Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Storm Echo by Nalini Singh Series: Psy-Changeling Trinity #6, Psy-Changeling #21
Published by Berkley on July 26, 2022
Genres: Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy
Pages: 384
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Goodreads
Amazon, Audible, Libro.fm, Barnes & Noble, Apple
Silence has fallen. The Psy are free to feel emotion. Free to love. But Silence was never a prison for Ivan Mercant. The biggest threat to his future lies dormant in his brain—a psychic monster that wants only to feed. And now, the brutal leash he’s kept on that monster is slipping. He prepared for this day, for the end of Ivan Mercant . . . but that was before he met Lei.
As primal as she is human, this wild changeling brings color into his life, laughter to his soul. Then the dream shatters in a rain of blood, in silent bodies in the snow. Lei is gone. Vanished without a trace . . . until he meets strangely familiar eyes across a busy San Francisco street.
Soleil Bijoux Garcia is a healer who has lost everything. She exists in a world of desolate aloneness . . . till the day she finds herself face-to-face with a lethal stranger. The animal who is her other half knows this man, but her memories are tattered fragments. Sorrow and a need for vengeance are all that drive her. Her mission? To kill the alpha of the DarkRiver leopard pack.
A dark threat grows, the Psy Net continues to splinter, and two unlikely lovers meet again. I anticipate each new installment in this series with great excitement and Storm Echo was no exception.
Storm Echo is the #6 entry in the Psy-Changeling Trinity series which is a continuation of the original Psy-Changeling series. These read best in orde,r because the over-arcing series plot and returning characters continues and builds from past books.
Ivan Mercant is not himself and has his formidable grandmother who is the head of his house worried. He hasn’t been the same in over a year since he took a fighter training course in Texas, met a whimsical, joyful Changeling, rescued her after a horrific pack slaughter, and then never saw her again. He’s looked and put the Mercant intelligence service at work, but to no avail. Then in San Francisco, he spots her right as chaos breaks loose on that portion of the Psy Net and he discovers his deadly Psy gift provides him with abilities he didn’t know he had.
Soleil went through a traumatic time when her small, weak pack was destroyed. She has hazy memories of the time, but what she has discovered is that Lucas Hunter, the Dark River pack alpha ordered the slaughter so she is determined to make him pay for killing innocents (not that she puts her old alpha in that category). Only, Lei is a healer and when the moment comes, she finds herself helping to stabilize fallen Psy and curious about the man with cold blue eyes who stares back at her and gives her a strong sense of recognition. When it comes down to it, Lei would rather explore her cat’s strong attraction and need for Ivan Mercant than get revenge on Lucas Hunter- but, at the very least she will make the alpha account for killing her loved ones.
Storm Echo seemed to pull back from the global grand scale and focus on a couple and incidents close to them both in her Changeling world and his Psy world with bigger matters, like the Scarab Queen’s machinations, still there, but muted.
I’ve enjoyed seeing each Mercant cousin with their varied, powerful Psy gifts and horrific pasts get their turn at finding love. Ivan’s story involved living on the street, a mother addicted to Jax, and no idea who his father was while grappling with a unique ability to attach other Psy minds to his and drain them of energy until they’re husks. All his life, he has contained this gift, but now the containment walls are splintering, so he pushes away those he loves for the time he will be gone.
Lei was somewhat baffling to me at first and I was still a little hazy on how everything went down in her life after leaving Ivan at the training center until she shows up in San Francisco. There was an explanation in bits and pieces, but it never felt clear to me. It didn’t take her long, at least, to see that what she thought she knew about Lucas Hunter couldn’t have been more wrong.
Ivan and Lei were another amazing romance pair and I loved seeing open, sweet Lei draw out Ivan and teach him to love and enjoy life. She sticks to him and won’t let him push her away for her own good. I enjoyed seeing more of Ivan’s family particularly Ena and his E-Psy cousin jumping in when Ivan needs them.
Storm Echo had some exciting reveals from what Ivan’s strange Psy ability could do to big progress on the Queen of the Scarabs identity and that surprise connection at the very end that sets up an interesting situation for the next book.
For those coming new to the Psy Changeling world, I recommend readers start at the very beginning of the original series to get the full, deep, and rich wonders of the world and the characters. It is a paranormal romance series that urban fantasy fans can love on, too.
About Nalini Singh
I’ve been writing as long as I can remember and all of my stories always held a thread of romance (even when I was writing about a prince who could shoot lasers out of his eyes). I love creating unique characters, love giving them happy endings and I even love the voices in my head. There’s no other job I would rather be doing. In September 2002, when I got the call that Silhouette Desire wanted to buy my first book, Desert Warrior, it was a dream come true. I hope to continue living the dream until I keel over of old age on my keyboard.
I was born in Fiji and raised in New Zealand. I also spent three years living and working in Japan, during which time I took the chance to travel around Asia. I’m back in New Zealand now, but I’m always plotting new trips. If you’d like to see some of my travel snapshots, have a look at the Travel Diary page (updated every month).
So far, I’ve worked as a lawyer, a librarian, a candy factory general hand, a bank temp and an English teacher and not necessarily in that order. Some might call that inconsistency but I call it grist for the writer’s mill.
As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing.Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators.Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance.Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.
Friend or follow me at Goodreads.
- Pets in Space 5 @paulinebjones @RegineAbel @j_c_hay @lchasewrites @CarolNatta46374 @MDiener77 @kyndrahatch #CassandraChandler @sesmithfl@SFRLaurie @vscotttheauthor@sophiarose1816 - January 19, 2025
- Shattering Dawn by Jayne Ann Krentz @JayneAnnKrentz @BerkleyRomance @BerkleyPub @sophiarose1816 - January 15, 2025
- 🎧 Death by Disputation by Anna Castle @annacastl @joelfroomkin@sophiarose1816 #LoveAudiobooks - January 8, 2025
I haven’t started this series yet, but I do really like Nalini Singh!
You are in for a decadent treat, Lark!
I love this series so much!
Oh yeah, I can’t wait for each new book.
I tried getting into the Psy-Changeling series back when it first came out but after a few books I just wasn’t into it. I keep thinking maybe I should give it another try sometime.
Some of the books were iffy for me, too. I have some I really love and other books in the series are so-so. But, couldn’t hurt to try again and see if it was a mood thing last time.
You and Anne are killing me. I really need to get back into this series. I like that this focused on the couple. She keeps things fresh.
Haha, glad to tempt you with our reviews, Kimberly. You are so right about her way of writing romance pairs.
I really need to tackle this series sometime soon. This sounds really good!
I second that. And, the way you love audio, you don’t want to miss Angela Dawe narrating, Carole. 🙂
Great review. I got my copy today and can’t wait to read. I love this world.
You are going to fly through it, Angela. 🙂
I have a book in the series, well the original series, but I still need to try it
Yes, what a treat!
Yes! I loved this one too and I was surprised by the twist with Ivan’s identity as well. I’m excited for the coming stories, as usual!
Wasn’t that a great reveal? I can’t wait to see what comes next. 🙂
What a wonderful book and series. I haven’t yet tried a book by Nalini Singh
I’ve really enjoyed both her PNR/UF series, but she writes a fun Contemporary series that I still need to read. She’s great with the world building and character relationships.
This was a great installment. I loved the relationship with the main couple. I did get frustrated early on when Ivan just assumed she left him – I was like “Hello… maybe something happened to her?” he was so down on himself. But overall they are great together.
Oh yes, this was a definite winner in the series. It was an odd set of circumstances that pulled them apart, for sure.
Looking forward to reading this one!
You have a real treat in store, Role’!