Tabs’ review of Wild Embrace (Psy-Changeling, Book 15.5) by Nalini Singh
Paranormal Romance published by Berkley 23 Aug 16
Nalini Singh returns to her Psy-Changeling world with a new collection of four never-before-published novellas. I, for one, have always really enjoyed how Singh takes the time to explore and flesh out some of the fringes of the main Psy-Changeling stories with her novellas. This nice collection is pretty much par for the course there. I really enjoyed the majority of the stories, but had a major case of trope-hate with one.
Echo of Silence – Singh has been teasing fans for a while about teleporter Stefan who is connected to the Arrow Squad but who has stayed on his sea base and out of the last few books’ main Psy conflict. So it’s nice to finally get a closer look at him. His love interest is Tazia, an engineer stationed on the same underwater base. Tazia is struggling with her conflicting desires to be a successful engineer and her expected familial duties. Pursuing the coveted job on the sea base caused a major rift with her family and she sorely feels the loss. Stefan and Tazia end up bonding while spending their leave together helping with disaster relief. Their romance is really sweet and I thought that Tazia’s familial conflicts were explored well.
Dorian – This is more of an epilogue short story than a novella. Leopard-changeling Dorian is probably my least favorite Psy-Changeling hero, but even I found this interesting. Basically, if you want to see how Dorian comes to terms with his leopard side, then this is the story for you.
Partners in Persuasion – Singh has explored relationships between dominant and submissive changelings in the past but flips the script here with a very dominant leopard-changeling female and a very submissive wolf-changeling male. Desiree and Felix have a number of issues to overcome before they can reach their happy ending. They come from two different packs, are two different changeling species with different social mores, and have a really wide gap between their inherent dominance levels. Watching them try to work things out and not let the complications get the best of them is really entertaining. This reminded me a lot of Grace and Cooper’s story from the novella Declaration of Courtship, because of the dominance gap, but it didn’t feel like a retread to me, so fans of that story will also likely enjoy this one.
Flirtation of Fate – This story takes place in one of the outer Snow Dancer territories and centers around a murder mystery. It also puts wolf-changeling sentinels Kenji and Garnet in close quarters and makes them confront their tumultuous history. Unfortunately, this is easily my least favorite story in the anthology because the romance centers around a trope that I just flat-out hate. The “I pushed you away for your own good” trope just drives me batty. It’s a shit way to treat someone, takes away the other party’s ability to make their own choices, sets everyone up for unnecessary pain, and if I never saw it again in a romance novel I’d be one happy camper. Making it worse, this story also has my least favorite “reason” for the pushing away. So, basically, the core romance didn’t work for me at all. I did enjoy getting to spend sometime with an offshoot of the main Snow Dancer pack and I really liked Garnet. I did not care about Kenji and Garnet getting together.
Overall, I enjoyed this novella anthology and would reread 3/4 of it again.
Grade: B
Summary:
The “alpha author of paranormal romance” presents a stunningly sensual collection of four all-new Psy-Changeling novellas, in which taboos are broken, boundaries are crossed, and instincts prove irresistible…
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…
Other books in this series:
