#tangle of need

Tangle of Need:

I had a lot of thoughts, reactions, and quotes in this one, so it’s a long one!

* “Even if there had been a cure, Kaleb would’ve given the same answer—8-91’s death was inevitable. Someone had to be the canary.” God, he doesn’t even call him by his name. Cold, gray Kaleb is such a great character.

* “You’re not a woman I’ll ever want in my bed.” -Riaz. Ouch.

* Judd’s dry sense of humor is everything.

* “I’m worth more,” she told him, wiping the back of her hand across her mouth. “Affection, respect, tenderness, I’m worth all of that, so don’t you dare come near me again until you’re ready to offer it.”

* “Time to get some sleep, he thought, and having dressed, began to walk toward his quarters … then suddenly, he was tracking another scent. Delicate and strong. Fragile and steely. A puzzle that suited the enigma of a woman for whom the need in him burned hot and intense. He caught up to her just as she reached her door. A pregnant pause, last night repeated. Not turning, she pushed through. Entering behind her, he shut the door, turned the lock.” 🔥🔥🔥

* Ok, letting BlackSea know you mean business if they renig on the contract is good, but…how, exactly, does a wolf pack plan to retaliate against a group that can quite happily live in the open ocean for long periods of time? In addition to ground-to-air defense systems have they been building a submarine fleet too???

* “There’s nothing for me in the past.” Yes, she thought, the past was forever gone, for both of them. ❤️😭

* “Some of us are tired, Judd,” Vasic added quietly, the gray of his eyes holding the darkest of shadows. “When this is all over, all we ask for is peace.” I ❤️ Vasic

* Bowen getting the chip first is a very cool move for a leader. But given the lack of testing and high risk—has he clarified a plan in case he dies? Like, he has a clear back up identified and ready to jump into leadership, right?

* “But it wouldn’t be easier—Silence is based on the precept that emotion is a weakness, but what I feel for Brenna makes me stronger. I fight harder, dirtier, and rougher, because I know any injury to me will rebound on her.” I ❤️ Judd

* The Alice story…it’s boring, right? Or am I just heartless?

* “Do you feel any different?” “I no longer have psychopathic thoughts as often. I believe that could be termed progress.” “You’re not a psychopath.” “Or perhaps you simply don’t want me to be.” Sometimes Amara is just a gift.

* “I gave you multiple pupcubs. I have prowess.” - Riley, drunk and happy

* “I love you, but I have a hangover and you’re talking crazy.” - Hawke

* “his mind filled with thoughts of the woman who had brought him back to life, branded her claim on his heart. His tough, prickly, generous Adria, who wasn’t so tough or prickly after all.” - Riaz

* I like how he calls her his empress.

* Obviously Lissette was going to show up and suddenly be available, but it is still such a gut punch. They were finally happy! They chose each other! “So she’d have to be the one who broke her own heart.” 😭😭😭

* “Love, she realized at that terrible moment of truth, could be incredibly unselfish, even when it hurt until she bled.” - Adria

* I love how Krychek is always doing, like, six things at the same time.

* He grabbed her upper arms, held her in place, the raw fury in his voice a wild thing. “I made my choice, and I chose you. Don’t you do this. Don’t you destroy us.” I’m sobbing. Oh this whole breakup is so heartbreaking, for both of them.

* Ok, the hammer with “Adria Delgado” engraved on it 🥺

* Sophisticated Lissette throwing a shoe at her husband is comedy.

* Krychek found her! I’m so ready for the Heart of Obsidian.

* “Heart of my heart, that’s who you are, Adria Morgan. Chosen and forever. Wolf and man, you own every part of me.”

In a series where everyone—even the humans and Psy—gets a mating bond, this is a fantastic story where they don’t, but they still choose each other. The start was kinda rough, and a LOT of time is spent on other people. Alice continues to bore me. Hawke/Sienna remains hot, I continue my love affair with Judd and Vasic. But the ultimate love story in this one is beautiful.

Number of showers: a contender for the lead!

Riaz: 6

Adira: 5

“I know you want to protect me,” she whispered, long, slender fingers spreading over his heart. “I can feel your need in every pulse of your blood.” “I can’t promise that I won’t check up on you every so often during your shifts,” Hawke admitted, because it would’ve been a lie of monumental proportions to do otherwise, “but every part of me understands who you are.” Not simply his mate, but a dangerous, beautiful woman with her own dreams and desires. It would’ve been easier if she’d been someone else, a woman who followed his every dictate and who never put herself in harm’s way. But he didn’t want easier, didn’t want anyone else. He wanted Sienna. Only Sienna.

Hi! I’m Alex, a YouTube Newbie and this is The Late Lockdown List where I talk about the list of things I’ve got on my mind since the lockdown started. Today, on the second episode of A Series on Series, I’ll be talking about one of my favorite romance novel series ever: 

Spoilers galore! That’s it. That’s the disclaimer.

So who are the Psys and and who are the Changelings?

In this world, there are three predominant races: the Psys who have powers akin to those of Professor X and Jean Grey, the Changelings who are shifters -- both animal and human forms, and the humans -- just humans. 

There are two main changeling 'packs' in the series: the cats (leopards and panthers) - DarkRiver and the wolves - SnowDancer. As of this writing, there are 15 books under the Psy-Changeling series and 4 under its spinoff -- Trinity -- so named because they've included the other race: humans.

The series starts with Slave to Sensation

with Sasha Duncan, a Psy, who gets involved with Lucas Hunter, the alpha of the DarkRiver cats.

