Saturday, April 16, 2016

Week 16 Reviews: Bonds of Justice, Play of Passion, Wolf School, Clean and Dirty, Declaration of Courtship, Home, Kiss of Snow, Wild Night, Texture of Intimacy, Staking Hawke, Naya's Most Important Visitors, Pancakes, Grocery Shopping, Tangle of Need, Dancing With Cooper, Making Dinner, Poker Night, Sunday Morning, Heart of Obsidian, Hide and Seek, Secrets at Midnight, New Years' Kisses, Shield of Winter, Kaleb and Sahara’s Meeting with Sascha and Lucas, Housewarming at the Orchard, Shards of Hope










From Goodreads:
Max Shannon is a good cop, one of the best in New York Enforcement. Born with a natural shield that protects him against Psy mental invasions, he knows he has little chance of advancement within the Psy- dominated power structure. The last case he expects to be assigned to is that of a murderer targeting a Psy Councilor's closest advisors. And the last woman he expects to compel him in the most sensual of ways is a Psy on the verge of catastrophic mental fracture. 

From Goodreads:
In his position as tracker for the SnowDancer pack, it's up to Drew Kincaid to rein in rogue changelings who have lost control of their animal halves- even if it means killing those who have gone too far. But nothing in his life has prepared him for the battle he must now wage to win the heart of a woman who makes his body ignite... and who threatens to enslave his wolf.

Lieutenant Indigo Riviere doesn't easily allow skin privileges, especially of the sensual kind- and the last person she expects to find herself craving is the most wickedly playful male in the den. Everything she knows tells her to pull back before the flames burn them both to ash... but she hasn't counted on Drew's will. 


Now, two of SnowDancer's most stubborn wolves find themselves playing a hot, sexy game even as lethal danger stalks the very place they call home.

From Goodreads:
Originally written as a part of Play of Passion (Psy-Changeling series #9) but taken out of the book to be a short story available on the author's website.

From Goodreads:
Short story featured in Nalini Singh's newsletter April 2013. This story happens around the same time as Play of Passion and features Vaughn and Faith.

From Goodreads:
New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh returns to her explosive Psy/Changeling world as predatory desire becomes a sensual game of control...

A dominant changeling wolf, SnowDancer lieutenant Cooper is not known for his patience. But when it comes to courting the shy, sexy woman he wants in his life and in his bed, he’ll have to use every ounce of control in his body to keep both man and wolf in check…at least until he convinces Grace he only bites a little.


One of the most submissive wolves in the SnowDancer pack, Grace knows nothing can come of her sensual fascination with big, bad, beautiful Cooper. He might possess her over and over in erotic dreams that leave her aching for the rough heat of his touch, but she knows that in reality, he is far too dangerous for her to handle. Then Cooper decides to change all the rules…

From Goodreads:
Short story featuring Clay, Talin, Jon and Noor from Nalini Singh's November 2014 newsletter.


Author's Note: This short story fits in between Play of Passion and Kiss of Snow, but if you haven't yet read the series or those books, it does also stand on its own. Enjoy!

From Goodreads:
Since the moment of her defection from the PsyNet and into the SnowDancer wolf pack, Sienna Lauren has had one weakness. Hawke. Alpha and dangerous, he compels her to madness.

Hawke is used to walking alone, having lost the woman who would've been his mate long ago. But Sienna fascinates the primal heart of him, even as he tells himself she is far too young to handle the wild fury of the wolf.

Then Sienna changes the rules and suddenly, there is no more distance, only the most intimate of battles between two people who were never meant to meet. Yet as they strip away each other's secrets in a storm of raw emotion, they must also ready themselves for a far more vicious fight…


A deadly enemy is out to destroy SnowDancer, striking at everything they hold dear, but it is Sienna's darkest secret that may yet savage the pack that is her home…and the alpha who is its heartbeat…

From Goodreads:
Stand alone short story in the psy changeling series. Featured in the April newsletter.


Author's note: This short story stands alone, so you should be able to read it without problems even if you've never read the Psy-Changeling series. It features the SnowDancer wolf changelings. For series readers, "Wild Night" slots in during Chapter 9 of Kiss of Snow.

