I received this book for free from my own shelves in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: my own shelves
Primal Mirror
by
Nalini Singh
It is part of the Psy-Changeling #23, series and is a paranormal romance in a Kindle edition that was published by Berkley on July 23, 2024 and has 398 pages.
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Other books in this series include [books_series]
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, Resonance Surge, "Mate", “New Year’s Eve”, Archangel's Lineage, Visions of Heat, Mine to Possess, Hostage to Pleasure, Branded by Fire, Blaze of Memory
Eighth in the Trinity (twenty-third in the Psy-Changeling universe) in this paranormal romance series revolving around three races: Changelings, Psy, and humans. The couple focus is on Auden Scott and Remi Denier in a carry-on from Shards of Hope.
If you’re interested, there is a chronological listing of the Psy-Changeling universe of books on my website.
My Take
The Changelings (shifters) welcome everyone — provided they’re trustworthy, for they and the humans have been terrorized by the Psy for too long, and the Psy are the big-bad, too concerned with their superiority over everyone else and obsessed with increasing their power — dominating all else.
More main series conflict is the PsyNet. It’s disintegrating, jeopardizing every Psy in the world. The Psy created the Honeycomb, but even that is failing. Now there’s the severance experiment, which is likely to freak out all Psy even more. The lessons the various Changeling groups have learned are part of an ongoing series arc and keep us aware of their differences AND that there are always issues between groups. More series arcs include the opening of Changelings with Psy. And that is NOT something I’d’ve expected at the start of the series. Kaleb’s emerging compassion is yet another series arc.
I love the idea of those playdates between Arrow and RainFire children. It’s been an experiment in progress with the young Changelings helping the young Arrows learn how to play and interact socially. The older Arrows are so anxious to introduce love back into the Psy race, and the older Changelings are enticing them into play as well.
The PsyNet Island is Primal Mirror’s primary overall conflict while Auden’s situation is the “human” story conflict along with the unpredictability of wild genes.
Jeez, Singh has created a conflicted character in Auden with major issues boinging between the cold Psy who have their secret plans for Auden’s baby and the Changelings who embrace emotion, a betrayal of what the Psy hold dear.
Auden appears to be full of malfunctions made worse by psychic flameouts. It’s so disgusting how cold and detached the Psy are, well, the Scotts are particularly hideous. Experimenting on their young daughter. Deciding if she was worth the money they’d spent on her. Now there are the freaky experiences Auden has, not remembering, the fears, unable to trust those around her, the betrayals, the extreme surveillance, the sudden discovery of another self . . .
Auden, especially being pregnant, provides lots of insight into the chill and repression of being Psy. Her mental condition is also a great excuse for her non-Psy reactions. The biggest question is why the Scotts need Auden to be the bearer of this baby when Auden’s psychic power was so little.
With the Changelings, they’re much more sociable and loving than Psy and yet there are differences among them. With the bears, prepare to party and have bail money available. The wolves are sociable and the leopards are as well although they do like their alone time. Yet there are bad ones, even in the Changelings. It’s what fed part of Remi’s intention that every adult and cub in his pack would always have his attention.
There’s a nice bit of back history on Remi. And I’m enjoying how Remi is working to build his pack, the care he puts into his people. Singh is also building a background for Angel, so I suspect he’ll have his own story coming.
Laughter comes through interactions, the obsession some of the Changelings have with soap operas, how the Psy embrace their own vision of Changelings — and how those Changelings throw it back on them, lol, how Auden’s baby reacts to Remi and the pack . . .
Ooh, I do like how Auden describes Remi’s imprint: “an enormous comforting purr that wraps around me”.
I love it! I love it! Those arrogant Psy are learning how wrong they are, how wrong they were! Now they have to beg the humans for help!
Okay, I’m rather confused about that biograft, when it was implanted. At first it sounds like it was when Auden was a baby and later in the story she’s young, beyond babyhood.
The attitude of the Psy and the Changelings towards children is incredible and part of what is related through Singh’s use of third person global subjective point-of-view with the primary perspectives from Auden Scott and Remi Denier.
