Hostage to Pleasure by Nalini Singh

Synopsis from Goodreads.com

Ashaya Aleine was separated from her son, forced to create a neural implant that will forever enslave her psychically gifted Psy race. After fighting a desperate battle to save her child and escape the PsyNet, she's led not to safety, but into the lethal danger of a sniper's embrace.

My review:
I quite liked this book in this series as well. Almost seems that after the first 3 very predictable PNR books, Nalini Singh has realised that her book actually need a storyline to go alongside all the romance!

In this one, Ashaya Aleine, the Psy scientist who helped a couple of kids in the previous book, calls in her favour from Talin - she wants her son rescued from the Psy. The Dark River leopard clan help out and Dorian is the (un)fortunate changeling who has to deal with her. As you might expect he falls for her and eventually she gives in, but not completely until it becomes a life or death situation.

There are people who wants Ashaya both dead and alive following her deflection from the Silence and Dorian will stop at nothing to protect her and her him as well. A bit more history to the Psy is also revealed and a new group of fighters also appear in this book. There's also a hint of what might be a future story/book involving Mercy, the female sentinel of the Dark River clan.

I did find it a little strange that Dorian gave into his feelings for Ashaya so easily, even though she was everything he hated about the Psy - cold, unemotional and worked for the council. I believe his sexual needs definitely overrode any common sense initially, but as she was his mate I suppose there was a underlying emotional tie between them.

I will say I totally loved the ending - Dorian gets one of his life-long wishes at long last, all thanks to Ashaya, which would never have happened otherwise.

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Mine To Possess by Nalini Singh

Synopsis from Goodreads.com
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 lost 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 stalks her—-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 and hungers to possess her with 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.

My review:

This was a much better book in this series than the first 3. Still a fairly predictable PNR - girl finds boy, boy rejects girl at first as she pretended to be dead, girl scared of boy but drools over him, boy drools over girl, boy eventually makes out with girl and both fall in love and have lots of hot sex! But this time there was actually a decent storyline running alongside all of that!

Talin needs help when some of the children in her care as a street guardian disappear and a couple turn up dead. The only person she knows strong enough to help her is Clay, the were-leopard who she was friends with as a child before he killed her abusive stepfather and went to a juvenile detention centre for it. Only problem, Clay thinks she dead and has been for several years now, so imagine his shock, surprise and anger when he does finally meet her again. She has to earn his trust and friendship all over again, which is not necessarily an easy ride for Talin, especially as she has been told she is dying.

Clay being a protective sort helps out and with his pack and a little help from another unknown Psy eventually find the missing children and the reasons as to why they were kidnapped, tortured and killed in the first place.

The Ghost is back again disrupting the lives of the Psy Council, but it is not yet revealed as to who the Ghost is. I still think it's Faith's dad, but i have no idea when this will be revealed.

I'm going to keep plodding on through this series and hope the rest of the books have a decent storyline like this one.

Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh

Synopsis from Goodreads.com
As an Arrow, an elite soldier in the Psy Council ranks, Judd Lauren was forced to do terrible things in the name of his people. Now he is a defector, and his dark abilities have made him the most deadly of assassins - cold, pitiless, unfeeling. Until he meets Brenna...

Brenna Shane Kincaid was an innocent before she was abducted - and had her mind violated - by a serial killer. Her sense of evil runs so deep, she fears she could become a killer herself. Then the first dead body is found, victim of a familiar madness. Judd is her only hope, yet her sensual changeling side rebels against the inhuman chill of his personality, even as desire explodes between them. Shocking and raw, their passion is a danger that threatens not only their hearts, but their very lives...


My review:
This one was a much better book in this series than the last book. It was still fairly predictable - it's a PNR, it's fairly obvious what's going to happen between the 2 main characters, although why Brenna, the changeling wolf, would ever want to be with someone as cold as Judd is beyond me, but I guess that's the point. He does eventually show emotion and they do find a way to be together, but the path there is not a straight forward as you would expect from the last book.