From Goodreads:
New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh’s phenomenal Psy/Changeling series continues with this sensual exploration of the searing joys and unexpected challenges of mating...

SnowDancer healer Lara knows primal ecstasy. She wakes to it every morning, skin-to-skin with the hard male body of the quiet, powerful telepath who is her mate. Lean muscle and rough heat, Walker is the only man she has ever wanted to call her own. But being mated to a man formed in the ice-cold cage of the PsyNet has its challenges.

Born into a race where emotion is a crime, Walker’s will is a creation of cold steel. Scarred by the life he has lived, the terrible choices he was forced to make, he never expected to find happiness. Now, his heart belongs to Lara and he will fight to the death to protect the bond between them…even knowing he might have been too long in the ice of the PsyNet to give her what she needs.


Before Lara and Walker can claim the wild, beautiful promise of their future, they must first face the painful shadows of the past...

From Goodreads:
A short story including Hawke and Ben.

From Goodreads:
Free short story in Nalini Singh's November Newsletter.

Spoiler Alert: If you haven't yet read KISS OF SNOW, you might want to save this short story to read later.

This is part of the series of shorts focusing on the everyday lives of the characters, away from politics and danger. Set soon after Naya's birth, this short story features...

For those of you new to the Psy-Changeling world, this short story is set in the changeling leopard pack DarkRiver (changelings are able to shapeshift into their animal form at will). Sascha is the mate of the DarkRiver alpha, Lucas, and a Psy member of the pack. The Psy race is gifted with incredible mental abilities from telepathy to telekinesis.

From Goodreads:
A short story free on author's newsletter.

Timeline: A shorter version of this story was originally a scene in "Texture of Intimacy" and features SnowDancer healer Lara and her Psy mate Walker.

From Goodreads:
Short Story in the Psy-Changeling Series. Free from Nalini's newsletter dated 5th August 2014.

Author's Note
This small vignette slots in during the peaceful lull after Kiss of Snow, soon after Naya’s birth, and while Lucas and Sascha are still living in the cabin below their aerie.

It's a fun and sweet glimpse into the lives of the characters in a quiet moment in the midst of the often chaotic and staggering changes currently shaking their world. It's one of those moments we never see in a book, but that is part of the everyday fabric of the characters lives. I love writing these, and I hope you enjoy reading them.

If you're new to the Psy-Changeling series, this story features Lucas (alpha of the DarkRiver leopards and a man who shifts into a black panther in his animal form), and Sascha (Lucas’s mate and a cardinal empath - she has the power to heal wounds of the heart, to take the most painful of emotions and neutralize them).

And of course, it includes the recently born Naya. 

From Goodreads:
Discover the exhilarating risks of passion in the breathtaking new Psy-Changeling novel by Nalini Singh, the New York Times bestselling "alpha author of paranormal romance" (Booklist)… 

Adria, wolf changeling and resilient soldier, has made a break with the past—one as unpredictable in love as it was in war. Now comes a new territory, and a devastating new complication: Riaz, a SnowDancer lieutenant already sworn to a desperate woman who belongs to another. 

For Riaz, the primal attraction he feels for Adria is a staggering betrayal. For Adria, his dangerous lone-wolf appeal is beyond sexual. It consumes her. It terrifies her. It threatens to undermine everything she has built of her new life. But fighting their wild compulsion toward one another proves a losing battle.

Their coming together is an inferno…and a melding of two wounded souls who promise each other no commitment, no ties, no bonds. Only pleasure. Too late, they realize that they have more to lose than they ever imagined. Drawn into a cataclysmic Psy war that may alter the fate of the world itself, they must make a decision that might just break them both. 

From Goodreads:
Short Story released in Nalini's Newsletter of 24th December 2013. 

This Short Story is a bonus Epilogue to Declaration of Courtship and occurs during Tangle of Need, the eleventh book in the Psy-Changeling series.

