Visions of Heat (Psy-Changeling #2)

Second in the Psy-Changeling paranormal romance series and revolving around three primary races: the two strong Changeling packs in North America the DarkRiver Leopards control the San Francisco area and the SnowDancer Wolves who control the rest of California; the icy, emotionless Psy who see themselves as superior to everyone; and, the humans who are tired of being pushed around. The couple focus is on Faith NightStar and Vaughn D\’Angelo. If you\’re interested, there is a chronological listing of the Psy-Changeling books on my website. My Take Wow! What would it be like knowing this is your destiny, that your life is predicated on total isolation? It\’s the most poignant reason for pulling emotion into one\’s life. Sure, I get that this Silence Protocol started out sounding good, but like most things, it was too good to be true. The production of a robotic raceis never good. The F-Psy designation is an interesting one. Forgetting to eat, sleep, breath, keep their hearts beating, requires a massive amount of oversight. It doesn\’t help Faith that for decades they\’ve been told they are too delicate to handle the outside world. Visions of Heat is more intent on Faith and Vaughn\’s story with fewer interactions with the others. And, okay, so I\’m cheating. When I first started reading this series, I hadn\’t done an in-depth character review of Visions of Heat. All these years later, I\’ve read the series numerous times…and I gotta say that Singh is amazing in how well she\’s set up the series arc. Wow. If you ever want an example of good planning…read Psy-Changeling. It\’s third person dual protagonist point-of-view from Faith\’s and Vaughn\’s perspectives…so we know everything they think, feel, and experience. Especially all that, ahem, attraction, lol. Hmmm, wonder if they\’d ever do a cable series… Hubba-hubba… Their interactions (their thoughts) provide an inside view of life as Psy, the restrictions, versus the life and openness of Changelings. I much prefer the supportive, loyal approach of the Changelings. How it saved Vaughn. And the NetMind? I adore it! It\’s such a sweetie. Okay, so I wouldn\’t want to live in those personal boxes in skyscrapers that the Psy exist in, but it does blow my mind that pack members seem to live so far apart from each other. Of course, the architecture of the two packs also blows my mind. I love the caverns of SnowDancer and the aeries (and Vaughn\’s cave system) of DarkRiver. There are a number of incidents that convince Faith of her race\’s duplicity. Combined with her own mental degradation, it\’s a scary time for her. The threat of rehabilitation. More active action comes from the cat fights that take place between the councilors and that ambush the soldiers try. Hee-hee Jeez. Jeez. The implications that come up over why Faith\’s sister was chosen…oh. boy. There\’s a nice bit of revenge in this with the \”alliances\” NightStar has in the world. Yeah, it\’s a quid pro quo of sorts that no one yet suspects. Ooh, that \”battle\” amongst the juveniles is an excellent example of how to do an \”info dump\” without it actually being a dump! Another example is when Vaughn notes the good that the Psy did in the past. Whoaaa, that last paragraph… Yep, I need more Psy-Changeling. The Story Insanity was the number cause of death for F-Psy before Silence. That\’s what they\’ve been told. Used to cold silence, Faith NightStar is suddenly tormented by dark visions of blood and murder. A highly sought after F-Psy with the ability to predict the future, the fragile Faith is terrified that she\’s breaking. Then her visions show her something even more dangerous pleasure. Everything that\’s been conditioned out of her. Emotions that are stimulated by the fascinating Jaguar changeling Vaughn D\’Angelo who craves this woman, whose desire for her could snap the last threads of her sanity. The Characters Twenty-four-year-old Faith \”Red\” NightStar is a cardinal F-Psy, foresight; she predicts/sees the future and is worth billions to her PsyClan NightStar. Marine, a cardinal telepath and a communications specialist for NightStar, is a younger sister she would have liked to know better. Vaughn D\’Angelo, a DarkRiver Sentinel and artist, is a jaguar changeling with a horrific past. The seven-year-old Skye had been the little sister he couldn\’t help. DarkRiver is… …the leopard changeling pack that rules San Francisco. Lucas Hunter is the alpha, and he\’s mated to Sascha Duncan, the world\’s first acknowledged E-Psy ( Slave to Sensation , 1). Sascha\’s inclusion into the pack created the Web of Stars. Sentinels are Lucas\’ elite and include Nate Ryder, Lucas\’ second-in-command; Clay of the few words (their construction supervisor); Mercy (works for CTX); Dorian (a latent cat); and, Kylie, the sister who was murdered. Tamsyn Ryder is the pack healer mated to Nate. They have twin sons/cubs: the absolutely darling Roman and Julian. Soldiers include Barker, Jamie, and Desiree. The juveniles include Kit, a future alpha; Cory; Nicki; and, the injured Jase. Zara, a wildcat, is their design consultant and has been adopted into the pack to keep her safe. SnowDancer is… …the wolf changeling pack that rules the rest of California. Both packs have a few-months-old alliance. Hawke Snow is the alpha. Indigo is one of his lieutenants. Hawke accepted the defecting Lauren Psy clan: Judd and Walker Lauren are brothers. The troublesome Sienna Lauren is Judd and Walker\’s niece; Toby is her brother. Brenna Kincaid is the wolf changeling who had been mind-raped by Enrique. Dalton is their librarian. CTX is a joint communications network owned by DarkRiver and SnowDancer. The Psy are… …a people who see themselves as superior to everyone…and to any Psy with less power than they. They are ruled by an increasingly corrupt, despotic Council. The Councilors, all cardinals, include Marshall Hyde; Nikita Duncan (mental viruses), Sascha\’s cold mother and a serious power; Ming LeBon (mental combat); the dominant Shoshanna and her beta husband, Henry, Scott; and, Tatiana Rika-Smythe (able to disrupt the deepest shields). The Arrows are a secret death squad used to permanently silence critics of the Council. NightStar is… …led by Anthony Kyriakus, Faith\’s father. Her mother had been Zanna Liskowski, part of a fertilization contract. NightStar is a power in the Psy world, as their F-Psy predict the futures of businesses. For the Psy respect only economic might. Tanique Gray, a 9 Ps-Psy (psychometric) is Faith\’s half-brother. The eight-year-old Juniper is an up-and-coming F-Psy. I think Xi Yun is the head of the medical team who monitors Faith. Gia Khan, the ruthless twenty-seven-year-old Kaleb Krychek (Tk), and Faith NightStar are the council candidates. Sione is also an excellent F-Psy of the PsyClan PacificRose. The PsyNet is the mental meeting place of the Psy that also generates an energy that keeps the Psy alive. The sentient NetMind was created by the PsyNet and split into two; the DarkMind its twin. The Silence Protocol was first created by a cultlike group, Mercury. The Cassandra Spiral is a cascade of pain that turns the Psy it attacks into a vegetable. E-Psy are empaths, healers of the mind and emotion. A variation on F-Psy is backsight, being able to see the past handy for getting at the truth. Santano Enrique ( Slave to Sensation ) had been a Councilor and a sociopathic serial killer. Michael Bonneau had been a councilor until his unfortunate accident. When Tatiana was present in his home. Jax is a mind-altering drug. Enforcement is this world\’s law enforcement; they\’re in the Council\’s pocket. The Cover and Title The cover is the grays of an early evening forest, tall, tall trees silhouetted against a pale gray sky. A partial of Vaughn\’s bare shoulder and arm is a blend of deep peach skin and jaguar markings in gray, with his head turning to look back at us. In the top right is an info blurb in white with an angled title in a gray to deep metallic orange gradient. The author\’s name is at the bottom on the right in a scripted white. A testimonial, also in white, is on the bottom left. The title is a blend of Faith\’s foresight and the depth of her and Vaughn\’s passions, those Visions of Heat.

