Sex with a Vulcan.

Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've been attempting to start Singh's other series Guild Hunters for awhile now and I can not get past the first twenty pages to save my life. I've heard such great things, and yet I keep getting hung up on the writing style and how it's keeping me outside of the story. So I figured I'd take a stab at this whole Psy-Changeling thing since this is the other series everyone is all hot and bothered over.

There was no difficulty in getting into this one for me. None. For the first half of the book I didn't want to put it down. It was such an interesting and sexy introduction into this world of Psys and Changelings. Basically the Psys are Vulcans and the Changelings are hot blooded animal shifters and they live in a world where the Psy are the emotionally void politicians and the Changelings own businesses and have different Packs with different Alphas, but there are uneasy truces going on. That is until the cat Pack have one of their own murdered and they smell Psy at the scene. They've figured out that there have been several well-calculated murders that stink of Psy, the race that isn't supposed to feel anything and has no recorded instance of violence.

Super interesting set up that spoke to the geek girl in me that digs world building and the romance fan that likes to see two people face crazy, tension-filled odds in their I Just Gotta Have You transformation. 


Sascha was so great in the beginning with her feeling like she was damaged goods and was breaking down and having to escape behind her shields because she was feeling like a cat in heat, and no one could know she felt anything. Then there's Lucas Hunter, Alpha of the cats, taking on a business deal with the Psys, and at his first meeting with Sascha and her cold-blooded Psy Councilor mother, he senses something different about Sascha. He's trying to get information about the Psys, she's trying to not fall apart, his inner panther is slamming at his cage trying to get to this girl and there is a serial killer on the loose. Seriously, could not put the book down. Talk about sexy tension between Sascha and her Alpha Hunter.
 
And then....Sascha got a little Mary Sue for my taste. 

 

I was so disappointed because I loved her so much in the beginning. She was jumping into the Tron-like Psy net, shadowing people, taking risks, learning about touch and the Changelings skin privileges, having sexy dreams with Lucas, and it was Sandra Bullock in Demolition Man. This girl didn't know, didn't understand things, but she was pushing herself and that made her engaging. But once she figured out who she was, it became too easy. Everything fell into place with rainbows and she lost that thing about her that I loved in the beginning. Even the sex scenes didn't live up to their shared dreams and the excitement that was going off like sparks between them. The first half of the book set up all these awesome plot lines that ended up collapsing into nothing. The murderer was caught off screen! I wanted to see some changeling vengeance. 

It all left me feeling like I was a contestant on The Price is Right and I finally got to the Showcase Showdown and I'm being given the living room furniture package when I was really sure that there was gonna be a boat back there.

I really wanted the boat.