Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9032 in Books
• Published on: 2009-11-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Customer Reviews

Well-worth waiting for!
Are you already a fan of Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling series, like me? Provided that is the case, I'm sure that you have been eagerly waiting for "Blaze of Memory", book 7 in the series.

To avoid the suspense, let me tell you first that this book is well-worth the waiting period. As the other books that came before it, this is a well-written paranormal romance novel that combines action and interesting characters, fitting seamlessly with the rest of the series, and the original world that Nalini created. In this opportunity, the main character is Dev Santos, the Director of the Shine Foundation and a man whose main task is to protect the gifted children that some in the Psy Council seek to destroy. But what will he do when this need to protect clashes with his attraction to Katya, an amnesic Psy woman that might well be a covert assassin sent to kill him and his people?

If you don`t have the faintest idea what that very fast summary was about, you are new to the series. In that case, don`t worry, you can always catch up, but I suggest you to begin by reading the first book in the Psy-Changeling series, "Slave to sensation". I suppose you could read "Blaze of memory" as a standalone, but by doing so you won`t be able to appreciate the textured world Nalini Singh created, or understand so well dynamics that are explained in the part of the story arch covered in previous books.

On the whole, "Blaze of memory" is a great book in an excellent series that deserves to be read in order, so that you can fully enjoy it. Highly recommended...

Belen Alcat

Blaze Of Memory is unadulterated reading pleasure!
There hasn't been one book by Nalini Singh that failed to give me sheer reading pleasure. And I'm almost afraid I'm jinxing myself with this statement but Nalini Singh is one of those rare authors on my shelves who have yet to write a book that is a letdown for me. If I thought I knew what to expect within the Psy/Changeling series she dishes out a story like Blaze Of Memory to prove me wrong. The different point of view I was presented with delivered an exquisite read with all I came to treasure within this series and then some.

Blaze Of Memory delves deeper in to the Psy past with The Forgotten and how Silence came to be. I always considered myself a changeling kinda gal until Devraj and Katerina a.k.a Katya. Until their story with its undeniable potent feelings shred the cold of Silence. It picked me up, took me in to an alternate world and three hundred and seventy three pages later I was oh so reluctant to leave. I was stunned that the Psy could rattle my emotions like that. It was a masterful entwining of the romance story, a Psy history lesson and new plotlines accelerating the overall story arc.

Dev and Katya are the beating heart of this story and the set up is something I will never get enough of; the impossible romance. Everything that Katya is should repel Dev but the instincts she awakens in him are his Achilles heel. From day one their constrained emotions are a flammable essence waiting for its first chance to fully ignite. Add the lush writing style of Singh and it feels like it only emphasizes on that blatant sensuality simmering between Dev and Katya. It is a heady mix of yearning for something that goes against everything you know and have been taught, and at the same time knowing that it will be the greatest thing you ever experienced. I couldn't get enough of the romance or of the information that came to me at a steady pace. It worked together as it gradually succumbed me to the mesmerizing pull of this story.

Dev is Psy and director of the Shine foundation. His powers and position make him distant, shouldering the responsibility of many who depend on him and often he has to make tough decisions for the good of The Forgotten. Everything about him screams rigid control until Katya comes along and bares another side of him. The vigorous side, the humorous side and the side that feels so deep you wonder how he is able to hide it.

Katya is all Psy and conditioned by Silence. Her circumstances take her to the Shine foundation and to the doorstep of Dev. She is a woman where vulnerability is fused with strength, innocence is dallying with a smart attitude and where Silence is warring with the uncovered need to touch, feel, love and tease all the senses. Her psyche is as intriguing as her personality and she fueled this story with a wide range of sensations.

Dev and Katya are not right for each other, mostly due to matter outside their control, it's forcing them to always keep the risks in mind. The intensity of their dialogues made me feel that maddening sense of desperation, at one hand romance was blossoming and at the other hand they knew it was never going to be. Nalini Singh created one hell of an obstacle where there was no way out for Katya and Dev. I could see no way out as I read the chapters and the consequences of that obstacle fully came to be in this story. It was emotion in its purest form, drama bled from the pages and I was in shock for a few moment as I reached that nerve wrecking but beautiful conclusion.

There's something else that I realized as I closed this book and that is that though the point of view is given from the Psy, and it made some things a little bit more understandable, it didn't affect my overall sense of right and wrong in this world. It can happen when an author gives a perspective from, what I consider to be the evil doers, boundaries fade and things can get kind of confusion. Nothing of the sort happened in Blaze Of Memory, The Forgotten achieved a special place and became a more visible part of the Psy/Changeling world. But there is more that fleshes out this world like vividly drawn secondary characters, they speak to me, both newly introduced and recurring ones. Apparently there is a new pack on the horizon named RainFire with pack leader Remington. The nani of Dev was also a hoot to meet, but more of The Forgotten like Jack and Will, Tag and Tiara flavored this story. Not to mention we've got a plethora of Changeling with their mates and children adding to the plotline. Sasha, Lucas, Dorian, Ashaya, Noor, Keenan, Judd, I got to meet them all and through them I received small slivers of information that is casually mentioned but intrigue me nonetheless.

I love being in this world! Each character matters to me and when the romance, the tightly plotted scheming and overall story arc, along with the information seamlessly flows together, all of my hot buttons are pushed to experience an outstanding paranormal romance. Blaze Of Memory is unadulterated reading pleasure!

Engaging but not the best of the series
This book continues to develop the psy-changeling-human story really well but I found the heroine a bit less interesting than those in the other books of the series. It is the story of Dev (one of the Forgotten and head of the Shine foundation) and Katya (Psy friend of Ashaya and previously MIA in another book).

She has amnesia and it turns out she's going to be a problem for Dev. I always find amnesia a bit of a weak story device, and it didn't do it for me even in Nalini Singhs excellent hands. She never seems to have much of a USP (unique selling point) and I prefer my heroines more fiesty. I found my self more interested in the secondary characters, who I have to say were great.

Despite this it was a good read and I would recommend it but only as a part of the series as it would be a bit hard to fully appreciate if you didn't know who all those fun secondary characters are.