Allegiance of Honor by Nalini Singh

I've been following this series (Psy/Changeling) since I first discovered it a number of years ago and all in all it's been satisfying. But this book ... despite all the 5 star reviews, this book  just didn't do it for me.

Here, have a blurb:

A staggering transformation has put the Psy, humans, and changelings at a crossroads. The Trinity Accord promises a new era of cooperation between disparate races and groups. It is a beacon of hope held together by many hands: old enemies, new allies, wary loners.
 
But a century of distrust and suspicion can't be so easily forgotten, and it threatens to shatter Trinity from within at any moment. As rival members vie for dominance, chaos and evil gather in the shadows and a kidnapped woman's cry for help washes up in San Francisco, while the Consortium turns its murderous gaze toward a child who is the embodiment of change, of love, of piercing hope: a child who is both Psy...and changeling. 
 
To find the lost and protect the vulnerable - and to save Trinity - no one can stand alone. This is a time of loyalty across divisions, of bonds woven into the heart and the soul, of heroes known and unknown standing back to back and holding the line. But is an allegiance of honor even possible with traitors lurking in their midst?

I thought this was to be the concluding book in the Psy/Changeling universe, but there are all sorts of threads left tangled and unsolved. Also, I would think this would be a difficult book to read for someone not invested in the series because all of the characters in Allegiance have had books of their own and while some backstory is allowed, it all felt rather superficial. There is no actual plot because nothing is accomplished except to retrieve a kidnapped water changling and even though this subplot was interspersed throughout the story, it still felt tacked on.  So much is crammed into this book that at times I felt like I was skimming.

There was also too much of Naya. She is the year old daughter of Lucas and Sascha, the couple in the first book, Slave to Sensation. We watched her crawl, we watched her walk, we watched her do this, that and the other, and it got real old, real fast. Especially since one of the other storylines were the pupcubs, the unborn offspring of a feline and a wolf. OK, I know that one of the main characteristics of the changlings are their love of family and the ties that bind them together. But this - this was just plain overkill.

Nothing was resolved; I can only assume there will be more books in this world. I have reached the point where I hope there will be no new characters introduced because my cup runneth over in that department. Look at this list and realize that almost all of them had parts in this book, plus some couples from a few novellas. My face was scrunched up most of the time, trying to remember who all these folks were.

Sascha and Lucas
Judd and Brenna
Clay and Talin
Dorian and Ashaya
Riley and Mercy
Dev and Katya
Max and Sophia
Drew and Indigo
Hawke and Sienna
Riaz and Adria
Kaleb and Sahara
Vasic and Ivy
Aden and Zaira

So, I did finish the book and I'll probably be buying any future books in this universe, but I can't wholeheartedly recommend this book which is a shame. What I would like is a book about the water changelings, how they formed their society, how they live, how they change. Or the flying changelings (can't remember what they're called). That would be new and interesting.

So, now I wait, lol.