Blaze of Memory

This book became a hard one to judge. Throughout reading I was adamant this book would be a three stars and the ending entirely changed everything! I was holding back the sobs, which I didn’t expect to be. It shows that despite Singh having written 7 books previous to this on in the Psy-Changeling series, she still manages to throw a spanner in the works! Despite the tear-jerking moments I felt that the book was a little drab in places, it lacked some of the excitement that the last few books Singh has given us, held. It lacked the spark to take of and make me race through this book without thought. It wasn’t until around 200 pages in where I really started to turn the pages. However it is probably what you expect to find in one of Singh’s paranormal-romance books, the sexy man, the woman who has to make her own journey, a game of cat and mouse and the capture. However we do get more than this because there are sub-levels we have yet to explore from previous novels, especially with the Forgotten which was exciting. ‘Blaze of Memory’ did seem to fall flat with the involvement of secondary characters because we didn’t have not nearly as many interludes as the previous novel into exploration of other characters. I felt this allowed us to focus more on the two characters, but it was probably what drew out the read for me. The guy on the cover is not how I imagined our lead male, Dev, not at all! He’s not nearly as masculine and brooding, so he’s not my bar for the main character. In my head he was much better, so I didn’t allow the cover to influence me on this lead. After reading ‘Branded by Fire’ I almost feel sorely let down, but in some ways I feel like Singh had a large mountain to climb in living up to her previous book. Nevertheless, don’t not read this book because it’s invaluable to the series. I’d tell you to read this book and the whole Psy-Changeling series which is just fantastic, but don’t be prepared to be blown away by this particular novel. It’s just above average and leading to excitement for the future, but for me it’s more of a filler novel than anything.

In Singh's futuristic world, people have evolved into beings with special talents. The changelings are shifters and the Psy are a race of people with enhanced abilities.Blaze of Memory delves deeper into the group of people known as The Forgotten- Psys who dropped out of the Silence Protocol long ago when it was first enacted.Sensing the excising of emotions from the Psy, which The Silence did to to perfection, would lead to ruin- The Forgotten has formed its own culture and leadership and that leadership will stop at nothing to keep its people hidden from the ruthless Psy.When a frightened, ethereal woman gets dumped on his doorstep, Dev Santos, the current protector of the Forgotten, knows it's a setup, but he cannot stand by when someone is in need.Ekaterina, dubbed Katya by the enigmatic leader of The Forgotten, has no memory of who she is at the moment, but she's more frightened of what she was- and who she's programmed to become.Knowing her memories have been messed with she's desperate to get away from Dev, sensing she's more danger to him than he is to her. But Dev won't let her go and the more time they spend together the closer they become.Quickly, their hearts form a deep connection- even before their minds accept it- but one of them may not make it out alive. One thing's for sure, if Katya's a sleeper agent sent to destroy Dev, she's the perfect weapon.I'm very pleased to report I enjoyed Blaze of Memory MUCH more than the last couple that came out in this series. Dev and Katya were smokin' hot together.I thought Dev was deliciously alpha- even though he wasn't a changeling- and I loved his psy talent. More importantly I really liked Katya! She was certainly wounded, but I LOVED the way she didn't back down- even to the evil Psy who tried to destroy her. In her last book, Singh tried to make the female an alpha (can't even remember her name) and it didn't work for me- she just came off looking like a little girl "calling herself" an alpha female. Without even trying, Katya became more of a natural leader than that character. The book ends in nothing less than romantic bliss- be prepared to have your heart melt... and keep the tissues close at hand. :)