There is also a bit more of a story to this one. Someone keeps taking pot shots at Brenna and a few other people get hurt in the process. You do eventually find out who he is and why he is trying to kill her, but again Nalini Singh disappointed me with this part of the story. As far as the wolves are concerned it's life for a life and you didn't get to read about the family who took out their revenge or justice as it is seen on the perpetrator. That's why I prefer the blood, guts and gore in a UF book than the soppiness of a PNR. So why am I reading this series, you may ask? Well I had to see what all the fuss was about and now I've spent a fortune on the whole series, I'm going to finish it even if it kills me! :P

I did like the way that Brenna's character developed and the breakdowns she had showed how difficult her torture in the hands of serial killer Enrique was in the first book. I had to admire her strength to fight back, even if the nightmares of it all were draining her of who she used to be. And even though Judd was one of the coldest psys there was, he still had some emotion of sorts before he left the PsyNet - he left for his sister's kids, so he has to have had some feelings.

I liked the idea of the Ghost as well - I want to guess at who it is, but I'm not sure why be I think it's Faith's dad. I could be wrong and there's no clues at all as to who he is, but that's my gut feeling. We do know it's someone who wants to stop Protocol 1, an invention of the Psy to be the general populace under complete control. Will be nice to see how this story pans out in the next book as well.

My only problem so far, other than the predictability of the story, is the fact that all of these changelings and Psys are falling in love with each other. When will the Psy Council do something to stop losing all their Psy (although they had already lost Judd, presumed dead) and what will happen when all the changelings have fallen for the Psy? Who will fall for who then?! :P

Visions of Heat by Nalini Singh

Synopsis from Goodreads.com
Used to cold silence, Faith NightStar is suddenly being tormented by dark visions of blood and murder. A bad sign for anyone, but worse for Faith, an F-Psy with the highly sought after ability to predict the future. Then the visions show her something even more dangerous-aching need...exquisite pleasure. But so powerful is her sight, so fragile the state of her mind, that the very emotions she yearns to embrace could be the end of her. Changeling Vaughn D'Angelo can take either man or jaguar form, but it is his animal side that is overwhelmingly drawn to Faith. The jaguar's instinct is to claim this woman it finds so utterly fascinating and the man has no argument. But while Vaughn craves sensation and hungers to pleasure Faith in every way, desire is a danger that could snap the last threads of her sanity. And there are Psy who need Faith's sight for their own purposes. They must keep her silenced-and keep her from Vaughn...


My review:
This is the second book in the series and whilst I haven't read any of the others I can kind of predict how I think the rest of this series will pan out. Something happens to a Psy - powers develop, fear of mental illness, finding out the Silence has not silenced all etc etc and somehow they fall in love with a werecat or wolf and break out of the Silence and PsyNet and join the Web of Stars started by Sascha or something similar. Am I correct? If so this series is going to become quite boring quite fast and I have the whole series on my Kindle to read yet!

This story was interesting enough for me to want to finish, but it was kind of predictable as well. It was obvious that the bad boy Vaughn would fall for Faith and emotionless Faith would eventually fall prey to Vaughn's affections. The actual romance side of the story was quite similar in places to that of Sascha and Lucas in the first book in the series. The only real difference was the type of Psy that Faith was and the way her powers were changing/developing.

I really did feel that Nalini Singh could have spent more time on the serial killer and Faith getting revenge for her sister's murder. That was all over in a couple of pages! And I know Faith was worth billions of dollars to her Psyclan, but I do feel they gave up trying to get her back rather quickly too. I know the council stated that they couldn't afford to lose any more men after Vaughn easily killed the 6 despatched to capture Faith, but if you have something worth THAT much to you, surely you would do anything possible to get it back! There seemed to be a real sense of passion missing in this book.

I really hope the next book in the series is better as I'm determined to read the whole series through, and I'm really hoping I don't regret that decision!