Twisted Kingdom

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.

Reason for Reading: I've been bitten by the Nalini Singh bug. Really, I woke up last weekend and had the strangest burning in my stomach. I quickly realized I needed to read some Singh.

The blurb above did a good job of describing what goes on without being spoilerish. And I don't really want to dole out spoilers for the series, I mean, there's a lot of complicated stuff going on with the Psy Council and some mysterious figure called the Ghost. oooohhhhh

My Thoughts: Ok, I need to be brutally honest here. The first half of this book almost had me ripping out my hair. I found Talin and her fear of Clay to be very very frustrating. I just couldn't get past how afraid she was! I just wanted to smack her. Also, I found Clay too...too much - his beast was always ready to pop out and wanted to scream and roar for his mate and blah. It was like we were being told Clay was on the edge to create some drama but I just wasn't feeling it because Talin's fear was so annoying all on its own. Clay's drama was just another annoyance.

Also, Talin comes to Clay to find one of her missing children (she works for an organization called Shine that helps disadvantaged children). Only they actually don't go about finding anyone until well after page 100. Because the first 100 pages is all about Talin's drama.

Can you see now why I was annoyed?

Fortunately, things pick up in the last half of the book. Talin eventually realizes that Clay would never hurt her (duh). Once that happens, my frustration melted away and I got into the story and could not put it down.

But - and there is a but - in all the other past books, there's been a lot of action. Like going after the Psy, actively going after them. In Mine to Possess, the resolution was handed to our characters almost on a silver platter and I wanted some action! That's my only beef with the last half of MtP.

I'm giving Mine to Possess a C+. Even after all the frustration, I still had a big smile on my face when I finished the last page.