Blaze of Memory is the seventh full-length novel in Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling series. In this one, we have Devraj Santos, director of the Shine Foundation, who we met in Mine to Possess as a friend and colleague of Talin. A battered, unconscious woman is left on his doorstep and when she awakens, she has no memory of who she is. Using his considerable resources, Dev discovers her identity, and she’s Katya Haas, Ashaya’s (Hostage to Pleasure) former lab assistant who everyone presumed dead after a lab explosion. As Katya’s memories slowly return, she recalls that she was held hostage by Councilor Ming LeBon, who basically reprogrammed her mind. She’s certain that Ming sent her on some kind of mission, possibly to kill Dev or someone else, but she doesn’t know exactly what that mission is or what might trigger her to perform the task. So, while he deals with Shine business and family issues, Dev keeps Katya close, leading to a passionate love affair. Eventually they uncover a big secret that they’re sure the Psy Council wouldn’t want to go public, but in the meantime, Katya’s psychic reprogramming is slowly causing her brain and body to degenerate and there doesn’t seem to be anything they can do to prevent her from dying.Dev is one of the Forgotten, a descendant of the group of Psy who refused to live under Silence – the eradication of all emotions – and therefore left the PsyNet when Silence was instituted over a century earlier. Over the years, many of these Psy intermarried with humans and Changelings, but their children and grandchildren still show some level of Psy ability and some of the newer generations are starting to manifest some intriguing – and occasionally frightening – new abilities. As the director of the Shine Foundation, Dev is tasked with protecting his people and documenting their Psy powers, and in this capacity, he’s gained enemies within the Psy Council. That’s why when Katya shows up and appears to be some sort of Trojan Horse, he can’t allow her out into the wider world. Instead he keeps her close, while constantly on guard for the possibility that she might have been sent to kill him. But when she can’t seem to resist the pull to go North and escapes, Dev tracks her down and agrees to help her with her quest. During their journey to uncovering a huge secret, they give in to the passion that’s been simmering between them since the day they met, but unfortunately they’re unable to find a solution that will save Katya’s life. I admired Dev’s commitment to the Forgotten and his refusal to allow anyone under his protection to have to undergo Silence, even though some in his community, including his own cousin, are pushing for it. I also like that he cares for Katya in more ways than one. However, there’s still a certain coldness to him that felt more like a Psy who was either still under Silence or who’d just come out of it that seemed a little odd for someone who hasn’t ever been Silent. He was traumatized by his father going insane and killing his mother, and he has a military background, so I guess that’s what accounted for it. But he’s so distant for a large part of the story that I had a hard time connecting with him and falling for him like I wanted to. Also his own Psy power is the ability to manipulate metal and machines, but other than the occasional mental unlocking of a door or psychically “talking” to a car, we don’t see much of it in action. He frequently draws from the metal around him, but other than him saying it helped to calm him, I had a hard time understanding what exactly he was doing or getting from it. I think this also somehow played into his coldness, but I never quite figured out in what way.Katya is a Psy who has two mid-level talents, that of a telepath and an M-Psy, their medical designation. She formerly worked as Ashaya’s lab assistant, but when Ming destroyed the secret lab, she was presumed dead. In reality, Ming held her prisoner, psychically torturing and mentally reprogramming her, but to do what, she doesn’t really know. When she awakens in the Shine medical facility, she has no memory of who she is, but as her memories slowly begin to return, she knows two things: that she’s likely a danger to Dev and that she has a compelling need to go North. Katya chafes at what she views as Dev holding her prisoner, especially after all that she’s been through already, but at the same time, she’s attracted to him and has a burning desire to be as close to him as possible. When the need to follow her internal compass becomes too great, she escapes, although Dev follows and ends up helping her. But nothing they discover, nor their burgeoning love for one another, is enough to stave off the brain damage that is growing within her every day due to her basically being imprisoned within her own mind. Katya is a generally likable character, but I didn’t feel like I got to know her all that well. Maybe it was because she’s still trying to figure out who she is herself, because of the amnesia and the rewiring of her brain, but I just had a hard time connecting with her. Also, she’s the opposite of Dev in that she’s a full-blooded Psy who used to be Silent, but all her shields were destroyed by Ming, so she no longer is. However, in previous books when a Psy came out of Silence, they still usually took a while to warm up, while she almost instantly begins lusting after Dev and has a near insatiable urge to be touched, which is more like a Changeling. Supposedly this has to do with Ming holding her in what appeared to be sensory deprivation, but it was still hard for me to reconcile her behaviors with how past Psy characters acted in similar situations.Since Blaze of Memory is part of a long-running series, there are some common characters, although since the Shine Foundation is located in New York and most of the Psy and Changelings characters we’ve met so far are headquartered in San Francisco, there aren’t quite as many as usual. Lucas and Sascha (Slave to Sensation) help Dev with a young Forgotten boy who’s comes under Shine’s protection and who has no idea how to shield his powers from those who aren’t like him. Judd (Caressed by Ice) has another meeting with the Ghost and also helps Dev’s young cousin whose powers are out of control. Ashaya and Dorian (Hostage to Pleasure) meet with Katya a couple of times, and Ashaya tries her best to help Katya when her health begins to deteriorate. Ashaya’s son, Keenan, and Clay and Talin’s adopted daughter, Noor, who Katya knows from the lab, show up in a couple of scenes and some exciting and surprising new things happen with them. A handful of other characters from previous books pop up as well, but each of them get barely more than a mention. All of the Psy Councilors are present, including Kaleb (Heart of Obsidian), who continues to intrigue me. Psy Arrow Vasic (Shield of Winter) shows up, too, as we discover that not all the Arrows are quite as loyal to Ming as once thought. We also learn about another Changeling pack that I have a feeling will play a role in future books of the series.To be honest, I had a hard time rating Blaze of Memory. The first two-thirds or so of the book moved pretty slowly for me, which is kind of uncharacteristic for this series. There are frequent forays into what I’ll call the “Dear Matthew” letters written by a Psy mother to her son while the debate about whether the Psy should institute Silence is ongoing and after, as well as EarthTwo command logs, and it takes until nearly the end of the book to understand the significance of both. Until then, neither made a lot of sense, so I couldn’t help feeling like they contributed to the sluggish pace. I also didn’t really feel like Dev and Katya had much to do. They simply seemed to keep moving around from place to place, while Dev keeps an eye on Katya and tries to help her, fully knowing that she may be a metaphorical ticking time bomb, waiting to explode and wreak destruction. It wasn’t until they hit the road and followed Katya’s instincts that were driving her North that the pace started to pick up. Additionally, perhaps because I was having trouble connecting with Dev and Katya as individual characters, I also had trouble sensing their emotional connection to one another. They share an insta-lust for each other, but I just didn’t feel much on the emotional or romantic front until the last hundred pages or so. Because of these issues, I thought this was going to be the first book of the series that ended up only getting three stars from me. After the finale, I toyed with give it four, but ultimately decided it just didn’t quite get there and settled on 3.5. The last third of the book adds some new and interesting information to the series story arc that I’m sure will come into play as it continues. Also in the final pages, as it becomes apparent that Katya is dying and there doesn’t appear to be anything they can do about it, Ms. Singh managed to wring enough emotion out of these scenes to make me shed a few tears, which doesn’t happen often in my reading. While Blaze of Memory ended up being my least-favorite book of the series so far, the finale helped to make up for its earlier deficiencies, and it adds enough new information to make it a worthwhile – probably even must-read – book for fans of the series.