Sasha is a cardinal Psy. This means she’s very strong - literally off the charts strong, because their scale only goes up to 9 and cardinals are way over 10. But her abilities have not manifested. Her mother, Nikita Duncan, is a member of the ruling council. In this book, Nikita decides to enter into a sort of business partnership with the DarkRiver cats to sell real estate to changelings. Sasha becomes the point of contact. 

So that’s basically how it starts. If you want to know more about the story, please go ahead and read it. I don’t want to tell you because that would be a disservice to the author. 

However, I’m going to tell you what I love about this book and the books that follow.

I think Ms. Singh is a great world builder. There are a lot of familiar things about this world where Psys -- who are in the Marvel parlance, mutants -- and changelings -- think were animals but that’s oversimplifying it -- coexists with humans. She sets up the story so well without overexplaining it -- showing AND telling at the same time. 

I found it very easy to dive into this world inhabited by the gifted and the supernatural mostly because their problems mirror a lot of what we contend with in the real world: corrupt politicians, violent crackdown of dissenters, prejudice against those who are not like ourselves… The characters in the story deal with these problems using their gifts -- ones we don’t have, but I understand their motivations and the decisions they make -- right or wrong. 

It may sound trite but the human element in the circumstances in which the characters find themselves are very real and I couldn’t help but be drawn and just stay engaged the entire time. 

So after finishing the first book, I hunted for the next and was completely gratified that it’s a series. I get to know what happens after and that’s amazingly satisfying. I also get to find out more about the initially peripheral characters in the book. And I get to learn more about what “Silence” is and why it’s starting to break…

The next books are about the rest of the packs with a smattering of Psys and humans here and there. The pairings are usually Psy and changeling. Down the road, you get human and Psy and then human and changeling. You’ll also meet the so-called bogeyman of the Psys: the Arrows. Essentially, they’re a squad of highly trained assassins, most of them trained since childhood. Fascinating bunch.

The last book in the Psy/Changeling series is Allegiance of Honor

which sets up the spinoff Trinity series. 

In this book, we meet an almost one-year-old Naya - Lucas’ and Sasha’s half-psy/half-changeling daughter and the only one in the world - who can now shift. This is also the book where we find out just exactly how many ‘pupcubs’ Mercy and Reilly have. 

It’s not all cute stuff, though. There’s an abduction attempt, a ‘righteous’ killing and vengeance. All through it, we see the lives of the Psys, Changelings and humans evolve to try to live in this world where there’s now a real possibility of all three races co-existing in peace. 

Of course, si vis pacem, para bellum. If you want peace, prepare for war. And there’s a lot of foreshadowing.

So I’ve mentioned Trinity several times. The first book in the spinoff Trinity series is Silver Silence

where we meet Psy Silver Mercant, assistant of Kaleb Krychek who is the former Councilor now member of the new Trinity Accord council. Kaleb and Sahara Kyriakus’ story is told in the 12th book, Heart of Obsidian

We also meet another changeling pack, the StoneWater bears and its alpha, Valentin Nikolaev. 

In this book, someone is committing acts of terrorism against humans -- to start -- to undermine EmNet or Emergency Net headed by Silver. In the previous books, EmNet coordinated rescue and relief operations. 

The three other books in this series deal with more of the fallout of the creation of Trinity. A shadowy organization called the Consortium -- which is like the reverse side of Trinity -- also made up of all three races -- that seeks to undermine what Trinity wants to accomplish. It wants to sow discord among the races so they can go back to how it used to be: Psy, Changeling and humans living apart and keeping to themselves. 

I’ve talked about what I loved about this series, but I realized I left out one important thing: romance. Each book tells you the love story, either the start of one or the continuation of the ones you’d read before, of the characters. The dynamics of the relationships are different, especially among the changelings because they have a hierarchy: an alpha, his/her sentinels, lieutenants and soldiers. They’re also classified into two ‘dispositions’: dominants and submissives. The dominants are usually soldiers, but there are also maternal dominants -- ones who protect the hearth and home from within the hearth and home. In this world, submissives hardly ever hold eye contact for long against dominants, which makes for a power imbalance in a relationship where you’re ideally supposed to be equals. However, with mates -- like wolves, changelings who mate -- explained like a magical and psychic merging of the souls -- mate for life. With mates, the dominant-submissive dynamic is less structured. It wouldn’t make for a good relationship if the submissive doesn’t have ways to be in equal footing as the dominant. Here is where the human side of the changelings appear. The mating bond snaps into place only when both parties let it happen. It is up to the female (all of the major matings in this story are heterosexual) to decide to accept the mating bond. However, it is the male who becomes aware of the ‘mating dance’ first. 

I may be explaining it badly, but if you’re intrigued, go read the books. Seriously.

One other thing I love about this series that I know I’ve mentioned but feel like I should say again: this is a world you can happily get lost in. The way it’s built is so intricate; the details seem to jump out of the pages. I feel so invested in what happens to every single character that gets introduced in every book. 

Of course, I have favorites like Roman and Jules -- twin DarkRiver cubs who were introduced in the first book. 

I find myself looking for mentions of the pups or cubs because of how Ms. Singh writes them. Imagine having a toddler and puppy/kitten existing in one body.

It’s difficult to choose a favorite, but so far, mine is Allegiance of Honor. 

It has all my favorite characters and it’s a great setup to the spinoff. I was so relieved to hear about the spinoff because I thought that I would have to say goodbye to all of them. This way, I still see glimpses of my favorites while being introduced to new people and how they form connections to the characters that have yet to be explored.

That’s it for me. I hope you enjoyed listening to me ramble on and on about the Psy/Changeling/Trinity series. 

The latest book, Alpha Night