Primal Mirror is primarily about attitude and emotion involving Changelings and Psy, and what a contrast it is. Mostly a feel-good story with love, compassion, and tolerance, Primal Mirror also delves into the Psy approach to people.
It involves physical and psychic action with amazing characters. If you want a feel-good story, this is it.
It’s not essential to read Psy-Changeling nor the Psy-Changeling Trinity series, but it would be a richer experience.
The Story
Auden has lost her memory and wants, needs, a quiet place. One that she finds in Sunset Falls — which automatically makes it Scott HQ. It’s where she learns of the Scotts’ betrayal, and she becomes determined to take them down.
The Characters
Auden Jackson Scott, a Ps-Psy (psychometric ability to “taste” other people’s emotions and memories) lost in her own world and yet the “face” of the Scotts, said to be the Scott CEO. Liberty RainFire will be Auden’s baby’s name. The now-dead martial Henry (Ignatius Jackson) and the political Shoshanna Scott, both former Councilors with Shoshanna Auden’s mother. Hayward is Shoshanna’s younger brother and second-in-command, supposedly. His son, Devlin, is being trained to take over as the official head.
Charisma “Ris” Wai is Auden’s executive personal assistant after having been Shoshanna’s right hand. Dr Nils Verhoeven has overseen Auden’s “health”. Nurse Lomax. Dr Ilma Wang had warned Shoshanna about the biograft. Jitan is the head of Scott security and has issues.
The Changelings
RainFire is . . .
. . . a relatively new group of leopard Changelings in the Smokies — Sunset Falls is the nearest town. They are led by Remington “Remi” Denier (Shards of Hope), a Changeling who had been denying his instinct to lead. The perky Lark, a.k.a. Feather (Petunia is her cousin); Rina Monaghan (formerly with Lucas’ pack); and, Angel, a tiger shifter nicknamed “Stripes” who is second-in-command, are some of Remi’s Sentinels. Asher, Jasper (Zion is his dad), and the opinionated Jojo (I adore her) are some of the cubs. Jayden “JD” is sixteen and Jojo’s brother. Serenity “Sisi”, a senior soldier, is Jojo and Jayden’s playful aunt. The restless Fabien, a trained French chef, is one of the pack founders. Jack is one of Fabien’s juvenile helpers. Dr Finn St James is third-in-command and their healer; Hugo, Evans, and Saskia are nurses; the twenty-three-year-old Zinnia has been introducing virgin Arrows into skin privileges; Theo Ortiz is a Sentinel; the very knowledgeable Mliss Phan is the head of their public HQ, COO, and a senior maternal; Phoebe is a young intern; Byron Castille is a submissive who’s amazing at keeping RainFire functioning; Ihaka and Felipe are senior soldiers; and, Vesta “Vessie” Narin had been a journalist before she retired. RainFire Mech is a business division of RainFire with Rulinda Bay their head of engineering. Rulinda’s mate is a robotics expert.
Gina had been Remi’s warm-hearted mother. WhiteMountain had been Remi’s original pack whose alpha, Rhett Farley, had felt threatened. Other Changeling groups in the Smokies area include eagles, bears, and horses.
RainStone had amalgamated into SkyDawn, leaving their lands in a trust that was taken over by RainFire.
SnowDancer is . . .
. . . a pack of wolf Changelings with Hawke as their Alpha; Sienna Walker is his Psy mate (Kiss of Snow, 10). Judd Lauren, a Cardinal teleporter and Sienna’s uncle, is part of the LaurenNet (Caressed by Ice, 3).
DarkRiver is . . .
. . . a pack of leopards who are seen as the protectors of the entire city and share San Francisco with SnowDancer. Lucas Hunter is their Alpha, and he’s mated to a cardinal Psy Sascha Duncan (Slave to Sensation, 1). Dr Tamsyn Ryder is the pack healer and Finn’s closest healer friend (Enchanted Season: “A Beat of Temptation”, 0.5). Kit Monaghan is a powerful dominant and Rina’s brother. Faith NightStar, Sahara’s cousin and a Cardinal F-Psy, is mated to Vaughn D’Angelo, a jaguar Senior Sentinel (Visions of Heat, 2). Barker is a senior soldier linked to Rina. Ashaya Aleine is a Psy scientist mated to Dorian, another Sentinel (Hostage to Pleasure, 5).
