Silver Silence

3.75 stars

LOVED Valentin, but wasn't completely wowed by the story. I was expecting to start tackling the Consortium off the bat and this introduced some other elements, not directly related. This read as a first in the building blocks, but I hope the arc is as tight as the first.

Definitely looking forward to more in the series.

First book of June and one I "won" from Penguin's First-to-Read program. It will be released later this month.

Well, I gobbled this book up pretty darn quickly! First in the new Psi-Changling Trinity series, a spin-off of the original Psi-Changling series.

Silver Mercant is assistant to Kaleb Krychek, reputed to be the most powerful and most dangerous man on the planet (and hero of my favorite Psi-Changling book to date, Heart of Obsidian). She's been pretty much in the background for much of the original series (the Silence arc). Now Silence has fallen, and Silver has taken up the reins of the newly formed worldwide emergency response network (EMNET) set up in the wake of the signing of the Trinity Accords. In this first novel in the show more spin-off series (the Trinity arc), Silver emerges as a powerful and surprisingly dangerous woman in her own right. I really enjoyed the romance between her and Valentin, and parts of the story had me laughing right out loud. Being an early review copy, there were a few grammatical errors and missteps in wording that I hope will be rooted out of the final published book, but even with those little problems, it is a really fun installment in the Psi-Changling universe with a delightfully different, sweet and amusing romance and great new (and some old) characters. show less

I liked the Russian bear shapeshifter template a lot. Good-natured and not as prone to alpha-assholishness. And the kick-assery of the female protagonist, Silver Mercant, was also appreciated. (Although, again with the "she is about to die ...." -- I would prefer less of that in these books!)

I greatly enjoyed this book: it was a wonderful reminder of what drew me to the Paranormal Romance genre in the first place. There are sexy scenes, but they aren't out of place nor the excuse for the rest of the plot. They are part of the book but don't get in the way of the story. And there is a story! It picks up after the Pay-Changeling series from what I can tell, but since I didn't read all of the books in that series it's hard for me to be sure exactly where we pick up. I was able to start this sequel series without any trouble however, and I enjoyed my return to this world.

DNF. I should have dropped it when I read alpha bear or at least as soon as ice queen came before my eyes but I think I went on for at least a chapter or two. The writing had no flow and I could look forward to 400 more pages of it. It seemed to be using its magic scheme as an excuse for the stalker behavior of Mr stalker bear. Nope. There might have been an excuse for this a decade before it's 2017 publish date, but not really.

I really loved the characters from the first "season" of this series. So I really missed them in this book. I appreciated the mentions and brief appearances of a few of the characters, but it's hard moving on. It was hard getting used to a completely unfamiliar clan.

That being said, I enjoyed learning more about Silver and the Mercants. They were not what I was expecting. I wasn't sure how Silver would ever fall for a bear, but the story was good and drew me in. It was funny in spots and unexpectedly heartbreaking in others. The secret identity of the new Big Bad has me interested to see how this all plays out. I can't wait to see who we meet next.

I started reading the Psy-Changling saga with this book, not knowing it was the first book in the second wave of this series. I was fascinated and in love. I went back afterwards and started with proper Book 1, then decided to reread Silver Silence when I came to it in the intended order - and adored it even more! It's beautiful, it's raw, it's real, it's hot, it's fun, and it's utterly satisfying.