New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh takes us into a family dark with shadowy secrets, as the world of the Psy teeters on the edge of a final catastrophic collapse. . .
Daughter of two ruthless
high-Gradient telepaths, Auden Scott is not the child her Psy parents wanted or
expected, even before her brain injury. Her thoughts are scattered, her
memories fuzzy—or just terrifyingly blank. The only thing she knows for certain
is that she must protect her unborn baby . . . a baby she has no recollection
of conceiving and who draws an unnerving depth of interest from her dead
mother’s closest associates.
Leopard alpha Remi Denier
is a man driven by the primal instinct to protect. Protect his pack, protect
his allies . . . and protect the mysterious woman who has become a most
unlikely neighbor. With eerie eyes that see too much and a scent that alters in
ways disturbing and impossible, Auden Scott is the enemy . . . but nothing
about this strange Psy is what it seems, and Remi’s feline heart is as
fascinated by her as his human half.
Then Auden asks Remi to
help her shatter the wall of secrets that is the Scott bloodline. What they
unearth will reveal a nightmare beyond imagination. This time, the battle is to
the death. . .
Nancy’s Thoughts:
Once a series hits about
the tenth book, I sometimes find my interest falling off. The stories don’t
seem fresh to me anymore or don’t engage me or otherwise aren’t satisfying.
Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling books, however, have yet to disappoint although
she’s up to her twenty-third book (not counting shorter works) set in this
world.
The hero, Remi Denier, is
alpha of the RainFire leopard changeling pack in the Smoky Mountains. Remi
first appeared in Shards of Honor (Psy-Changeling #14) when he and his
pack gave Arrows Aden and Zaira refuge after they’d been kidnapped and tortured
by a shadowy group of enemies. The interaction resulted in bone-deep friendship
between Remi and Aden and, by extension, the Arrows and RainFire. The Arrows
play a significant role in this book, and I always enjoy seeing them.
Remi has forged a group of
loners and misfits into a tight-knit pack. I loved the scenes of him
interacting with the pack, especially the children. He doesn’t have a lot of
internal conflict to move past, aside from initial distrust of what Auden is
doing on the border of RainFire’s territory. He worries about the unpredictable
change in her scent and the accompanying changes in her personality and memory,
but his concern for this pregnant woman who seems so alone in her cabin arouses
his alpha instinct to protect and nurture. He soon resolves to help her. This
means helping her understand what causes her memory issues and personality
shifts.
It's just as well that
Remi doesn’t have a lot of romantic baggage to overcome because Auden has
issues enough for them both. She doesn’t understand her blackouts and memory
gaps, nor can she explain how things her late mother knew but she never did
suddenly pop into her mind, allowing her access to her mother’s secret records.
Her late mother’s assistant, now Auden’s assistant since she has become the
figurehead CEO of the family corporation, behaves much more like a zealous
guardian than an assistant. To come into her own, Auden must take control of
this relationship and resolve her memory issues and the related mysteries.
One of the mysteries Auden
faces is just exactly how she became pregnant. She has no memory of agreeing to
be impregnated. Still, she’s resolved to protect this child. The assistant, who
behaves as though she were in charge of Auden, and the doctor show an intense
interest in the baby that worries Auden. Something isn’t right about the whole
situation.
Auden’s reaction to her
pregnancy is part of the reason I gave the book less than a five-star rating.
I’m all in on her determination to protect her baby from the schemes of her
assistant and the doctor. My issue is the speed with which she reached that decision
in the backstory. Since she was impregnated without her knowledge or consent, I
wanted a little bit of wrestling with that before she resolved to see this baby
girl as hers and to shield her from whatever schemes are floating around them.
The other part of my
reason for rating the book at less than five stars is that I initially found
Auden hard to relate to. We first meet her when Remi sees her in a clearing
near his pack’s territory, on the property where his Arrow friends Aden and
Zaira were tortured. Although other readers may react differently, I found
Auden’s changes in focus and scent a barrier to relating to her.
Auden is a Ps-Psy, meaning
she reads emotional imprints on objects. Her cabin is therefore sparsely
furnished with things that are safe for her to touch. Keeping her surroundings
relatively pristine is critical to her wellbeing. Yet she reads an emotional
memory from something on Remi’s person when they first shake hands. Given her
concerns about her ability, her failure to draw back when she realized what was
happening felt a little off to me.
The reading draws Remi to
her, and it briefly brings her into focus. Yet she persisted in the reading,
which was obviously very personal, and never acknowledged that this was an
intrusion until they met again months later. Then she apologizes but seems to
shrug off the incident. For someone who finds other people’s imprints intrusive
and often painful, this struck me as less than sympathetic.
After Remi and Auden’s
first encounter, her memories become more stable, and I found myself relating
to her as I’d hoped to. The reader soon sees her plan to keep her baby safe
from her domineering assistant and the intrusive doctor. She can’t do that unless
she also wrests control of her life away from them. Her determination to do so,
along with the difficulties she knows she faces, are admirable. The stakes rise
as she goes along, and her willingness to make a very tough call was
heart-wrenching.
Auden’s efforts to break
free draw Remi’s sympathy and his heart. She’s falling in love with him at the
same time, drawn by his determination to protect her before he even knew her
and his dedication to his pack. One of the things I like about the book a great
deal is his resolve not to take their feelings to a romantic level until Auden
is emotionally stable enough to give meaningful consent to doing so. I think
that consideration is too often swept to the side in romance novels, especially
where the heroine’s physical security is at issue.
With Remi, of course,
comes RainFire. The mutual loyalty and love of changeling packs always draws me
into their stories. We meet different members of RainFire in this book, and I
can’t wait to read their stories.
Auden and Remi’s story
takes place along with further breakdown of the PsyNet, the psionic network all
Changelings need to survive. I won’t say more because I’m afraid of spoiling
it, but the way these two plotlines turn out to be woven together is masterful.
In summary, Primal
Mirror offers an emotionally wrenching but ultimately satisfying romance
while expanding the Psy-Changeling world in intriguing ways. It also offers
time with established, beloved characters from other books. The story moves at
a good pace. I was delighted to see Remi have his own story and to spend time
with RainFire. Despite a little initial difficulty relating to Auden, I soon
became a fan of her as well and came to love them as a couple.
Readers new to the
Psy-Changeling world can read Primal Mirror as a standalone. Singh is
adept at dropping in enough detail from prior stories to move the current one
along without a big delay. Those who read the series in order, however, will be
better able to appreciate the richness of the world and the found families in
it.
Highly recommended. 4.5
stars
~Nancy
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