Tag / Nalini Singh

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Allegiance of Honor by Nalini Singh

Format: E-bookallegianceofhonor.png
Read with: Kindle Paperwhite
Length: Novel
Genre: Urban-Fantasy
Series: Psy-Changeling, #15
Publisher: Berkley
Hero: Multiple
Heroine: Multiple
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: June 14, 2016
Started On: July 30, 2018
Finished On: August 25, 2018

It has been a while since I have read a book in the Psy/Changeling series by Nalini Singh. I have a couple of books that I need to catch up on, before the release of the 18th book in the series which is set to happen in June of 2019. According to Ms. Singh, Allegiance of Honor is written in order to ease readers into the next chapter of this series, from the Psy-Changeling to what is known as the Psy-Changeling Trinity series.

Allegiance of Honor is a sort of recap of where everyone is, how everyone is doing, and basically how blissfully happy those who found their mates are at this point in time, together with the challenges that lie ahead. The year is 2082, and the changes that had come since the adoption of Silence as a way of life for the Psy are too numerous to count. Barriers came down, traitors were taken care of, and the world perhaps could be considered as a safer place for everyone involved; the Psy, the Changelings, and the humans.

It is to keep the stability going, to outline rules that would oversee the peace that had been achieved that a Trinity Accord is in the making, which requires that everyone be on board. However, old enemies are still lurking behind the scenes, orchestrating moves that are set to destroy the Accord before it can see the light of day.

I believe that Allegiance of Honor, while an installment that might have been necessary in certain aspects, could have been told in lesser number of pages. For faithful followers of the series, there was no point in rehashing every bit about the lives of the packs and the Psy whose lives we have read about in detail before. There was no point in rehashing how fierce the predatory changelings are, how the Alphas would protect their pack, and how ruthless the Psy can be as well. Perhaps a bit more of Hawke and Sienna would have been welcome, because I felt that their story just had too much going on otherwise to fully focus on their bond and story.

Reading about other characters in passing would have been enough (though I still do not see much of a point), and the next book in the series would still have made sense. In conclusion, things have changed, there are uncharted waters that needs to be crossed, navigated with care, lest every progress that had been made become naught.

I found bits and pieces of the story fascinating. The Architect’s character for one is an angle I am interested in. Allegiance of Honor keeps the Architect’s actual identity a secret, the mastermind behind the chaos that certain members want in order to prevent the Trinity Accord from happening.

I also loved seeing the members of the Black Sea, and found myself intrigued with their Alpha, Miane Leveque and Malachai, one of her blood loyal seconds. Is it me, or is there something more to their story? Could an Alpha and sentinel end up together? So many questions, but then again, as readers we would have to wait to see where Ms. Singh steers them towards.

Recommended for those who would like to jump into the series at this point. This book is basically a recap of everything that has been the Psy-Changeling series.

Final Verdict: What could have been done in a novella, Singh brings to readers as a full length novel. Allegiance of Honor’s only saving grace comes from the breadcrumbs that lead to the next chapter of the series.

Favorite Quotes

“God,” she whispered huskily at some point after Riley had stripped off her top and bra to leave her clad only in a pair of shorts. “Wolves have all the moves.”
He chuckled, his pupils surrounded by a ring of wolfish amber when he looked up to meet her gaze before he claimed her lips in a possessive kiss that made her squirm. “I want you inside me,” she said, her hands fisted in his hair.
He grazed the side of her breast with his claws. “Be good, kitty cat.” A nip of her lip. “You’re—”
“Pregnant and in full pounce-on-my-mate mode.”

Stroking her hands down to cradle his face, she spoke to wolf and man both. “Any sign of a problem and I’ll be at the healer’s.” She let him see her sincerity, feel it through their mating bond. “I’m awful at being pregnant, but I want to be a mom so bad, Riley, and I want to see you being a dad. I’m not going to put that at risk, no matter what.”
He took a shaky breath, bending to press his forehead against hers. “I know. I just . . .”
“I know, baby.” Kissing and nuzzling at him until he was no longer trembling, she surrendered when he took control of the kiss. That kind of surrender didn’t come instinctively to either part of her, but if SnowDancer Senior Lieutenant Riley Kincaid could let her see his fear, let her hold him, then DarkRiver Sentinel Mercy Smith had zero problems giving him the control he needed to love her right now.

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iTunes

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Stroke of Enticement by Nalini Singh

Format: E-bookwildinvitation
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novella
Genre: Urban-Fantasy
Series: Psy-Changeling, #9.5
Publisher: Berkley
Hero: Zach Quinn
Heroine: Angelica Kildaire
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: March 5, 2013
Started On: February 11, 2016
Finished On: February 14, 2016

Angelica Kildaire (Annie) likes the independence she has carved for herself in her life. It has been hard won one, but it was the way she wanted things. Even though loneliness had a way of creeping in on her at times. That is until Zach Quinn walks into her life, making her crave for what she thought she would never want for.

Zach is a leopard shifter, and from the moment he lays eyes on Annie, he knows that he has found his mate for life. But convincing her of the fact? Well, that’s where the fun lies.

Though a novella, Nalini in her true craftsmanship, managed to wow me in all the ways that mattered. Zach is the kind of hero that every heterosexual female would fall for. Book smart, street smart, not to mention helluva sexy with a confidence that is nothing short of lethal. Zach epitomizes alpha heroes and then some.

Annie proved to be a match worthy of a man like Zach, and the journey to their happily ever after even though it was a short one, was what mattered the most. Loved it!

Recommended!

Final Verdict: Flat-out adored Zach and Annie. Nothing like the deep visceral bond of love. 

Favorite Quotes

“Hot date?” The voice was rich, dark, and completely out of place in her classroom.
Startled, she stood to face the man leaning in the doorway. “Uncle Zach?”
A smile that cut her off at the knees. “Just Zach’s fine.” Vivid aqua-colored eyes, straight black hair cut in a careless way, copper-gold skin and bones that spoke of an ancestor from one of the native tribes. “You called.”
And he’d come.

She was softer than he’d imagined, more luscious than anything he’d ever experienced. Cat and man both purred inwardly, and when her lips parted on a gasp, he swept inside to taste her. Sweet and tart, innocent and woman, she was his own personal brand of intoxication.
He bit her lower lip, sucked on it, let her gasp in another breath before kissing her again. “Mmm.” It was a sound of sheer pleasure as he indulged his need to touch this woman.

“Zach?”
“Shh. I’m looking.”
The husky statement made her body clench inside, her thighs tremble. She was wearing black lace…for him.
“Annie.” He groaned and reached up to unhook her bra. “I want to see.”

She sighed in unashamed pleasure and saw his eyes gleam as he bent down to get rid of his shoes and socks. “Now yours,” he said, moving to the bottom of the bed and tugging off her sandals one by one, following each removal with a long, slow look up her body.
By the time he finally got on the bed beside her, she was so aroused that she rose to claim a kiss of her own. When he nipped at her lips as he seemed to like doing, she nipped back. He raised his head, his hand closing possessively over her breast. “Do that again.”
Eyes wide, she did. He purred into her mouth. She broke the kiss to stare at him. “What was that?”
A feline smile. “Nothing.”

Breath coming in jagged bursts, she lowered herself onto him. He stretched her to the limit. But she wanted him inside her, wanted to possess him as absolutely as he’d possessed her. She drove down and shuddered. “It’s too much.” The angle was deep, the penetration intense.
He kissed her. “We’ll practice until you get used to it.” It was a husky promise as he laid her back down, bracing his body over hers using his hands.
“How much practice?” She wrapped her legs around the lean beauty of his hips, no longer shy with this man who treated her as if she was a goddess.
He groaned, pulled out a little, then thrust, as if he couldn’t help himself. “Lots.”

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | eBookMall | iTunes

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Shards of Hope by Nalini Singh

Format: E-bookshardsofhope
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Psy-Changeling, #14
Publisher: Berkley
Hero: Aden Kai
Heroine: Zaira Neve
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: June 02, 2015
Started On: January 23, 2016
Finished On: January 24, 2016

Shards of Hope is the 14th book in the phenomenal Psy-Changeling series by Nalini Singh. The series has come such a long way since its first book was published in 2006. Nalini has managed to turn things around in a world occupied by humans, changelings and Psy; the majority trying to find their footing amidst the rapidly changing landscape of politics and power that shapes their world. Nalini Singh is a master at what she does; the world crafting, the storytelling, the romance that she pens so well and the adventure that you are guaranteed in each of these novels. I love her stories for the depth of characterization explored, the strong sense of justice and right and wrong that she explores in her stories. Of course, there are the heroes that one salivates over and the heroines who makes you wish you were as strong as them – but they are relatable in a way that makes the stories the sumptuous delights they are.

