Slave to Sensation (Psy-Changeling #1) by Nalini Singh
Published on: 09/5/2006
Pages: 334
Indiebound
Nalini Singh dives into a world torn apart by a powerful race with phenomenal powers of the mind-and none of the heart.
In a world that denies emotions, where the ruling Psy punish any sign of desire, Sascha Duncan must conceal the feelings that brand her as flawed. To reveal them would be to sentence herself to the horror of "rehabilitation" - the complete psychic erasure of everything she ever was...
Both human and animal, Lucas Hunter is a changeling hungry for the very sensations the Psy disdain. After centuries of uneasy coexistence, these two races are now on the verge of war over the brutal murders of several changeling women. Lucas is determined to find the Psy killer who butchered his packmate, and Sascha is his ticket into their closely guarded society. But he soon discovers that this ice-cold Psy is very capable of passion - and that the animal in him is fascinated by her. Caught between their conflicting worlds, Lucas and Sascha must remain bound to their identities - or sacrifice everything for a taste of darkest temptation.
Midnight Thoughts
This was the first book of the year for the Fountain Flirt book club- the diverse romance book club that meets at the bookstore I work at. I ended up not going to the discussion because of my other job, but dammit, I did finish the book! Also, it ended up being my first book read of 2019!So, this is kind of urban-romance, which is not usually my jam. And Slave to Sensation did not end up being my exception to the rule jam. I bought the paperback version of the book, but ended up listening to it mostly on audio because I knew that otherwise I might not finish the book.
First of all, I love a good alpha male (or a bad one?) as long as their fictional, but an actual Alpha pack leader is a little too much alpha for me, usually. Seriously, do Betas never get the girl? Ugh.
I just never really felt the connection to Sascha and Lucas, and wasn't all that invested in their romance. Plus, it's hard to feel the fear that Sascha and Lucas might die at any moment when it's so obvious that they'll be fine by the end of the book.
Secondly, I thought the whole Psy thing was stupid. The whole "we are vastly superior because we have no emotions" and yet they still had family type relationships was just eye-rolling. So smart, and yet we think feelings are dumb and destructive, and oh, let's ignore all the rampant psychopathic Psys running around because maybe they're good at making money or some shiz? And the Psy network just seemed flat. An interesting idea that didn't translate all that well (I kept having flashbacks to the virtual reality network in the movie Disclosure featuring Michael Douglas and Demi Moore, which is also a book, which I read but don't remember all that well.).
Not that the book was all bad for me (and I am just talking about me, because the author seems hugely popular, and I've been told that the series gets so much better). I liked the narration and the serial killer subplot. I just hated that the serial killer subplot, which ends up being a bigger plot, gets tied up super neatly and off-screen. It was just clunky and poorly timed, but I wish the book had focused more on that, because it was interesting.
I'm probably being harsher in retrospect than I was when I read it, but I have no interest in reading more. Thankfully our next book is a historical romance, which is much more my style.
Midnight Rating
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