Singh, Nalini - Visions of Heat

[oyceter]

Faith NightStar (this is a PsyClan name, not a pretendian one, I think) is one of the world's top F-Psy; she forecasts business trends with unerring accuracy and can even be prompted by triggers, further upping her value. But lately, she's been getting visions of horrible violence, disturbing because the Silence has supposedly wiped emotion from all of the Psy. She ends up getting help from a leopard Changeling clan, though she's instantly attracted to a jaguar Changeling, Vaughn.

Wow, that was a lot of information.

I picked this up in a used bookstore after reading magicnoire's rec of Singh's first book. I couldn't tell if the heroine of this one is multiracial or not (ditto with the hero), but in general, the book has a lot of side characters who just happen to be Asian or Caribbean or etc., which is promising.

This had pretty much everything I am sick of in romances -- the clear signs of a series, including way too much information about the couple from the previous book and a bazillion alpha males, each more alpha than the last; Very Special eyes -- all cardinal Psys have eyes like the night sky, completely black with spots of white and occasional lightning depending on mood; instant lust; extreme and literal alpha maleness complete with almost biologically ordained protectiveness; and psychic mating.

On the other hand, what made me keep reading was how it differed from paranormals I've read in the past. First, the psychic mating is an optional life-long bond, unlike most forced soulmate bonds. And even though the heroine from the first book was an empath, Faith is icy cold. Her breaking away from emotionless Silence went a little too fast for me to entirely believe it, but I like that she still retains her brain for logic and strategy. I rolled my eyes at the hero's Angsty Past and his jaguar-ness and growling, but it was a pleasant surprise to discover that the bulk of the book was about Faith -- I think we get one or two mentions of the hero's Angsty Past, and the rest is all about Faith breaking away from the only society she's known and avenging herself on her sister's killer. I approve!

And while the power dynamic is still a little too imbalanced for me to like, particularly the focus on male physical strength and sexuality, I was happily surprised when the very alpha Vaughn actually lets Faith go off on her own and explicitly says he trusts her strength enough to just watch her back for her instead of jumping in himself. And! Giant bonus points for finally tying the guy up during sex, even though he's still too commanding for it to be totally trope-breaking.

I also wish there were less about jaguar-ness and cat-ness and other such animalistic descriptions, though at least they're literal. Also also, I wanted more female Changelings and more male Psys, as the story structure and social set up of the Psys basically calls for alpha Changelings and Psys learning to get in touch with their feelings. Still, I'm glad that there's a divorce between physical strength/sexual charisma and emotional vulnerability in that the men seem to be much more primed to fall in love than the women.

I've also grown very interested in the world; it's much deeper and richer than past paranormals I've read, and it has psychics running corporations and forming psychic webs! Much of my dislike of the male-Changeling/female-Psy pairings and potential essentialism is also diffused by getting a broader look at Psy society, though Changeling society still feels largely male.

Plus, the next book has psychically wounded female wolf Changeling who reacts to psychic damage by getting more violent + ex-assassin Psy guy, and it is now on hold at the library.

Verdict so far: not completely a fan yet, but Singh's doing enough interesting and different things for me to overlook the tropes I dislike.

ETA: OMG! I totally didn't comment on this at first because I didn't realize. But, people, the couple from the first book? The woman is not pregnant! There are no adorable children running around at their feet! This book does not end with Faith pregnant!

Comments

[estara.livejournal.com]

Well, you get an icy PSY male alpha in the following book, Caressed by Ice, with a changeling heroine (still no POC), and in the fourth one, Mine to Possess, the changeling hero is half-Egyptian (but raised in Singh's version of the US) - however the human heroine seems to be of Irish descent.

They stay alpha males though both sides always have emotional baggage and it's clear that both need the other to get over said emotional baggage.

This is currently my second favourite paranormal series after the Guardian series by Meljean Brook. Even more asskicking females there (and occasionally more broken ones).

Oh and in the second book of the Guardian series you may have a male European British beautiful noble (well, but he's been a vampire for a few hundred years) but the heroine is half-Indian and very much influenced by her full Indian grandmother who runs an Indian restaurant and wants to have her make an arranged marriage (okay so it's another stereotype, but dealt with in a non stereotypical way). That's in Demon Moon.

