Shield of Winter

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Average customer rating 4.5 (2 comments)

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Our Review, by LITERAL ADDICTION's Vivacious Valkyrie - Marta: *Copy gifted in exchange for an honest review Well here it is the thirteenth full length book in the amazing Psy-Changeling series. It's a series that just keeps building a world populated with strong characters that will leave readers feeling wrung out and breathless. This particular story centers around two very different Psy, Vasic the cold Arrow and Ivy an Empath. Theirs is a journey of two souls on a collision course with no place to hide and it's going to be a bumpy ride! Vasic is a character who has been dangled by the author in front of her readers for quite some time now and he's possibly one of the most powerful Psy in his unit. He has had a difficult life and being an assasin has taken it's toll . He agrees that now that Silence has fallen his race will need all the help they can get if they are to survive the creeping death that sits within the Net. Vasic accepts the mission of bringing Empaths together in a controlled environment but one Empath in particular Ivy, will quite literally test every shield that Vasic has ever put in place. I was overjoyed when I got my hands on this book but a little afraid if honest as the idea of two cold Psy being the lead characters sounded alarm bells for me. I'm in the minority in that I didn't particularly connect with those in the previous book "Heart of Obsidian" . So I am a very happy bunny when I say this felt more like a complete story to me. It's a book with a relationship that has a beginning a middle and the possibility of a happy ending. In this harsh world nothing is certain but these two characters will fight for what they believe to be right. It's difficult to imagine living without emotions and always being self contained but the author has a knack for revealing those small differences that make it feel real. Just the idea that a simple hug would be out of place brings to life a world so cold that it's not difficult to grasp and I'm not surprised that something is starting to snap. A harsh empty reality and yet it's filled with hope as those who realise the dangers are fighting to save the Psy race. This book is mainly centered around the Psy characters and it's interesting to read about the shy Ivy embracing the possibility that she can thaw out Vasic. She's almost brazen at times and quietly determined to get her man! As for Vasic I think the word honourable is the one that describes him the best. He's also quite amusing at times and his teleporting abilities frequently cause him problems! He clearly is a very passionate guy but has never released that side of himself before but Vasic unabashedly seeks advice from Judd who I know is a favorite amongst many readers. If the Changelings are your favourite characters in this series then rest assured they still appear in this book but it's quite rightly front and center about the Psy race and all the changes they are going through. The Forgotten are also in the background and I suspect we might learn more about them in future books. The Psy race are quite literally fighting for their survival now and everyone will have a part to play. So yes it's a romance and Ms Singh's lush prose just flowed . The heroine Ivy has depths and a unique courage that sees her bravely taking on her lethal Arrow. A slow believable romance but it's the incredible world building and story telling that kept me gripped until the last page. There's clearly so much more to come and please could we see more of Aden? The dynamics of this world just keep changing and it's a fabulous ride! This series is best read in order starting with Slave to Sensation but please whatever you do make sure you find time for these books because you will never regret it!

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In the end, they’d all grown up under a regime that attempted to turn them into tools for the use of others�"tools meant to be discarded once they passed their use-by date. First, I must confess that this is my first Psy-Changeling book. Ms. Singh’s work has been on my “to read” list for quite some time, but I simply haven’t had the opportunity to read any of her works. When Penguin Books gave me the opportunity to read Shield of Winter I literally jumped at the chance. What a great excuse to move it to the top of my reading pile! Going into the story I was well aware of the fact that this is Lucky 13 in the Psy-Changeling series, (actually, there are also quite a few “shorts” and novellas also extant in this world) so I feared that I couldn’t expect to really understand what was going on. However, I must say, I was wrong about that. Looking at the long list of characters in the front of the book, I worried that I would be lost or confused, but Ms. Singh is such a brilliant writer that before the first chapter was over I was completely riveted. This is a deeply layered series, with one of the more unusual premises extant in the UF genre. In the world of the Psy there is no emotion �" no love, no hate, only mercilessly unemotional characters, driven a slavish obsession with perfection in all things. There is only The Silence, controlled by the NetMind and DarkMind, the twin entities that knew every corner of the vast psychic network that connected all Psy on the planet Now, however, that link is broken, the Silence is no more. But all is not well, as the cold, emotionless Psy struggle to live in a new reality, where emotion is not a crime to be punished by devastating psychic brain wipes. Silence was a deeply flawed construct �" but a necessary one, as cruel as it may have been. And now a deadly contagion is whipping through the Psy population with deadly result. In order to save the Psy population, changes must be made, and the Empaths, nearly wiped from existence in the past, may be the only beings who can save the world. The first step is finding and bringing in Ivy, an Empath who, though she was subjected to the brutality of a mind wipe as a child, gives hope that she may actually be a savior. Sent to find her and bring her back is Vasic, a sort of “super soldier assassin” on a par with the Terminator. Now, I understand that Ms. Singh’s works are based more in the “Paranormal Romance” end of the Contemporary Fantasy genre, and I can work with that. However, I will admit to having an overwhelming problem with Ivy. She was an unpleasant character to my way of thinking. Needy and clinging don’t do it for me in a heroine and Ivy has that in spades. Vasic was a much more empathetic character. He has done horrific things in his life, things he understands to be unforgivable, even though he did these things under the control of a sort of “hive mind. His pain and sense of hopelessness, and his attempts to do the right thing even though he doesn’t feel worthy of living touched me on a visceral level and kept me reading just a much as the amazing world that I was learning. Unlike other readers of the series (I have read the reviews) I was not as interested in the “romantic” side of the story, so my problems with Ivy didn’t overwhelm my sheer enjoyment of a well built world, a stunning concept, and great writing. Overall, I am looking forward to starting the series at the first book and learning about how this new situation has come to pass.