Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Mine to Possess by Nalini Singh

8 reviews

anka_al's review

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Child death, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse and Torture

rbradley923's review

dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Blood

Moderate: Physical abuse, Child death, Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Gore, Domestic abuse, and Death

Minor: Gun violence, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug use, Rape, and Torture

vivivi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I am a sucker for the "childhood friends turned lovers" trope. Let me just start with that. Talin and Clay are super cute together!

This one pulls at the heartstrings, is full of history, misunderstandings, betrayals, and hurt feelings. But it's also interspersed with the characters' strong loving feelings for each other, which balances it out, making the hurt feelings bearable for me. It is not always the case for me with Nalini Singh (one of the Rock Kiss books comes to mind), but in this one, it's sweet, sweet torture. I love that we see the characters from the other books! They're very much still a part of the story. 

We also learn more about the Forgotten, which were only briefly mentioned in the previous book. One thing that I enjoy in this series is that everything is connected somehow, and will come up later if mentioned earlier. It's a great way to keep me reading the next book.

Also, as an aside since Storygraph has a section that asks if the characters are diverse... yes, they are, but you'd never know by the cover, which are almost always of white people. The actual characters are definitely not always white.... So it's verrrrry annoying when the covers don't reflect the actual characters' skin. Clay is supposed to be a "dark" man, by Tali's own description. He has very dark skin...the covers for this book though... Nope. Not even close.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, and Sexual violence

Minor: Death of parent

solacelight's review

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Child death, Grief, Misogyny, Sexism, and Vomit

Moderate: Child abuse, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

judythedreamer's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Body horror, Blood, Murder, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Chronic illness, Kidnapping, and Mental illness

Moderate: Self harm, Pedophilia, Child death, and Medical trauma

just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

 

And the fourth book is done. I'm really moving through these at a fast, steady pace. About 24 hours per book. (Though I had to add myself to a waitlist for the 5th one, which is really getting me down because it's messing with my unhealthy-amount-of-reading-time paranormal romance binge lifestyle. Plus, as I'm deep into this series now, my mood for reading anything else is less than normal...which sucks, though thankfully is not as bad as a full-on slump.) 

 

So in this fourth installment, we head back to the DarkRiver Pack and Clay Bennett, the sentinel whose darker side has been heavily hinted at, with a vision from Faith even suggesting that he'll soon be facing a crossroads that he may not come back from. When Talin McKade, a childhood friend that Clay committed a terrible act to defend, comes back into his life unexpectedly, all the memories of trying to "hide" his beast and the act of violence that separated himself and Talin for years (with lots of guilt, and fear, on both sides of that) resurface. But Talin needs Clay, and DarkRiver, to help her save the foster kids she works with from what has become a serial kidnapper/murderer. And Clay has never been able to say no to Talin (plus we all know how the Pack feels about protecting kids). So they'll have to face their past in order to save the youth, and their own futures. 

 

As with all the books so far, this one has a number of content warnings that need to be shared, particularly for child physical/sexual abuse and the long term emotional PTSD from that (and of course the "normal' violence and death that are apparently a hallmark of this series). This was an interesting relationship, between Clay and Talin, because it's the first that has some background (since they knew each other as children) and a lot of shared trauma they needed to sort through in order to move forward together in a, at least marginally, healthier way. Also, Talin is the first human that we have seen mate with a changeling. And I liked the way the differences between a Psy mate and a human mate were detailed, as well as the way certain things (the extreme overprotective male thing) stayed the same. However there were a few items, specific to Talin and the way Clay/the Pack reacted, that rubbed me the wrong way. First, she made a comment (that turned out to not be true) about liking girls and the intense step-back reaction from Dorian/Clay did not sit well. Also, when Talin reveals her sexual history, Clay's vehement anger about it, and the fact that there was even a question of forgiveness being necessary, considering the guilt Talin already had about it all, just....it was not what I wanted. And that sucks because while I know the rest of what I've read isn't exactly healthy, this is the first time something has felt super wrong to the point that I was jumped out of my "guilty pleasure" enjoyment of the series. Meh. 

 

As far as the other parts of the plot, we finally get some insight into the role humans play in this three-species world (clearly, a low rung as far as importance/power, but nevertheless they play a part). The kidnapping/murders of Talin's at-risk youth (though heartbreaking) open a door into the human organization Shine, which, by the end, gives some major info about the dark past secrets of the Psy and the origins of Silence (and what happened to dissenters), whereas to date we've only seen their present-tense evil. Plus, we saw a lot more about the movements within the PsyNet with the dissatisfaction of the populace, the machinations of the Council, and the status of the Protocol I hivemind project (both the proponents and those working to delay it). As far as that piece goes, it's clear the intra-Psy issues are increasing and something explosive is coming. What we learn at the end about Shine and Talin's (mostly) human mind, combined with all that, is really building the tension for what's coming. I also want to note that the previous character role reprisals were really solid in this book and it was really fun, as always, to see them all again. I do love that Singh consistently brings them back. 

 

As always, I'm ready to blast through the next installment whenever I can get my hands on it. Despite the issues I had with this romantic pairing/situation in this book, the forward movement of the greater story arc was pretty big. And I'm invested enough at this point that I need to know what happens. The foreshadowing of Dorian's story next has me anticipating further major plot movement; plus, I do love Dorian and I can't wait to get his romance! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Violence, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical content, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, and Grief

Moderate: Torture

ruthiedr89's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Torture

thereader's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, and Violence

Moderate: Chronic illness and Blood