Review: Wild Embrace by Nalini Singh
Title: Wild Embrace (Psy-Changeling #15.5)
Author: Nalini Singh
Publication Date: August 23, 2016
Publisher: Berkeley
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Short Story
Find It: Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, Book Depository
Source: e-ARC from Netgalley
Rating: 4 stars – stay up late
Echo of Silence
In a deep-sea station, Tazia Nerif has found her life’s work as an engineer, keeping things running smoothly. But she wants nothing more than to break down the barrier of silence between her and her telekinetic Psy station commander…Dorian
A changeling who can never shift lives a life of quiet frustration—until he learns how to let his leopard come out and play…Partners in Persuasion
Still raw from being burned by a dominant female, wolf changeling Felix will never again risk being a plaything. But for dominant leopard Dezi, he’s the most fascinating man she’s ever met. She just has to convince this gun-shy wolf that he can trust the dangerous cat who wants to take a slow, sexy bite out of him…Flirtation of Fate
Seven years ago, Kenji broke Garnet’s heart. Now the wolf packmates have to investigate the shocking murder of one of their own. And the more Kenji sees of the woman Garnet has become, the deeper he begins to fall once more. But even his primal instincts are no match for the dark secret he carries.
Echo of Silence
3 stars
Ever since Singh first mentioned the Alaris deep-sea station (I can’t remember when this was), I hoped that she would write a story that gave us a closer look at this unusual setting and its unique occupants. She finally does so in this sweet novella about Stefan, a Psy/TK, and Tazia, a human working on the station. Though Tazia is human, she is a lot like Stefan. Estranged from her family, Tazia lives a very lonely life aboard Alaris. As a Psy and former Arrow, Stefan has learned to keep a tight leash on his emotions. However, when the two end up working together to help rebuild a village, their attraction reaches a breaking point which neither can ignore. I loved seeing Tazia break through Stefan’s cool exterior and bring out the heat in him. It was kind of a bummer that they had to hide their relationship on the ship but I still really enjoyed this sweet story.
Dorian – 4 stars
Dorian is one of my most favorite characters in the Psy-Changeling series. I loved his book and I am always happy to get a glimpse of what he and Ashaya have been up to. This story starts back when Dorian is a juvenile and follows him as he deals with his latency. I loved seeing how Dorian turns something that could cripple him into the motivation to excel. It was really fun seeing the rest of the pack as youngsters, too, as they learn and train together. The last part of the story takes shows us what happens when Dorian learns that he can finally shift. He has to learn how to move and think in his cat body after years of being unable to shift. My favorite part of this novella was seeing Lucas’s and the other sentinels’ reaction to Dorian’s cat. It’s just really sweet and reinforces how much of a family all of the packs are.
Partners in Persuasion – 3 stars
I am pretty sure that this is the first non-dominant male/dominant female relationship in the Psy-Changeling series. Overall I enjoyed this one. Dezi and Felix are both really fun characters and I liked seeing how the relationship worked once the roles were reversed. Giving it a slightly lower score because, while it was fun, it’s not super memorable.
Flirtation of Fate – 4 stars
I was really excited to finally get Kenji and Garnet’s story. They’ve been popped in and out of the series for years now and Singh even teased us a bit with a short excerpt from their story, which made me want to read it even more. Kenji broke Garnet’s heart and her 18th birthday but the two have remained friends. Kenji has tried to keep Garnet at arm’s length but it’s proving harder and harder as time goes on and Kenji has to decide if he’s willing to risk telling Garnet the truth of why he broke her heart all those years ago.
I always enjoy stories about lovers coming back together and there’s so much history between Garnet and Kenji. I was a little frustrated with Kenji because, while I understood his reason for breaking it off with Garnet, I think he should have told her the truth a long time ago. Keeping it from her caused them both needless pain and heartache. Of course I don’t think they story would have been quite as compelling had they made up right after their first fight but he could have done it a little sooner. It was very satisfying to see these two finally get their HEA.
Final thoughts:
Short stories can often be hit or miss for me. In general, I tend to like Singh’s shorts because I am already so familiar with the world and the characters. While you don’t get quite the punch you do with a full length Nalini Singh novel, these novellas a nice, quick read that will hold over die hard Psy-Changeling fans until the next book. Singh’s writing is great, as always, if a bit abbreviated. I probably would not recommend this if you haven’t already read at least a few books in the series. They’ll still be fun if you do but I don’t think you will get as much out of them.
For me, my favorite stories were Dorian’s and then Kenji and Garnet’s. Now comes the long wait until the next Psy-Changeling book…
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my review or opinion of the book.
