Audio Review: Hostage to Pleasure by Nalini Singh

Hostage to Pleasure 

by Nalini Singh
 (Psy-Changeling #5) 

Narrated by Angela Dawe 

  

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.


REVIEW:

I've been waiting for Dorian's story but I have to say that Hostage to Pleasure was a little disappointing. Sure it has a hot alpha and a head strong heroine. But really this series as very predictable formula like so many PNR books do.

I'm just not feeling this series at the moment. It's not the writing I just this it's my mood. I think I just need to take a break from it. And come back to see if it can get my attention again when my reading mood has changed.

But in any case Dorian was hot and his Psy woman was like the others, cold until he melted her panties. Meh. I don't have anything else to say about the book. But I think I enjoy the wolves in this series more than the cats.

Audio Review: Mine to Possess by Nalini Singh

Mine to Possess 

by Nalini Singh 

(Psy-Changeling #4) 

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.

REVIEW:

I've said this before but I'll say it again, I really enjoy it when the couple has a history instead of falling in love/lust after only knowing each other for a day. Mine to Possess is the first combo of Changeling and human mating. Clay is a leopard that joined the DarkRiver pack after growing up away from other Changelings. He didn't know anything about his animal side and it made his younger years hard. Tally is the human in the relationship and Clay thought her to be dead for about 20 years.

Tally has been scared of Clay every since the day he killed her foster father but not in the way Clay thinks. Tally finds herself lusting after her childhood protector even after their 20 years of separation.  But she must fight it in order to get Clay's help with a missing teen she is over seeing.

Tally and Clay have a lot of things to work out from their pasts in order to reach their HEA. Both had a hard childhood and they were the others rock during that dark time and sometimes a claiming can take place at a young age. They were each others before they knew what a mating was and now they are all grown up and their heat is consuming them both.

I've got to say this series is not my favorite but each couple is better than the last IMO. And the story of Tally and Clay is both heartbreaking and beautiful. So far they are my favorite story in the series.

Click on images to see other reviews in the series:

    


Simliar series:

Lora Leigh's Breeds

PNR Audio Review: Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh

 

Caressed By Ice 
(Psy-Changeling #3)
by Nalini Singh, Angela Dawe (Narrator)
2 Parts / 11 hour(s) and 26 min.
Published June 22nd 2011 by Tantor Audio
★★★★
Nalini Singh explores new heights of sensuality, returning to the world of the Psy - where two people who know evil intimately must unlock the good within their icy hearts...

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...



REVIEW:

I was wondering how Judd, “The Ice Man” would be thawed. I mean so far the Psy in the couples have been women and all they needed as the touch of the hot Changeling men. A man like Judd would need more. But Brenna had just the right amount of heat to bring Judd to his knees.

After Brenna’s ordeal in the last book, she really needed someone like Judd instead of a Changeling. She needed his coldness to get her through some rough times; a like of tough love.

Judd might be Psy but he has feelings deep down and the ones that came out to play first was he need to protect Brenna like he did his family. Even though he didn’t realize at first that was an emotion. He believed he was just doing his job. But after he started having more feelings for Brenna, like being jealous of other males he knew he was doomed.

The Silence of the Psy was much strong with Judd that the past Psy we have seen. Judd was breed to be an assassin for the Psy Council and he was very good at his job. Hawke used him to get answers out of captives.

He believed that was all he was and all he had to offer. He knew that Brenna needed more than he could give but once he reached the point where he knew she was his; he was not going to let her go no matter what.

It was well over half the book before anything physical really happened between Brenna and Judd but when it did…..HOT. Brenna teased Judd about him being a virgin and he told her that technically he was one. When asked him what that meant, he told her he did research. And boy howdy did that research pay off.

If you enough reading about a cold as ice tough guy with the ability to kill anyone to keep his female safe then you need to read Caressed by Ice and see how hot Judd can be.

Cover Note: About 50% of the time the audio book will have a different cover than the book. Not sure why they do it. Sometimes I like the audio cover more. I like this cover vs the book cover but I'm not loving the mullet and whoever did the animal print on Judd's arm clearly didn't read the book. Brenna is the "shifter" and she's a wolf not a large cat. Sorry but things like that bug the crap out of me.

