Last Guard by Nalini Singh: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Last Guard by Nalini Singh

Psy-Changeling Trinity, the spin-off of Nalini Singh’s wonderful UF series has advanced to its fifth book, Last Guard. Mercant family has taken a prominent role in this series and the hero is Canto Mercant, the centre of its intelligence gathering. He’s a designation A Psy, which we haven’t met yet, an anchor holding the PsyNet together. As the net continues its unravelling, threatening the lives of all the Psy, he decides to take action and collect all the As to work together.

Payal Rao is the CEO of a large company, and its potential heir, should her cruel father and psychopath brother allow it. She’s an A too, and like most of her designation, in constant fear of her sanity. But when Canto contacts her, she agrees to become the face of the new coalition of As.

It turns out the two share a past. They were held in a prison masquerading as a school where difficult to control Psy children were confined. Both have had to come a long way to recover from the experience, but neither has forgotten the other. Meeting each other for the first time in decades brings old memories back and threatens Payal’s rigid control of her erratic mind.

But their minds aren’t the only problem. Since they are more deeply linked to the PsyNet than other Psy, its corruption bleeds into their bodies. Canto is in a wheelchair because of tumours in his spine, and Payal has tumours in her brain that are kept in check by a medicine that her cruel father controls. More is made of Payal’s medical condition, whereas Canto functions fine even without his legs. No miracle cure is sought or offered for either of them. The Psy are more about the mind than body.

This was a great romance, like always. A new designation brings with it new problems for the romance, but the answers are familiar: more empathy and emotions. There weren’t any gut-wrenching moments this time, but many sweet ones. The issues with Payal’s family were solved a little too easily, but the focus was more about the PsyNet and its problems. Many favourites made an appearance (I read the books for Kaleb Krycheck), but there weren’t enough bears in my opinion. There can never be too many bears. All in all, a good addition to the series.