1st read: May 2020
2nd read: May 2023

This is one of my least favorite Psy-Changeling book. But I liked parts of it enough that I can't rate it below 3 stars.

The criminal cases were interesting and the parts with Nikita, Kaleb, and the members of Dark River were great.

But the main characters of this book felt uninspired. Especially considering how similar the characters in this book are to some of the previous main characters in the series. I also think that the beginning of the main characters' relationship was too rushed to be completely believable. Their connection and the level of trust between them was nearly instantaneous, which made their chemistry seem shallow and their relationship uninteresting.

********************
Original review:

This book wasn't my cup of tea, but it had some awesome parts.

I love the stuff that contributed to the main story. The scenes with Nikita, Kaleb, Sascha, and really anyone else other than the main couple, are great and I really enjoyed reading them.

However, I found Max and Sophia to be extremely boring together. I maybe don't mind Max and Sophia by themselves too much, but whenever they were alone together I just completely lost interest. It was a struggle to read. ( )

It's amazing. There was hardly anything to annoy me!
Max is the best male main character in this universe ever. Whenever he felt possessive, he didn't push or did anything stupid or disrespectful. He acted smart. He ACTUALLY protected, by paying attention, by listening to her, by being careful. Because let's be frank, trying to force someone to do things your way, thinking you know what's best for them better than they do, and protecting their body instead of their spirit, that's not protecting, that's blindly following your abusive/ dominant instincts. You can fool yourself and say you do it for her, but anyone with a brain can see you do it for yourself. And that's what pretty much every male lead has been doing in this series until Max.

Purely for that, I'm giving this 5 stars. Even though it would have been nice if Sophia had had a more active role, particularly towards the end. The beginning of the book was lovely, but the end felt a bit tame because of that. ( )

This one was a bit iffy on consent, but otherwise a solid entry in the series. ( )

I am back to giving 4 stars for this book. I enjoyed the story and the romance equally and am intrigued by the politics in the Psy world. ( )

I liked this one better than a couple of the other recent Psy-Changeling books. It had plenty of angst which I like. The hero is a human cop who falls in love with a Psy who has a job reading bad guys thoughts in order to resolve criminal trials. She is nearing the end of her useful life as doing this type of thing makes you go crazy. They are working together to solve a couple of cases. The love between them seems real and the progression of that love and their physical intimacy advances at a believable pace. She has a problem with touch and it takes a while for her to get over it. It isn't just swept away with her lust for the hero. The love story was very touching and I loved the way he was all about protecting her even from himself.

Two things kept it from being a 5 star for me. First and most irrational of me, I don't like the net mind idea. I don't get how the collective thoughts of a bunch of people has its own consciousnous. Take away half a star for unbelievability and the other half a star for the rather simple fix to the "oh my god she's going to die" dilemma of the whole book. There was this huge build up of how are we going to save her and the solution was a bit too much deus ex machina for me. I kind of went "thats it? Really?"

Spoiler below:

Max's brother River shows up at the end. They were way too comfortable with each other after 20 years apart. I know that when I came home from just a year abroad I had to get comfortable with my sister again. It was awkward for at least a day. Twenty years would not be dismissed so rapidly and also, no one ever mentioned Sophia's name to River and yet he knew it. It would have been better if Max had just opened the door and River was there. Nothing further needed.

Still loving the series though and can't wait to read the story of the alpha of SnowDancer. Hope that story is up soon. ( )