Mine to Possess (Psy-Changelings, Book 4)

by Nalini Singh

Book Overview

A Psy/Changeling novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Shards of Hope, Shield of Winter, and Heart of Obsidian..."the alpha author of paranormal romance" (Booklist). A ghost returns from... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425220168
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Berkley
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.7" x 0.9" x 4.1"

Customer Reviews

Better and Better

I love this series of books by Nalini Singh. This one is wonderful and I can hardly wait for the next one. I particularly like the warmth and substance she brings to her characters. These are not cardboard people but fully fleshed out individuals who have deep loves and haunting fears. Clay has been one of the darker characters and now we know why. Clay is a sentinal for the Dark River cats, he has made a place for himself because of his loyalty and honor and trustworthyness. Protectiveness is hardwired into his system. He joined the clan after he was released from juvie. He has been a trusted member for 16 yrs. Talin was 3 when she first met Clay and he was only 9. They lived in a project and he was her protector. Ultimately he killed her foster father who had been molesting her. Due to the fact that the foster father had murdered several other children, Clay was only sent to juvie until he reached 18. At which time he was told Talin was dead. Now Talin needs Clay to help find one of the children she mentors for the Shine Project. Several children have disappeared and been found murdered. Talin comes to Clay in desperation, she has no one she trusts, she was very damaged by all the things that happened and is unable to trust anyone. Needless to say Clay is stunned to find her alive and even more angry to find he was lied to about her death. He must fight the anger if he is to save the kids who are threatened by this elusive danger. He and Talin must fight through the deciets, secrets and misunderstandings if they are to have any chance to find the love they once knew as children. The love that may now change to a more passionate type. I loved the book. Do not miss it and be sure to find her other novels about the Changlings, Human, and Psy. Good Reading.

Fourth in Psy-Changeling Series

This is the fourth in Nalini Singh's series of books about the world of the Psy, Changelings and Humans. The first two books "Slave to Sensation" and "Visions of Heat" featured Psy women who escaped from the world of Mr Spock-like emotionless after finding their mates amongst the Changelings big cats. The third book, "Caressed by Ice", took Werewolf Brenna as the heroine and Psy assassin Judd as the hero. This fourth book is the first that introduces a human as one of the main subjects - Talin McKay. Tally is a social worker whose troubled childhood still haunts her - as did her only real friend in her youth, Clay. Clay is a Leopard Changeling and when he killed Tally's abusive foster father and went to prison for the crime Tally disappeared from his life, requesting that he be told she had died in a car accident. However when some of the children Tally oversees go missing and then are found dead she realises that she needs assistance to get to the bottom of the disappearances and her former friend Clay, now an important person in the DarkRiver Pack, can help. The Clay she knew as a young boy has changed into a wild and dangerous man of whom she is initially afraid. When Clay brings Tally back to his pack and she starts to interact with the others they work together to find out what's happened to the young people and it's a race against time to rescue young Jon before he is killed. But can Clay and Tally get past the issues of mistrust and abandonment of the previous twenty years in order to find their friendship again - and perhaps more? The characters in the previous books all appear in this one, along with a couple of new characters who will probably feature in future books. Once again Nalini Singh has written a tightly-plotted and enjoyable book with her alternative world with the Psy/Changeling/Human triumvirate taking on a new twist. As with the previous three books much of the romance between hero and heroine is based on physical touch, 'skin privileges', and although Tally isn't Psy she is a damaged young woman because of her past. I wonder what the author would do if one of her characters didn't mind touch as that's such a part of her writing style! She wrote the character of Clay very well as a part-animal, part human and a frightening but also loyal and reliable man. Tally wasn't always as easy to get a handle on and the underlying thread of her illness was dealt with in a rather easy way. Still, like the other books in the series, this was a worthwhile read and I look forward to the next book.

What a wild ride Mine To Possess turned out to be!!

As children Clay and Talin find one another in a time when they hunger for some warmth and compassion in their lives. Both have family that traumatizes them on an emotional level and forges a bond between them that can never truly be broken. But the fierce protectiveness of Clay roars in fury when he senses the pain of his Tally inflicted on her by her adoptive father and when the fury at last subsides he is soaked in blood looking at the face of Tally whom is in shock of what Clay did. Now, about 20 years later, Talin needs Clay again in the search of kids who've gone missing, not just any kids, her kids. She is now a Shine Guardian who protects and guides kids from the street in to a normal life and when a few under her care end up dead pain lacerates through her and she will not rest until their murders are solved. With another teenager whom is still missing Talin hopes to prevent his death and she will need Clay as a DarkRiver Sentinel to aid her in her quest. As they both meet for the first time old pain, old feelings and old memories drift to the surface and the bond forged between their hearts so long ago slowly flickers to life. Still Clay can't ignore the cat inside him nor can Talin ignore the violence she witnessed so long ago or the lifespan she has left. Together they start a journey to seek the truth and rescue a teenager whose life still holds so much promise. And when Clay introduces Talin to the DarkRiver pack in order to protect her they hold a chance in their hands to become true mates. But when one knows so much of darkness can one dare to touch the light? I'm awestruck by the raw intensity of this novel and I almost feel the urge to flash a warning signal that before starting in a Psy-Changeling novel of Nalini Singh you better have food, drinks and a comfortable place to snuggle yourself in because you aren't going anywhere before reading Mine To Possess from first till last chapter. For me Nalini Singh takes the shapeshifter theme to a whole new level and draws me effortlessly into another world of the Psy-Changeling. Though I haven't read the previous novels I know where I'm heading off to! Clay and Talin are childhood friends and that time is beautifully captured by the author in memories of feelings, events and actions they have as adults. The unraveling of all those feelings and of their actions they've taking after a certain moment in their life sometimes had the impact of a sledge hammer, that is how intense I felt them, felt with them as both children and adults. Trying to find their way back to that unique, trusting and loving bond that can make you survive almost anything. Clay and Talin are a dynamic love couple whom sizzle with a passionate nature and came alive through the impeccable writing skill Nalini Singh possesses. The DarkRiver pack leaped of the pages with its colorful characters and I just fell in love with the animalistic characterization of the Changelings. Clay is part human, part leopard chan