Shards of Hope begins 4 months after the fall of Silence. Silence refers to a protocol adopted by the Psy in 1979 in order to stop the madness that their race seems to prone to; the violence that strikes rendering their race to become mindless creatures that goes on a rampage of killing and blood lust. The Psy had done whatever they did back then, in order to protect the minds of a race with the enhanced abilities of the mind they are gifted with. Aden Kai is the leader of the Arrows, a sort of paramilitary group that exists to protect the Psy race. With the fall of the Silence, and even before that, the subordination that had been demanded of them for political gain had fallen apart, leaving Aden as the one whom all Arrows trust and would give up their life for.

When Aden and Zaira Neve are kidnapped and tested upon by forces unknown, thus begins a cycle of events that changes things for the Arrows as a group and for Aden and Zaira both in terms of what their relationship means to them and their future. Aden, the offspring of two Arrows who had seen nothing worthy inside of him had handed him over to the Arrow training facility while he was quite young, which was the norm back then. Zaira had been a victim of parental abuse which had nearly ended her life, not owing to them, but because she had stood up to them, which had ended in a blood bath brought upon by sheer rage. That rage that lives within her, the scars that defines her, are the very reasons why she puts up the walls she does when she is around Aden, to stop him from enticing her and convincing her that they belong together, in fact, that Zaira had belonged to him from the very moment their lives had crossed paths.

Aden is a hero inside whom the word honor echoes with every breathe he draws. It is that honor and integrity that is the selling point when it comes to him, when it comes to leading a group of lethal soldiers who could at his command, make the whole world bleed. Aden wants something entirely different for his Arrows whom he considers to be his family. With the fall of Silence, problems that they would never have anticipated comes to light, but Aden is determined that he would change the lives of Arrows from one where they exist only to fulfill their duties to a life that is filled with warmth, love and a sense of belonging. A tall order for a group of people whose conditioning from a very tender age had taught them just the opposite.

Zaira’s story is one of heartbreak, but that of immense strength as well. A lesser woman would have crumbled and gone mad long back. But Zaira withstands the onslaught of rage that threatens to make her give into her baser desires. Zaira knows that if she ever were to consider Aden as hers, her possessive nature would be the death of the man Aden has to be for his Arrows. But in Aden’s arms Zaira finds solace, comfort and desire of the kind that she would never find elsewhere in the world. With every touch, every kiss that Aden places on her forehead, lips and her subconscious mind, Aden wins her over. Aden’s patience when it comes to Zaira is one that is worthy of noting. But then again, I wouldn’t have expected anything less from the man who would walk to hell on earth and back, not only for Zaira, but each and every man and woman who serves on his team of elite soldiers.

It is a testament to Nalini Singh’s incredible talent that none of the stories appear to be cliched versions of earlier books. It is that very reason amongst a multitude of others, that would always keep me coming back for more! The unfinished thread in Shards of Hope is one that intrigues me and I can’t wait to find out what is in store for the Psy, Changelings and the humans. According to Nalini, Allegiance of Honor, the 15th book in the series which is to come out this year is going to be composed of an ensemble cast. Can’t wait for June!

Final Verdict: Nothing short of amazing; bears witness to Nalini’s splendorous talent.

Favorite Quotes

Pushing off the wall without warning, she walked around the corner and into a small alcove hidden from the world by a heavy mass of overhanging vines as well as its position tucked in between two buildings.
“Zaira.” Aden followed her. “What—”
Slamming him against the wall, she pressed her lips to the strong, powerful beat of the pulse in his neck. Since she was already falling into the abyss, her control shredded, why deny herself the pleasure that was the flip side of the nightmare memories she could no longer stifle?
He shuddered, one hand sliding up to curve over the back of her neck. And then their mouths were meeting and it was wild and undisciplined, wet and hot, and she stopped thinking, the rage in her drugged into a haze of want focused on this beautiful man whose hunger for her seemed as feral as hers for him.

Chest rising and falling in harsh breaths and pupils dilated, Aden watched her mouth as if he’d devour her all over again.
Zaira was fine with being devoured. Fine. “I’m meant to be the out-of-control one,” she whispered.
He shot her a look that made her burn, made her realize just how much he kept contained beneath his calm, stable skin. It felt as if he’d shown her a secret, shown her a small madness within himself. She couldn’t stop herself. She pressed close, claimed another kiss, was claimed, that strong hand on her jaw and his body crushing her to the wall.
And Zaira realized that some prisons could equal pleasure, not pain.

“You are so beautiful.” The words came out raw.
Freezing, she looked up at him for a long, long time. “You mean it,” she whispered “You really do.”
He didn’t understand why she’d even question that, but he didn’t have time for a discussion. Not today. Bending his head, he kissed her. She opened for him immediately, one of her legs curling over his hip in a distinctively possessive act. Reaching down, he pulled up her other leg until she was locked around him, her arms wrapped around his neck as she held him to her.
“Mine,” she said on a kiss.
The single word branded him to the soul. “Yes.”

He didn’t ask again, just gripped her under the hip with one strong hand and pushed the tip of his erection into her passion-swollen entrance.
“Aden.”
Sliding his other hand under her neck to hold it gently but with unmistakable possessiveness, he said, “This’ll hurt.”
Kissing him again in answer, she spoke to him mind to mind. I choose this pain, she said. I choose you.

“You’re already mine.” It came out instinctively, from that primal, possessive core at the heart of her nature.
He pressed his forehead to hers, not fighting her hold. “I know, but do you?” His hair fell over his forehead to brush hers. “Deep inside, do you know?”
She didn’t understand his question, and the frustration made her pull at his hair. “Stop talking in circles.”
“A psychic bond,” he said, his mind touching hers.
She wanted to open so badly to him. “If you do that, I won’t ever let you go.” If the physical connection had sealed them together, this would turn that seal into an unbreakable glue. “Even my death won’t free you.” The psychic scars would be irreparable.
“Whether we bond or not, your loss would change me forever.” A quiet voice that held so much power it vibrated with it. “You are written indelibly on my soul, Zaira. Nothing will ever alter what you are to me.”

Slamming both hands palms down on either side of her head as the sound of his name on her lips further eroded his control, Aden used the leverage to pull back as much as he could, given her grip on him, before sinking deep into her once again in another hard thrust. She was wet, tight heat around his cock and silken, lithe warmth around his body.
“My Zaira,” he said, his voice so rough the words were almost unrecognizable.

He’d intended to give her romance tonight, too, but the bond pulsed with a visceral need he had to assuage. Realizing he was still gripping the ring, he pushed it into her hand. “Put it on me.” He was hers in every way that mattered—the ceremony would be for others, for their friends and those in their care. This was for them.
Kissing his jaw, his throat, she looked down and, picking up his hand, slid on the ring. “All mine.”
“Always have been.”

Groaning, he reached between them and somehow managed to undo his jeans, shove down the denim and his briefs. It took a little more effort to kick them off, but he was highly motivated.
Naked at last, he nudged aside the gusset of her panties. A single stroke of his finger through her wetness and her back arched, the sensations that came shooting back at him through the bond threatening to make his eyes roll back in his head. Then she bit him on the jaw and it was all over.
He thrust into her wet heat in a single, demanding push.

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | ARe | eBookMall | iTunes

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Archangel’s Kiss by Nalini Singh

Format: E-bookarchangelskiss
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Guild Hunter, #2
Publisher: Berkley
Hero: Raphael
Heroine: Elieanora P. Deveraux
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: February 2, 2010
Started On: December 13, 2015
Finished On: December 15, 2015

I can’t put to words how glad I am that I decided to start reading the Guild Hunter series. Even the fact that I am a tad late to the party is one that fills my heart with glee. All because of the fact that I have got a bit to catch up on, books that I can fall back on when most reads turn up lackluster and definitely not what I am looking for. It is ALWAYS good to have books that you can count on lined up, just in case, and from this moment on, the Guild Hunter series is going be that for me.

I am simply loving the experience of reading about Raphael and Elena. Most of the time, even when it comes to a series that you adore, we only get to see glimpses of a hero and heroine that we might have loved to pieces in one of the books of the series. But here, we get to savor all the goodness that is Raphael and Elena through a couple of books at least, their newly forged bond something so precious and fragile, yet at the same time one filled with the kind of strength that you know would take them places, through the extremely rough and turbulent times their relationship will be subjected to. To get to see their relationship grow in that aspect is one that makes me as a reader, feel privileged. Because an author has to be extremely talented to carry the same characters forward and always give the reader something interesting and exhilarating to read about. And without a doubt, Nalini Singh is definitely the kind of master who can weave such magic over her readers.

Book 2 in the Guild Hunter series continues just days after Elena wakes up from the year long coma she has been in, healing from the severe injuries she had endured, injuries that would have killed her, if not for Raphael making her an immortal of his kind. While Elena is hunter-born which means she has the sort of strength that actually drew her into the realm of the archangels to begin with, as an angel, Elena finds herself at her weakest, trying to regain her strength in time to attend a ball that Zhou Lijuan, the oldest archangel in existence is throwing in her “honor”.

