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Resonance Surge
by
Nalini Singh
paranormal romance in a Kindle edition that was published by Berkley on July 18, 2023 and has 384 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Must Love Hellhounds, Kiss of Snow, An Enchanted Season, Archangel's Blade, Angels of Darkness, Lord of the Abyss, Desert Warrior, Angels' Flight, Tangle of Need, Play of Passion, Archangel's Storm, Wild Invitation, Heart of Obsidian, Archangel's Legion, "Hide and Seek", "Making Dinner", Shield of Winter, "A Conversation", "Home", Angels' Pawn, "New Year's Kisses", Night Shift, "Weapons Training", "Zoë's Workshop", "Wild Night", Archangel's Shadows, Archangel’s Enigma, Shards of Hope, “Fairy Balloons”, “An Unexpected Guest”, Allegiance of Honor, "The Song of the Wolf", Silver Silence, Archangel’s Heart, Archangel’s Viper, Ocean Light, "Elena's School of Horror", Cherish Hard, "Ain’t No Party Like A Bear Party", Archangel's Prophecy, "One Night At The Refuge", "Secret Things", Rebel Hard, Rock Hard, Wolf Rain, "Clean and Dirty", "Wolf School", "Naya’s Most Important Visitors", "Grocery Shopping", "The Cannibal Princess", "A Gift for Kit", "Movie Night", "Kaleb and Sahara’s Meeting with Sascha and Lucas", "Housewarming at the Orchard", "Christmas in the Kitchen", "Stalking Hawke", "Romancing Drew", "Sunday Morning", "Rowan", "Baubles & Ben", Wild Embrace, Love Hard, Rock Addiction, "Music Awards", Rock Courtship, "Rock Courtship Memo"s, Rock Redemption, "Sunshine", Rock Wedding, "With This Memo", "That Lip Ring…", A Madness of Sunshine, "Beary Tiny Ghosts", Alpha Night, "A Wedding Breakfast", "Poker Night", "Knives and Sheaths", "Seedlings", "Star Kissed", "A Walk on the Cliffs", "Wild Cat Blues", Slave to Sensation, Caressed by Ice, Visions of Heat, Kiss Hard, Angels' Blood, Archangel's Kiss, Archangel's War, Archangel's Sun, Archangel's Light, Archangel's Resurrection, Last Guard, “A Perfect Moment”, "Music in the Rain", Storm Echo, "Mate", “New Year’s Eve”
Seventh in the Psy-Changeling Trinity paranormal romance series (a spin-off from the Psy-Changeling universe in which it’s the 22nd) and revolving around three races: Changelings, Psy, and humans. The primary couple focus is on Yakov Stepyrev and Theodora Marshall with a secondary focus on Pavel and Arwen. If you’re interested, there is a chronological listing of the Psy-Changeling books on my website.
My Take
Naturally, Resonance Surge continues the problems of Silence and its effect on the Psy with an emphasis on those who needed to be rehabilitated, placed in the Centers to be mindwiped, destroyed. An underlying series arc is the fracturing PsyNet. Fortunately, maybe, Singh continues to remind us that Silence favored the psychopaths.
There’s a good bit of back history on Theodora and her hideous childhood, her even more hideous grandfather and mother, which we learn about through third person global subjective point-of-view, primarily from Theo’s and Yakov’s perspectives. Other perspectives are through Arwen and assorted messages passed back and forth.
It does make me crazy how down Theo is about herself, the rages she fears. It’ll take Yakov to make her see the real her.
The Steyprev back history is about Denu, their Psy great-grandfather, and his experience with the dawn of Silence and how it affected him and his family. It’s enough to make you cry. A family who adored each other but couldn’t maintain silence in that emotion.
To be Silent is to be without emotion, and that included separating twins at age seven. That grandfather of theirs never understood the psychic and emotional connection Pax and Theodora had. What an idiot. Thankfully. Theodora mentions researching her family’s back history. Egods.
Power is everything to the Psy. Perfection is critical. And Hyde demanded it. The things we’ll do to feel the approval of family. Jeez.
Unfortunately the entire Marshall family is vicious. Such a contrast to the bears! I love how Valentin cares for their “tiny gangsters”, lol, cuddling them, holding their hands, caring about them. All through that alpha power. The bears take that “it takes a village” to heart as “any cub can go to any adult for help or a hug”.
It does seem a dichotomy that the Psy raised in Silence are supposed to be frigid in their logic and yet they’re so passionate about destroying those who aren’t as Silent as they “should” be, that they are so passionate about eliminating those family members they don’t consider a benefit to the family line.
The medications that first evolved in helping Psy dampen their abilities were so helpful, and of course, man being man, just has to take it to extremes. Another extreme was judging people for “perfection”.
