Saturday, February 20, 2021

Review: Alpha Night by Nalini Singh

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Title: Alpha Night
Series: Psy-Changeling, Psy-Changeling Trinity
Author: Nalini Singh
Read copy: Mass Market Paperback
Published: January 5, 2021
Publisher: Berkley
ISBN: 1984803646
ISBN-13: 9781984803641

Alpha wolf Selenka Durev’s devotion to her pack is equaled only by her anger at anyone who would harm those under her care. That currently includes the empaths who’ve flowed into her city for a symposium that is a security nightmare, a powder keg just waiting for a match.

Ethan Night is an Arrow who isn’t an Arrow. Numb and disengaged from the world, he’s loyal only to himself. Assigned as part of the security force at a world-first symposium, he carries a dark agenda tied to the power-hungry and murderous Consortium. Then violence erupts and Ethan finds himself crashing into the heart and soul of an alpha wolf.

Mating at first sight is a myth, a fairytale. Yet Selenka’s wolf is resolute: Ethan Night, broken Arrow and a man capable of obsessive devotion, is the mate it has chosen. Even if the mating bond is full of static and not quite as it should be. Because Selenka’s new mate has a terrible secret, his mind surging with a power that is a creature of madness and death...

My rating:

Arrow Ethan Night is at the first-ever empath symposium in Moscow on a secret mission. Save and gain the trust of Selenka Durev, alpha of BlackEdge wolf pack.
It's not revenge that drove Ethan to accept the mission by the mysterious Consortium handler, but an experiment. He wanted to see if turning traitor would pierce the gray fog enveloping him.

It didn't. But Selenka did, by saving his life in return. And Selenka's wolf by claiming him for her own.

Mating-at-first-sight is for soap operas. At least that's what Selenka thought up until the moment her wolf went nuts and mated to a complete stranger.
A sexy stranger Selenka wouldn't kick out of her bed, but a stranger nevertheless.

Ethan claims her in return, giving his utmost devotion to the woman who saved him, the woman who made him see color after years and years of grayness. But their bond might not have the time to grow and develop...Because Ethan's mind is a ticking time bomb.


This is a tough one to review. Not on the suspense side, because that was great as always, especially with the newest tidbits...The Scarab Syndrome, the rapid deterioration of the PsyNet...I can't wait to see what happens next, because that last sentence sure is promising.
The other suspense subplot involving revenge among the wolves wasn't bad either.

It's the romance aspect that's the problem. It all went too fast (if I'm correct, the stoy spanned just a few days) and the beginning was more than a little cringey.
I worried about the "thankfulness" being the major factor in the romance in the previous book, but dismissed it because of how the romance was written and presented. In this story, I cannot dismiss it. I cannot help but consider it, because of how the romance (at least the beginning of it) was written and presented.

She blew away the fog inside him, she made him see what he was missing in terms of his association with the Arrows, she helped him connect with his "emotions"...And the initial power imbalance (not in terms of dominance, but experience) was glaring.
Thank God Ethan was a quick learner, so the power dynamic between them stabilized, but occasionally their interactions still made me wince. But that's just me. And toward the end, they were just adorable.

The reveal about the power inside of Ethan, slamming against his shields, bruising his brain, causing him nosebleeds, wasn't that big of a surprise either. They were enough hints about what was brewing inside him that when the reveal came it more-or-less fizzled, instead of exploding.

The more I write about it, the more I think about it, the more I'm dissecting and searching for/finding flaws, but the fact is, I liked it. I wanted to read it in one sitting, it kept me turning the pages, it made me root for Selenka, Ethan and their story.
Yes, it had its problems, but it was entertaining, intriguing, sexy, playful, suspenseful, dramatic...All a Psy-Changeling or a Psy-Changeling Trinity book needs.

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