Mine to Possess (Paranormal Romance (Berkley)) [マスマーケット]

"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 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.

As children Clay and Talin find one another in a time when they hunger for some warmth and compassion in their lives. Both have family that traumatizes them on an emotional level and forges a bond between them that can never truly be broken. But the fierce protectiveness of Clay roars in fury when he senses the pain of his Tally inflicted on her by her adoptive father and when the fury at last subsides he is soaked in blood looking at the face of Tally whom is in shock of what Clay did.

Now, about 20 years later, Talin needs Clay again in the search of kids who've gone missing, not just any kids, her kids. She is now a Shine Guardian who protects and guides kids from the street in to a normal life and when a few under her care end up dead pain lacerates through her and she will not rest until their murders are solved. With another teenager whom is still missing Talin hopes to prevent his death and she will need Clay as a DarkRiver Sentinel to aid her in her quest.

As they both meet for the first time old pain, old feelings and old memories drift to the surface and the bond forged between their hearts so long ago slowly flickers to life. Still Clay can't ignore the cat inside him nor can Talin ignore the violence she witnessed so long ago or the lifespan she has left. Together they start a journey to seek the truth and rescue a teenager whose life still holds so much promise. And when Clay introduces Talin to the DarkRiver pack in order to protect her they hold a chance in their hands to become true mates.

But when one knows so much of darkness can one dare to touch the light?

I'm awestruck by the raw intensity of this novel and I almost feel the urge to flash a warning signal that before starting in a Psy-Changeling novel of Nalini Singh you better have food, drinks and a comfortable place to snuggle yourself in because you aren't going anywhere before reading Mine To Possess from first till last chapter. For me Nalini Singh takes the shapeshifter theme to a whole new level and draws me effortlessly into another world of the Psy-Changeling. Though I haven't read the previous novels I know where I'm heading off to!

Clay and Talin are childhood friends and that time is beautifully captured by the author in memories of feelings, events and actions they have as adults. The unraveling of all those feelings and of their actions they've taking after a certain moment in their life sometimes had the impact of a sledge hammer, that is how intense I felt them, felt with them as both children and adults. Trying to find their way back to that unique, trusting and loving bond that can make you survive almost anything. Clay and Talin are a dynamic love couple whom sizzle with a passionate nature and came alive through the impeccable writing skill Nalini Singh possesses.

The DarkRiver pack leaped of the pages with its colorful characters and I just fell in love with the animalistic characterization of the Changelings. Clay is part human, part leopard changeling, the coexistence and sometimes struggle between those two sides in him is so life like told it gave his emotions all the more impact and authenticity making him all the more real to me. With this I could also empathize with, and understand Talin with her emotions and reactions to certain events even better. I felt that all the elements in this story flawlessly fits together in to a riveting romance story and for me, with that, it unexpectedly turned out to be such a gripping reading experience that it leaves me satisfied and closing the book with a fulfilled sigh.

I think that you will even appreciate Mine To Possess more, if this is possible, when you've read the previous three novels in this Psy/Changeling series, reoccurring characters do show up and the plot does show signs that it finds its origin in another novel, I experienced this almost solely with the Psy world and its plans with the Implant Protocol. I also was on the edge of my seat plot wise, slowly Nalini Singh revealed it all and had some cutting edge moments making my heart skip a beat in relief. The Psy with their world and plans makes me root for every victory on them, because what would the world be without emotions, without passion or love, without all the good and bad things to feel, to learn from it and grow. The author created a very believable race with the Psy as she adds layers to their plans and ended this novel with a certain revelation I appreciated and was intrigued by its possibilities.

What a wild ride Mine To Possess turned out to be and I reveled in it until I closed the book with contentment and knowing I have another series to add to my bookshelves as Nalini Singh became an instant favorite author of mine.

Reviewed by Leontine
Courtesy of Realms on our Bookshelves

This is the fourth in Nalini Singh's series of books about the world of the Psy, Changelings and Humans. The first two books "Slave to Sensation" and "Visions of Heat" featured Psy women who escaped from the world of Mr Spock-like emotionless after finding their mates amongst the Changelings big cats. The third book, "Caressed by Ice", took Werewolf Brenna as the heroine and Psy assassin Judd as the hero. This fourth book is the first that introduces a human as one of the main subjects - Talin McKay. Tally is a social worker whose troubled childhood still haunts her - as did her only real friend in her youth, Clay. Clay is a Leopard Changeling and when he killed Tally's abusive foster father and went to prison for the crime Tally disappeared from his life, requesting that he be told she had died in a car accident.

However when some of the children Tally oversees go missing and then are found dead she realises that she needs assistance to get to the bottom of the disappearances and her former friend Clay, now an important person in the DarkRiver Pack, can help. The Clay she knew as a young boy has changed into a wild and dangerous man of whom she is initially afraid. When Clay brings Tally back to his pack and she starts to interact with the others they work together to find out what's happened to the young people and it's a race against time to rescue young Jon before he is killed. But can Clay and Tally get past the issues of mistrust and abandonment of the previous twenty years in order to find their friendship again - and perhaps more?

The characters in the previous books all appear in this one, along with a couple of new characters who will probably feature in future books. Once again Nalini Singh has written a tightly-plotted and enjoyable book with her alternative world with the Psy/Changeling/Human triumvirate taking on a new twist. As with the previous three books much of the romance between hero and heroine is based on physical touch, 'skin privileges', and although Tally isn't Psy she is a damaged young woman because of her past. I wonder what the author would do if one of her characters didn't mind touch as that's such a part of her writing style! She wrote the character of Clay very well as a part-animal, part human and a frightening but also loyal and reliable man. Tally wasn't always as easy to get a handle on and the underlying thread of her illness was dealt with in a rather easy way. Still, like the other books in the series, this was a worthwhile read and I look forward to the next book.