From Goodreads:
A short story featuring Riley & Mercy from Nalini Singh's July 2013 Newsletter

From Goodreads:
For those of you unfamiliar with this series, this story features the DarkRiver Leopards (Alpha: Lucas) and the SnowDancer wolves (Alpha: Hawke). The narrator is Nate, the most senior sentinel in the DarkRiver pack.

*First published in Nalini Singh's 10/2/12 newsletter.

From Goodreads:
Short story featuring Sophia and Max from Bonds of Justice.

This is set around the same time as the start of Heart of Obsidian but contains no spoilers for that book.

Free Psy-Changeling short story first published in her September 2013 newsletter.

From Goodreads:
Step into New York Times bestseller Nalini Singh's explosive and shockingly passionate Psy-Changeling world…  

A dangerous, volatile rebel, hands stained bloodred. A woman whose very existence has been erased. A love story so dark, it may shatter the world itself. A deadly price that must be paid. The day of reckoning is here.  

From "the alpha author of paranormal romance" (Booklist) comes the most highly anticipated novel of her career—one that blurs the line between madness and genius, between subjugation and liberation, between the living and the dead.

From Goodreads:
This short story story takes place a couple of weeks after the end of HEART OF OBSIDIAN.


Published in Nalini Singh's June 2014 newsletter.

From Goodreads:
A changeling will do anything to find and keep his mate in this smoldering story from New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh. 

Bastien Smith is frustrated. A changeling male should be able to track his mate anywhere—through fire and hail, snow and rain. But he keeps finding and losing her scent in the city streets, ever since he first became aware of it two weeks earlier, when the elusive fragrance awakened the leopard within him... 


Then Bastien is suddenly confronted with his prey. Kirby is an all-too-human woman who wants Bastien just as much as he wants her. But he can't deny what his body and senses are telling him: there is a raging chaos inside of Kirby that he doesn't understand, secrets that whisper awake at midnight and cause her terrible pain. If they're to have any chance of forever, then he must solve the mystery that is Kirby...

Timeline and Note: This short story features the younger adults (novice soldiers, university students, apprentices etc) in both the DarkRiver leopard pack and the SnowDancer wolf pack. It stands on its own so feel free to read it even if you haven't tried the Psy-Changeling series. For those of you who like to read in series order, this short fits in prior to the start of Shield of Winter. Enjoy!

Assassin. Soldier. Arrow. That is who Vasic is, who he will always be. His soul drenched in blood, his conscience heavy with the weight of all he's done, he exists in the shadows, far from the hope his people can almost touch—if only they do not first drown in the murderous insanity of a lethal contagion. To stop the wave of death, Vasic must complete the simplest and most difficult mission of his life. 

For if the Psy race is to survive, the empaths must wake…

Having rebuilt her life after medical "treatment" that violated her mind and sought to stifle her abilities, Ivy should have run from the black-clad Arrow with eyes of winter frost. But Ivy Jane has never done what she should. Now, she'll fight for her people, and for this Arrow who stands as her living shield, yet believes he is beyond redemption. But as the world turns to screaming crimson, even Ivy's fierce will may not be enough to save Vasic from the cold darkness…

Deleted scene from Shield of Winter. Included in Nalini Singh's newsletter dated March 10, 2015.

From Goodreads:
Free short story, included in Nalini Singh's newsletter dated December 29, 2015.

From Goodreads:
The "smoldering heat, epic romance, and awesome action" of Nalini Singh's New York Times bestselling series continues as two Arrows find themselves caught in a chilling conspiracy that spans all three races…

Awakening wounded in a darkened cell, their psychic abilities blocked, Aden and Zaira know they must escape. But when the lethal soldiers break free from their mysterious prison, they find themselves in a harsh, inhospitable landscape far from civilization. Their only hope for survival is to make it to the hidden home of a predatory changeling pack that doesn't welcome outsiders.

And they must survive. A shadowy enemy has put a target on the back of the Arrow squad, an enemy that cannot be permitted to succeed in its deadly campaign. Aden will cross any line to keep his people safe for this new future, where even an assassin might have hope of a life beyond blood and death and pain. Zaira has no such hope. She knows she's too damaged to return from the abyss. Her driving goal is to protect Aden, protect the only person who has ever come back for her no matter what.


