in different ways.

Romance isn't the only thing going on in Heart of Obsidian though. This is the book where everything that's been brewing in the previous eleven books is coming to a head. The ending of this book foreshadows a lot of change to come because the PsyNet is broken and it's going to take a lot to fix it. As far as I'm concerned, Nalini Singh can keep writing this series forever. I don't think I'll ever get tired of it and this book is proof that there is still a lot of story left to tell.

Random Note: This book and the next two are the most highest rated books in the series on Amazon with a rating of 4.8/5 Stars each! That tells you how amazing these next books are! Personally, they're my favorites out of the whole series!
  1/2
  4.5 / 5 Stars!

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