Raphael and Elena are completely new to the concept of the bond that they share between them, each thrown into uncharted waters when it comes to the love they have for each other. Elena and Raphael must strike to achieve that balance that would work for them, something not very easy to do when Raphael himself is alpha male personified, with a helluva lot of power in his hands. His love and need to protect his woman is one that wars constantly with Elena’s need for freedom, independence and her inborn need to assert herself as Raphael’s equal, someone worthy of sharing the title of his mate.

There is also the fact that Raphael and Elena both continue to be haunted by their pasts, not to mention the intricacies involved in archangel politics, each and everyone seemingly looking for ways to exploit Raphael’s weakness that is supposedly Elena. What made Archangel’s Kiss doubly interesting for me was the fact that Elena’s suppressed memories when it comes to her past, mired in darkness, blood and gore is one that kept materializing until we were able to bring together the pieces to identify the sort of monster that she had been dealing with. Her guilt that comes out of it plus her vulnerability which makes her turn to Raphael to keep the nightmares at bay were reasons I fell for Elena’s character, more so than before. The altogether strong, independent and put together Elena, finding in herself the strength to lean on Raphael made the story for me.

If I were to sound poetic about the whole thing, I would say that Raphael and Elena were waiting for each other, more so Raphael because he has been in existence for centuries. Raphael has found someone worthy of laying down his very life for, as he proved in the first book itself, and in Elena he has found the woman who would stand beside him, no matter what. I am just hoping that in the books to come, Nalini would show us why Elena’s entry to Raphael’s life came at such an opportune moment. I say opportune because her arrival seems to have heralded a deep wave of change in everything that is to do with the archangels. The way I see it, as with anyone that is left with too much power in their hands, the archangels too need a change in their power structure, something that would keep the checks and balances in place so to say, that would mean that they too would be accountable for their actions.

Though the story’s main focus as per the blurb was supposed to be on Elena and Raphael’s invitation to the ball that Lijuan was throwing for them in The Forgotten City of Beijing, China, this doesn’t materialize until we are almost at the end of the story. But I believe what happened prior to the event was needed to make the story appear more wholesome.

Now that I have discovered this series, I find it quite difficult to drag my mind and heart away from these books and turn my attention towards anything else, but trudge on I must. Quite a bad time for this to happen with a lot of deadlines right around the corner. One very striking point in the story for me was the entrance of Naasir into the picture, and oh what an enigmatic character he makes out to be! The following quote should suffice as to why he made such an impact with his entrance, which I am sure is a sentiment echoed by almost all readers when it comes to him.

All the angels were gone, but a vampire moved out of the shadows as she exited the house. His skin was a shade that drew the eye, inviting tactile contact—a dark, dark brown with an undertone of true gold. The color was so rich, so warm that it shimmered even as the moon slid behind a cloud, enveloping the Refuge in purest night. But his eyes, a brilliant, impossible silver, pierced the darkness as if it didn’t exist. Hair of the same shade as his eyes fell around his face, sleek and cut in jagged lines that accentuated the angle of his jaw.
“A tiger,” she whispered, watching him walk to her, though to call it a walk was a gross disservice. His stride was the fluid, silent prowl of the animal she sensed around him. “You have the scent of a tiger on the hunt.” Rich, vibrant, deadly.
“I am Naasir.” His voice was cultured, his words gracious, but those metallic eyes watched her with unblinking focus. “Dmitri asked me to assist you.”

The Guild Hunter series I believe is Nalini giving reins to the darker side of her uber talented mind, which is something I am eternally grateful for. For those that love a good urban fantasy series with a strong heroine and a melt-your-panties variety of hero, this series is definitely for you. Even if the stories are not about Elena and Raphael throughout, worry not. Because Nalini has assembled a cast of characters that would definitely win your heart over in more ways than one.

Final Verdict: Filled with darkness of the kind that is so well crafted that you can’t help but want for more!

Favorite Quotes

You can’t scare me, she thought to him.
A lie, Guild Hunter. I can feel your heart thudding like a trapped rabbit’s.
I’d be stupid not to be afraid. But I’m not going to back away from us just because you’re feeling a little extra snarly.
A split second when his lips stopped, then she felt them curve, his hand rising from her throat to cup her cheek. The white-hot burn of his power faded, was replaced by the erotic touch of his skin. Only you would ever dare say that to me.”

So tight and slick and mine.
Blatantly possessive, hotly male.
Her bottom rubbed against him with every undulation of her body, driving her to a fever pitch. “I need more.”
You can’t have my cock, Elena.
She trembled, tried to find her mind. “Why not? I’m rather fond of it.”
That got her another teasing brush across her clit. Sparks flared behind her eyelids, and she barely heard him through the buzz in her head.
You’re not strong enough to take what I want to do to you.

“Even if you fail,” he said, “I have every confidence that you’ll find a way to end my life before I stain the world with evil.”
Rebellion in those eyes. “We die,” she said, “we die together. That’s the deal.”
He thought about his final thoughts as he’d fallen with her in New York, her body broken in his arms, her voice less than a whisper in his mind. He hadn’t considered holding onto his eternity for a second, had chosen to die with her, with his hunter. That she would choose to do the same . . . His hands clenched. “We die,” he repeated, “we die together.”

They rose through lingering traces of angel dust, each fine mote kicking her further into a kind of heat she wasn’t sure she could survive. Groaning, she pressed her mouth to the uncompromising angle of his jaw, licking at his skin, sucking and tasting as he flew them home. Against her belly, he was hard, deliciously tempting. She wanted to close her hand around that heavy heat, but had to satisfy herself with biting kisses along his jaw.
He didn’t stop her, but his body grew increasingly more taut, his muscles electric with strain by the time they landed on the balcony outside their bedroom. She felt him slide open the doors, shut them after they entered. And then the archangel lost control.

Elena!
She couldn’t take all of him. He was too big, too thick. But I’ll have eternity to refine my technique. The sensual thought blazed out on an inferno of need as she loved her archangel, licking and tasting and sucking.
Brilliant white fire against her skin and she knew he was glowing, this lethal being she dared tease in the most intimate of ways. His response when it came, was starkly sensual. Your mouth—his voice sandpaper in her mind—is a little piece of heaven and hell.

It was the rawest, most primitive way to possess a woman, but his hunter pushed up on her elbows, gave him a challenging look, and said, “I’m waiting.”
He slid into her in a single hard thrust. Her scream echoed off the walls, but it was a scream that held equal parts demand and need. Gripping her hips tight, he pulled out almost fully, then slammed back in. There was no mercy in him any longer, but Elena didn’t ask it from him.
Learn to fly fast, Elena, he said as he pushed them both to a final, blinding peak. Then we will dance in the sky.

She pressed her lips to Raphael’s jaw. “But you, you’ve always been the rain, the wind, inside my mind. I taste you when I sleep, when I wake, when I breathe.”
If Jason hadn’t landed then, Raphael would have drawn Elena inside, taken his fill of her own unique scent. As it was, he ran his hand to close over her nape, brushing his mouth over the sweet curve of her ear. I will taste you tonight, Elena . Be ready for me—I won’t stop until you scream your pleasure.
He heard her heart hitch, her breath catch. But his hunter had never yet backed down from a challenge. Anytime, angel boy.

Her scream echoed into his mouth. He kissed her through the taking, through the raw, almost painful emotion of their joining. He kissed her until she gasped for breath, until her eyes went blank with pleasure, with passion, with ecstasy. And then he kissed her as she came down from the peak.
“Again,” he whispered into her mouth.

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | eBookMall | ARe | iTunes

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Angels’ Blood by Nalini Singh

Format: E-bookangelsblood
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Guild Hunter, #1
Publisher: Berkley Books
Hero: Raphael
Heroine: Elieanora P. Deveraux
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: January 1, 2009
Started On: November 30, 2015
Finished On: December 12, 2015

Angels’ Blood is the debut book in the Guild Hunter series by the oh-so-talented-author-that-she-literally-takes-your-breathe-away, the one and only Nalini Singh. The praise comes backed by the thousands of fans who adore her books, of which I am definitely one. Her Psy-Changeling series is what got me hooked on her writing, the vivid beauty that is Nalini’s world building and of course the emotions that can go from zero to hundred with just a flick of the right words at the opportune time, which makes her books a treat in all the different ways that matter. Compared to the Psy-Changeling series, I would say the Guild Hunter series is a whole different ballpark. The Guild Hunters is darker, edgier and holds more fascination the part of me that actually wants darker reads of romance. By darker I don’t mean books that go into taboo areas, but by darker I mean books that explore sides of characters that are not generally accepted by the larger population of romance readers these days.

Angels’ Blood tells the story of Vampire Hunter Elieanora P. Deveraux (Elena), who is summoned by Raphael, the archangel of New York himself in the quest to hunt down one of their own, an archangel. Armed with little information to hunt and shut down the archangel who grows into a more formidable enemy by the minute, Elena’s frustrations are doubled by the fact that her response to the beautiful Raphael is far from what she projects it to be. There is an answering need that flares to life and grows stronger by the second, every single time the same desire burns in Raphael’s eyes that makes Elena breathless with wanting. And there is also the teeny tiny fact that Elena herself walks a thin line when it comes to her own life which hangs in a precarious balance given how unpredictable Raphael can be.

