Audiobook Review: Shards of Hope by Nalini Singh

Author: Nalini Singh

Narrator: Angela Dawe

Title: Shards of Hope

Series: Psy-Changeling #14

Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, UF, SciFi

Format: Audiobook 

Published: June 2, 2015

Where I Got It: Borrowed from library

Summary: 

Awakening wounded in a darkened cell, their psychic abilities blocked, Aden and Zaira know they must escape. But when the lethal soldiers break free from their mysterious prison, they find themselves in a harsh, inhospitable landscape far from civilization. Their only hope for survival is to make it to the hidden home of a predatory changeling pack that doesn’t welcome outsiders.

And they must survive. A shadowy enemy has put a target on the back of the Arrow squad, an enemy that cannot be permitted to succeed in its deadly campaign. Aden will cross any line to keep his people safe for this new future, where even an assassin might have hope of a life beyond blood and death and pain. Zaira has no such hope. She knows she’s too damaged to return from the abyss. Her driving goal is to protect Aden, protect the only person who has ever come back for her no matter what.

This time, even Aden’s passionate determination may not be enough—because the emotionless chill of Silence existed for a reason. For the violent, and the insane, and the irreparably broken . . . like Zaira.

Review:

Still slowly making my way through this series. I really should pick up the pace and read more, but I like going slow with these. 

Here we follow Aden and Zaira. They wake up battered and bruised...and their psychic abilities are blocked. They have to escape at any cost. Zaira, being as lethal as they come, and Aiden, being as smart and tough as a leader should be, manage to break free. Their only hope for survival will be in the hidden home of a predatory changeling pack that isn't welcoming to strangers and outsiders. The two may finally find the freedom to be together, but Zaira has a lot of demons that Silence had kept at bay...but with the fall of Silence...who knows. 

I'm not crazy about two Psys falling in love. There is just so much coldness there. Aiden, luckily, has adapted well to not being in Silence, but Zaira has a LOT of walls. So many that it just seemed so impossible. Thank goodness for the Changlings. I think their spending time with a warm pack helped thaw her out a bit. 

I didn't really feel the love between the two, but I still enjoyed the journey. A lot happened in this book. Lots of events were set off after the baddies made a terrible mistake of kidnapping these two. What WERE they thinking? Idiot baddies. 

It was nice diving back into the audio version. I've done a few ebooks, but I loved coming back to the audio version. It was like coming back home! The narrator is just so good. She does a great job changing her voices and doing accents. Love her. 

All-in-all, I enjoyed this. I didn't fully buy the romance until near the end, but I enjoyed the story a lot. Lots of stuff is happening, and the world is still shifting. There was one scene with an old character that made me tear up. AWWWWW. 

4 stars. 

Reading Challenges

- Audiobook #36

- Library Love #21

Blodeuedd's Monday: John of John by Douglas Stuart

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

Published: May 5, 2026 by Grove Press

Fiction/library

This one was, honestly I do not know, it was well written, very very slow, and I did want to know what would happen. But omg there was no closure! I wanted closure, I need closure. So yeah I got nothing at the end.

I did not know that the islands up north are very religious. The right kind of course too. God forbid. Also everyone is very sexually oppressed.

Cal is finished with uni, he has no job, no place to live so he comes back cos his grandmother is sick. He is also gay, and no he could not tell anyone. He also had a strange relationship with his former bestie. Do not know what to say there.

Oh and his dad is also gay, but would never tell anyone.

And everyone gossips about everyone.

But I wanted closure! Now, like what the f happens?

Out of money and with little to show for his art school education, John-Calum Macleod takes the ferry home to the Island of Harris to find that not much has changed except for him.

In the windswept croft where he grew up, Cal resumes his old life, caught between the two poles of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver, and pillar of their local Presbyterian church, and his Glaswegian grandmother Ella, who has kept a faltering peace with her son-in-law for decades.

While Cal wonders if any lonely men might be found on the barren hillsides of home, John is dismayed by his son’s long hair and how he seems unwilling to be Saved. As the seasons pass, everything is poised to change as the threads holding together the fragile community become increasingly entangled.

Best of August

Byyyyeeeee August! Hello 'Ber months!

Here are our faves for last month.

Best Book of the Month:

Blodeuedd - A Trade of Blood by

"Best book goes to Trade of Blood!!"

Carole -  The Score by Elle Kennedy

"A couple goodies, but this was the best."

Best Movie of the Month:

Carole -  Pressure (2026)

"Surprisingly really, really good."

Blodeuedd - Nadda this month

"I remember no movies..."

Best TV show of the Month:

Blodeuedd - The Marlow Murder Club (S1 -2) & Patience (S1-2)

"Nothing like British murders in summer. I also watched The Boroughs :)" 

Carole - A.P. Bio (S1-4)

"Pleasantly surprised I liked this so much! It was fun."

Best Cover of the Month:

Blodeuedd's pick

Carole's pick

Book Review: A Lady of Large Fortune by Tiffany Thomas

Author: Tiffany Thomas

Title: A Lady of Large Fortune

Genre: Historical Romance, What If, Variation

Format: Ebook

Pages: 498

Published: July 22, 2026

Where I got It: Kindle Unlimited

Summary: 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman of large fortune may fall in love at her leisure and choose her own fate.

Elizabeth Bennet has spent years quietly holding her family together. With Longbourn entailed away and her father content to leave its management in her hands, Elizabeth has learned to be practical, capable, and useful. Then a flood in London takes the lives of her aunt and uncle Gardiner, leaving three young children in need of protection—and Elizabeth with more responsibility than ever.

But beneath the damaged house in Gracechurch Street lies a secret no one could have imagined: a Roman treasure, hidden for centuries, that changes the course of her life—in more ways than one.

Rewarded by the Crown for her discovery, Elizabeth becomes exactly what society values most: a lady of large fortune. But she chooses to keeps her good fortune a secret from everyone, determined to keep her family safe from gossip, greed, and imprudent schemes.

Retired militia colonel Fitzwilliam Darcy knows too well what a fortune can cost. His father’s extravagance left Pemberley wounded, his sister vulnerable, and Darcy sacrifices everything, including his hopes for a love match, to prudence and rebuilding. Yet when he comes to Hertfordshire, he does not expect to meet again the muddy, courageous young woman who once rose from a hidden cellar with a Roman coin in her hand.

But wealth does not solve every difficulty, and the past has a way of reaching for what it was never owed. Darcy and Elizabeth must work together to restore their happiness and protect the future of those they love.

Review:

I was itching for some P&P variations, and I stumbled upon this in Kindle Unlimited, so why not? 

Here we are with Darcy and Elizabeth. Tale as old as time, but a little different. What if Darcy's father was a spendthrift who ran Pemberley to the ground and left it to Darcy to fix? What if Elizabeth found a way to have riches and save her family? 

I had fun with this one! It was pretty sad at some points. Poor Darcy...Poor Lizzie.

There was a LOT of changes to the story, but it was still the same at its core. I enjoyed watching our characters interact and find their ends. Some happy, some not. Especially Wickham. His ending was def well-deserved. 

It was weird not seeing more of the Gardiner children, minus a cameo in London and then quickly mentioned in the epilogue. This was a big deal and a huge change in the story, but we didn't really get to see them. 

But yes, I enjoyed the changes made. They were refreshing and new. Super sad, though. I wish we would've seen more of the aftermath of the Gardiner children having to move in with them. Maybe a scene or two with Elizabeth with the kiddos. But the ending was nice and fitting. I liked this overall! It was good. 4 stars from me.