Those epigraphs with their advice on handling changelings cracks me up.
Arwen has his own concerns about bonding with Pavel, and it does make sense. Wait’ll you read the excuses Arwen gave to not date Pavel. Oops, sorry, I gotta go walk my fish now . . . It’s beautiful that Pavel and Arwen share the same ideas about children. Singh spares a bit of background on Nina and Club Moscow.
I do love the bears. Yakov has a few memories that made me a laugh including the one about bears walking into shops wearing credit chips. Buying lingerie, as bears. Yakov and Pasha cheering their mother on as she destroyed their potential kidnappers, lol. It’s that bear-warmth that has Theodora questioning so much, appreciating bear kindness, and falling in love. Discovering emotions she hasn’t felt in decades.
It’s a combination of character, action, and emotions that will grab you by the throat! There is such a contrast of horror and love between the Marshall clan and the StoneWater bears. While it’s a fast-paced story, it can feel rather endless with all the whinging from Theo. Yeah, yeah, she’s entitled after all she’s been through, but oy.
I’m thinking Pax’s story is coming up soon with all the planning he’s doing to protect Theo, to ensure a reliable CEO after he’s gone, and those mysterious pings he’s getting.
It is sad that any group of people would force others to their way of thinking. It was even sadder, if very satisfying, to watch Theo discover the joys of life again.
I’ll tellya, if you want to learn about romancing someone and having a good relationship, you could do worse than read the Psy-Changeling series. Paying attention to the one you love, listening to them, not being possessive, sharing in their passions.
The Story
Yakov has been dreaming of her since he was sixteen. Now he’ll meet the woman of his dreams when she comes to inspect the Center outside Moscow.
The Characters
The defective and psychotic Theodora “Thela” Marshall, a Gradient 2.7 with a telekinetic ability which is too low to have any value, was trained as a medical device technician and is a fully qualified nurse. Her Harmonic twin, Pax Marshall, is a Gradient 9 and highly valued even if he has Scarab Syndrome. He is the current head of the Marshall Group and determined to right wrongs. Their evil grandfather, Marshall Hyde, had been a councilor in the bad old days. His home base was in Toronto. Claire is Theodora and Pax’s cold mother. Miles Faber is the father who was not considered family. Colette had been Theo’s “foster parent”. A jailor. Keja “Keke”, Claire’s sister who died, had been a Gradient 2.3.
Yakov “Yasha” Stepyrev, a.k.a. Mischief Bear One and Yashmina, (basic medic training with degrees in chemistry and pharmacological compounds with a brain partial to pattern and organization) is twin to Pavel “Pasha”, a.k.a. Mischief Bear Two and Pashmina (who is really good with computers). Both are bear shifters of the StoneWater Clan, each with some of their great-grandfather’s ability. Both are also seconds to their alpha. Mila Hien Kuznets is Yakov and Pavel’s mother, a former Enforcement cop now a private investigator who runs the Beary Good Sleuths, a StoneWater mystery book club. Their father, Aikili Stepyrev, is a landscaper. Pavel is in a relationship with Arwen Mercant, an E-Psy, an empath.
Déwei “Denu” Nguyen, the twins’ maternal great-grandfather, had been Psy, a powerful foreseer who had mated a bear, Marian “Mimi” Marchenko. Quyen was one of their children; she’s mated to Viktor and are Yakov and Pavel’s maternal grandparents.
Graciele and Wacian had been their paternal grandparents. Bien Nguyen had been Denu’s father. Denu’s parents adopted two boys, Otto and Grady. Geri is an aunt. Maggie is one of Quyen’s cousins.
Hien Nguyen had been Déwei’s sister, an engineer, who married Kanoa Adelaja, a Psy musician. They have a daughter, Neiza. Catherine and Arif Adelaja were major contributors to the development of Silence.
The StoneWater Clan is . . .
. . . a shifter den of mostly Kamchatka brown bears based in Moscow. The Cavern is the central hub of the bear den. Valentin “Valya” Nikolaev is the Alpha who is mated to Silver “Siva” Mercant (Silver Silence, 1 (16)). Silver is the head of the EmNet, the Emergency Response Network. Anastasia “Stasya” is Valentin’s sister and second-in-command. Dr Evanova “Nova” Nikolaev, his second-eldest sister, is a healer and an MD mated to Chaos, a polar bear and the chief cook. Dan Bogdan is a cook. Silkie. Zahaan Saarinen. Moonbeam “Moon”, a.k.a. the Berserker, and Elbek are out to bird-watch. Sally-mae bakes fruit pies. Simeon is a bearded submissive bear being courted by Vana, a dominant one. Chimeg does the decorating for bear properties. Some of the tiny gangsters are Fitz, Nurlan, Juji, Arkasha, Dima (Nova and Chaos’ son and Valya’s nephew), and Zhenya. Vadim and Calina work as bouncers at Club Moscow. Taji is another second and their armorer. Hakon is a polar bear from Svalbard, Norway. Auntie Anni.
