Primal Mirror by Nalini Singh
Paranormal Romance
July 23, 2024, by Berkley

Review by Melanie

A personal note before I start this review: the entire reason I ever picked up a Psy-Changeling book to begin with is because of my friend and former Smexy reviewer, Melinda, who sadly passed away earlier this year. She adored Nalini’s books and was rightfully convinced that I would love the Psy-Changeling series despite my claims that I just didn’t think PNR was for me. To appease her, I picked up the first book and that’s all it took to hook me. I binged the entire series and during the pandemic, Melinda and I started the Psy-Changeling channel on this very site, deciding to buddy read the books from the beginning and do a deep dive into a series that meant so much to both of us. We buddy read a lot of the books in the spin-off series and it feels strange to have read this one on my own. I adored this book but I feel compelled to share that I spent much of the time it took me to finish this book wishing I could message Melinda and gush to her about how great this book was. I know she would have loved it as well. 

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This book is a beautiful blend of something old and something new, the transformative and healing power of a mother’s love, and what it truly means to rise above the misery of one’s own childhood. 

This book reintroduces us on a deeper level, to RainFire, a recently formed leopard pack originally introduced in Shards of Hope. I’ll be honest, my recollections of Shards of Hope is pretty limited as it’s been a while since I last read it. But there’s enough backstory given in this book about the formation of the pack and one of the interesting things about this pack as opposed to many of the other packs we’ve read about in this series is that this a new pack, recently formed, still in the process of establishing themselves as a powerful force in the Psy-Changeling universe. Led by alpha Remi Denier who happens to be the hero of this book, RainFire is young and scrappy, residing in the Smoky Mountains and I’m already hoping for a whole slew of books featuring the different pack members we meet in this book. 

Remi is cut from the same cloth as the very first hero we met in this long running series, Lucas Hunter, the DarkRiver alpha who also serves as his mentor. He unexpectedly meets Psy Auden Scott while out on a run and finds himself drawn to her despite the fact that she’s clearly hiding a lot of secrets. 

If the name Auden Scott is familiar to longtime fans of this series, she’s the offspring of the late Henry Scott and Shoshanna Scott, who were two incredibly high profile and evil Psy Counselors, When Remi meets Auden, she’s very pregnant and struggling with issues relating to her mental health as well as her memories. It is her past, as well as her relationship with her parents that form much of the plot of this book. Thematically, it’s dark, but beautifully balanced with the slow growing romance between Remi and Auden, both initially deeply unsure of the other even while attracted to each other. When Auden realizes that in order to protect her unborn child, she must seek help, it’s Remi that she turns to, putting all her trust and faith in the fiercely protective and nurturing Alpha. 

I adored both of these characters and their romance and also the introduction to this brand new pack. When Auden delivers her baby, the scenes between mother and child were so profoundly sweet and tender as were the scenes between Remi and the baby. It’s a love story not just about romantic love but about the creation of a family, about a mother and her child and just how far that mother would go to protect her baby. 

As with all the books in this series, there is also a secondary plot in the book, the continuing saga of the PsyNet failing. Many old friends make cameos in this book from multiple Arrows and empaths to Kaleb Krychek who continues to shoulder much of the burden of saving the PsyNet simply because he promised his love that he would. But in a surprise twist that only Nalini Singh can deliver, true help in saving the PsyNet comes from the most unexpected source but in order to find out who that is, you’ll have to pick up the book. 

I also want to say one more thing about this book: it feels almost like a reset. While I liked the last book well enough, the one before it was kind of a miss for me. This book feels a lot like the very first book in the series, Slave to Sensation, in which another leopard Alpha fell for a Psy with unusual powers and major mommy issues. (Though, let me just add, Sascha’s complicated relationship with Nikita seems like child’s play compared to the toxic trashfire that is Auden’s relationship with Shoshanna). That’s not to say this book is repetitive in any way, there’s plenty to distinguish Remi and Auden from Lucas and his Sascha darling. But there’s something so lovely and comforting about a leopard changeling pack, even one that’s in its infancy, building bonds and relationships and creating a found family with a Psy who has never known what a family is. It feels like a full circle moment but also like a brand new beginning for the series. Eight books into the spinoff Psy-Changeling Trinity series, Nalini has managed to breathe new life into this series and make something old feel like something new again, a truly impressive feat. 

Grade: A

Content Notes: super toxic parental relationships, medical abuse, child abuse, violence, murder