Visions Of Heat by Nalini Singh

KEEPER, KEEPER, KEEPER, KEEPER, KEEPER!!!!

Nalini Singh, welcome to my auto-buy list!

I analysed quite a few things after finishing this book and discovered that there is something warm and comforting about Singh's writing.

There are so many things to explain but most of all, what I love about this story is how the hero and heroine fall in love. There is no great angst like in Ward's series and I am somehow comforted by that. Singh reminds me of how Julie Garwood's (holy new website!) historical romances used to make me feel. The hero and heroine were always partners instead of being enemies. Even when they come from a background of misunderstanding and hate, it is never focused on the person they fall in love with. It is this direct conflict that catches them up, trying to understand how someone they could love is from something they have learned to distrust.

Cindy Blurb: The Psy are basically beings that have forcefully striped themselves of emotion. They have cognitive abilities that far surpass those of any other creature but somehow they came to believe that emotions could cause them to go insane or worse, become monsters who could carry out acts of unspeakable horror. In order to cull the evil impulses they instituted the Silence which is a way of erasing the emotions that they are born with so that by the time they reach maturity they are ruled by logic only.

Faith Nightseer is a foreseer who forecasts for businesses and is one of the most accurate foreseer of her generation. She was given over to the Psy at the age of three because it became clear that she had the ability to see the future. From then on she was trained to only see visions dealing with business and she is so strong that she has kept her family in the foreground and made billions of dollars. Family, however, is not like what we think of. Foreseers have a higher rate of insanity and Faith is monitored almost every minute of the day to make sure that she is always able to meet her business requirements. In essence she is an asset.

Asset or not, Faith thinks she might be on the verge of a mental break because she is starting to have visions that have nothing to do with business. In order to find out what could be happening she decides to seek out the only Psy she knows that would have no reason to lie to her to keep her forecasting. Thus, she finds a way to escape the monitoring to go into Darkriver territory where the Changelings reign supreme.

Vaughn D'Angelo, a jaguar changeling has been drawn to a section of the city where he believes a Psy lives in almost relative isolation. He is surprised when he sees a woman Psy climb over the fenced in compound to start into the forest. He realizes that the woman must be seeking out his pack leaders' mate Sascha (book 1) who was formally of the Psy and knows he must intervene.

The fact that this story isn't ripe with misunderstandings is a great gift to the reader. I mean, really, couldn't you just see the whole 'you are mine enemy, must hate you but, day-am you're fine' thing happening?

Not even remotely with this story. It's about people from completely different backgrounds wanting to be together and learning to trust things that had once terrified them. Having Faith basically removed from any kind of physical contact at a young age makes her brain overreact to any kind of touch. Vaughn, whose survival is based on touch can only push at her so much before instinctively knowing she can take no more. It is a really beautiful dance to watch and the threat to Faith is very real and yet, both are willing to take a chance on the other.

Mini cut-off: Knowing what I do about the basic need for physical contact in humans (especially in the first year of life) I had a bit of a struggle with how fast Faith was able to overcome her fears. Then again, Faith isn't removed from the 'family' until she is three so I'm not sure if I'm supposed to assume that she would have been handled as a normal baby in the real world. I find this highly doubtful in that the adults are emotionless and don't seem inclined to touch. So I did struggle with just accepting that Faith or any Psy for that matter could overcome their upbringing. (I can talk about this in another post if anyone is confused)

I find it hard to summarize books that have so much world building going on but this is a world that is comfortable and for all it's unfamiliarity, easy to navigate. Again, kudos to Singh for this because I feel like I can actually see the parts of the world that only manifest in a Psy's mind. Vaughn and Faith get to the point where they are connected but Vaughn can only feel through the link whereas Faith can close her eyes and see the links. I like that there are facets of each other that their mate can not experience exactly like their mate. It makes their connection all the more powerful in that they still remain individuals and are expected to be able to take care of themselves. Sure, there is the need to protect but there is also respect for the other's ability.

Huh. So I could go on and on about this book and still, you would have to read it to understand the world. I guess it comes down to where I started. I love the way Vaughn and Faith fall in love.

I think others have mentioned that they liked the first book just a touch more than this one and I think it may be the hero. I can't put my finger on it but Vaughn seemed more insular than Lucas but since Lucas is Alpha, he had to be more open with his relationships.

What I am excited about is that the next book in the series has the hero as the Psy. I think it would become a bit redundant to have the heroine always being the Psy so I look forward to the next in the series. The snippet at the back guarantees that I'm gonna love it too!

Side Trip! I mentioned that this book had me thinking about many things and one of the things that occurred to me was that the world Singh has created is much more organic than many of the other series paranormal books I have read. In particular, my love of J.R. Ward's series is completely different from that of Singhs'. Ward's stories have these finite rules that make everything so structured that the reader knows there are certain things that can never happen (unless someone magically turns into a Brother - just saying). Singh's world has endless possibilities and doesn't seem as black and white as Ward's world. Even still, there is a logic that has to be followed in Singh's world so it's not like she is breaking any rules. Contrast both these world's with Kresley Cole's world and yet again, it's something completely different. I think in Cole's world anything is possible but it is the protagonists themselves that create the conflict - rival species etc.

I just found it an interesting contrast considering I have read books in all these series and had keepers from all three. Makes you wonder what it really is that can make a series click cause three more different story paths I don't think you would find.

What do you guys think?