Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh

Slave to Sensation                        TBR Challenge
Nalini Singh
(#1 Pys-Changeling) 
Berkley Sensation 2006
Genre: Paranormal romance
Format: Kindle ebook
Pages: 334
Source: Own book

Summary from Goodreads.

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 co-existence, these two races are now on the verge of war over the brutal murders of several of their 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 the ice-cold Psy is very capable of passion.  Caught between their conflicting worlds, Lucas and Sascha must remain bound to their identities - or sacrifice everything for a taste of darkest temptation.

My thoughts:
I read this for Wendy's TBR challenge for August.  This month the call was for something erotic.  I don't really read 'erotica', and I'm not quite sure when it is that a book falls into this category! However I am a small time paranormal reader and for some time I have had my eye on Nalini Singh's Psy/Changeling series.  I decided to use this month's challenge to try out this series.  I had heard her writing can be 'hot', so I figured it was enough into the erotic category for me!

Oh my goodness, I loved Slave to Sensation.  I think this series may become addictive reading for me.  I have already picked up the second one in the series from our local library.  I am hugely happy that this month's challenge pushed me into it.  I would say it was very sensual, in away that was tasteful!  No pun intended.  The writing is good, loved the characters and the plot kept me fully engaged.

Sascha Duncan is the heroine - a Psy.  She knows she is different to other Psy, and somewhat a failure - flawed and weak.  Or so she has been led to believe.  However as a person, she is strong and courageous and when she meets up with Lucas Hunter - a changeling, she begins to discover herself and her gifts in a whole new way.

Lucas Hunter is the alpha male in his leopard pack.  He is caring and protective, although he carries a past that could see him become more cold and ruthless.  When Sascha steps into his world things begin to change for him too.  Under the guise of combining on a construction project, Sascha and Lucas become involved in a hunt for a sadistic Psy who has been murdering women belonging to both the  leopard pack and the SnowDancer wolf pack.  If this murderer is not found, there will be much bloodshed and danger for all.

The relationship between Sascha and Lucas develops slowly and believably, I like it that while Lucas is the alpha male of the group, at no time does Sascha allow herself to be totally overruled by him.  She stands up to him on important matters.  They make a great pair.

There is a wealth of interesting minor characters, some of whom no doubt will get their own time in the limelight with a book of their own.  There are the sentinels of Lucas - Nate, Vaughn, Clay, Mercy and Dorian.  All with their own fascinating backgrounds.  Hawke the alpha male of the Snowdancers (wolves) is another character I will be interested to know more about and his pack.  Brenna is the young girl who has been kidnapped, she belongs to his pack, and so we are given a slight view into the workings of Hawke's pack.

DarkRiver where the story takes place is made up of Psy, Changelings and humans.  As I am not a big time paranormal reader I loved the way the changelings were able to go from human form to their animal form in a very integrated way.  As humans we all have that sensual animal side of ourselves and I believe this story invites us to fully accept and enjoy that side of self.  This book invites us to feel our emotions, enjoy our sensual sides and be our best selves.