Blaze of Memory: Psy-Changeling Series, Book 7

After reading some of the negative reviews about his book, I was apprehensive about this title, but I'm committed to the series, and so there was no way around reading it. I'm glad I did read it, because I really enjoyed it.

In the psy changling world, there are three main "races": the psy, the changlings, and humans. The author has pair them up in several combinations, and granted, some work better than others. However, I enjoyed the combination of a female who has spent her life inside the psy net, free of emotion, while the hero has spent his life as part of a group of outsiders who can feel emotions.

For those of you following the series closely, this book gives a first person account (in the form of a mother's journal written for her son) of how silence came to be among the psy, and how a group of those who opposed silence broke away and formed their own enclaves, later assimilating with the human and changeling populations, passing an altered version of their psy genetics down through the generations. In "real time" many of the recipients of these genes aren't even aware that they carry them.

The hero, Dev, is the leader of the Shine foundation, whose objective is to track down children with psy DNA and teach them how to handle their gifts. Consequently, we learn more about some of the special children in this book, and that's a big bonus.

I really felt the relationship between Dev and Katya. I felt his struggle between doing the "right thing" and doing what his heart was telling him to do. I felt the horror of Katya's experiences with Ming, I felt Dev's guilt over holding Katya prisoner, but I could also understand his reasons for doing so (Katya, incidentally, understood why he did it as well). If anything, the conflict that threatened to keep the two lovers apart was more believable in this book than it was in most of the previous books.

If I have one complaint, it is the same as other reviewers have mentioned: the author didn't expand on Dev's power with metal. I thought that was going somewhere, or perhaps would show up in a final showdown, but no such luck. I will reserve judgement on that though, because there are still more books in the series that I haven't read, and perhaps we will see more of it then.

The narrator did a great job with the material. I enjoyed her interpretation of the work very much. She has read the whole series thus far, and I like the continuity. Her voice is like that of an old friends by now, and at this point I don't think another reader could do it justice.

This book had all the usual ingredients for greatness and lived up to it!

The main characters were perfect and evolving as a they should.

No real favorites in this book. I still enjoy Sasha overall of the series.

Previous reviews lead me to believe that this book was unworthy. But it was a bad review. I am glad I did not believe it.

This is the best of the first 7 books. So romantic and interesting. Ms Dawe does an amazing job as a narrator. Loved it!

More likeable main characters would have made this book perfect. Also, I couldn't understand the whole premise around the metal magic. It seemed to come out of the blue and was not fully integrated or explained in the storyline.

No. I really love the Psy-Changeling world in this series. The 6 books prior to this one were amazing! So I'll continue to read the rest of the books in hopes that this was just a really terrible one off.

Angela Dawe does a great job with the reading in all the books. I'd have to say that her perfomance of Mercy is my favorite even though she's not a lead in this book.

I would have cut out all the scenes with Dev & Katiya. Which is sad since they are the mains in this book. I wanted to skip to the next book in the series within the first hour. But I powered through it anyway because I didn't want to miss any of the background story that is central to the Psy-Changeling world.

I felt Dev was a total jerk and crossed that thin line between being possessive and an obsessive kidnapping creeper. Katiya was too submissive of a female lead for me. I found myself rolling my eyes throughout the entire book during their various scenes. Because of this it was impossible for me to draw any kind of emotional connection to them or the book. In my opinion, the only thing that saved this book is the ongoing background drama that carried over from the previous books in the series.

I have been highly entertained by this series from the beginning, but this particular book just fell flat. The hook in the series is the emotional interactions between the changlings and the psy , but here we have two psy -- a "forgotten" and a damaged "silence" psy -- and the combination just wasn't that interesting. Yes, he's beautiful and she is gorgeous and damaged and needs his protection. The sex, of course, is incredible. Yawn.

The female character should have had to battle a lifetime of repressed emotions, so maybe I missed the part where she emerged from the conditioning (I did tend to drift from boredom) but it all seemed reversed somehow. He was raised with his emotions in tact, yet he was the one who was repressed. She, on the other hand, was overtly emotive which was, for me, totally out of character. It was very confusing and ultimately not that interesting.

There was a lot of foreshadowing throughout, but it never amounted to anything. I had expected more from his affinity to metal -- but very little actually happened. I also hoped the grandmother character would be given something interesting to do, but it also didn't happen. The plot was resolved in an unexpected manner, but what should have been an emotional payoff just didn't build. He knows several M-psy, but when she becomes ill, he doesn't call them. They finally show up to "say goodbye" to her, but are never used to help her. Very odd.

Ultimately, after all the repetitive earth shattering sex scenes, and constant crossed wires and super secret double crosses followed by more mind blowing sex, I felt I'd been on one roller coaster ride too many, and ultimately, I just didn't care.

I'm a huge Nalini Singh fan, but this book just wasn't up to her usual standards. If felt to me as if she was using a now familar, but unfortunately a very tired formula, and I just wanted it to be over. I'm going to have to think hard about buying the rest of the series.

Angela Dawe was great as usual, though it did become difficult to tell her characters apart toward the end of the book. I also thought I heard her stifle a yawn or two, which only confirmed my own opinion of the story.

So this wasn't exactly what I was expecting from the reviews. I loved it because I liked the characters of Dev and Katya. They were both strong in their own way and needed each other. I liked seeing more of the Shine Foundation and this other facet what the psy could be. It was also nice to check in with the characters we've gotten to know in the previous books. Angela Dawe did a fantastic job as always with these books.

Excellent narration, the story introduces new characters and makes you care for them. Sexy as always and hard to put down. I love her work.

Psy-Changeling is an amazing series! I love everyone of these books. I recommend these books to everyone I know!!

This was definitely one of the best of this series so far. It had been so long since I'd read one of these books, that I thought it might take me a while to get back into it and remember the world. But, it sucked me in and I found myself not wanting to do anything but listen. It twas like coming home.

The two main characters here are both so believable and real. The 'formula' for most romance novels is of course, that some flaw or outside influence comes between the two characters and they have a serious argument that threatens their relationship. This book somewhat goes against the normal formula though. While there is an outside influence that threatens their relationship, they don't fight or split up willingly.

I found myself so emotionally invested in this couple by the end that I was crying and then laughing and crying at the end. Normally, I'm mentally 'glad' for a couple when it works out, but this one was like watching my best friend or favorite cousin fall in love.

I really liked how instead of it always being a changeling and a psy finding love Nalini Singh wrote a story about a psy and a human. I really liked that. It was different and entertaining. I just wish that there was more depth in terms of Katya's background. In terms of how and why Ming left her alive and the purpose of her torture.

I really liked Katya. She show strength and wit. When she needed it. She was able to fight off a counselor who is the best in mental combat. She is a great female lead in the book. And if she was a real person I wold want to be friends with her.

She brings a bit of life. When it is a humorous part in my opinion you can tell that she is smiling when she reads it and in sad or more serious parts you can tell by the vocal tone of her voice.

If there had been more in terms of resistance. If Dev or Katya had sown more resistance in their attraction to each other. If there had been more tention and then have them come together not in a story of fury but in a blinding moment when they were like "oh they are the one" that would be perfect.