Review: Heart of Obsidian (Psy-Changeling #12) – Nalini Singh

Heart of Obsidian by Nalini Singh
Series: Psy-Changeling #12
Published by Berkley Sensation on 4 June 2013
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Romance, Suspense, Urban Fantasy
Pages: 360
Source: Kindle Purchase
Buy on Amazon |

Heart of Obsidian has former Councilor Kaleb Krychek as the main character, and there is a mysterious woman called Sahara as well. Kaleb has a lot on his plate, between the net being infected, the dark mind and the net-mind continuing to assault him with images, bombings in various populated areas, and trying to figure out what to do about it all. The overall plot moves along very nicely, and some questions that were left open in prior books are answered here.

Heart of Obsidian may just be my favorite book in the Psy-Changeling series. I loved learning more about Kaleb, and Sahara was totally awesome as well. The overall plot of the series moved along very nicely as well, and we even found out who the Ghost is! The intricate relationships between some of the psy and the changeling packs, as well as the war with pure-psy continued, and there were quite a few things that caught me completely off guard.

Heart of Obsidian starts really strong! With Kaleb kidnapping a woman out of a high security place, and for once, he actually brings someone to his home outside of Moscow. It is unclear at first why he takes the woman, but it seems as if he needs something from her. However, her mind is completely scrambled, and she won’t speak, drink or eat. She is afraid the mirror in her room is a one way window, and she acts only on instinct. Kaleb tries to get her to eat, then he goes to work on securing the balcony around his house to make sure the woman won’t fall off it – or jump.

Kaleb shows his intelligence in everything he does – and it is so great to learn more about the man that seems so removed and calculating, to understand a little more about why he does the things he does. In Heart of Obsidian, the readers get to see some of the things Kaleb is thinking, but mostly, we get to know him through his interactions with Sahara. And while I still find Kaleb to be extremely scary, I found myself also wanting him to be able to find what most people are looking for – love and understanding.

The action is present in almost every single chapter of Heart of Obsidian, between the pure-psy upping the ante and Kaleb’s machinations as well as the kidnapping of another former councilor there is more than enough for the reader to keep track of. There is never too much, though, I could follow everything, and I was amazed at every twist and turn the story took. Singh did an excellent job of showing how complex Kaleb is, all the while giving the readers and Sahara clues to understand him. To say Kaleb has had a hard life is the understatement of the year, and his actions in prior books make so much more sense now that I know more about him and his motivations.

There are some sightings of my favorite leopard pack as well, but Heart of Obsidian’s main focus really is Kaleb and Sahara. I think Sahara is a great new addition to the series, and what she has been through in the past seven years is unimaginable. However, the fact that she went through it, and was able to preserve herself somewhat also shows what a strong woman she is – and we all know how much I love a strong female character in the books I read, right?

The writing is flawless, the story just pours out of the pages, and my enjoyment was never-ending! The character development is expertly done, and I loved how the story-arc that has been spanning over several books made more and more sense, and as the story unfolded, the readers were made aware of a lot of things that had been left open. If you haven’t started the Psy-Changeling series yet, you really should! The mix of the changelings who are so tactile and open with their feelings and the psy who are not supposed to feel at all is amazing, and the way they deal with problems so differently is amazing as well. Also, the hot and steamy scenes are just that! Hot. And steamy.

I have thirteen pages of highlighted quotes in my kindle… it’s kind of hard to make a choice but here we go:

An individual who feels nothing is, after all, the perfect graduate of Silence. Ruthless. Cold-blooded. Without mercy… without conscience.

The sunshine, the cool autumn wind, she craved it against her skin… as she craved contact with another living being, her body starved for far more than food.

The scope of it might have driven another man mad; it was to Kaleb’s advantage that he’d had his brush with madness as a child and survived.

He appeared as much a part of the landscape as the dunes and the water… and as isolated, as alone.

There was something not quite right about this captivity, something not quite right about Kaleb’s behavior. She’d been imprisoned for over seven years, knew the difference between a cage and… whatever this was.

He hadn’t folded back the sleeves as he often did at home. Instead, cuff links glinted at his wrists. The mask was back in place.

 

 

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