I love Nalini’s books for various different reasons, one of them being the fact that she gives each hero the space to be true to themselves. While most of us get pissed off about heroines who turn into doormats, I hate it equally as much when a hero changes the essence of what he is, all just to suite the sensibilities of the heroine. That is just plain wrong in my opinion, as the hero loses out on what makes him stand out, what makes him essentially himself, and I also believe that it is an author’s way of taking the easy way out rather than being true to the character that is crafted. Raphael is a hero of the kind I am talking about. Demanding, ruthless and powerful; Raphael has little choice but to be all that and more. Any sign of weakness and it would be the blood of thousands that would line the streets and he has no intention of letting that happen.

When Elena walks into his life, Raphael responds to her on a level that frightens, even him – if there ever was an instance where an archangel would feel fear, that would have been it. But there is also a beauty to that savagery inside of him. And then there is the loyalty offered to him by his closest, without him demanding any of it. That alone tells a story of the kind of man he is. Elena, while she struggles with giving into her needs when it comes to Raphael, at first refuses to see beyond the obvious. But slowly and surely, Elena starts to see a man who not only would be able to handle ALL of her, but a man worthy of being handled by.

There are so many things I want to know about when it comes to Elena, Raphael and the rest of the cast of characters that makes up the series, which I am 100% certain would have been the case with every reader upon starting this series. I bet that this story just skims the surface on the depth of the characters that Nalini has brought to the table. Raphael and Elena with their pasts mired in blood, Raphael’s more so in a way that made me want to curl into a ball and just weep. The fact that these two survived insurmountable odds to become the warriors they at present are serves as a testament to the strength of their characters.

Nalini’s descriptions of her world settings always comes with the right touch; not too much, and neither too little. I could almost envision the angels, their ethereal beauty as their wings take flight.

Absolutely recommended. If there is one paranormal/urban-fantasy romance author you should be reading, it is undeniably Nalini Singh.

Final Verdict: Ms. Singh’s world building continues to amaze and awe! Beautiful craftsmanship.

Favorite Quotes

The bald way he pointed out his power, and her lack of it, made her fingers itch for a blade.
“You shouldn’t look at me in that fashion, Elena.”
“Why?” she asked, prodded by some heretofore unknown suicidal streak. “Scared?”
He leaned a fraction closer. “My lovers have always been warrior women. Strength intrigues me.”

Lust in her throat, brutal and demanding. “But then, we both know about my self-destructive streak.” Stepping away, she put her back to the wall and faced him, willing her body to stop readying itself for a penetration she’d never allow. “I have no desire to be your chew-toy.”
The lines of his face might’ve been starkly masculine, but at that instant, his lips were pure temptation, soft, bitable, sensual in a way only a man’s mouth could be. “If I were to splay you out on my desk and thrust my fingers into you right now, I think I’d find different.”

His lips touched hers and she moaned. The hands on her hips tightened as he lifted her without apparent effort and began to kiss her in earnest. Fire traveled through the raw eroticism of the openmouthed kiss to curl her toes, coming to pool in the vee between her thighs. “Hot,” she whispered when he let her breathe. “Too hot.”
Ice silvered the air and it was a cool mist that surrounded her, seeping into her pores in a stroke of possession. “Better?” He kissed her again before she could answer, his tongue inside her, his body hard and perfect and—
Nothing else mattered.

He changed his hold to accommodate her. “Why should I kill you when I can wipe your mind?”
“I don’t want to lose my memories.” Even the bad ones, they were what made her who she was. Now, today, she was a different Elena to the one who’d never known what it was to kiss an archangel. “Don’t make me forget.”
“Will you trade your life to keep your memories?” A soft question.
She thought that over. “Yes,” she said quietly. “I would rather die as Elena, than live as a shadow.”

“Is that like a cat marking its territory?”
Raphael followed her gaze, flaring out the affected wing. “Michaela isn’t used to being denied.” Picking up a fancy cloth serviette, he came to her. “Wipe it off.”
The urge to rebel against the command smashed up against her need to rub that bitch’s mark off his wing. Stupid possessiveness won. “Turn around.”
He did so in graceful silence. Standing, she dampened the cloth with water before touching it to his wing. She was very careful not to get any of the sticky stuff on herself, but her caution appeared to have been unnecessary. “It’s coming off easy. Not like the one you dusted me with.” Even now, the light caught on stray flecks embedded in her skin, flecks she was sure Michaela had seen.
“I told you—yours was a special blend.”
Something warm and melty spread through her body. “Marking me, angel boy?”
“I prefer to do that with my cock.”

“No. I’ve never taken Michaela up on her offer.”
“Why not? She’s hot—tits and ass are all men ever see.”
“I prefer lips.” He bent and bit down a fraction too hard on her lower lip before raising his head. “And yours are quite succulent.”
Michaela’s, she thought on a crashing wave of pleasure, were nicely shaped but thin. But—“I’m not buying.” She didn’t change her position. “Who the hell cares about lips?”
“If you were on your knees with your lips wrapped around my cock, I would care a great deal.”

“You don’t strike me as the sharing type.” Her voice was raw.
“No. If one went to another man”—he began to pull out with slow deliberation—“there were dozens ready to take her place. It mattered little to me.”
She was almost beyond thought now, her entire being focused on the point where their bodies joined. What reason remained collapsed under the heady, seductive force of his words.
“If you take another lover, Elena”—he thrust back in, making her gasp—“what I do to him will become a nightmare etched in human memory.”

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Shield of Winter by Nalini Singh

Format: E-bookshieldofwinter
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Series: Psy-Changeling, #13
Publisher: Berkley
Hero: Vasic Duvnjak
Heroine: Ivy Jane
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: June 3, 2014
Started On: May 21, 2015
Finished On: June 06, 2015

Shield of Winter is the 13th book in the Psy-Changeling series. The book that comes after the most explosive title in the series, Heart of Obsidian. Shield of Winter tells the story of one of the most enigmatic characters of the elite group of soldiers of the Psy race, the ones that carry out the covert operations as required.

Vasic Duvnkak is an assassin, a soldier and an Arrow. With the volatile changes that had been happening to the three races living on Earth, the Psy world as Vasic has known it is rapidly changing, bringing along with it regrets of the kind written in blood, a conscience mired by a past that cannot be changed. Vasic is drifting further and further away from the roots that had kept him grounded, and until the inevitable end of his life, Vasic is willing to do whatever it takes to continue protecting his race, albeit minus the allegiance to the corrupt elite.

Ivy Jane is an empath, empaths being the Psy that had been brutally and viciously hunted down when the Psy world was initially established. Ivy becomes part of the group that is rounded up by Kaleb Krychek in order to save the Psy from an illness that has been ravaging the minds of Psy, rendering them mad beyond help. Ivy is helpless in the face of the sickness that seems to be accelerating its way through the NetMind, the bio feedback mechanism that is crucial for the Psy to survive.

Ivy and Vasic are both newbies to the world of sensation that had been forbidden for the Psy for so long. Vasic more so than Ivy because of the conditioning, training and torture that he had been subjected to when he had first been entered into the training academy for the Arrows. When Vasic chooses Ivy as the empath that he would protect till the mission ends, Vasic finds in Ivy, for the very first time in his life, a woman who makes him want. Want something more.

The journey of discovery that these two embark upon is a beautifully sensuous one, one that only an author of Nalini Singh’s caliber can deliver. The bloody turn that Psy’s world takes doesn’t detract from the connection that springs forth between Vasic and Ivy, a love that is beautiful in the way it develops.

Though Shield of Winter doesn’t obviously live up to the splendor that is Heart of Obsidian, it nevertheless gives fans of the series a read worth sinking their teeth into. Vasic is the type of hero that we all would love to cuddle, pet and call our own. Not because he’s the cuddly, warm and fuzzy type. But because he is just the opposite. Reserved, a touch cold and aloof, Vasic is the type of hero that makes women want to claim them as their own. Vasic is downright delicious. Though a virgin, Vasic’s focus on “matters” at hand makes everything doubly more so sensual!

Ivy is just the sort of woman that a man like Vasic needs. A man on the brink of crossing over, not caring much about how or when his end arrives. But in Ivy, Vasic finds the sort of strength he never thought he was capable of, the strength and will to focus on living than the inevitable end of the cycle of life. Vasic’s back story is one that would make even the hardest of hearts thaw. Ivy’s equally horrific, but made a trifle bit better owing to protective parents. Beyond the romance, there is of course always the fascinating world that Nalini has created with this series, that in itself a reason enough  to get lost in these books!

Recommended for fans of the Psy-Changeling series. Nalini writes beautifully. That is one reason why these books are not to missed out on!

Final Verdict: In the fall of Silence, nothing will ever be the same ever again. Great storytelling, as always!

