Dev Santos discovers her unconscious and battered, with no memory of who she is. All she knows is that she’s dangerous. Charged with protecting his people’s most vulnerable secrets, Dev is duty-bound to eliminate all threats. It’s a task he’s never hesitated to complete…until he finds himself drawn to a woman who might yet prove the enemy’s most insidious weapon.
Stripped of her memories by a shadowy oppressor, and programmed to carry out cold-blooded murder, Katya Haas is fighting desperately for her sanity itself. Her only hope is Dev. But how can she expect to gain the trust of a man who could very well be her next target? For in this game, one must die…
I really don’t know how Nalini does it. When she wrote the first human heroine in the series, I was skeptical. When she wrote the first changeling/changeling pairing, I was skeptical. Both times, she came through with flying colors. So why was I skeptical with Dev? Because I’m blond and didn’t piece together that Director of the Shine Foundation = Forgotten. Forgotten = Psy. So as I picked the book up, I thought Dev was human.
There is no way that a mere mortal like Dev can measure up to the alpha of DarkRiver or Judd Lauren. Right? Not exactly. Dev dominated this book from page one. He was essentially the alpha of the Forgotten. Everything he did in his life, he did to help the Forgotten, Psy that dropped out of the PsyNet when Silence was implemented. Being such a “company man”, Dev is taken aback by his feelings for the Psy that was dropped on his doorstep.
Katya is also known as Ekaterina Haas…once Ashaya’s assistant and also thought dead. When she first wakes up, she has no idea who she is or where she came from. As the memories start coming back, she starts worrying about the why of it. The only answer she can come up with is that she has been programmed to be Ming Lebon’s sleeper assassin. She can’t break Ming’s hold on her mind without killing herself. He effectively has her trapped in her own mind.
Dev knows that Kayta is dangerous to the Forgotten, but he cannot bring himself to kill her. He knows that killing her would be best for The Shine Foundation and the Forgotten, but he is unable to hurt her. He’s also unable to let her go. So essentially, he’s her jailer exactly like Ming LeBon was.
It was interesting to get to know Katya as she got to know herself. She remembered herself, but only to a certain extent. Katya was a fighter, which is what made her such a good heroine. She came back from months of mental and psychic torture. She knows that she’s probably been programmed to kill Dev, which is one of the reasons why she tries to run away. She’s drawn to a place she only knows is “up north”.
What I found especially interesting in this book was the glimpse of the Psy before Silence. The letters to Matthew from “Mom” really shows a race divided, wanting to do what’s best for their children without taking away their ability to feel emotion.
Blaze of Memory is the first real look that the reader has gotten into the Forgotten. I am loving the arc of this series. In each book, the reader gets a deeper look into this extraordinary world that Nalini Singh has created. As I try to articulate my feelings about this book, I feel like I’m being somewhat redundant. Every book that Nalini has written in this series has lived up to the expectations that we now have of her. Nalini continues to dominate in this genre.
4.5 out of 5.
This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here
The series:
