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A review by jackiehorne
Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh
3.0
Was expecting to enjoy this one more than I did, thinking that the switch in the gender/race combinations from the previous two books would lead to interesting gender exploration. I found the portrayal of the hero, Judd, intriguing, because even though he's a member of the Psy race, committed to the suppression of emotion, it turns out that he's not that unemotional at all; he's accepted Silence because his emotions are TOO STRONG. If he allowed any emotion to break free, he would be OVER-THE-TOP emotional, to the point of his feelings causing him to kill others. But his task—to learn how to control some emotions, while experiencing others—seems to take little effort at all, which felt rather anticlimactic.
The heroine, Brenna, n changeling who experiences emotion, has the additional complication of having been recently kidnapped, physically tortured, and "mind raped" (see book #1). Her plight—to convince her family and her pack that she doesn't need coddling, despite her trauma—sounds interesting in the abstract, but the way it plays out on the page, she comes across as just an annoying whiner. Her instant attraction to the cold Psy feels especially icky, given her recent trauma.
I did appreciate that Judd backs up Brenna, insisting she has the right to be respected and given her space. And that in the end she kicks the current book villain's butt without Judd's help. Beyond this one act, though, Brenna does very little to prove that she's not just a damsel in distress, and it's difficult not to feel that the female empowerment message is only skin deep (for example, after the climactic fight, when Judd says "You didn't need my help," Brenna undermines her own ability by telling him, "I knew you'd come. That's why I fought so hard. I knew that by the time I got tired, you'd be there" [320]).
Also continue to be disappointed with the lack of tension surrounding the villain, as in the previous books; the author seems far more focused on setting up the big villain for later books than in making us wonder/guess/feel surprised by the villain in this one.
The heroine, Brenna, n changeling who experiences emotion, has the additional complication of having been recently kidnapped, physically tortured, and "mind raped" (see book #1). Her plight—to convince her family and her pack that she doesn't need coddling, despite her trauma—sounds interesting in the abstract, but the way it plays out on the page, she comes across as just an annoying whiner. Her instant attraction to the cold Psy feels especially icky, given her recent trauma.
I did appreciate that Judd backs up Brenna, insisting she has the right to be respected and given her space. And that in the end she kicks the current book villain's butt without Judd's help. Beyond this one act, though, Brenna does very little to prove that she's not just a damsel in distress, and it's difficult not to feel that the female empowerment message is only skin deep (for example, after the climactic fight, when Judd says "You didn't need my help," Brenna undermines her own ability by telling him, "I knew you'd come. That's why I fought so hard. I knew that by the time I got tired, you'd be there" [320]).
Also continue to be disappointed with the lack of tension surrounding the villain, as in the previous books; the author seems far more focused on setting up the big villain for later books than in making us wonder/guess/feel surprised by the villain in this one.