And the heroine of the first book originally came from Carthago ^^. And to be honest, there's so much world building in the first one that you might not enjoy the second one without that background, not sure. I read them in order.

[oyceter]

Oh huh, I haven't heard of Brook before, thanks for the rec!

More info, more info

[estara.livejournal.com]

Really big on worldbuilding, but the characters carry the day with their dialogue (I do think you need to read the three novels in order, although the novellas in the various anthologies are nice, they're not necessary: unless you start to want more Colin - from the second novel - then you need Falling for Anthony).

I also love her website blog (she came from FANFICTION Batman & Wonderwoman, and she was really good! http://www.fanfiction.net/u/120310/Meljean_Brook ), especially her romance reviews with her 12 year old self http://meljeanbrook.com/blog/archives/category/missy

If you don't mind spoiling yourself, the first four chapters of the third novel Demon Night are online http://www.meljeanbrook.com/demonnight_sneakpeek.pdf

Wow and I realised she also put up the first four chapters of Demon Moon (the one with the half-Indian heroine):
http://www.meljeanbrook.com/demonmoon-peek.pdf

There is also a Demon Angel (first novel) excerpt but neither is it from the beginning of the book, nor is it four chapters long:
http://www.meljeanbrook.com/lilith.html#excerpt

Re: More info, more info

[estara.livejournal.com]

Here are some good reviews about the first two novels, too.

http://rosario.blogspot.com/2007/01/demon-angel-by-meljean-brook.html
http://rosario.blogspot.com/2007/06/demon-moon-by-meljean-brook.html

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

The lifebond trope normally drives me bonkers but yeah, it's the worldbuilding that hooked me. I guess I'm just so desperate for paranormals that don't features vampires and to a lesser extent, werewolves. (And I love werewolves... It's just... I'm reaching overload, I think.)

[oyceter]

I'm still a little bemused by how caught up I was! I used to not like paranormals at all, largely because I felt the worldbuilding existed solely to make the romance work, which annoyed me as an SFF fan. But I really want to know more about PsyNet.

I'm less annoyed with the lifebonding than I'd normally be, given that at least the woman gets a choice!

[oracne.livejournal.com]

CARESSED BY ICE is my favorite of these so far. Angst-o-rama!

I can handwave the bonding though, warning, in a later book we learn there's a kind of mate bonding between Changelings that is lifelong, and Bad Things happen to you if your mate dies (it's implied that's why a character's mother was insane). At least it's not Instant Bonding like superglue.

After the first two books, I liked that the males are the emotional ones at the mercy of their hormones and the females the cold and logical ones, which is the reverse of most romances. Not sure what it means that my fave of the series has a cold Psy male, but that has other factors (ANGST!) to make me like it.

The latest book has some interesting stuff about the role of humans and mixes between Psys, humans, and changelings.

[oyceter]

CARESSED BY ICE is my favorite of these so far. Angst-o-rama!

Eeeexcellent! I read the excerpt of it and was all over it. Library, hurry up and get it to me!

Hrm, ok. I generally dislike the whole "mate for life" thing, but am willing to give this a pass since at least the guy so far hasn't been "We mate for life! Therefore you must have sex with me and love me even though all I've done is be overbearing and annoying." I especially liked Vaughn's panic over realizing he was bonded to her and that she might not reciprocate.

I liked that the males are the emotional ones at the mercy of their hormones and the females the cold and logical ones, which is the reverse of most romances. Not sure what it means that my fave of the series has a cold Psy male, but that has other factors (ANGST!) to make me like it.

I know!! I want to be more enthusiastic about the switch re: who's more emotional and who isn't, but... icy Psy assassin guy and clawing damaged Changeling woman! I think I tend to go for emotionally vulnerable more when there is less alpha posturing (then again, I am for less alpha posturing in general).

[oracne.livejournal.com]

The changeling in the most recent one has a bit of posturing, but it's all surface. I think the message is "he's tough! he'll kill to protect you!" but the women in this series seem to stand up for themselves pretty well.

[oyceter]

Yeah, the women do, thank goodness. I dunno... I think I am just much less impressed with male toughness now (hi cute kdrama guys! How you have spoiled me!).