Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh Narrator: Angela Dawe
Series: Psy-Changeling #1
Published by Berkley, Tantor Audio on March 31, 2009
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 356
Length: 9 hours, 36 minutes
Format: Audiobook, eBook
Source: Purchased
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n a world that denies emotions, where the ruling Psy punish any sign of desire, Sascha Duncan must conceal the feelings that brand her as flawed. To reveal them would be to sentence herself to the horror of "rehabilitation"--the complete psychic erasure of everything she ever was...
Both human and animal, Lucas Hunter is a Changeling hungry for the very sensations the Psy disdain. After centuries of uneasy coexistence, these two races are now on the verge of war over the brutal murders of several Changeling women. Lucas is determined to find the Psy killer who butchered his packmate, and Sascha is his ticket into their closely guarded society. But he soon discovers that this ice-cold Psy is very capable of passion--and that the animal in him is fascinated by her. Caught between their conflicting worlds, Lucas and Sascha must remain bound to their identities--or sacrifice everything for a taste of darkest temptation..
When Anne was planning her 2021 Read-along, I wasn’t sure if I would participate because I hadn’t read a Psy-Changling novel yet. 2020 has taught me how important community is, so when she asked if I’d like to review the first book, Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh, I wanted to jump in.
I really struggled with getting Slave to Sensation read. I enjoyed it but couldn’t focus to read…until the last day when I read 198 pages in one day. That’s a lot of pages for me in one week day. I ended up really enjoying the story.
It took some world building and it came in levels. I felt like I was constantly learning things about both the Psy and the Changelings. (Poor humans are almost never mentioned!) There was a lot to learn and the PsyNet really left a hole in my imagination. In the beginning it just seems like a big void and it isn’t until later that it was more fleshed out. At the end of of the book, I imagined PsyNet to look a lot like the alternative world in Tron.
I absolutely loved the pack dynamics. I loved the sense of community and family in the pack. It was the perfect opposite to Sascha’s experience. I really loved how alpha Lucas was without being a completely domineering jerk. I understand that is his position in the pack and therefore his role and responsibility. Positions of power don’t always inspire fairness and good so it was nice to see good in Lucas.
My heart hurt for Sascha. I hated the fact she was made to feel less than her entire life. The Psy really make for an easy group to dislike. I will say I had the serial killer pegged fairly early on. It was a big part of the story but it certainly wasn’t the only part. It didn’t hinder my happiness when I turned the last page.
I listened to several hours of this on audio from Scribd and the narration was great! I read the book when I wasn’t listening to it.
I loved Slave to Sensation once I really got into it! The only thing that kept it from being a full 5 stars was that the story seemed to need some time to gain some traction and didn’t suck me in right away. It was such a good read and I’m really excited to keep reading the series!
Listen to a clip: HERE
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Who said (enter the answer in the Rafflecopter, don’t put in the comments)
“I’m telling you because I trust you.”
There are other options in the rafflecopter for you to enter discussion questions and quotes to share.
Share your review/ thoughts on Slave to Sensation:
I thought it might be fun to link up reviews so we can find them all easily. It can be a link to Goodreads or a blog, or wherever you have a review (short or long).
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Here’s your to-do list:
- Find your copies of these books, borrow them from a friend, get them at the library or buy them.
- You can read free short stories at Nalini Singh’s website. The next would be #1.1 A Cannibal Princess.
- Read Book 2, Vision of Heat, by January 29.
- Make a list of a favorite quote or two as you read the book.
- If you haven’t read the books before, make a list of questions / observations you have for the discussion. If you have read them, please don’t spoil new readers.
- Comment here and let me know if you have read them before or if you are starting on a new adventure with me.
- Link up your review from Goodreads or your site to the post.
- Join the COYER book chat on the Sunday following the post.
- Enter the giveaways!
COYER Challenge is adopting our Read-along. You can read about COYER and join that challenge or just the Facebook community chat HERE.
Slave to Sensation chat in a FB room (like we do for COYER book club) is:
January 3 at 12 PT, 2 CT, 3 ET and 9pn Europe, for a one hour chat.
You do not have to join the COYER challenge to participate, only the Facebook group.
Schedule:
We are doing one book every 3-4 weeks, posting on Fridays. We should have a review for most of the books with the team here at Books of My Heart plus some of our friends. We only have 2 or 3 spots left, let me know if you want to share a review May 7, July 16, or August 27. Our Robin kindly agreed to take whichever book was left to review.
Jan 1: Slave to Sensation – Stephanie @ Once Upon a Chapter
Jan 29: Visions of Heat – Rachel @ Waves of Fiction
Feb 19: Caressed by Ice – Kim @ Caffeinated Reviewer
Mar 19: Mine to Possess – KC
Apr 16: Hostage to Pleasure – Berls @ Because Reading
May 7: Branded by Fire –
May 28: Blaze of Memory – Sophia
Jun 18: Bonds of Justice – Angela @ Angel’s Guilty Pleasures
Jul 16: Play of Passion –
Aug 6: Kiss of Snow – Melanie?
Aug 27: Tangle of Need –
Sep 17: Heart of Obsidian – Linda @ Unconventional Bookworms
Oct 15: Shield of Winter – Samantha @ The Book Disciple
Nov 5: Shards of Hope – Jen @ That’s What I’m Talking About
Dec 3: Allegiance of Honor – Anne
Be sure to enter the giveaways!!!
Giveaway:
Berkley Romance is giving away a set of three paperbacks to get started on the series. US only
Slave to Sensation – Vision of Heat – Caressed by Ice
Grand-Prize Giveaway:
Tantor Audio is generously donating a set of 15 ? codes for the entire set on audio. Codes will work US or Intl.
