Resonance Surge by Nalini Singh
Paranormal Romance
July 18, 2023, by Berkley

Review by Melanie

The newest addition to Nalini Singh’s long-running Psy-Changeling Trinity series is less of a banger and more of a slow burn. A very, VERY slow burn, to be precise. In fact, it took me several days to finish this book and while I wouldn’t say I was bored exactly, I can’t really say I was riveted either. It was fine for the most part, with the action picking up steam (not THAT kind of steam) in the second half of the book. Speaking of steam, the book doesn’t contain much of one, just one rather tepid love scene that basically fades to black. 

In fact, I’m going to be bold and say that the secondary characters in the book are much more fascinating to me. The two main characters, Yakov, a bear changeling, and Theodora, a Psy with a very dark and brutal backstory meet when Theo comes to Russia at the behest of her twin brother Pax, head of the powerful Marshall family. We have met both of these characters before but it’s been a while so my memory of the Marshall family is hazy at best. The family is full of venomous characters and somehow, Pax and Theo, despite being trained by their cruel and downright abusive grandfather, have managed to retain their humanity. 

The romance between Yakov and Theo is what I would term instalove. Yakov, while a bear changeling, also has a foreseer Psy in his family tree and has basically been dreaming of Theo since he was young. Like literal, actual dreams. While the dreams start off as innocent and sweet, in current times, the dreams have become violent and deadly, resulting in Theo’s bloody demise. When he finally meets her, the attraction and connection is instantaneous. I’m so used to there being a push and pull between Psy and changeling love interests so the absence of that here kind of threw me. While Theo doesn’t have the decades of dream history that Yakov does, she does feel a connection and since her own Silence has always been faulty, she gives in pretty easily to his advances. There’s no reticence on her part, no need for Yakov to cajole her into giving into her feelings. There’s no real tension within the romantic development other than Theo having massive questions about her past and wondering if her past actions make her worthy of ever being happy. 

Honestly, I don’t think the romance was interesting enough to require a full length book. Much of the book actually focuses on Theo’s past and the unknown parts of her backstory slowly being revealed, not just to us the reader but also to her. The romance could have been a novella were it not for the secondary romance between Yakov’s twin brother (yes, he’s also a twin) Pavel, and Psy empath Arwen Mercant of the illustrious Mercant family. They are already in an established relationship when this book starts but the few scenes we have with them are so fun and sweet and sexy, I really wish the book had focused more on them or at least, just split these two romances into two novellas because certainly, Arwen and Pavel are deserving of their own story. I also love the bear changelings and I wish we had met more of their pack and had more interactions between different members of their pack and spent more time in their den. I think one of the things I really love about this series overall is the sense of community and pack and found family and that seemed to be missing a bit from this particular book. Much of the book is just scenes between Yakov and Theo investigating what happened at the Psy rehabilitation center, the two of them kind of off in their own little bubble.

Nalini is brilliant at playing the long game but overall this story mainly focuses on Theo and her traumatic backstory while also featuring Theo’s twin brother Pax Marshall. Given the time spent on Pax, I have to assume the next book will be his, despite the fact that he is presumed to be dying of Scarab Syndrome (not a spoiler, this was mentioned in a previous book). 

This book is definitely darker in terms of certain themes – there is healthcare abuse and toxic family relationships and a grandfather who takes psychotic pleasure in torturing his granddaughter (off page and in the past). Perhaps because of the darker themes addressed, the main romance between Theo and Yakov gets little in the way of a real emotional build-up. There is a lot of tenderness and sweetness and nurturing and caretaking happening here but the actual romance lacks tension and the physical build-up doesn’t give us the payoff after making us wait so long. 

All in all, while this particular book wasn’t my favorite of the series, it did give us glimpses of several secondary characters I found very compelling and one I would love to see featured next in his own book. 

Grade: B

Content Notes: violence, murder, child abuse