Title: Last Guard (Psy-Changeling Trinity #3)
Author: Nalini Singh
Date of publication: 20 July 2021
Genre: Paranormal romance, shifters
Author's links:
Rating: 5 Stars
Blurb
Termed merciless by some, and a robotic sociopath by others, Payal Rao is the perfect Psy: cardinal telekinetic, CEO of a major conglomerate, beautiful—and emotionless.
For Canto Mercant, family and loyalty are everything. A cardinal telepath deemed "imperfect" by his race due to a spinal injury, Canto cares for the opinions of very few—and ruthlessly protects those he claims as his own. Head of intel of the influential Mercant family, he prefers to remain a shadow in the Net, unknown and unseen. But Canto is also an Anchor, part of a secretive designation whose task it is to stabilize the PsyNet. Now that critical psychic network is dying, threatening to collapse and kill the entire Psy race with it.
To save those he loves, Canto needs the help of a woman bound to him by a dark past neither has been able to forget. A woman who is the most powerful Anchor of them all: Payal Rao. Neither is ready for the violent inferno about to ignite in the PsyNet…or the passionate madness that threatens to destroy them both.
Review
This is just brilliant, one of my favourites in the whole series which is no small with over 20 books in the series and me loving most of them. Nalini Singh is truly a master of the paranormal romance and her stories set the highest of high bars against which I measure any other shifter romance I read.
I loved everything in this story - the familiarity of the world, the amazing writing, the suspense and the romance.
Together with the familiar things in this story that gave me comfort and warm feel, there were a number of firsts here that keep the series fresh and every book stands out with something. For the first time we see an MC with a physical disability, furthermore he is a Psy and Psys don't tolerate imperfection (or everyone thinks). It was great to see Canto Mercant being a strong leader despite everything. I can judge the disability representation from an outsider perspective only but I felt it was done with care and empathy.
I love Psy-changeling couples the most with psy-psy coming close second. It is fascinating to watch how the psy embrace their emotions, how they deal with them in different ways. Canto is not really silent and his close contact with the bear shifters set him apart from most psys. The unwavering support of the Mercant family is also a powerful force that shaped him.
In a way Payal family has also shaped her who she is in a very, very different way from Canto's family.
Re-discovering each other after years, it was like getting to know each other again while at the same time, they already knew the most intimate secrets of each other. I loved how they got to trust each other, to rely on the other in all things.
We move between Moscow (bear country) and India (Rayal's world) and we get to see some of the bears which is always fun. We also get another first here - a queer relationship between to men - a psy and a bear shifter (we already met them in Silver Silence). It's not a central element or presented in much detail but it is there, wrecking havoc on the very heteronormative world we have seen in this series so far. I
The over-arching suspense plot of the series continues, it might be a bit repetitive at this point, with new threads to the psy network coming up all the time and then being resolved with the help of a new sub-designation of psys. Still, I can very much overlook this and just enjoy the good guys coming together and victorious (for now) against the bad guys.
The ending of the story was such a tender touch, highlighting the role of kindness in the world. It worked brilliantly for me.
A note of warning in the end, child abuse and the respective trauma feature prominently in this book (this is not somethin new in the series), it made for a difficult and very emotional read at times. The violence and suffering is not gratuitous at all, it makes sense in the world of the series though that doesn't make it any easier to read through.
Overall, this is another unforgettable instalment in the series and I can highly recommend it.
CW: child abuse (in the past), eugenics, torture (physical and mental), violence, ableism (challenged throughout the story)
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