"\"Mine to Possess\" was just flawless!"
"Slave to Sensation", book one, set the romance world on
fire with a unique, new element in a genre rife with
emotions - a race with the potential for cool, icy,
emotionless precision, the Psy. Their counterparts are the
animalistic and earthier Changelings, packs and herds of
men and women that take on the forms of wolves, leopards,
deer and much more than we could imagine. Now Singh brings
mere humans into the fold. Are they just the worker bees of
her futuristic society, or do they hold the key to so much
more? Clay Bennet is barely holding on. He's dangerously close to
going rogue, even within the confines of a loving and
healthy pack - the San Francisco DarkRiver leopards. Too
tangled in a tragic past, it eats at him still. The slaying
of a depraved monster may have seen the streets rid of one
more evil, but it cost Clay his freedom and the person he
cared more about than anything. When he finds out she's
dead, well, Clay no longer had a reason to be good himself. Talin McKade vowed to stay away from the man who used to be
her best friend. An act of violence, born of violence,
triggered her flight and fear didn't allow her close...till
violence once again brought her full circle to the one
person she always wanted to count on. It's her job to see
that children like she had been have a chance at a better
life. And when her kids start dying, she takes a wild card
from the past, hoping Clay will help her solve the mystery.
Little did she know, once marked by a leopard, there's no
going back. What was interesting about Clay and Talin's relationship is
how seamlessly it's integrated into the storyline in this
installment. Actually, Singh does this extremely well in
each book, the marriage of the love story with the overall
plot, but the way it was done in "Mine to Possess" was just
flawless! The events unfolding weren't just happening to
and around the main characters, they were happening because
of them and vice versa. Take one of them away from the
other and suddenly neither will make sense. Everything
happening in these books is happening for a reason and
there's not an ounce of fat in the mix. "Mine to Possess"
is perhaps the most integral book of the series to date.
Not only does it reach all the way back to "Slave to
Sensation" (book one) and reinforce what we found out
there, but it seems to be a major turning point in the
Changling struggles against the more insidious Psy Council.
So, it is heavy on info, but you'll find no dumping of it
here. I believe we're getting what we do because it's
vital, necessary and the right time in the series. Beware,
there is some rather shocking violence in this one as we
continue to discover just how ruthless and cold the Psy are
(though it's not portrayed as graphically as, say, a horror
piece), but Clay and Talin's relationship, to me, never got
dragged under because of it, but actually shone brighter
because the dilemmas actually made them come together,
closer than they'd ever been before. It helped them,
sometimes forced them, to come to terms and I just don't
think that anything happening less plot-wise would have
enabled that transformation in their conflict better, but
hindered it instead or made it seem unbelievable. I loved
the way they came together and how they came to terms with
their interwoven past. Hands down, this is my favorite book
of the series to date, as well as my favorite couple. The
next book is titled "Hostage to Pleasure" about DarkRiver
sentinal Dorian.
Reviewed by Kenda Montgomery
Posted February 6, 2008
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<**2008 PEARL NOMINEE - BEST SHAPESHIFTER** b>Nalini Singh pulls away another dark layer of sheer desire, revealing passions unknown, in her latest novel about the world of the Psy. A ghost returns from a leopard changeling’s past, making him question everything—even his base animal instincts… Clay Bennett is a powerful DarkRiver sentinel, but he grew up in the slums with his human mother, never knowing his changeling father. As a young boy without the bonds of Pack, he tried to stifle his animal nature. He failed...and committed the most extreme act of violence, killing a man and losing his best friend, Talin, in the bloody aftermath. Everything good in him died the day he was told that she, too, was dead. Talin McKade barely survived a childhood drenched in bloodshed and terror. Now a new nightmare is stalking her life--the street children she works to protect are disappearing and turning up dead. Determined to keep them safe, she unlocks the darkest secret in her heart and returns to ask the help of the strongest man she knows... Clay lost Talin once. He will not let her go again, his hunger to possess her, a clawing need born of the leopard within. As they race to save the innocent, Clay and Talin must face the violent truths of their past...or lose everything that ever mattered. Genre: Paranormal Romance, Shapeshifters, Psychics Psy/Changeling reading order per author's website:
- Slave to Sensation (September 2006)
- Visions of Heat (March 2007)
Free short story: The Cannibal Princess
- Caressed By Ice (September 2007)
- “Beat of Temptation” in An Enchanted Season (October 2007)*
- Mine to Possess (February 2008)
- Hostage to Pleasure (September 2008)
- “Stroke of Enticement” in The Magical Christmas Cat (October 2008) *
Free short story: A Gift for Kit
- Branded by Fire (July 2009)
- Blaze of Memory (November 2009)
*This novella was written to stand alone so you can pick it up at any stage in the series.
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