Title: Shards Of HopeAuthor: Nalini Singh
Publisher: Gollancz (UK)
Publication date: June 2015
Series: Psy/Changeling #14
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
Source: Bought
Description: 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.
My thoughts: It's always hard for me to talk about a later book in a long series, which is partly why I've put off writing this review, and considered not talking about the book at all. But it's still a great series and deserves some attention on the blog.
I really enjoyed Shards Of Hope, as I do with all of Nalini Singh's novels but to me it wasn't the most compelling romance of the series, not one I'll go back and read again and again. Aden and Zaira figure out pretty early on in the book that they like being together as a couple and that that is something they're going to make work with their lives. The romance is sweet and mostly easy and mostly takes a back seat to the politics. The psy/changeling world continues to change dramatically and Aden and the other Arrows are trying to help guide Psy with particularly strong volatile abilities to find a place in the new structure where they can be safe and more stable.
Things I particularly liked: Getting to know more about the Arrows and their inner workings; glimpses of a new Changeling pack (who I hope will get a lot more page time in the next arc of the series); a hero & heroine who are fairly equal in both their physical and mental abilities; brief interactions with some of my other favourite characters; the continued developments and backlash from events in the preceding couple of books; the set up of a new background conflict where the instigator is hard to pinpoint.
I really enjoyed the book and of course I'm looking forward to the next one. I'll give Shards Of Hope 8/10.
One day I'll have to go back to this series I have some but I have only read one if I'm not mistaken
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