Book Cover

PNR Audio Review: Visions of Heat by Nalini Singh

 

Visions of Heat

by Nalini Singh 

(Psy-Changeling #2)
Angela Dawe (Narrator)
Audiobook, Unabridged
Published May 30th 2011 by Tantor Media, Inc.
RATING:  ★★★

Go deeper into the world of the Psy and the changelings, where a gifted woman sees passion in her future-a passion that is absolutely forbidden by her kind...

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...

REVIEW:

I don't know what difference, if any was, about the production of this audio verse the first book on audio but the narrator did a much better job with the male voices this time around; helping me enjoy the listen more.

While the narration was MUCH better this time, the story level was about the same in Visions of Heat as it was in Slave to Sensation. By that I mean, I enjoy the concept of the Psy-Changeling world but the main characters that have been introduced so far are just lacking something. There are some secondary characters I am more interested in, so I can’t wait to get to their respective books.

I liked the couple well enough but I wanted more. Faith was a little more damsel in need than Sasha was in the first book but that’s only be she lived a more sheltered life. The Psy keeps their F-Psy “locked” away from the rest of the world because they are more imbalanced mentally and emotionally. A high percentage of them go crazy by the time they hit their 50s. Also the F-Psy makes tons of money for the Psy world with their predictions so they are seen as property.

Vaughan is your average good guy, dark alpha that has a hard time letting people get too close to him. Yes, he is sexy but I’ve seen this character type too many times to be really impressed with him as a lead.

I don’t know if it’s truly that I’m not loving this series or if it’s just that I’m having a PNR burn out. I do plan to continue this series but I’m going to take a little break and come back and maybe have a fresh ear when I listen to the next audio.

 Visions of Heat is available at:

Amazon ׀ B&N ׀ Audible.com

I bought my copy at Audible.com

Check out other reviews on this book:

Under the Covers
Page 317

PNR Audio Review: Slave to Sensation

Slave to Sensation

by Nalini Singh 

(Psy-Changeling #1)
Angela Dawe (Narrator)
Audiobook, Unabridged
Published April 28th 2011 by Tantor Audio
RATING:  ★★★
 

Nalini Singh dives into a world torn apart by a powerful race with phenomenal powers of the mind—and none of the heart. Born a Psy, Sascha Duncan must hide the emotions which mark her as flawed. But a passionate Changeling will tempt her to reveal everything—and risk her very soul.

REVIEW:

I’ve had this series on my TBR list for a long time. So when Audible.com was having a sale I grabbed books 1, 2 and 4, 5 (yes I don’t have 3 in audio but I have it in ebook). I really wish I had only used one of my credits on this series. I didn’t love the narrator. IMO she didn’t change her voice enough for the male characters and I found myself a little confused from time to time about who was speaking or thinking. But since I have the others I will continue to listen to them. But I can’t help but think I would have enjoyed reading Slave to Sensation more than I did listening to it.

While I didn’t love the narration of the book I did enjoy the story and the idea behind the world that Nalini Singh built. It felt like a mix between Lora Leigh’s Breeds Series and the Matrix.

Within the Psy-Changeling world you have three races; human, Changeling (weres/shifters) and the Psy. The Psy are engineered beings that have over the years learned to live without any emotions. They only live by what is logical. (Think Vulcans from Star Trek)

PsyNet made me think of the Matrix where people plugged into each other but as where a person that dies in the Matrix will die in real life; a Psy will die without being connected to the PsyNet. Their brain will not work without.

So when Sascha starts feeling emotions she is afraid that her shields in her mind that she has made over the years will break and the rest of the Psy will learn that she is “broken”. And because the Psy believe they cannot leave the Net, she knows that her days are numbered.

After Sascha is paired with a Lucas, the alpha of a Changeling Leopard pack, her emotions really start to take off. Lucas shows Sascha the ways of lust and passion. After she learns what it’s like enjoy the feel of Lucas’ touch she learns what it means to be pack and to get a different kind of touch through the other Changelings.

Over all the plot and characters were descent, I’m hoping that Slave to Sensation just fell into the first book in a series trap and that I will enjoy book two, Visions of Heat, more.

 Slave to Sensation is available at:

Amazon ׀ B&N ׀ Audible.com

I bought my copy at Audible.com