Favorite Quotes

Ivy bit down on her lower lip, released the swollen flesh . . . and tugged the top off over her head. Raising one hand to pull back strands of her hair that had curled over her face, she didn’t attempt to hide herself from him, the plump mounds of her breasts cupped by a confection of ivory satin and lace. “That’s not Psy issue,” he said, fighting every single cell in his body not to push the delicate fabric aside and look his fill.
Ivy’s own breathing was unsteady, her breasts rising and falling as if in invitation. “No,” she admitted in a husky tone. “I’ve always liked certain textures against my skin.” Raising one hand, she pushed off a strap.”

Ivy’s breath was a sob. “Don’t ever give up.” Using her free hand to cup the hand he had around her wrist, she bent her head to press a kiss to his knuckles. “Promise me.”
His entire body in shock at the sweet, hot caress, he nodded. For her, he’d conquer even the dark numbness that had been eating him alive for years. “I promise.” He touched her hair. “Ivy, I was trying to protect you.” He’d never intended this bond to form, never intended to cause her pain. “From the terrible things I’ve done, the destructive choices I’ve made, the broken mess inside me.”
Ivy shook her head, her expression haunted. “It was too late the first day we met. You’re inside me, and I’m inside you. It’s done.”

He squeezed her nape. “Kiss me,” he repeated.
Ivy licked her lips, slid her hands up to his shoulders, and confessed. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Neither do I,” he responded, the glittering silver of his eyes on her mouth. “Arrows learn by repetition and practice until the basic skill is honed, at which point we begin to specialize.”
The words should’ve been dry, but they made her breasts swell, her nipples so plump and tight the lace of her bra became abrasive. Because he was talking about repetition and practice when it came to intimate contact. Kissing. Touching. Sex. Her lips parted and he lowered his head.
“Do it again, Ivy,” he murmured, his breath mingling with her own. “Repetition—”
“And practice,” she completed, and brushed her lips over his.

When Vasic broke contact, his forehead pressed against hers and his breath jagged, she caressed his cheek, kissed the clean-shaven smoothness of his jaw. Never had she felt so alive, so pleasured. But below that was a sexual hunger brutal in its ferocity, hard and dark . . . and then she knew. It wasn’t her desire she was sensing. It was his.
Body melting even further, she kissed his jaw again. “I’m picking up your desire. Do you mind?”
“No.” He kissed her again on the heels of that statement, one hand on her lower back, the other on the side of her neck.
Then he licked his tongue against hers.
Her brain exploded.

“Vasic.” Soft breath, Ivy’s lips on his throat.
Fingers tightening into fists, he stood in place, his head bowed slightly and his arms trapping her. Instead of fighting to escape, she kissed his throat again, licked out with her tongue to taste him. It made every muscle in his body go tight, the tattered vestiges of the psychological brainwashing he’d survived attempting to overlay the pleasure with pain, but he didn’t move.
“Vasic,” she whispered again, her kiss damp this time, the sensation going straight to his rock-hard erection. “My Vasic.”

Turning toward her, he braced himself with his palms on either side of her head, his bare skin inches from her, the heat of him smashing against her hungry skin. And his fury . . . that was a stunning thing, the storm in his eyes molten silver.
“I can’t give you what you want.” It came out ice-cold, but those eyes, those eyes . . . “I thought—” He shook his head. “You can’t change the core of a man, Ivy. You can’t take a man christened in blood and make him into something better.”
Ivy narrowed her eyes, furious at the way he continued to see himself. “I don’t want you to change. Haven’t I made that clear?” Rising on tiptoe, she fisted her hands in his hair. “I want you. All of you. Even the part that infuriates me.”

Chest heaving, Ivy stared at him, the suspicion on her face making something twist deep inside him, the strange emotion at once gentle and fierce. “Wait for me in your bedroom,” he said, taking what he needed because Ivy had said he could have it. Have her.
Ivy had fought for his right to have her.
She never denied him, never punished him by withholding the touch he craved—her touch—and he planned to take terrible advantage. Now and always. “I need to make sure everything is secure before I join you.” The mattress on his bed was hard, would discomfort her. “I want you under me, naked and aroused and mine.”

A lazy, affectionate smile that caught at his heart and refused to let go. “I flaked, huh?”
“You needed rest,” Vasic answered. And then he kissed her.
Ivy responded with the lush generosity that had already made him an addict. Sliding her arms around his neck and bending one leg at the knee to cradle him between her thighs, she surrendered her mouth to his desires. And he took, devoured. He hadn’t understood how starved he was of touch until he met Ivy. Now, she was the only one who could ease the piercing ache of his need.

His fingers curled around her nape. Are you going to be mad at me for this our entire life?
She nodded. You should’ve waited for me.
I never dared dream of you, Ivy. I never thought a man like me deserved such a gift.
Petting his chest, she said, You’re my gift, too, you know. I’m so glad for you every instant of every day. Even when I’m really, really angry with you.

“I need to ask you some highly personal questions.”
Judd reached down to pack the snow into a ball. “I’ve been hoping for a long time that someone else in the squad would get to the point where a discussion like this would be necessary.” Rising, he threw the snowball with a fast arm. “Ask.”
“How do you control your telekinesis while intimate with your mate?”
“I broke a damn lot of furniture at the start, including two beds.” A curious glance. “What are you doing?”
“Traveling around the world.”

“This will likely hurt.” He didn’t like the idea, but it was a biological fact they couldn’t escape.
Ivy wrapped her legs around his hips. “Love me, let me love you.”
He gritted his teeth, guided himself to her, and began to push. She was slick and hot and so tightly stretched around him that he felt he’d rip her open. “Ivy.”
Clutching at his shoulders, she gasped, “So . . . you’re built in proportion, then.”
The unexpected words gave him the breathing room he needed. Kissing her on that sweet, soft, generous mouth, he said, “Unfortunately.”
A sensually feminine smile. “I have a feeling that won’t be the correct description once we begin to do this on a regular basis.”

“Leaving them tangled around her thighs, he squeezed one cheek with a blatantly possessive touch, then dipped his hand between her legs. “You’re liquid.” Crushed rocks and sexual heat, that was his voice.
Ivy’s answer required no thought. “Because it’s you.”
Movement behind her, the back of his hand brushing her buttocks. The sound of a zipper. Fabric being pushed down. And then he was gripping her hips to tilt her farther forward as he pushed into her with relentless focus. Making incoherent sounds of need, she was hardly aware of the world altering between sand and the wall and back over and over. Every cell in her body was focused on Vasic, on feeling the thick intrusion of him stretching her flesh.
This position permitted nothing else.

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Heart of Obsidian by Nalini Singh

Format: E-bookheartofobsidian
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Paranormal/Futuristic Romance
Series: Psy-Changeling, #12
Publisher: Berkley
Hero: Kaleb Krychek
Heroine: Sahara Kyriakus
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: June 4, 2013
Started On: January 14, 2014
Finished On: January 18, 2014

With Heart of Obsidian, Nalini Singh has outdone every single book in the Psy-Changeling series, giving fans a whole new meaning to the term explosive, which renders this book the best addition to the series so far. One of the reasons that I think the story worked so well was the fact that Nalini decided to take a step back from the Changelings and focus on the intriguing world of Psy for a change. Added to it is the fact that Heart of Obsidian is the book that presents the most pivotal turning point in the series to date, thus it is no wonder that Heart of Obsidian practically turns the pages by itself with the sheer scale of entertainment it has to offer.

Kaleb Krychek, cardinal telekinetic is the man who had risen to power and attained his place in the Council at the young age of 27, the youngest to have secured a position as such. The sheer, raw and unadulterated power that he holds inside of him is one that kept me in awe from beginning till end, the scale of it one that I don’t think I would ever be able to completely wrap my head around. The plans he has for his race, a race that assumed Silence almost 100 years back to keep the madness at bay is one that only he is privy to. And all the while, Kaleb’s search for the woman who is the deepest flaw in his Silence had continued until finally, 7 years on, Sahara Kyriakus is found and returned to her rightful place beside him.

This spellbinding novel is the culmination of so many events that has continued to happen since the beginning of the series, the fact that Silence wasn’t what the Psy had assumed it would turn out to be made altogether more evident by a faction of the race who demands absolute Silence which would allow them ultimate control of the minds of every Psy. For them, it is absolute Silence or nothing else, even if it means the destruction of their whole race altogether.

Kaleb is an enigma, a man who makes your heart race, just because. Brought up as the protege of one the most evil of the Psy, no one knows for certain where Kaleb stands. The darkness that walks right along with him or rather inside of him is one that he had embraced a long time back, knowing that he’d been forged in the darkness, with his hands tainted in blood, his soul leeched dry of whatever emotions that would have made him even remotely hesitant in executing the plan he has in mind to take over the reins of a race that has been left floundering with their leaders in conflict with one another.

Kaleb’s most fascinating aspect turns out to be his “obsession” with Sahara, a term he would not have used to describe his relentless search for the woman for whom he would destroy everything and anyone who stands in his way and paint the world in blood red if required. Sahara when he finally finds her, is merely a shell of the 16 year old Sahara that was snatched away from his world, a woman who holds inside of her the sort of power that is enough make a man an Emperor, a power that in the wrong hands could be exploited for just that.