5 Klovers - Courtesy of CK2S Kwips & Kritiques

A lifetime ago, Changeling Clay Bennett lost his freedom, as well as the only girl he loved. Although both were children at the time, his leopard knew his mate when it saw her. But a cruel twist of fate tore them apart, and when Clay was finally freed, he learned that young Talin had died years earlier. Now a DarkRiver Sentinel, he has made a home with the powerful pack in San Francisco, but his beast walks a fine line between sanity and insanity, threatening the loss of his humanity. When Talin McKade turns up not only alive, but in need of his aid, he finds his salvation. Her presence stirs emotions he thought long forsaken to him and the leopard in him demands to take its mate. But Talin has been damaged, scarred by the tragedies in her past and their shared history. Clay must tread carefully if he is to convince his mate that they belong together. Through it all, Talin and Clay work together to save the children that have gone missing, only to have their bodies turn up later, gruesomely battered. The truth behind the murders is even more diabolical than they could imagine. With the very first book in her Psy-Changeling series, Nalini Singh made this reviewer an instant fan! With seemingly effortless world building, she crafted a fascinating universe that is part science fiction, part paranormal, and part suspense - three genres that happen to be among my favorites. Yet through each book, she has kept the romance first and foremost, with stories that never fail to capture the hearts of the reader even as the hero and heroine are finding love with one another. Mine to Possess exemplifies this perfectly. With Clay Bennett and Talin McKade, Ms. Singh delivers a couple with a long and tormented history. Although separated years earlier, their love for each other never wavered, and each of them do whatever they believe necessary to protect the other at all costs. From the very beginning, the author engenders empathy for both of the main characters, as well as a feeling of familiarity. Of course, we have met Clay previously in the earlier books, even if we didn't get to know him intimately. Talin, however, is a stranger to us when the story begins, but she somehow never really feels like one. Indeed, from page one, I wanted to know this woman, discover where she had come from, what she was doing there, and most importantly - why she was watching Clay. When we really get to know Talin, we find a woman who is courageous and caring, despite her troubled past and a bleak future. She'll do anything for the people she cares about, even at her own expense - much to Clay's dismay and utter frustration. Of course, Clay shares the very qualities that so worry him in Talin. Being a hero, it is only natural that he prefers to be the one who takes all the risks while the woman he loves is safe and sound at home. Even still, Clay respects the woman that Talin has grown into and it isn't long before he realizes he loves here even more

This Series Just Gets Better Every Time

"Slave to Sensation", book one, set the romance world on fire with a unique, new element in a genre rife with emotions - a race with the potential for cool, icy, emotionless precision, the Psy. Their counterparts are the animalistic and earthier Changelings, packs and herds of men and women that take on the forms of wolves, leopards, deer and much more than we could imagine. Now Singh brings mere humans into the fold. Are they just the worker bees of her futuristic society, or do they hold the key to so much more? Clay Bennet is barely holding on. He's dangerously close to going rogue, even within the confines a loving and healthy pack - the San Francisco DarkRiver leopards. Too tangled in a tragic past, it eats at him still. The slaying of a depraved monster may have seen the streets rid of one more evil, but it cost Clay his freedom and the person he cared more about than anything. When he finds out she's dead, well, Clay no longer had a reason to be good himself. Talin McKade vowed to stay away from the man who used to be her best friend. An act of violence, born of violence, triggered her flight and fear didn't allow her close...till violence once again brought her full circle to the one person she always wanted to count on. It's her job to see that children like she had been have a chance at a better life. And when her kids start dying, she takes a wild card from the past, hoping Clay will help her solve the mystery. Little did she know, once marked by a leopard, there's no going back. What was interesting about Clay and Talin's relationship is how seamlessly it's integrated into the storyline in this installment. Actually, Singh does this extremely well in each book, the marriage of the love story with the overall plot, but the way it was done in "Mine to Possess" was just flawless! The events unfolding weren't just happening to and around the main characters, they were happening because of them and vice versa. Take one of them away from the other and suddenly neither will make sense. Everything happening in these books is happening for a reason and there's not an ounce of fat in the mix. "Mine to Possess" is perhaps the most integral book of the series to date. Not only does it reach all the way back to "Slave to Sensation" (book one) and reinforce what we found out there, but it seems to be a major turning point in the Changling struggles against the more insidious Psy Council. So, it is heavy on info, but you'll find no dumping of it here. I believe we're getting what we do because it's vital, necessary and the right time in the series. Beware, there is some rather shocking violence in this one as we continue to discover just how ruthless and cold the Psy are (though it's not portrayed as graphically as, say, a horror piece), but Clay and Talin's relationship, to me, never got dragged under because of it, but actually shone brighter because the dilemmas actually made them come together, closer than they'd ever been before. It helped t