Tag Archives: Nalini Singh

Wolf Rain, Nalini Singh

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I have a guest reviewer here at the Fishbowl today. My friend Lillie. She is a huge Nalini fan, so she graciously volunteered to read and review Wolf Rain by Nalini Singh. for me. Here you go…

I was so incredibly excited when Nalini Singh posted the blurb for Wolf Rain. A new type of empath! I love all the books with the empaths so revisiting them with something new had my expectations high. And this book more than exceeded those expectations.

Memory’s journey to find herself and discover her own self-worth in turns broke my heart and brought fierce joy. She’s now one of my favorite heroines of the series. I wasn’t surprised that I loved her. We often hear about authors writing the book of their heart. In Wolf Rain, Nalini Singh somehow managed to write the book of my heart. It has everything I love.

The surprise for me came from Alexei. I didn’t have any feelings toward him one way or the other prior to this book. I remembered him as a pretty playboy type. But things had happened in Alexei’s life since the last time we saw him on the page. Singh delves deeper into the rogues in Changeling society, something that has been briefly mentioned in past books, an illness that even with all the advances in medical care they now have, Changelings don’t understand how or why it happens. They only know the devastation it leaves behind. And Alexei is part of that devastation. I was just as invested in his journey to forgiveness and trust. And how the things he had faced made him the perfect hero for Memory.

After Heart of Obsidian I questioned what kind of realistic external conflict we could expect to see in this world now that the most powerful person in the world was on the side of good. We’re still seeing them deal with the corrosion of the PsyNet but what else? Wolf Rain starts laying the building blocks for the next big bad in the PsyChangeling world, and while I can’t yet see where exactly we’re going with it, I can’t wait to follow.

Thanks, Lillie, for the great review! I might just have to try this new trilogy. Readers, here’s a secret: Lillie often tells me what to read. I’ve given up arguing with her. It may take me a while, but I always read what she recommends to me.

If you want to keep up with Lillie, she can be found on Twitter talking books, which Chris is the best Chris, and the cows that showed up in her front yard late one night. 

Slave to Sensation, Nalini Singh

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My transition into being someone who reads Paranormal (Shifter) romance has been long and slow. You could say it has kind of snuck up on me. First there was Vivian Arend, then Shelly Laurenston, Dana Marie Bell, and now Nalini Singh.

I know. I can hear you all now. “What do you mean you didn’t read Nalini Singh?!” Yup. I hadn’t. It has taken my friend Lillie almost a year of nagging gentle nudging before I would finally try it. And, honestly, it might have even taken me longer, except this opportunity came up to review Slave to Sensation.

As someone who isn’t a fan of alternate worlds/realities, this series has me hooked. I started this on Sunday and I’ve now read the first four books, and to no one’s surprise, the shifters, especially Lucas, are my favorite.

Ms. Singh has created a slightly futuristic world with an alternate timeline, and she’s done it in a way I totally buy into it. There are the unemotional unfeeling Psy, the predatory changelings, and the humans. There was a lot of world building in this book, but it never overwhelmed the story, nor did it feel like she was throwing details in to set us up. In fact, in later books she’s layered in more details about the different races and their abilities.

There’s a desperation in this story between Lucas and Sascha. Lucas is determined Sascha will be his, free and able to feel. Sascha believes her fate is worse than death and there’s no hope.

For one instant, their minds were one and he saw how desperately, how wildly, how unreasonably she loved him—enough to break a promise, to choose death so he could live.
She saw how much her panther adored her, how his heart beat for her alone, how life would turn into death after she was gone. The beast was angry at her for attempting to deny him his mate, and the man was beyond angry, but beneath the anger was hunger, need, love. Such intense, furious love that it had no beginning and no end.

If you can read that and NOT fall in love with Lucas (and his Panther), then your a better person than I am.

I loved seeing Sascha come into her own, on all levels, and embrace her abilities. She really discovered who she truly is and did the difficult, scary, and dangerous thing because of her love for Lucas.

Lucas, for his part, is all predator. He’s the alpha of his pack and he wields his power well. At first he sees Sascha as prey of a sort, but once he realizes who she is to him, he pulls out all the stops to make her his permanently.

So the TL;DR version: Go read this book. You’ll be hooked.

Rating: 4 Stars

Lynda the Guppy
A PNR Reader
aka The Fish With Sticks