The BlackEdge Clan are wolf Changelings based in Moscow and allied with StoneWater. Memory Aven-Rose, an E-Psy with a specialization, was the saving of Pax Marshall (Wolf Rain, 3 (18)). Memory is mated to Alexei “Lexie” Vasiliev Harte, a wolf shifter in SnowDancer. Sascha Duncan, an E-Psy, is mated to Lucas Hunter, a panther shifter and Alpha for DarkRiver (Slave to Sensation, 1). Desiree.
The Mercants are . . .
. . . an unusual Psy clan, for they raise their children with love. Ena Mercant is their formidable Matriarch and Silver and Arwen’s grandmother who is based in the Sea House. Ivan Mercant is mated to Soleil Garcia (Storm Echo, 6 (21)). Genera is a teleporter. Canto Mercant is an anchor and is married to Payal Rao (Last Guard, 5 (20)), a cardinal telekinetic, the CEO of the Rao Conglomerate, and a representative of Designation A on the Ruling Coalition. Uncle Rufus is a recluse. Adina Mercant was a famous poet.
Kaleb Krychek is a dual Cardinal, the highest ranking for a Psy; he’s married to the humanizing Sahara (Heart of Obsidian, 12). Silver had been his personal assistant until she mated with Valentin. He, Nikita Duncan (Sascha’s mother), and Anthony Kryiakus, the head of the powerful NightStar foreseer clan and Sahara’s uncle, had all been on the Council and are now part of the Ruling Coalition that took over from it. Aden is the leader of the Arrows, special ops soldiers for the Psy who had rebelled against the Council (Shards of Hope, 14). They now protect the Empaths. Ivy Jane Zen, an E-Psy, is the president of the Empathic Collective and part of the Ruling Coalition (Shield of Winter, 13).
Dr Kye Li and Dr Upashna Leslie are PsyMed specialists working with Councilor Hyde. Scarab Syndrome is a disease in which the individual’s mind eats them up and only Silence could prevent it. Centers are medical establishments where defective Psy are sent with many owned by the Marshall family. It’s Councilor Vey Gunasekara (2012) was the one who brought up the need for rehabilitation for those who fail to achieve Silence. Dr Maia Ndiaye is PsyMed and reporting on Scarab Syndrome. Professors J Paul Emory and KV Dutta wrote Overview of Gradient Levels denoting the abilities of Gradients 1 through 3. The PsyNet is a universe of minds, necessary to provide biofeedback to all Psy. The PsyNet Island, a.k.a. the Island, was created in Storm Echo, 6 (21) and is completely separate from the PsyNet; it’s a “prison” for those Psy afflicted with Scarab Syndrome and is held by Ivan Mercant.
Harmony pairs are frequently twins whose two abilities merge to become something extraordinary. Aleya was a Psy philosopher in the 1500s. ZDex Private Security Consultants is retained by Pax. Octavio is an independent teleport capable Tk, a Gradient 7.9. Jax is a drug formulated to control the Arrows. Santo Lombardi, a former chemical analyst for the Marshall Group, likes to garden. Janine “Nene” Fong is a Gradient 6.1. Cecilia “Cissi” Bonet is their Psy carer/bodyguard. Queenie had been another “inmate”. Enforced Malleability was Marshall Hyde’s code name for his special goal. The PsyNet Beacon is a Psy newspaper.
The Moskva Gazeta is a newspaper in Moscow. Victims of the Moscow Ripper include Varisha Morozov and Jelena Sekko. Detective Vo Zaitsev is investigtating. Yaroslav Skryabin is the enforcement commissioner. Wild Woman is a Changeling magazine with advice written by “Aunt Rita” for women that will crack you up. Danil Yaslav is a human horticultural expert. Nina Rodchenko, a human, owns Club Moscow, a popular nightclub. Jorge’s Cantina is human-owned by Juana and Videl that is popular with the bears. The Watcher. Xandra Jabi is writing a thesis on skin privileges. Gustav runs a bakery.
The Cover and Title
The cover is orange! On the left are the domes of St Basil with Theodora and Yakov facing in, snuggled up to each other at the sunset. All the text is white from the info blurb at the top with the author’s name below it. The title spans the couple’s backs with the series info below it at the bottom.
I’m thinking the title is about Theo, that Resonance Surge of her memories, of what her grandfather did to her.