I have skipped this book while reading the series because I wasn't as interested in Dev story as I was in the stories of the other characters. Now I have came back to it and I generally liked this story though I realised that I have forgotten many things.

I definitely liked Dev, he is a fascinating and complicated hero. I definitely liked him more than Katya. Still her situation is unusual and she is a strong heroine.

It wasn't very easy for me to believe in love between Katya and Dev. It is mostly the story of love at the first sight.

This whole series is rather uncomplicated but the likeable characters make me still read it.

The romance couple in this one is a Psy that has had her memory erased and been given compulsions to kill the human that she has been dumped off at his door. Dev is the leader of Shine, a group that tracks down descendants of Psy that refused the Silence and hid themselves so well that not even their children knew their past. Honestly it felt a bit silly the risks he was taking knowing she was was a trap and that as the story progressed she was also dying. The B story with the Psy did advance that plot line along pretty well and does change how the Council split is going along the Pure Psy lines.

Blaze of Memory
5 Stars

Synopsis
As the leader of the Forgotten, Devraj Santos will do anything to protect his people from annihilation. When Katya Haas, a possible Psy assassin, is deposited on his doorstep suffering from amnesia, Dev knows he should kill her. As Katya penetrates the coldness within him, Dev finds himself incapable of extinguishing the one bright light in his life but soon discovers that forces beyond his control may take her from him forever.

Review
First book in which neither of the main characters is a Changeling but this does not detract, in fact, the book exceeded my expectations.

Dev & Katya have an intense chemistry and their physical closeness and emotional intimacy is virtually tangible.

Katya's Silence is broken and she feels every emotion intensely, which may explain why she is my favorite Psy heroine. Some readers may view her as weak and submissive but to me she exhibits incredible resilience and strength of will (as Ming Le Bon quickly learns).

Dev is an intense and compelling hero with just the right of amount of tortured thrown in to have me drooling. His skill with metal is very cool but underdeveloped and he has a tendency toward domineering but Katya's quiet strength completely undercuts this.

The climax and resolution of this book are simply heartwrenching and Blaze of Memory is added to the list of books that had me crying all over the pages.

There are several developments in the overall story arc with the origins of the Forgotten explained in the form of a series of wonderfully written letters, the questions regarding the Arrows' allegiance and the fractures in the NetMind. Things are certainly getting interesting and I look forward to the next installment.