Reviewer: Rowena Mine to Possess by Nalini Singh
Series: Psy/Changeling #4
Also in this series: Mine to Possess, Hostage to Pleasure, The Magical Christmas Cat , Kiss of Snow, Tangle of Need, Slave to Sensation , Wild Invitation, Heart of Obsidian, Shield of Winter, Shield of Winter, Visions of Heat, Mine to Possess, Caressed By Ice, Branded by Fire, Blaze of Memory, Hostage to Pleasure, Hostage to Pleasure, Shards of Hope, Shards of Hope, Heart of Obsidian, Caressed By Ice, Branded by Fire, Blaze of Memory, Play of Passion, Allegiance of Honor, Kiss of Snow, Tangle of Need, Shield of Winter, Shards of Hope, Allegiance of Honor, Allegiance of Honor, Wild Embrace, Wild Embrace, Wild Embrace, Silver Silence, Silver Silence, Tangle of Need, Ocean Light, Ocean Light , Caressed By Ice, Wolf Rain
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: 2008
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 341
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Series Rating:
A Psy/Changeling novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Shards of Hope, Shield of Winter, and Heart of Obsidian..."the alpha author of paranormal romance" (Booklist).
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.
Book 4 in the Psy-Changeling series is Clay Bennett’s book. I’m not going to get into what this story was about since Holly has already reviewed this book and because we’re reading the same books, it starts to get repetitive. So this is a friends to love (with a whole lot of drama in between) story and Nalini Singh worked her magic because even though Tally got on my hot damn nerves, I still enjoyed this book.
Trust me when I say that Tally got on my hot damn nerves. I had to put this book down a few times because Tally did or said something that made me want to throat punch her but I’m so glad that I stuck with this book because I ended up liking the book and not hating Tally.
I thought the story of the human teenagers disappearing was interesting and I was hoping and praying for the safe return of Tally’s boy, Jon. I really liked the way that this story introduced the next story and am really impressed with Singh’s ability to keep the party going. I’m a huge fan of character development and I thought that Singh did a great job of keeping me interested in Tally even though I didn’t really care for her character.
I really enjoyed getting to know Clay better and I loved seeing the bonds that he created with his packmates, especially after learning of his life before he became pack. He went from being a lone cat to being part of a family and I loved that DarkRiver accepted him the way that he was and didn’t force him to change his personality to fit in.
I’m really liking both the DarkRiver and the SnowDancer packs. Each pack is full of interesting characters that keeps me looking forward to even more from this series. When I was reading this book, I couldn’t wait to dig into Dorian’s book. I was very interested in seeing Ashaya Aleine’s character being fleshed out.
The main storyline in this book that brought the humans and the Psy’s and the Changelings together opened up the playing field for so much more and I thought Singh did a great job of dangling other stories in this one. I liked that we’re meeting other people from different races and just making the world even bigger without confusing the heck out of me.
I’m a fan of this world and this series and I liked this book. I thought the romance between Clay and Tally warmed up as I got deeper and deeper into the story. Seeing DarkRiver open their arms to everyone’s mate, no matter what race they are made me happy.
This book wasn’t my favorite book in the series but it was still good.
Grade: 3.5 out of 5
Reading Order:
This book is available from Berkley. You can purchase it here or here in e-format.
This is book #4 not #3 😀 You is getting confuddled!
I think this is the one book in the series where Nalini got the character development wrong – with Tally. I am sure she was supposed to be sympathetic but she just came across as really selfish and throat-punch-worthy! Interestingly both Clay and Tally rarely get a mention in future books when the gangs get together . .
Ha! You’re right. I must have been high when I wrote this review….or stuck on Book 3 because it was so amazing. 😉
Right after I finished this one and then I immediately jumped into Dorian and Ashaya’s book, and I gotta tell you, I zipped right through that one. I thought I’d have more trouble liking Ashaya but that wasn’t the case at all. I adored her and loved me some Dorian. That was another fantastic entry into this series. I can’t wait to jump into Mercy’s book.
I have no idea if this is the same for others, but I found that Tally did not get in my nerves as much on re-readings. I don’t think I’ll ever love her, but she does improve as time goes on 😉
That’s the same thing Holly said. She hated Tally the first time she read the book but after this last re-read, she didn’t love Tally but she didn’t hate her as much as before.
I wanted to throw into the discussion that although I was ready to punch Tally through most of the book . She sort if grows on you by the end. As well I do like her focused devotion to the children and her cause which shifted my opinion of her. This is one of my favorite series and although Tally is not really around much in the later novels I can understand why she was written this way. To many strong willed women can get messy.