151-153- Blaze of Memory, Bonds of Justice, and Kiss of Snow by Nalini Singh
Likes/Dislikes: Honestly, there were some things that majorly annoyed me about Blaze of Memory and Bonds of Justice. There is the most hilariously overwrought, horrible, retro euphemism for virginity at the end of Chapter 17 in Bonds of Justice, for example:
He saw her hands clench on her thighs, the scent of her a mix of vanilla, lavender, and something a little wilder, uniquely her own, a flower that had never known the hand of man.
Ahahahahha.
And then there was more of the “exotic eyes/exotic skin,” but it got amped up here when one of the guys from Shine gets skin that’s like “the most luscious dark chocolate.” Sigh. Still intrigued by the insistence on animalizing (changeling-izing) men—Dev’s human, but he gets “tiger’s eyes” in Blaze of Memory, for example.
I didn’t love Blaze or Bonds, to be honest, though Max (Asian hero!) and Sophia were better than Dev and Katya. The human + psy pairings in this series just aren’t all that interesting—especially because it just seems like an only slightly more layered version of the “helpless and stupidly innocent girl who gets turned on to sex by a dangerous man” thing. That happens in the human/psy + changeling ones, too, I suppose (and…um…like, all the historicals I read), but evidently I was feeling easily bored last week.
But, OH MY GOD. KISS OF SNOW. It was so worth the dullness of the previous two books.
Hawke. Hawke is officially being added to my list of all-time favorite romance heroes. Sienna is also a badass, because she seduces him by making out with other boys and dancing on tables, and SETS HERSELF ON FIRE. So, basically we have a werewolf + a member of the X-Men, and there is NOTHING NOT TO LOVE.
Love the secondary romance plot. Love the baby. Love that I have no idea what’s going on with the Ghost or council. This series is getting seriously complex (like, besides all the weird things that ended up in my thesis), and I kind of think Nalini Singh might be a genius.
The most absurd moment is this rousing speech:
“We’ll not only survive this, we’ll come out of it stronger than we went in, because we have something the enemy can’t imagine: heart.”
Oh, Hawke.
Everything I've Read This Year 
english269au11
13 September 11
RE lameness of Bonds of Justice and Blaze of Memory: It’s no coincidence that the heroes are humans and the heroines are Psy in these 2 books. Am I wrong in thinking that the changelings are what make this series so delightful? I think not… 🙂
english269au11
13 September 11
This is Julia, btw. I changed my wordpress account name b/c I’m using the blog for my class this quarter.