Book: Shards Of Hope by Nalini Singh

Published June 2015  by Berkley Hardcover|483 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: Psy-Changeling #14

Genre: Adult Romance/Adult Paranormal Romance

The “smoldering heat, epic romance, and awesome action” of Nalini Singh’s New York Times bestselling series continues as two Arrows find themselves caught in a chilling conspiracy that spans all three races…

Awakening wounded in a darkened cell, their psychic abilities blocked, Aden and Zaira know they must escape. But when the lethal soldiers break free from their mysterious prison, they find themselves in a harsh, inhospitable landscape far from civilization. Their only hope for survival is to make it to the hidden home of a predatory changeling pack that doesn’t welcome outsiders.

And they must survive. A shadowy enemy has put a target on the back of the Arrow squad, an enemy that cannot be permitted to succeed in its deadly campaign. Aden will cross any line to keep his people safe for this new future, where even an assassin might have hope of a life beyond blood and death and pain. Zaira has no such hope. She knows she’s too damaged to return from the abyss. Her driving goal is to protect Aden, protect the only person who has ever come back for her no matter what.

This time, even Aden’s passionate determination may not be enough—because the emotionless chill of Silence existed for a reason. For the violent, and the insane, and the irreparably broken…like Zaira.

I really liked Shards Of Hope! We find out more about Aden and we actually see some different changeling packs, which was nice.

Don’t get me wrong, I love SnowDancer and DarkRiver, don’t get me wrong, but other changeling packs are mentioned throughout the series, and it was nice to see the Psy-Changeling word beyond San Fransisco. Particularly the Changeling world, because I feel like like we do get glimpses of the Psy world outside of San Fransisco, but not the changeling world.

Aden was ap retty mysterious figure, but I’m not surprised, considering he’s an Arrow. Obviously, Silence is really important for him, especially as the leader of the Arrows. It’s interesting that he was so underestimated in terms of his power, and with the updates from the PsyNet and the livestream comments, it’s obvious people seem to either love him or hate him. Well, I don’t know that love and hate is the best way to put, but people have some really different thoughts about Aden as the leader of the Arrows. There’s more to him than people thought, and I’m glad they finally saw that Aden is the one who should be leading the Arrows. Even though he’s Psy, he’s obviously their Alpha, and I really liked seeing how much he wanted to change things, particularly for the kids.

I was really hesitant about the romance between him and Zaira, especially since I wasn’t a fan of the romance in the previous book. Zaira wasn’t cold like I expected her to be, and it was obvious she’d follow Aden to the ends of the earth. I liked them together slightly better than the one in the previous book, but I still wasn’t completely into it. This part of the series is clearly wrapping up, and I’ve found that as the series went on, I wasn’t also interested in the romance. Maybe the Psy-Psy romance focused books aren’t my thing as far as the romance goes, but I do really like the series, so even though I might not love the romance, I still really like the world.

Shards Of Hope does build on Shield Of Winter, and I know I already mentioned how much I liked seeing more of the Arrows and how much he wanted to incorporate the really cool things the changelings are doing with their young. I thought it really showed how willing he was to make things better for the Arrow kids and how there are different (and maybe better) ways of doing things.

With one book left in this series, I don’t know that we’ll see more of the changeling world we were introduced to in this book. I’m hoping we get more of it, but there’s a lot to wrap up- and with a lot of characters too. The character list felt like it went on for pages, and I gave up books ago on trying to keep all of the characters straight because there are so many. This world that Singh built is massive but also awe-inspiring. I’m curious to see where things will go, and how everything (and everyone) will come together. There’s definitely a lot more story to tell, and Singh really could go on for books to come where this series is concerned.

I don’t know, I feel like I’m talking more about the series as a whole than the actual book. I don’t really have anything else to say about the book, but I’ll be glad to read the next book.

3 stars. I liked it but I didn’t love it. Part of it is not being completely invested in the romance (I tend to like the Psy-Changeling romances more than any other pairing), but at this point, I’m pretty curious to see how it will all come together.