Hostage to Pleasure (Psy-Changelings, Book 5) by Nalini Singh

 

We've met Dorian before, and we probably know him better at the start of his book than we've known anyone else when their book began. We know he's latent, that he can't shift into a leopard, and we know that he's a Sentinel in spite of the fact that he's latent. He's never let not being able to shift into leopard hold him back, he's been the textbook over-achiever to compensate for it.

Hostage to Pleasure picks up soon after the events of Mine to Possess, and continues a major storyline started in Mine to Possess.

I mentioned before that, after watching three couples join where one person is Psy and the other is a Changeling, I wasn't sure how many more times that type of pairing was going to work in this series. We have another such coupling in Hostage to Pleasure, but there is an extra twist thrown into the mix that helps the story along.


Here's the blurb:

As the deadly Psy Council tightens its grip, a rebel Psy scientist finds herself at the mercy of a changeling who has sworn vengeance against her kind...

Separated from her son and forced to create a neural implant that will mean the effective enslavement of her psychically gifted race, Ashaya Aleine is the perfect Psy--cool, calm, emotionless...at least on the surface. Inside, she's fighting a desperate battle to save her son and escape the vicious cold of the PsyNet. Yet when escape comes, it leads not to safety, but to the lethal danger of a sniper's embrace.

DarkRiver sniper Dorian Christensen lost his sister to a Psy killer. Though he lacks the changeling ability to shift into animal form, his leopard lives within. And that leopard's rage at the brutal loss is a clawing darkness that hungers for vengeance. Falling for a Psy has never been on Dorian's agenda. But charged with protecting Ashaya and her son, he discovers that passion has a way of changing the rules... 

After reading the blurb, I did not think I was going to like Hostage to Pleasure very much back when it first came out. It is not my favorite book in the series, but it is still a very good book. The blurb doesn't hint at the extra twist, and I won't either, as it's a major spoiler. Suffice it to say that it adds to the plot, and adds to the emotions, and it gives this coupling enough of a difference that it is not "same thing, different book".

As to the specific elements: we pretty much knew the plot of this book before it was released, but the extra twist saves the day. It's a good single book plot, and the series arcs are also still going strong. Pacing is okay in this book, not great, but not a problem, either. I can't imagine ever saying anything negative about prose or dialogue if Nalini Singh has written it, no exceptions to that here.  I think the characters were mostly already developed before the beginning of Hostage to Pleasure, and the further development mostly went where I expected to go as the book progressed. World building for this series continues to be awe-inspiring.

Hostage to Pleasure receives a 9 of 10 from me. The series is at a 10 of 10 after book 7, and I'll keep it there as I re-read each of the books in the series.

Book Rating: Mine to Possess: 9 of 10
Series Rating: Psy-Changelings: 10 of 10

Here are the books in the Psy-Changeling series:

1. Slave to Sensation
2. Visions of Heat
3. Caressed By Ice
4. Mine to Possess
5. Hostage to Pleasure
6. Branded by Fire
7. Blaze of Memory
8. Bonds of Justice
9. Play of Passion (11/2/10) 

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