Today we have everyone’s favorite paranormal queen, Nalini Singh, here to talk to us about her newest Psy-Changeling release, Shield of Winter. Take it away, Nalini!
Blood Brothers
Nalini Singh
While Shield of Winter is Vasic and Ivy’s story, Aden is an important part of the book. Vasic’s story can’t be told without him—the two met as children, Vasic the only one Aden could trust and vice versa. The two have an unbreakable bond.
Many readers have written to me asking for Aden and Vasic to have a love story. I can understand why people want to see them together, but theirs has never been a romantic relationship. It is one of brotherhood, these two men who have fought beside one another through terrible darkness.
Like two soldiers in battle, they are blood loyal to one another, but they’re also both damaged as a result of everything they’ve survived. They can’t help one another heal—neither one knows how to do that. Neither man has had any warmth or love in his life. They don’t know how to be anything other than Arrows.
As Ivy says, they might as well be twins.
And as with twins who have a deep bond, a lover who enters the life of either Vasic or Aden must have the generosity of heart to include the other man in the family they become. Love after all, is not a zero sum game. Friendship does not diminish romantic love, it makes it greater, because it makes us better people. Imagine how Vasic would’ve turned out without having Aden as a friend? Would Aden be the same man if he hadn’t grown up knowing Vasic had his back?
Their friendship isn’t the only one that appears in the book—we see new friendships develop and old ones mature and grow deeper. After all, sometimes the best person to go to for advice is a friend who has been through the same situation himself.
What are your favorite male friendships, whether in fiction or on the screen?
To find out more about Nalini’s books or to read full-chapter excerpts, please visit her website: www.nalinisingh.com. While there, Nalini invites you to join her newsletter, which goes out once a month with a roundup of news, as well as exclusive goodies like extra excerpts and free short stories. You can also find Nalini on Facebook: www.facebook.com/authornalinisingh and Twitter: @nalinisingh.
Great guestpost Nalini, thank you! My bookshelves are filled with series book about brothers, team mates, whatever, and I love them all. I am really glad you are not going the gay route with them.
Thank you for this post, Nalini!
I confess that I never saw Aden and Vasic as a romantic couple myself. Like you, I saw them always as brothers–truer and closer to each other perhaps than many blood siblings in the PsyNet. And while I would enjoy the inclusion of same sex pairings in the stories, I prefer that they develop naturally, fitting the characters, rather than haven them because it’s the thing to do.