Kaleb’s plans for Sahara and that of the fate of the world takes an about turn when the Sahara he had known starts to return to him bit by bit, completely undoing his every intention and destroying every notion that he has held about himself when it comes to intimacies of the heart, body, mind and soul. With every searing kiss that is exchanged, Kaleb knows that its only a matter of time before Sahara realizes the darkness that swirls deep inside of him, ready to consume him and the rest of the world, if he were reach out and embrace the totality of it.

The things I loved about the Heart of Obsidian are many, and I am finding this review equally hard to write because I am afraid that I might not be able to do justice to the sheer pleasure reading this novel brought for me. I absolutely adored just how into each other both Kaleb and Sahara were; there were no pretenses to be had, no holding back and it worked beautifully for them with their entwined past making the connection between them that much more real. The heat and fire between Kaleb and Sahara was actually what I wanted for Hawke and Sienna, which unfortunately failed to materialize, the deep abiding connection between them something that I would carry in my heart always.

The telepathic dirty talk between Sahara and Kaleb was one that was enticing and arousing in equal doses, the scenes of passion between them hot enough to flatten down entire buildings with the raw power of it all. Beneath the icy cold exterior that is Kaleb lies the darkest of passions and deepest of desires, centered around just one woman who could bring him down to his very knees, the woman who would always be the game changer when it comes to him. Sahara’s adoration, love and deep seated protectiveness for all that is Kaleb was what made me fall in love with her, totally and irrevocably and I just might have to go ahead and say that I don’t think that I have ever fallen in love with a heroine that hard and fast. I definitely cannot wait to find out what Nalini is planning next for this incredible world that she has created, a world that is as enthralling as the stories that she spins around it.

Most absolutely recommended for everyone who loves romances, dark heroes, passions that run deep and obsessions that brings to light the most abiding of love.

Final Verdict: Stupendous in every single aspect, Heart of Obsidian is nothing short of a spectacular work of art!

Favorite Quotes

She couldn’t look away from him, his skin a sun gold that belied the cool lack of expression on his face. If he’d kept his distance, she might have resisted the temptation that had been riding her since the bedroom . . . but he crossed over to her, didn’t say a word when she ran her fingers over the tensile warmth of him, her nipples tight points against the thin fabric of her sleeveless lilac shirt.
His own hand was big, warm against her cheek as he cupped her jaw. “Don’t be afraid of me, Sahara.” Bending his head, he spoke with his lips against hers, the contact igniting a thousand tiny lightning strikes in her blood. “I’d line the streets with bodies before I’d ever hurt you.”

“I,” he murmured, “can never permit her freedom. She would find a way to harm you.”
Sahara’s eyes were haunted when they met his. “Am I so important to you?”
“Yes,” he said. “You’re everything.” The entire reason for his existence.

The caress felt raw, unpracticed, but no less addicting for it. The realization that he’d done this act with no other, that it was as new a pleasure to him as it was to her, was heroin in her bloodstream, a shocking punch of sensation, the world a study in passionate red. Stretching her body upward, her weight balanced on her toes, she kissed him with a wild desperation that lacked any sense of finesse.

Kaleb wasn’t cold now, his skin hot enough to burn, the arm he’d braced over her head trapping her in a prison she had no desire to escape. Thrusting her hands into his hair, she held him to her, sinking her teeth into his lower lip in a feral act of passion that should’ve shocked her.
It didn’t. Not in the madness.

A pause before he shifted to face her, one of his hands lightly cupping the side of her jaw, his eyes a black inferno. “I want more.”
Caught off guard at the realization that his arousal hadn’t been tempered by the interruption, Sahara’s lips parted in a gasp. Kaleb took the silent invitation, his mouth on hers as he pressed her back to the glass, his erection pushing into her abdomen in hard demand. Moaning, she sucked on his tongue as his hand came up to cover her breast . . . and the world turned to shards of glass, the windows exploding in a glittering shower of deadly snow.

Gripping her jaw in silent answer, he braced himself with his free arm beside her head, and then he branded her mouth with his own. You are mine. It was a statement telepathed along the private pathway that had formed years ago. Mine to touch. Mine to look at. Mine.

Sliding a hand from under her back, he gripped one breast with a firmness that felt like a brand and lowered his mouth to her flesh again. Her mind went red, her back arching as if to thrust her breast farther into his mouth. Kaleb, I need—
Tell me. Another scrape of teeth that scattered her neurons, her nails clawing the earth, crushed grass under her palms.
Touch me, please. I can’t—
Here? He cupped her between the thighs in a raw intimacy, pushing up with the heel of his hand.
And the world splintered.

“Teach me what feels good on your body.” She ached to kiss and pet him as he was doing her, burned to see those cardinal eyes drenched in the same storm that had sucked her under.
Watching you orgasm gives me extreme pleasure, was Kaleb’s unvarnished answer as his lips sought hers once more. Feeling you sticky and damp against my tongue, my fingers, your body soft under mine, your aroused nipples rubbing against my chest, that’s what feels good.

Sahara screamed, her body clenching around Kaleb’s in an orgasm that felt as if it would tear her to pieces . . . and that was when Kaleb’s control snapped. There was nothing practiced about the way he pounded deep into her over and over again, nothing restrained about the way he wrenched her head to the side to kiss and suck at her throat, nothing calculated about the way he bent her thigh upward then pushed it wide to facilitate a deeper taking.
It was primitive; it was rough; it was spectacular.

Kaleb came in violent silence, his breath harsh against her ear and his body rigid. The hot wet of his possession as his semen pulsed inside her made her erotically abused muscles spasm again, clenching tight around him. Jerking, he raised his head, eyes of obsidian holding her own as he drew back one final time, then thrust deep past her clenching muscles.
“Mine. You are mine.”
They were the last words Sahara heard before Kaleb’s kiss tore her apart, his body locked with her own as they fell.

“Make me yours, Kaleb.”
The throaty request, falling from lips plump and wet, snapped the ring of black ice. Slipping his hand under her thigh after repositioning his own, he spread her further and, tearing away her panties with a negligible use of his Tk, pushed inside her. She was tight. He was slow, deliberate. Moaning, Sahara dug her nails into his nape, her breasts flushed, her nipples lush beads he wanted to roll against his tongue.

“Kaleb!” Sahara convulsed around his erection, her entire body shaking with the strength of her orgasm.
Kaleb had intended to continue the slow pace that was an exercise in erotic control, but his brain short-circuited at the possessive clenching of Sahara’s intimate muscles. Pushing her onto her front, her face turned sideways on the pillow, he fisted one hand tightly in her hair and slammed into her in a brutally deep and fast rhythm, her body tight and slick and of the woman who was and had always been his. It felt like madness, creeping red on the horizon.

Punching her fist on the pillow, Sahara undulated her lower body toward him. Move!
The feminine demand was the only thing he needed to hear. Pounding into her, he saw her fingers clench tight on the sheets, her lips part on a breathless cry, and then she was coming around him once more, the pulses harder, more viciously possessive. Caught in the vise of her pleasure, his back arched as white lightning tore through his spine.
The bed slammed back to the ground.
Hard.
So did every other item in the room.

Sahara’s fingers tightened on his arm. “You’re mine.” Simple, quiet words that were a punch to the chest. “I will fight for you, today, tomorrow, and all the tomorrows to come.”

“You do not let that monster destroy the life we are going to have together. You are mine, not his. You have always been mine.”
The claiming was so absolute, it dared him to fight. Kaleb had no intention of doing so. Shuddering, he crushed her to him. “Yes,” he said, battling the rage because if he gave in to it, he would lose Sahara. “I’m yours. I will always be yours.”
Her lips on his jaw, on his cheek, her love fierce. “Remember that. Each action, every action you take, it has my name on it.”

“Kaleb.”
He flipped her onto her back on that breathless moan, making sure she never touched the wood. Her legs locked around his hips, her arms around his neck, her passion as wild as the rain that had turned hard, pounding against his back. Taking her mouth, tasting her with his tongue, he broke the kiss to thrust in and out of her in a driving rhythm, the water dripping off his lashes to hit her cheeks.
“Everything, Kaleb,” she gasped, her nails the sweetest pain on his shoulders, “give me everything.”

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Tangle Of Need by Nalini Singh

Format: E-bookTangleOfNeed
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Psy-Changeling, #11
Publisher: Berkley
Hero: Riaz Delgado
Heroine: Adria Morgan
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: May 29, 2012
Started On: December 16, 2013
Finished On: December 22, 2013

Tangle of Need by Nalini Singh is the 11th book in the Psy-Changeling series, the book that follows the story of the much awaited coming together of Hawke and Sienna. By the 10th book in the series which happens to be Hawke and Sienna’s story, a lot has happened and the stories move towards the ultimate demise of the Silence that the Psy species had assumed a long time back rendering them emotionless, cold and calculative. A movement known as Pure Psy seems to have stemmed from within the Psy race, hellbent on achieving state of ultimate and pure silence that would “protect” them from all sorts of emotions that according to them happens to be the demise of their race. And all the while, the politics that governs the Psy race seems to be splintering into fragments, lending the series the edge it deserves.

