Heart of Obsidian by Nalini Singh – a Review
Links to order Heart of Obsidian:
Amazon / Barnes & Noble / The Book Depository / Kobo
Description:
A dangerous, volatile rebel, hands stained bloodred.
A woman whose very existence has been erased.
A love story so dark, it may shatter the world itself.
A deadly price that must be paid.
The day of reckoning is here.
From “the alpha author of paranormal romance” (Booklist) comes the most highly anticipated novel of her career—one that blurs the line between madness and genius, between subjugation and liberation, between the living and the dead.
Review:
Heart of Obsidian by Nalini Singh is the 12th book in her Psy/Changeling series. My favorite book in the series (I love them all), was a tie between Slave to Sensation & Kiss of Snow. Notice I said was, though it is close. I never thought I would love a book just as good or better with the hero being Kaleb Krychek, especially in competition with Hawke or Lucas. But Heart of Obsidian was simply amazing. Nalini Singh continues to prove that she is a master storyteller, and in this book she has created a fantastic masterpiece.
Heart of Obsidian is Kaleb Krychek’s story, as we knew it would be after the end of Tangle of Need. We did not know who was the woman he had found, and what did she mean to him? We learn early that Sahara Kyriakus (Nightstar) was that woman, someone deep in his past, who turned out to be a fantastic heroine. This book belongs to Kaleb and Sahara, in so many ways.
The book picks up immediately after Tangle of Need, with Sahara transported to Kaleb’s home, where he slowly tries to get her out of a labyrinth shell, which she herself put together during her 7 years in captivity. Right away you are surprised how gentle, but firm Kaleb is with Sahara. We know from the start she is important to him, but Sahara does not remember Kaleb. This is a surprise, as Kaleb has always came across as the most powerful psy; cold, calculating, and extremely dangerous. With Sahara we begin to see a different side of Kaleb, and Nalini does such wonderful job in salvaging him.
This is not to say that Sahara wasn’t equally as wonderful as Kaleb. She was awesome, and possibly one of the best heroines in this series. As Sahara begins to heal, and trust Kaleb, she sees his inner darkness, and knows how dangerous he is. But she also sees the goodness in him and together they will discover each other, as their love grows, and each will heal in their own way. Kaleb loves Sahara, as he knows she is the only person who can save him. This was such a beautiful romance, with two damaged people, who lost and found each other.
It is Sahara who will get Kaleb to reveal his past, and how he came to be what he is. We learn the horrifying truth of Kaleb being trained by the evil Santano Enrique, and the things he had to endure. Sahara uses her memory of the young Kaleb, to help show him not everything is dark, and the light inside him is their love. The fact that Nalini can get us to care about Kaleb is something, but we got to love him, as much or more then many of the other psy/changeling heroes. Since all the heroes in this series are awesome, this was an amazing feat by Nalini.
Kaleb and Sahara’s romance is so emotional on every level. As always, the sex scenes were hot and steamy, but there were some added elements of humor that were funny. For example, when Kaleb professed to be a virgin, and after they had hot and heavy sex, Sahara asked him how he knew what to do, or if he tested on someone. He offered to share his research on the internet for her to read. Lol
Besides this wonderful romance that pulled on our heart strings, not to mention the intensity, Heart of Obsidian continued the ongoing civil war with the Pure Psy against the Psy Council and Changelings. Kaleb was the hero throughout, working with his Arrows to save many people from the destruction being done by the Pure Psy. Though there was a constant worry that Kaleb had other plans, & the extent he would he go to control the Psy net.
We get to see some of our other favorites like Aden, Vasic, Judd, Mercy, Faith, Vaughn, Nikita, Anthony, and briefly Hawke and Lucas. There was a lot of intense action throughout, with all the factions helping one another to fight the evil Pure Psy.
The ending was very exciting, with some resolution, as it is a game changer. However, much is left open to see how this change will affect the Psy & Changelings, and most of all…Silence. There is so much more to learn, and more enemies to defeat, but I can’t wait for what Nalini has in store for us as she reaches the final few books to end this arc.
Will Silence survive? Will Sahara be able to keep the darkness inside of Kaleb in control? Did we learn who is Ghost? Yes, we did, but you will have to read this book to find out who it is.
Heart of Obsidian is an emotional roller coaster, very intense, exciting, and an amazing romance. It is this romance that totally surprised me, being so beautiful, so much emotion, and very passionate. I can’t say enough of Nalini Singh, who has become one of my top favorite authors, how great a writer she is. Not only can she take a character seemingly unredeemable, dangerous and make him someone we would fall in love with; but she continues to amaze me how she keeps all the details of this complex world so precise, flawless and brings us to an exciting climax still to come. Bravo Nalini, you outdid yourself in this book!
Reviewed by Barb