BlackSea is . . .
. . . group of water Changelings led by Miane Levèque.
The Psy are . . .
. . . a race who evolved from humans with a range of psychic powers. The PsyNet is what keeps them alive and connected, even though the PsyNet is split into the NetMind and the DarkMind when Silence became the protocol the Psy had embraced from 1979 to 2081 to eliminate all emotion and sensation. This twin neosentience is hiding behind Sophia. The PsyNet Island held by Ivan Mercant (Storm Echo, 6 (21)) is the current breakaway experiment. The Ruling Coalition, composed of a range of decent Psy, replaced the Psy Council — thank god. The PsyNet Beacon is a newspaper. JJ Balakrishnan wrote to the editor.
Kayleb Krychek is a dual cardinal of incredible power who’s mated to Sahara Kyriakas (Heart of Obsidian, 12). Lenek is a junior aide. Dr Edgard Bashir is a talented Psy neurosurgeon trained in trauma-related injuries.
Anthony Kyriakus heads up the PsyClan NightStar of foreseers. Catalina NightStar, 16, wrote of the conflict of how Silence affected the Psy. Tanique Gray is Faith’s half-brother.
The feared Nikita Duncan heads the PsyClan Duncan in San Francisco and is Sascha’s mother. Sophia Russo, a J-Psy, and Max Shannon, a human, are part of Nikita’s inner circle (Bonds of Justice, 8).
Payal Rao is with Canto Mercant (Last Guard, 5 (20)).
Pax Marshall is CEO of the Marshall Group, which he took over from Marshall Hyde. He’s about to become the Father. He is sane only because of his twin sister, Theodora (Resonance Surge, 7 (22)).
Kellie99, B2cc, A9, TNS, Jervois, Enna, and SI8q are members of a psychometric help group.
Crispin Nicholas had been a psychometric who helped track down a serial killer. Terminal velocity is when a Ps-Psy can’t break out of the situation.
The Arrow Squad had been . . .
. . . the boogeymen of the Psy. That has changed and they are now led by Aden Kai, a medic and friend of Remi’s. Zaira, a combat telepath, is Aden’s lover and the heart of the Arrows (Shards of Hope). Tamar is their civilian specialist. Pip is a young boy who is a friend of Jojo’s. Nerida and the impaired Alejandro are teleporters.
The Empathic Collective is . . .
. . . a group of E-Psy, empathic Psy who track emotions — the physical mirror opposite to psychometrics. They’re led by Ivy Jane Zen who’s married to Vasic Zen, a teleporter and second-in-command of the Arrow Squad (Shield of Winter, 13). Rabbit, Ivy’s pet dog, is still with them. Jaya Laila Storm is an E-Psy who specializes in coma-bound patients.
The Emergency Response Network is . . .
. . . led by Silver Mercant, a former aide to Krycheck, who is also mate to the StoneWater bear alpha, Valentin (Silver Silence, 1 (16)). Dima is a polar bear cub. Ena, Silver’s grandmother, is THE Mercant who leads the PsyClan Mercant.
The Humans
The Human Alliance was . . .
. . . formed to protect humans from the Psy. Gioivanni Somme is its official head. Bowen Knight is the defacto leader and its security chief (Ocean Light, 2 (17)).
The Peace Accord Land Trust was established in the late 1700s after the Territorial Wars. Wild Woman is a Changeling women’s magazine with the funniest columns. The Trinity Accord was formed in Shards of Hope.
The Cover and Title
The background of the cover is the deep greens of the forest with the semi-transparent profiles of Remi and Auden overlaying it. All the text is in white from the testimonial at the very top with the author’s name below it. Below the heads of the characters is the title with the series info below that.
I’m suspecting the title is about Liberty being a Primal Mirror.
