Slave to Sensation by Nalini SinghMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
2.5 stars.
In this first installment of her Psy-changeling series, Nalini Singh introduces us to this reality where Psy - superior being with psychic powers who have been conditioned to become emotionless - and Changelings - shapeshifters - rule the world. Regular humans are inconsequential in this book.
Sascha Duncan is a Psy with the task to infiltrate the Changeling community to glimpse more info about its structure. Her cover is a joint venture with the RiverDark clan's construction company to build new houses for the Changelings and that's where she meets the head of the clan, hunk Lucas Hunter. The Changeling's secret agenda is to discover a Psy serial killer who is decimating their female population and they need the help of cold-as-ice Sascha Duncan to find the responsible of the killings. Except Sascha is not as emotionless as she seems and has a secret she needs to keep safe, a secret that could cost her her life.
Unfortunately, as soon as I started the book, Nalini Singh immediately got on my wrong side, for personal reasons. See, when I was living in Russia a few years ago I had a good friend whose name was - is -Nikita. I love that name. So much so that I always thought I would call my son like that, did I get to have one. Yes, my son. Because in Russian speaking countries, Nikita is a masculine name. Unfortunately, in the rest of the world this name seems to have mutated - thanks also to a fortunate French movie and to a British song - to the feminine gender. So, when a few years later my son was born, much to my chagrin, I had to give in and I called him Noah (which, by the way, here in Italy still gets confused as a feminine name).
So, even though it is not solely her fault, I resent the author for perpetuating this misconception that Nikita is a proper female name by calling Sascha's mother like that. This feeling is reinforced by the fact that Nikita Duncan is the daughter of a Dmitri Kukovich, clearly a Slavic name, which would make it very unlikely for her to be christened like that. End of personal rant.
Aside from the above mentioned annoyance, I expected this book to be of more substance. I like paranormal romance books and I enjoy steamy sex scenes but these people were thinking about sex from page one till back cover - when they were not doing it. I'm not saying that the plot was thin or uninteresting, I actually appreciated this new race, the Psy, as a change from regular old vampires, but it certainly got obliterated by the continuous sex dance between Sascha and Lucas, followed by the sappy scenes you're-my-mate-for-life-we're-two-bodies-and-one-soul when I actually had to go brush my teeth. Seriously, some paranormal romance books beat YA literature when sap and happily-ever-afters are concerned. This is one of them
I'd say this would be a sure must read book for lovers of J.R. Ward and her Black Dagger Brotherhood series.
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