Review: Wild Embrace by Nalini Singh

Title: Wild Embrace (Psy-Changeling # 15.5)
Author: Nalini Singh
Date of publication: 23 Aug 2016
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Shapeshifters, novellas

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My rating: 3.5 Stars

Blurb

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...

Review

This is a collection of 4 novellas set in the world of the Psy-changeling series. They can be read as standalones except for Dorian which for me functions as a sort of epilogue to Hostage of Pleasure.

I love Ms Singh's writing and this series is really fabulous with an intricate world building and intriguing characters and challenging relationships.

I very much enjoyed all the stories in this collection with the exception of Partners in Persuasion which just did not work for me. 

Echo of Silence was just delightful, a slow burn romance between a human female and a psy male. Tender and sweet, this story was a pleasure to read. I find the psy really interesting and all the plotlines about breaking their silence and learning to feel is like catnip for me. This story placs a strong emphasis on forming connections, the importance of family, friends, people who will stand by you and share both your happiness and your sorrow. 

Dorian is the undisputed jem in this collection. We see Dorian finally being able to shift and it's glorious. Ms Singh shows us this big, confident and smart ass sentinel we already know, stumble like a baby, learning to walk, run, live in his animal form  and it is so much fun. This storyi's full of love and tenderness and good humour and true sense of friendship which are tardemark features of the whole series. 

Partners in Persuasion plays with the dom/sub dynamic in a reversed order and while I appreciate the idea, the execution did not quite work for me. I felt disconnected from the characters, couldn't see the chemistry between them. 

Flirtation of Fate is my second favourite novella in this collection. It's a second chance, friends-to-lovers story with a strong suspense element which just added richness to it. We have already met Kenji and Garnet in earlier books where they were younger and it was nice to see them all grown up, finding the road to each other. They both struggle with their feelings for each other, try desparately to deny them, only to come together in the end as a strong meant-to-be couple.

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