About Angela Dawe
Angela Dawe is an audiobook narrator and actress living and working in Chicago, Illinois. Winner of several Earphones Awards from Audiofile Magazine and narrator of two Audie-nominated audiobooks, Angela is also an accomplished improviser/sketch comedian, and has worked with such theaters as Second City, iO (formerly improvOlympic), and The Annoyance. Among Angela’s recordings are Psy-Changeling Series by Nalini Singh, Wild Roses by Deb Caletti, and Savor the Moment by Nora Roberts.
About Nalini Singh
I’ve been writing as long as I can remember and all of my stories always held a thread of romance (even when I was writing about a prince who could shoot lasers out of his eyes). I love creating unique characters, love giving them happy endings and I even love the voices in my head. There’s no other job I would rather be doing. In September 2002, when I got the call that Silhouette Desire wanted to buy my first book, Desert Warrior, it was a dream come true. I hope to continue living the dream until I keel over of old age on my keyboard.
I was born in Fiji and raised in New Zealand. I also spent three years living and working in Japan, during which time I took the chance to travel around Asia. I’m back in New Zealand now, but I’m always plotting new trips. If you’d like to see some of my travel snapshots, have a look at the Travel Diary page (updated every month).
So far, I’ve worked as a lawyer, a librarian, a candy factory general hand, a bank temp and an English teacher and not necessarily in that order. Some might call that inconsistency but I call it grist for the writer’s mill.
I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
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Yes, I have. Perhaps – I tend to binge read series.
One of the things I like about the Read-along is reading the whole series fairly close together so I don’t miss as much and it makes it easier to make connections. I hope you will join us or share some of your reviews.
I’ve joined. I’ve already read most of the books (if not all), but only once and it’s been a while so it’ll be almost like reading them for the first time.
It was like that last year for me with Mercy Thompson but it had been as much as 8 years since I read the early ones so it was great to not only read them but together so I picked up on more of the ocnnections.
I agree, Stephanie. That psy net really had my head spinning the first time. I think I was still not entirely sure what was with the psy until much further in the series. Sascha had my heart. 🙂
For those of us who have only read this one, there is much in the world building we don’t understand yet. I love mind skills but I am not enjoying the Psy.
I read and enjoyed the start of the series a while back. The who psy-changeling series is a fun world! 🙂
Thanks for joining us Rachel!
Nice review – it’s good to relive this series from someone who hasn’t already read it. I think I read StS back in 2009 maybe? Anyhow, this world becomes so wonderful and complex, I hope you enjoy it!
I hope so too since I’ll be reading 15 books of it this year. It is always a little bit of a risk doing a new-to-me series. I have much to learn about this world yet; there’s a lot which is unclear yet.
I haven’t read this series and honestly never heard about it before. Sounds interesting. I’ll keep it in mind 😉
The author is Australian and I’ve had it on my list a long time. But I get lots of exposure to everything Berkley, and AceRoc. The series began over 10 years ago so maybe you were too young and it’s harder to start something once it’ s a ways into the series.
I’m so excited for this!!!!!!
I’m so excited to have you join us!
Love this group read! I felt so bad for Sascha she was so scared that she had some thing wrong with her- I’m looking forward to more in this series
Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your review!
I am so happy to see that you enjoyed this one, I really love what this author does in creating this world. The pack dynamics are the best. Its going to be so much fun to reimmerse myself in this world again.
Great review.
It’s the first time for me, so it’s fun for me too. Thank you for joining us Renee.
I have read this series to date (and loved it), and I periodically binge read it.
That’s great! I hope you will join us in some reading and share some of your thoughts in the linkup or rafflecopter.
Never read Sounds good though.
You are welcome to join us and give them a try!
Great review Stephanie! I agree the killer was on the more obvious side, but since I was so caught up in the fascinating world and the electric relationship between Lucas and Sascha it didn’t bother me. I’ve not read the book you referred to when describing the PsyNet, so I’m curious about it now too. I agree, it took some time to visualize – it wasn’t until the end that you get a really good sense of it. Looking forward our chat today and reading the next one !
Yes Stephanie gave us a great review. The chat was REALLY good. I expanded my thoughts on this series and I’m even more excited to read it.
i have not read a psy changeling novel in years so reading this brought me back into the fold and i am quite enjoying it
That’s great Michelle! I was so happy to meet you on the chat.
I hope to read this series someday. It sounds like something that I would like but I knew that I would not be able to stay on schedule with the read-along this year. I hope you guys have fun with it and I will have a nice time reading everyone’s reviews.
I’m sorry you can’t join us because I would have loved your thoughts. Next year will be Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress which is a re-read for me. Maybe you can join us in that one knowing ahead of time.
Haven’t read them but they sound fantastic.
We’re really enjoying the series so far. We’ve finished Book 1 – Slave to Sensation and now are reading Book 2 – Visions of Heat.
haven’t read any yet
Well we are just starting so you can join us.
No, I haven’t read them yet, but they sound really good. Thanks!
I hope you will be able to join us. It’s my first time reading them also.
Not started it yet
I hope you will do some reading with us. I’m just starting the second one this weekend. That’s part of why I allow 3-4 weeks for each book.
I haven’t read this series I have never heard about it before. It sounds interesting.
You are more than welcome to join us. We’ve only started the second book.
I have not read the book yet. I would love to join the read along if I won the book.
We would love to have you join us. Even if you don’t win, you could possibly get them at the library. I get ebooks, or digital audiobooks from the library pretty much every day. I am, in fact, reading this series with books from the library.
Yes I’ve read and re-read the series several times! I’d love to have copies of my own! Thanks for the chance to win the starter kit!
Thanks so much for joining and sharing your review! There will be prizes all along the way in the Read-along.