Allegiance of Honor by Nalini Singh
Series: Psy-Changeling #15
Rating: ★★★★★
The Psy-Changeling world has undergone a staggering transformation and now stands at a crossroads. The Trinity Accord promises a new era of cooperation between disparate races and groups. It is a beacon of hope held together by many hands: Old enemies. New allies. Wary loners.
But a century of distrust and suspicion can’t be so easily forgotten and threatens to shatter Trinity from within at any moment. As rival members vie for dominance, chaos and evil gather in the shadows and a kidnapped woman’s cry for help washes up in San Francisco, while the Consortium turns its murderous gaze toward a child who is the embodiment of change, of love, of piercing hope: A child who is both Psy…and changeling.
To find the lost, protect the vulnerable—and save Trinity—no one can stand alone. This is a time of loyalty across divisions, of bonds woven into the heart and the soul, of heroes known and unknown standing back to back and holding the line. But is an allegiance of honor even possible with traitors lurking in their midst?
Book 0.5: Beat of Temptation (See Wild Invitation Review)
Book 0.6: Whisper of Sin
Book 1: Slave to Sensation
Book 2: Visions of Heat
Book 2.5: Echo of Silence (See Wild Embrace Review)
Book 3: Caressed by Ice
Book 3.5: Stroke of Enticement (See Wild Invitation Review)
Book 4: Mine to Possess
Book 5: Hostage to Pleasure
Book 5.25: Dorian (See Wild Embrace Review)
Book 6: Branded by Fire
Book 7: Blaze of Memory
Book 8: Bonds of Justice
Book 9: Play of Passion
Book 9.5: Declaration of Courtship (See Wild Invitation Review)
Book 10: Kiss of Snow
Book 10.5: Texture of Intimacy (See Wild Invitation Review)
Book 11: Tangle of Need
Book 11.1: Partners in Persuasion (See Wild Embrace Review)
Book 12: Heart of Obsidian
Book 12.1: Flirtation of Fate (See Wild Embrace Review)
Book 13: Shield of Winter
Book 14: Shards of Hope
Book 15: Allegiance of Honor
I’ve been reading this series for years – reading and re-read. In fact, you may have noticed I’m in the middle of a re-read right now with all my reviews of the earlier books finally being written. So it’s no secret that I absolutely adore the world, love the characters, and am entranced by the storyline. I won’t talk a whole lot about that here, in this review, because I think that I’ve said it often already, and probably will say it more as I continue to review previous books in the series.
What I do want to talk about is something amazing that Nalini Singh has accomplished here. Something that I’ve never seen successfully pulled off before by an author of a long-running series. Something that I wasn’t expected, but was oh-so pleasantly surprised by. Fifteen books in and Nalini has provided what every fan of a long-running series has ever asked for: follow up on characters and connections that we don’t get to see in the day-to-day activity of the “regular” books in the novel. And she does it brilliantly.
This series is a romance series and so is connected by the larger storyline and the world, with each individual book or novella being focused on a single couple – though of course their connections and the world building itself does give us some updates on some characters throughout. What this book does is so much different. It focuses on no one couple, but on nearly all the couples. That’s more than fourteen pairings that she weaves together into one book. And, get this: she does it coherently, with a real story driving it.
Yes, there is a STORY here. One that broke my heart at times, and made me cry with happiness at others. It never feels like vignettes into characters lives, it’s an epilogue for fourteen novels that tied up some questions – but in true Nalini fashion, uncovered so many more. We get further introductions and insights into new characters and see how beloved characters are evolving in this new world that they’ve begun to create, and learned that despite all the positive changes, it’s not time to relax just yet. There is still work to be done.
One could think that a series would start to lose it’s shine, the readers’ interests, so far into it. Truly, there aren’t many series that hold readers’ attention this long (if you know of others, I’d love to hear about them), and none that have held mine this long. Even I thought that after Shards of Hope, the series might be coming to a close, that we might start up spinning off and learning of completely different aspects of the world. But that’s not even close to the truth. There’s so much more to explore here. So much more to figure out. And we’re not even close to out of the woods yet.
I loved this novel. I wasn’t expecting it, hadn’t even really hoped for it since Nalini is so generous with her extra scenes in her newsletters – a scene to catch up with a couple that we haven’t seen in a while, every month. But it’s here. And it’s beautiful.
Oh, and I do have some extras (a Q&A with Nalini and an excerpt) that I’ll be posting soon, so be on the lookout.
[…] Book 0.5: Beat of Temptation (See Wild Invitation Review) Book 0.6: Whisper of Sin Book 1: Slave to Sensation Book 2: Visions of Heat Book 3: Caressed by Ice Book 3.5: Stroke of Enticement (See Wild Invitation Review) Book 4: Mine to Possess Book 5: Hostage to Pleasure Book 6: Branded by Fire Book 7: Blaze of Memory Book 8: Bonds of Justice Book 9: Play of Passion Book 9.5: Declaration of Courtship (See Wild Invitation Review) Book 10: Kiss of Snow Book 10.5: Texture of Intimacy (See Wild Invitation Review) Book 11: Tangle of Need Book 12: Heart of Obsidian Book 13: Shield of Winter Book 14: Shards of Hope Book 15: Allegiance of Honor […]