Tangle of Need is the story of Riaz Delgado, a lieutenant of the SnowDancer wolf pack and Adria Morgan, one of the senior soldiers of the pack. Riaz is a lone wolf, who has come back home to lick his wounds and bask in the love and togetherness of the pack to piece together the jagged pieces of his broken heart and soul. Adria herself is broken from a relationship that had practically splintered pieces of her heart, soul and self esteem, something she battles with continuously ever since having walked out from a life that had stopped working for her a long time ago.

The passion that ignites between Riaz and Adria is smoldering hot, one filled with resentment and anger on Riaz’s part and apprehension on Adria’s end. The fact that Adria proved to be strong enough to walk away from Riaz knowing she deserved better made me respect her a helluva lot, not that I didn’t understand where Riaz was coming from. The visceral hurt that seemed to be eating Riaz alive made me want to reach out to him and pet him until the pain his wolf was suffering was laid to rest, and I fell in love with Adria for being woman enough to accept and love Riaz as he is.

My contention with the story stems from the fact that I believe juggling so many aspects of the story made it lose focus on the main protagonists of the novel. There was Riaz and Adria and then there was Hawke and Sienna. Hawke and Sienna get as much time in the story as Riaz and Adria, probably to make up for the lack in their own story. I had a huge problem with how Hawke and Sienna’s story panned out, my main problem again being the fact that Hawke and Sienna as a couple didn’t get much time in the story due to everything else that was taking place. Don’t get me wrong, these books are quite entertaining and I still wouldn’t pass reading them up for anything, but I think when the focus is lost from the main couple in the story, therein lies a problem.

The way things ended with Adria and Riaz made me wonder for a second or two on whether Adria had been shortchanged by the man she adores and loves with her heart, body and soul. And though I felt that Riaz does return her love and does a good job of convincing her of just that, I still felt a teensy bit disappointed by how things ended for them. But deep in my heart I know and believe that their love is one that will survive because they are both equally strong and determined people who would fight to death for each other.

Tangle of Need ends on a sort of a cliff hanger ending in the sense that it leaves one practically on tenterhooks wanting to know how the next chapter would pan out. As one of the reviewers on Goodreads pointed out, the background storyline was focused on preparing the reader for the next book, Heart of Obsidian which I hear is filled with explosive and ground shaking moments. Can’t wait to begin reading!

Recommended for fans of the series. Read the series in order. Otherwise you’ll miss out on the great stuff that binds the stories together.

Favorite Quotes

Growling deep in his chest, he pulled her head back to take her mouth again. He wasn’t the least bit gentle, but she didn’t want gentle, her claws digging into his shoulders as her body moved with raw impatience against him. Taking his hand off her breast, he tore the button off her jeans, tugged down the zipper.

“Why are you doing this?” she whispered, her voice stripped bare.
Riaz’s answer sounded torn out of him. “I can’t stop myself.” He shifted her closer, the move so unexpected, she didn’t resist—and found herself plastered to the hard strength of him. His arousal pushed into her abdomen, the hot male scent of him seeping into her veins until she could taste the dark forests and biting citrus of him against her tongue.

“Oh God!” Arching into the firm, confident touch, she tore at his T-shirt until it was in pieces around them, his big, muscled body rising over her own, his mouth busy on her lips, her jaw, her neck.
His skin was a shade of burnished brown, warm and beautiful, her pleasure at touching him—at last—almost painful.

A single hard thrust and he was seated deep inside her, the thickness of him a pulsing brand.
She froze for a minute, her body stunned at the almost violent possession. Long unused muscles ached, but below all that was need. Such naked, raw need.

Even as she came with a scream, he pounded into her with such wild fury, the feel of him reverberated through her very bones. A brutal word in a masculine voice so harsh, it was almost unrecognizable. Her internal muscles spasming in erotic response. His hand clenching on her breast. The primal heat of him spilling into her.

He broke the kiss, gasped in a jagged breath. Two long, hard thrusts and he felt his spine lock. Gritting his teeth, he tilted her so that his pubic bone would press against her clitoris, and then he thrust again.
Tiny muscles spasming anew around his cock, a molten fist.
His mind went black.

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | ARe | iTunes

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Kiss of Snow by Nalini Singh

Format: E-bookkissofsnow
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Paranormal/Fantasy Romance
Series: Psy-Changeling, #10
Publisher: Berkley
Hero: Hawke Snow
Heroine: Sienna Lauren
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: May 31, 2011
Started On: October 13, 2013
Finished On: October 16, 2013

So, you ask me, how does it feel to have reached and read Hawke’s story, the 10th book in the wondrous Psy-Changeling series; the main reason for me starting on this journey being to actually read Hawke and Sienna’s story which was pretty much sensationalized by the whole Goodreads community. Well, perhaps I might be a victim of my own expectations and all the sensationalism because I must say I was just a trifle bit disappointed with the story not because it wasn’t as exciting as the Psy-Changeling books always are, but rather because I felt that Hawke and Sienna was somehow shortchanged because of the gravity of everything else that was happening in the story.

Hawke is the Alpha of SnowDancer wolf changeling pack and is a man determined in the face of his fate. A fate that he believes wouldn’t ever ease the deep aching loneliness in his soul left by the death of the woman who would have been his mate for life. No matter how much Sienna Lauren might tempt him and call out to his inner wolf to come out and take a bite, consequences be damned, Hawke calls on the reserves of his icy and legendary control to stay strong in the face of temptation.

Two months after Indigo and Drew’s story takes place, the politics that governs the world inhabited by Psy, Changelings and humans keep changing, and not for the better in certain aspects. The Changelings call on all their reserves and up their vigilance when it comes to Psy because they all know that with the Psy council split into halves, its only a matter of time that war breaks out with the Changelings being the main focus of the war that Psy will wage in order to attain a world inhabited by pure Psy.

Sienna has known from the day that she and her family defected from the PsyNet and sought the protection of the SnowDancer Alpha that there would be no other man for her. Hawke might see her as a child but Sienna’s childhood has left her with many a scar and experienced so much more than even an adult might be subjected to during their entire lifetime. Sienna is an X-Psy meant for one purpose alone; destruction. With the ferocity of the power that Sienna always juggles in her hands, Sienna knows that her emotional well being is a key factor in controlling and keeping the destruction at bay. What Sienna doesn’t realize is that for an X-Psy, there does come a point of no return when there would be nothing left but to give in to the deadliness that she lives with every second of each day.

There are so many elements to the Psy-Changeling stories that makes them what they are; an entertaining and one hell of a read. Juggling all these aspects of the story together with Hawke and Sienna, who in their own rights are just as complex and multi-faceted must have been something and once again made for a great read in my opinion. However, both Hawke and Sienna have been waiting for their story for 9 whole books; Sienna had to grow up age wise enough for Hawke to not feel like he is the worst kind of pervert. On top of that there’s the issue of Hawke’s belief that he wouldn’t be ever able to give Sienna everything that she deserves and that would be the whole of him with nothing held back.

At first, I loved the way Hawke’s resistance came tumbling down, bit by bit when it became clear to him that his wolf wasn’t backing down on this one. The many an exasperating situation Hawke finds himself in because of Sienna and her antics to live her life as she pleased ends up being fraught with so much tension one minute and the next so tender and wistful that one cannot help but feel all the longing held deep in check on both sides. And I absolutely adored how Sienna seemed to be able to match Hawke in intelligence and wit, giving her all those qualities that makes her the perfect life partner for Hawke apart from the almost visceral need that burns bright between them.

However, in my opinion, there was too much holding back on Hawke’s part when it came to the final combustive culmination on Hawke and Sienna’s relationship. There were so many interruptions into the interludes that took place between Sienna and Hawke and I know that it built up the frustration not just between Hawke and Sienna but the readers as well. I expected fireworks, explosions and Hawke to live up to his legendary prowess as the Alpha of the pack and give me some seriously panty-melting variety of combustive scenes of passion. But what I got instead was tenderness and love in spades, which is not a bad thing but I would say it does take away one essential aspect of Hawke from him; his wildness that is held deep in check because he is the one that holds his Pack together. I wanted him to be able to let go and lose that legendary control of his that had kept him from reaching out to Sienna and taking her up against a wall or any flat surface they  could get to because lets face it, Changelings are by nature sensual creatures. But perhaps, Nalini toned the whole thing down for Sienna because her “fragility” when it comes to her power and the darkness that consumes her is one that needed to be handled with utmost care for the story to have been what it was.