I love the books in this series but really don\’t see reading any more of them after this. I started the series with Silver Silence and thank God cause of I\’d started with this one I would have never read another. With a very few exceptions, every book seems to follow the same script – guy meets girl, guy decides girl is his\”mate\”, guy treats girl like she can\’t do anything without a man to take care of her, girl allows guy to be in charge cause \”he\’s dominate and dominant always take care of other\”, girl accepts \”mating bond\” and becomes good little \”stay behind and do what she\’s told\” mate. Hay here\’s an idea – how about just once have an actual strong women character who doesn\’t NEED a man, \”Tangle of Need\” has one of the best relays how about some more stories where people who actually just fall in love and leave the mating bond out of it, or how about a story with a strong dominate female who doesn\’t turn into a worthless twit when a guy shows up. The story in these books are awesome and I can read them again and again but dang! The relationship carp sucks!

Visions of Heat is written in third person with moderate to heavy amounts of sexual content (not erotically graphic but tactfully detailed) and adult wording throughout with a HEA ending. As this world is very different from reality and set in the future, all the series stands up over time, no matter when you pick up these books, it doesnt feel dated at all, making each story enjoyable for rereading, because we all know we reread our favorites several times! Although this book came out second, chorological order has this story as forth, the first two stories are short stories years before this one and the third, Slave to Sensation, taking place maybe a couple months before this story. That said, Visions of Heat can be read as a standalone, but would be more enjoyed as read in order with the series. Vaughn we meet in Slave of Sensation (He also shows up in Beat of Temptation & Whisper of Sin) So we understood some things about him already. Faith we had not previously meet. Given the uniqueness of Faith and Vaughs past, I found they work well together. The chemistry is very heavy and only grows as the story does. I love that we are shown part of past people from different books and a glimpse into future stories and hints are dropped. Those glimpses dont take or give anything, you dont even notice them until you have reread the story after the future books. With each story, people grow and develop further. I highly recommend this story and all the others from the Psy-Changling series.

