Review: Hostage to Pleasure by Nalini Singh

Posted August 26, 2008 by Casee in Reviews | 5 Comments

Separated from her son and forced to create a neural implant that will mean the effective enslavement of her psychically gifted race, Ashaya Aleine is the perfect Psy–cool, calm, emotionless…at least on the surface. Inside, she’s fighting a desperate battle to save her son and escape the vicious cold of the PsyNet. Yet when escape comes, it leads not to safety, but to the lethal danger of a sniper’s embrace.

DarkRiver sniper Dorian Christensen lost his sister to a Psy killer. Though he lacks the changeling ability to shift into animal form, his leopard lives within. And that leopard’s rage at the brutal loss is a clawing darkness that hungers for vengeance. Falling for a Psy has never been on Dorian’s agenda. But charged with protecting Ashaya and her son, he discovers that passion has a way of changing the rules…

This is the 6th installment of Singh’s Psy/Changeling series and yet another great addition to the series.

The inability to shift has never made Dorian Christensen less of a leopard or man. If anything, being latent has caused Dorian to push himself harder and farther than others. As a Sentinel and sniper, Dorian is a valuable member to DarkRiver. His feelings for the Psy race go beyond hatred. After his sister was brutally murdered by a Psy Councilor, Dorian will be happy with nothing less than the annihilation of Silence. When he first meets Ashaya Aleine, he is certain that she is Silence at its’ best. That makes his disgust at his attraction to her even worse.

M-Psy Ashaya Aleine has put the life of her son in the hands of DarkRiver. As the lead scientist of Protocol I, Ashaya is invaluable to the Psy Council. Ashaya has her own misgivings about the implant that would essentially make the Psy race nothing more than a hive mind. Still, nothing is more important to Ashaya than the life of Keenan, her son. In a desperate attempt to get Keenan out of the hands of the Council, Ashaya calls in a favor from DarkRiver. With Keenan safe, Ashaya can now stop her work on Protocol I and make sure the Council is never able to put it into effect.

Having followed Dorian’s story from the first book, nothing less than a Psy mate would have worked. Without Ashaya, Dorian’s hatred of the Psy and Silence would have destroyed him. Nalini Singh couldn’t have written a better mate for Dorian if she had tried. Ashaya was the perfect contrast to Dorian’s changeling nature. Though she wasn’t fully immersed in Silence, she still had to pretend that she was. For years. Old habits die hard and Ashaya refused to completely break Silence. To do so would possibly destroy not only herself, but someone that she has spent her entire life protecting.

I continue to be amazed by Singh’s ability to draw the reader into the Psy/Changeling world. There are few paranormal series out there that are as good as this one. Hostage to Pleasure is a powerful story of two very different people finding love where they least expect it. While both Dorian and Ashaya are determined to protect those they love, they are helpless against their feelings for each other. Fans of this series will be happy with the world that Singh continues to build. I know I can’t wait to see what happens next.

5 out of 5.

This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here or here in e-format.