This time, even Aden's passionate determination may not be enough—because the emotionless chill of Silence existed for a reason. For the violent, and the insane, and the irreparably broken…like Zaira. 

My Review:
I just absolutely loved these books! So much happens, like the fall of Silence, the creation of the E-Psy group, the cooperation between all the groups signed thing. Yeah. That was just so fantastic, and I want to see more! I loved to hate reading the Pure Psy, and the other bad guys' segments, they were so aggregating, but it made it all the more sweeter when the good guys won!

I was making notes as I was reading this series, because this review covers a lot in this series! And one of the notes for Play of Passion, was of Riaz's mate. I hadn't read the synopsis of Tangle of Need yet! But it just shows how much this series changes over each book! Another is why the water based changelings and why they needed the alliance, but we find out in Shards of Hope, so yeah!

One of those notes was Morpheus the cat, I loved reading about him! Another was that I loved the pranks that Drew played on Indigo, those were hilarious! Another was the mention of Sascha's pregnancy being nine and a half months, and I'm wondering if that's an exaggeration, or if changeling/psy pregnancies are longer? And it would be awesome if we could create bio-domes like Venice for our Venice, that would be great, to preserve it!

Another great development was Alice Eldridge, and that she's in the series, because she was thought dead for almost a century, and that she's here, well, yeah, she's a resource that can, and was, tapped. Really enjoyed that!

Yet another was that we saw Sienna and Hawke's mating ceremony, which was really great, because we didn't see Lucas's and Sascha's. We were there briefly in Play of Passion, but only for a short while, and yeah, loved that!

Imagine if all babies could teleport out of the womb when it was time for them to be born, like Vasic. Labor would be much easier, I would think, no babies coming out of an area that is smaller then them, or cutting the skin open. Just baby out, and done. Though then there's the placenta...But either way, childbirth would be much easier!

There are two things that I want to see as this series goes on. How the two treaties are going to play out in the future books, and how the enemies will react. The other thing, is to see a Psychometric Psy, because I don't think we have  yet, or at least, not as a main character, I believe, and I think they'll be interesting!

Loved these books so much, they were so great, and I can't wait for Allegiance of Honor! I know it's going to be great!

Author: Nalini Singh
Series: Psy-Changling #8, 9, 9.1, 9.2, 9.5, 9.7, 10, 10.1, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, 10.9, 11, 11.3, 11.4, 11.6, 11.9, 12, 12.2, 12.5, 12.9, 13, 13.1, 13.2, 14
Read: April 9th, 9th, 9th, 9th, 9th, 9th, 10th, 10th, 10th, 10th, 10th, 10th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 12th, 12th, 12th, 12th, 13th, 13th, 13th, 13th, 2016
Source: Tuebl
Reason Why: Love this series and this author! And they're Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2016 Books!
Publisher: Berkley Books, Berkley
Published: July 1st, 2010, November 1st 2010, April 2013, November 2013, November 25 2014, May 1st 2011, April 2015, November 5th 2013, February 11th 2013, November 26th 2013, June 2013, August 5th 2014, May 29th, 2012, December 24th 2013, July 2013, October 2nd 2012, September 2013, June 4th 2013, January 2014, November 24th 2014, December 30th 2014, June 3rd 2014, March 10th 2015, December 29th 2015, June 2nd 2015

Bonds of Justice:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Play of Passion:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Wolf School:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Clean and Dirty:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Declaration of Courtship:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Home:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Kiss of Snow:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Wild Night:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Texture of Intimacy:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Staking Hawke:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Naya's Most Important Visitors:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Pancakes:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Grocery Shopping:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Tangle of Need:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars










Dancing With Cooper:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Making Dinner:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Poker Night:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Sunday Morning:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Heart of Obsidian:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Hide and Seek:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Secrets at Midnight:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









New Years' Kisses:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Shield of Winter:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Kaleb and Sahara's Meeting with Sascha and Lucas:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Housewarming at the Orchard:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars









Shards of Hope:
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars

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