Visions of Heat is a very well written story and Nalini Singh manages to bring the Psy-Changeling world and characters to life for me. The storyline kept me interested from start to finish and I never found myself bored or struggling to go on. I was drawn to the Changelings as being the right and good side, while also finding parts of the Psy appealing even though they are portrayed as the wrong side. I liked the touchy-feely part of being pack but would hate being touched all the time. I liked the idea of not being controlled by my emotions but hate the idea of not feeling…anything. I loved Faith and Vaughn together and enjoyed their journey to happiness. It was appealing that their love story was not rushed and it wasn\’t \’insta-mating-bond\’ like a lot of other similar stories. I liked that while Vaughn was intensely attracted to Faith, he was so patient with her and knew that her sensitivity to touch was not something to be pushed. The Heat level was perfect. There was enough Heat to get my heart pumping without being OTT or too much. It was sexy, sensual and passionate. This series is quickly becoming a favourite and I will definitely be going on to see the Council crumble and the Changelings take over the world…

Faith is a rare F-Psy, someone with the ability to see the future, her visions have used to predict the stock market since she was only 3 years old which has made the NightStar Clan very wealthy. Recently her visions have taken a darker turn and she seems to have become psychically linked with a murderer seeing nothing but death and destruction. She knows that she is on the verge of madness and that if the Psy Council find out she will end up institutionalised because her skills are too valuable for her mind to be wiped. Faith has no choice but to trust in the visions she sees of Vaughn, a sexy jaguar who is a member of the DarkRiver pack, who she is sure can help her track down the murderer and prevent more deaths. Vaughn\’s instincts tell him that Faith belongs to him but every touch brings her closer to an emotional overload that could send her over the edge. Vaughn trusts his instincts though and is determined to find a way to break through Faith\’s emotional barriers and convince her to take a chance on a future with him. Visions of Heat is the second instalment to the Psy-Changeling series allows us to find out even more about the different Psy abilities and the world that Nalini Singh has created. As much as I love the Guild Hunter series I\’ve always been fascinated by different psychic powers and I\’m really enjoying learning more about the Psy. The way they have trained themselves to block out any emotions makes them come across as an incredibly cold race, they don\’t seem to care about anyone or anything and use logic to make their decisions. Faith has been even more sheltered than most Psy, her abilities are incredibly powerful but they make her more vulnerable to emotional overload than most other Psy. She has spent most of her life alone and has rarely had any form of physical contact with anyone apart from for medical reasons. Her horror over the visions she is seeing has caused her to seek help from Vaughn and the DarkRiver pack, she knows that Sascha is no longer part of the Psy-Net and believes that she is the only person who can help her retain her sanity. Vaughn is the only jaguar amongst the leopards of the DarkRiver pack but they are his family and he will do anything to protect them. He is initially wary of Faith and worries that she could bring trouble do their door but there is something about her that calls to his jaguar side and he is unable to resist her. His animal instincts crave the comfort of touching her but he has to be careful not to overload her senses. I love the way Vaughn is constantly pushing Faith\’s boundaries, he keeps taking her to the edge but he knows better than she does what she is capable of and although he pushes her further than she thinks she can go he never takes things too far. Vaughn is a sexy alpha who is more in touch with his animal side than his human one and he certainly ticked all my favourite hero boxes. I think it is the fact that he is so different to Faith that makes them work so well as a couple, they both seem to know exactly what the other one needs and they find a way to provide it for them. Vaughn really helps Faith come to terms with her visions and he proves to her that she can cope with more than she ever would have guessed. I really enjoyed watching her grow into a confident woman as she learns more about her ability and how to control it. It was great to catch up with Lucas and Sascha several months on from when they met in Slave to Sensation and see how they are getting on as a couple and I loved spending more time with the DarkRiver pack and getting to know some of the other characters a little better. The more I learn about the Psy-Changeling world the more intrigued I am and I have a feeling that this is going to quickly turn into one of my favourite paranormal romance series. There is something about Nalini Singh\’s writing style that pulls you into the story and makes you feel so connected to her characters and I can\’t wait to see where the series goes next.

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