Review: Blaze of Memory by Nalini Singh

Dev Santos discovers her unconscious and battered, with no memory of who she is. All she knows is that she’s dangerous. Charged with protecting his people’s most vulnerable secrets, Dev is duty-bound to eliminate all threats. It’s a task he’s never hesitated to complete…until he finds himself draws to a woman who might prove to be the enemy’s most insidious weapon yet.

Stripped of her memories by a shadowy oppressor and programmed to carry out cold-blooded murder, Katya Haas is fighting desperately for her sanity. Her only hope is Dev. But how can she expect to gain the trust of a man who could very well be her next target? For in this game, one must die..

We are doing group reviews of the Psy Changeling series as we are all such huge fans of this series, but for this book, we were split in the middle! Annie loved it but Fran and Suzanne…not so much! So instead of integrating our reviews, here are our individual opinions about a couple of aspects of the books:

DEV & KATYA

Suzanne– This was the thing I disliked most about this book! At first it was because they hadn’t had much of a build up in the other books, especially Katya, so I don’t have that sense of knowing them a little before the book starts, but that’s okay, I can learn to love them, but even by the end of the book they still felt like secondary characters! And Dev, I didn’t like him. At all. He reminds me of a 80’s historical romance hero, you know the horrible ones I mean, controlling and aggressive, he would blow hot and cold, one minute being tender and gentle, the next thinking about killing her and threatening her! As for Katya, complete Stolkholm Syndrome heroine, he held her captive and kept intimidating and bullying her, how the hell do you fall in love!?

Fran– I actually liked Dev before this book, I thought he was an interesting character when I first read about him in Talin & Clay’s book, and was actually looking forward to his story. But now that we get to read more about him, he fell flat. I think maybe he needed a different mate. I think a changeling female might’ve been better suited for him and we might’ve seen a different Dev. As for Katya…I have no comment for Katya. LOL She was just there! I felt bad for her and all, but there was no connection.

Annie– I freaking love Dev! As the Shine director, although we have no Changeling alpha males, he’s kind of like the alpha of his own people. I found myself loving him despite his initial icy persona. He also has a really cool gift with metal and it would have been great to him use it a little more. As for Katya after five pages I found myself really sympathising with her (Love the new name it suits her so much better, don’t you think? It’s less Psy and more personable). As a Psy she is physically weak and after what that bastard Ming did to her she is mentally caged but I found a quiet strength in her. She’s definitely my favourite of the Psy women! I adore her! In several parts of this book she shows some real courage, and I loved her for it and wanted to beat her for putting herself in so much danger!

CONCLUSION: I think we are going to have to agree to disagree! We will let you have Dev for your harem Annie LOL!

SILENCE:

Suzanne & Fran– I liked the progression of the breakdown of Silence. This book demonstrates perhaps more than the others that although Silence is in no way a good thing breaking Silence WILL have deadly consequences for a lot of people, Psy, human and Changeling. This book also gives you an understanding of perhaps why Silence was implemented in the first place. I love books when nothing is black and white and good and bad, and Nalini Singh has muddied up the waters a little, I found that although I don’t agree with Silence, I can see how it is useful and why it was used in the first place.

Annie– I totally agree! This book was great at showing Silence and when breaking Silence goes really bad. I like that the Forgotten were also considering trying to use Silence, this shows that maybe the Psy did have a good reason to start using it, even if it got corrupted later. But I am glad they finally decided against it!

LETTERS TO MATTHEW

All of us– I think we all agreed that the letters were really beautiful and a great way of demonstrating that piece of time from when Silence was first brought to the attention of the Psy to when it was finally implemented. It gave you a very human look at what Silence meant to the Psy and it gave you information in little tantalizing pieces rather than just having one big monologue to read. For Fran and Suzanne these were some of the best bits of the book and Annie thinks they enhanced an already fabulous read.

We are all definitely going to be carrying on reading the rest of this amazing series, although a couple of us didn’t really like this one as much as the rest in this series, it will not stop us reading on to find out what happens next!