Clay Bennett is a powerful DarkRiver sentinel, but he grew up in the slums with his human mother, never knowing his changeling father. As a young boy without the bonds of Pack, he tried to stifle his animal nature. He failed...and committed the most extreme act of violence, killing a man and losing his best friend, Talin, in the bloody aftermath. Everything good in him died the day he was told that she, too, was dead.Talin McKade barely survived a childhood drenched in bloodshed and terror. Now a new nightmare is stalking her life--the street children she works to protect are disappearing and turning up dead. Determined to keep them safe, she unlocks the darkest secret in her heart and returns to ask the help of the strongest man she knows...
Clay lost Talin once. He will not let her go again, his hunger to possess her, a clawing need born of the leopard within. As they race to save the innocent, Clay and Talin must face the violent truths of their past...or lose everything that ever mattered.
While I have enjoyed all of the books I've read by Nalini Singh thus far, this one really captured me from the beginning, more so than any of the others. Maybe it has something to do with that fact that so many of the paranormal novels I've been reading lately have highlighted scarred women, but I found myself extra receptive to the delicate dance between Clay and Talin. Their back and forth, the balance Singh struck between these two characters establishing something new and remembering what they had was just so moving and this book will definitely be in my 'favorites to be reread often pile' and I hope you enjoy it just as much!!
Overall Feeling - Thumbs up! Moving and joyful, with just enough action to keep you guessing and wanting more!
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 (November 2009)
