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