More than Hawke and Sienna’s courtship, I was more revered actually by the secondary romance that unfurled between Sienna’s uncle Walker and the SnowDancer healer Lara. Walker who has never let himself accept the fact that when it comes to Lara his feelings run deep and in a direction that it has never steered before made for riveting reading. Lara is a gentle soul with a spine of steel to back it up. She is the healer who gives her heart and soul into caring for people when they are in need of it the most. Not much of a dominant, Lara knows in her heart that taking a step back from Walker who doesn’t seem to want to pursue what is between them would be the best thing for her. But Walker surprises her with those little things that he does in showing just how much in fact that he does care and in the end I loved how the legendary cool of Walker broke down under the gentle playfulness and love that Lara gives him in spades. I think sometimes Lara and Walker’s story acted as a balm to the reader’s soul to take a step back from all the intensity this novel was in every other aspect.

I’m almost sad that I now have only just two books to read in the series and would have to wait with the rest of the fans of this legendary series for the next book that is scheduled to come out in June of 2014. That is going to be a long wait I suppose if I do manage to get the time to squeeze in the other two books before then. I’m almost jealous of those who haven’t yet discovered the wonderfulness of this series, those who are yet going to find out just how talented Nalini is in keeping the reader engrossed from page one till the end. As always I must say, Nalini is a talent not to be missed in a genre that already has so many great authors. It is a tough job to stand out and do that exceptionally well with each book she publishes. And to the readers who are just starting out on the series or a halfway tempted to skip to Hawke’s story, I tell you just as Nalini told me, don’t. It’d certainly be worth the wait to see how the world and the lives of everyone shapes up in the rest of the stories.

Recommended for fans of the series and fans of Hawke! You just might end up with lesser misgivings that I did after reading because I seem to be in the minority with those who think that Hawke’s story lacked that something which would have made it a stupendous read. But even then, this as any novel in the series is awesomely well done and I cannot recommend this book and the entire series highly enough!

Final Verdict: Hawke and Sienna; an explosive combination that sets the whole series afire.

Favorite Quotes

It took every ounce of will he had to drop her arm, to not accept the unintended invitation and take them both to the floor in a tangle of skin and heat. But he couldn’t stop himself from running the knuckles of one hand down her throat as he stepped away, his gut tight, his body so damn hard he might as well have been made of steel. He moved until he was in prime position to watch her, and then he waited. She did nothing for a long, still moment, and he thought she would deny him this.
But then Sienna began to move.
And his wolf stopped pacing.

“Did you ever play?” Hawke’s voice so rough, his body so muscular and overwhelming.
She had never felt more feminine, never felt more like a sexual creature. “No.”
A pause. “Sienna—”
“No,” she said. “No more questions. Not tonight.” She wanted to dance with him, be a woman in the arms of a man who made every part of her awaken in a hunger she’d never expected to feel and who, for this magical moment, was hers.
His jaw, heavy with stubble, rubbed against her temple again as he shifted his hold to press her closer. Then, as the music played, as the night grew softer and quieter, they danced.

“It was easier to believe that my shot at mating died with Rissa than to risk that kind of pain again.” Thrusting his hand into her hair, he shook his head. “Except I never had a prayer when it came to you. You’re in my every breath and every thought, intertwined so deep inside me that love’s not a strong enough word—you have my devotion, your name branded on my soul, my wolf yours to command. A hundred years? It’ll never be enough. I want eternity.”

Purchase Links: Amazon | BookDepo | B&N | Kobo | iTunes

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Play of Passion by Nalini Singh

Format: E-bookplayofpassion.jpg
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Paranormal/Fantasy Romance
Series: Psy-Changeling, #9
Publisher: Berkley
Hero: Andrew Liam Kincaid
Heroine: Indigo Riviere
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: November 2, 2010
Started On: October 10, 2013
Finished On: October 13, 2013

Play of Passion by Nalini Singh is the 9th book in the Psy-Changeling series, the book that changes the focus that has been mainly on the DarkRiver Changeling pack to the SnowDancer, the wolf Changeling pack in the San Francisco area. Once again a dominant female comes into play, this time with a hero whose hierarchy in the pack is ambiguous at best which poses its own problem when it comes to winning the heroine over.

Andrew Liam Kincaid or Drew as he is most commonly known as is the tracker of the SnowDancer pack. His job is a difficult one in the sense not because of the abilities required of him but rather because of the decisions he may have to take when the inevitable moment arrives. Drew hunts those who go rogue from the pack and because of that he is not considered as a lieutenant though he reports directly to Hawke, the Alpha. The charm that practically oozes out of him hides behind a keen and sharp mind brimming with intelligence and at heart a wolf who wants to play with the mate he has chosen for himself though she might not be aware of his intentions.

Indigo Riviere is one of the dominant females in her pack and a lieutenant at that which makes submitting to any male almost an impossibility for her. Indigo had grown up seeing how destructive a relationship can be where the dominant female is not given the freedom to be who she is and she is determined to never let it happen to her, even if it means Drew charms her in ways that is completely alien to her and reaches out to the very heart of her that she has hidden behind so many walls that even she doesn’t realize just how much she has protected her heart from ever finding itself in a vulnerable position.

But Drew and his determination is no match for the stubbornness that streaks through Indigo and before she knows it Drew is kissing her time and yet again into yielding to his brand of strength and dominance, all the while giving back in spades, which makes it an impossibility for Indigo to turn her back and walk away.

Play of Passion is one the most angst-ridden book in the series because Indigo almost goes to that point of no return where she and Drew are concerned, trying to turn away from the passion that catches her heart, body and soul afire where Drew is concerned. Unlike most stories where you want to hit the hero on the head for being so stubborn, this time around I felt like admonishing the heroine because her stubbornness nearly proves to be Drew’s undoing. So many factors makes her wary of giving in, the thought of Drew trampling all over her and trying to make her into something she would never be the one fear that is constant until Drew shows her that he actually can be the sort of man who would actually be her equal rather than try to get into a pissing contest with her to find out who is more dominant than the other.

Their relationship is not one that comes into being without mistakes on both parts, but that is what makes the end result so heartwarming and well cemented in the end. There is no way on Earth any woman can remain unmoved by Drew and his charm and that unwavering faith of his that things would work out in the end. There were moments where you can’t help but laugh out loud where Drew and his courtship of Indigo is concerned, the factor that makes it impossible for Indigo to walk away from all that Drew is and what he offers.

In the meantime, Play of Passion brings forth the final steps towards the imminent war between the Psy and the Changelings that much closer, the Psy and their methods underhanded and sneaky, their plan for a pure Psy world where all Psy would submit to the will of the Councillors one that is chilly and unnerving to say the least. The fact that Changelings have proved that they are adaptive, agile and protective as hell when it comes to their own makes them one of the most worthy adversaries to battle with and win, and given the splits deep inside the Council, the war that is to happen is inevitable and bound to cause a wake of destruction unlike any other.

The end of this book brought me to the edge of the precipice that I’ve been wanting to reach ever since I started on the journey through the wondrous series that is the Psy-Changeling. The fact that Hawke’s book is the very next book made it impossible for me to read anything else but that afterwards, my rule of reading something else in between shot to smithereens by the fact that Hawke and Sienna makes their own appearances throughout the book, all showing glimpses of Hawke’s legendary control under fire where Sienna is concerned.

One of the most beautiful aspects of Play of Passion turned out to be how Drew makes someone like Indigo want to play and play they do with many a scorching scene of passion between them the testament to the fact.

Recommended for the fans of this series and fans of Paranormal/Fantasy romances. Read the series in order, because that is the only way to get the full impact of the whole cast of characters, each of them with multiple facets to them that makes this series the stupendous one that it is.

Final Verdict: Fantastically penned, as always.

Favorite Quotes

And then the damn male did that thing he did—he kissed her. As if he had every right to just take her mouth with the wild heat of his, to cup the back of her head, to bite down on her lower lip and suck her upper one into his mouth.
Her toes curled, the rage in her bloodstream translating into pure wild heat as the touch-hungry wolf took control. She hadn’t even realized she’d unfolded her arms until her palms met the hard wall of his chest. Hot. Strong. Beautiful.

But though he nudged at her with the blunt head of his erection, the shaft pushing eagerly at the entrance to her body, he stopped long enough to give her a wet, openmouthed kiss that was all licks and little bites, tender and affectionate and sexy all at once.
And then, as her body arched up, he thrust into her in a single hard push.
Her scream fell into his mouth, her fingers clenching on his biceps.

He closed his teeth over her lower lip in playful reprimand. “You’re not lying still.” One hand cupped her breast, fingers tugging at the taut peak of her nipple.
Inhaling a gasping breath, she opened her eyes to fire a retort . . . and saw the wolf looking down at her. “Hello,” she whispered.
His answer was to kiss her, his tongue pushing inside her mouth in audacious demand, his body strong and beautiful above her as he drove her stroke by slow stroke to another shimmering peak. This time, she held him as he shattered, his body going taut above her.

Crying out, Indigo gripped the edges of the bath, her breasts damp and gleaming above him as their bodies danced slick and hot beneath the water. The joining was a little rough, all raw. And then he closed his teeth over the delicate flesh of her breast and her body went taut in an explosion of pleasure, her muscles squeezing him tight as he crushed her to him and came with a hard, explosive grunt.

Purchase Links: Amazon | BookDepo | B&N | Kobo | iTunes

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