Alpha Night (Psy-Changeling Trinity, #4)

by Nalini Singh

[Berls]

Another win in the Nalini Singh column! Anne and I buddy read this and both loved it! At this point, she's established herself as an auto-read author for me, she's just so consistent.

That said, I should have had more faith because this one started a little uncertain for me. We had an insta-mate situation, and I did not love it. BUT even Selenka (the alpha whose wolf triggered the mating) was doing a double-take and thinking "wtf?" So I should have known that this was going to a more complex plot point than insta-love often is. And sure enough, it really was. I went from uncertain to adoring the story.

First of all, the characters were phenomenal. I love Selenka - she's the alpha and I think that as much as I love my alpha males, I love my alpha females a little more because it goes against the grain. And Selenka, despite the wolves being more evolved than humans and readily accepting female alphas because it's just WHO they are, had still had struggle because of both her mother (human who left her) and father (not alpha and not happy about it). She was an incredible alpha and I also loved the way that instinct took over in her relationship with Ethan. Oh and the way she and the Bear Alpha (mated to Silver, forgot his name) commiserated was equally fantastic.

As much as I loved Selenka, Ethan was just heart melting. As if I didn't already have enough reasons that Ming was on my shit list, Ethan's past added another one. Ethan is so broken; you can't help but want to wrap him up and protect him (which I think is exactly why Selenka ended up insta-mating with him). He is an arrow but wasn't raised and trained with them. He feels like an outsider. To him, the insta-mating is the best gift because he finally belongs to someone. Heart melting sadness y'all. He is incredibly powerful (hence his history with Ming) but sadly seems himself as purely an instrument of death and destruction. His path to healing was a remarkable one read.

Beyond the relationship, the plot really moved forward a lot in this book. I THOUGHT his history with Ming was going to be result in some satisfaction in that arena but sadly no, not yet. However, huge developments with the Psy-Net and the Architect, most notably the ending which is a wee-bit of a cliff. Be sure to have the next book on hand, so glad we were able to jump right into it!

I'm continuing to adore Angela Dawe's narration. With Trinity, we've seen her really flex her accent muscles, since we've been in Russia quite a bit. I'm especially impressed with her ability to give children accented voices. Such a wonderful listening experience, even at 2x, my standard listening speed.