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Mine To Possess
by Nalini Singh

(paranormal romance)

This is the fourth book in Ms. Singh’s Psy-Changeling series, and I’m still enjoying every minute of it. I am pleased to report that this book contains a real, live HUMAN. One pet peeve about so many paranormal series is that while they are often set in approximately our own world, there are next to no humans in them. Sometimes we get what seems to be a human, only to find out that this person has supernatural powers! OMG!!

But Talin is human. And she doesn’t have any non-standard human skills (she’s not secretly a ninja assassin, for instance). She’s a good person, but she’s just a person. And I find that an incredibly refreshing change.

Clay is also a good addition to the series’ heroes, someone who’s on the edge and fighting it, and we can finally find out what’s been so close to setting him off all these years. (He doesn’t develop any hitherto unknown powers either, but as a shifter he’s already got powers. So we’re good.)

The bad guy… On the one hand he seemed to have a serious motive and be well fleshed out, and yet on the other he seemed pretty stereotypical. It’s really hard to pin this down, because a lot of the time and words that would normally be spent showing how evil the bad guy is were spent showing how someone who works with him is on the wrong side but isn’t as bad as all that. (Hmm. Could this be a set-up for the next book? Gee. Let me think.) (Okay, I’ll stop being snarky now.) I don’t have a problem with showing that someone is not as bad as the evidence points to, but it does dilute the villain’s character and motivations a bit. Not enough to make the story unbelievable, but it’s there all the same.

I had been given a “spoiler” of sorts that this series just keeps getting better. So far, from what I’ve seen, that was a highly accurate statement. I don’t know that this is my favorite book in the series, but it’s definitely up there.

Grade: A

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