Flashback Friday: Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh

Flashback Friday is a weekly tradition started on Bookshelf Fantasies. It's focus is on showcasing a book from at least 5 years ago that holds a special place in your heart and on your shelf.

The year was 2006. It was the year Suddam Hussein is found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death, while Barry Bonds breaks Babe Ruth's home run record. The 1 billionth song is purchased from Apple iTunes, Nintendo releases the Wii in North America and Google purchases YouTube. In entertainment Katie Curic anchors the CBS Evening News, The Departed took the Oscar for best picture and George Clooney was People's Sexiest Man Alive (for the second time). Meanwhile Rhianna, The Pussycat Dolls and T-Pain are all over the air waves.

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This book was originally published by Berkley Sensation in September of 2006. It has been reissued in many different languages around the world and even reissued in 2010 with a new paperback cover. I got my copy from Paperbackswap after listening to my sister go on and on about great the series was.

From the back of the book:

In 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…

Why do I like the book so much that it has earned a spot on my keeper shelf? First off, the world building was fantastic. Nalini Singh did an outstanding job of creating this alternate reality where Psy, Changlings and Humans all live in a strained and imbalanced world. The Psy think they are superior due to their capacity for intellectual endeavors, but practice a brutal policy of allowing no emotion into their lives, called Silence. Those who can't or won't maintain Silence are "rehabilitated" effectively turning them into human vegetables. Changlings are more physically strong and especially the predatory groups, tend to dominate in a particular city or region. However, for all their "bestial nature", they live in packs and care greatly for one another.   Human appear to be caught somewhere between the two groups.

The following is a passage that really expresses the differences that exists between the groups and highlight the dichotomy of the two protagonists of the book.

He was beginning to expect her in his dreams. When she touched his shoulder, he rolled away to look up at her. His intention had been to tell her that he had no heart to play with her tonight, but when he saw her, he stopped. Wearing what looked like old cotton pajamas, her hair in two simple braids, she appeared about sixteen.

That was when he realized that he was dressed in a pair of dark gray sweatpants identical to his favorite pair. "What's the matter, kitten?"

A kind of confused vulnerability swirled in her eyes. "I don't know." She wrapped her arms around herself.

Opening his own arms, he said, "Come here."

After a small hesitation, she laid her head down on his chest and stretched her legs out along his side. "I feel so... heavy." One fine-boned hand rested beside her head, palm-down on his skin.

"Me, too." The rock that sat on his heart would be gone by morning but its memory would linger.

Her hand stroked over his heartbeat. "Why are you sad?"

"Sometimes I remember that I can't always protect those I love." Under his fingers, her hair was soft and silky.

She didn't try to tell him that he wasn't God, that he couldn't protect everyone. He knew that. But knowing and believing were two different things. What she did say succeeded in stopping his heart. "I wish you'd love me."

"Why?"

"Because then maybe you could protect me, too." Haunting sorrow whispered through her tone.

"Why do you need protecting?" His male instincts were rising past the dark burden of memory.

She cuddled closer and he wrapped his arms tight. "Because I'm broken." Her hand kept smoothing over his heart and he could feel a melting warmth invade his body. "And the Psy don't allow broken creatures to live."

"You feel perfect to me."

No answer. Only that smoothing hand over his chest. With each stroke he felt more at peace. A different form of heaviness infiltrated his bones. It felt strangely as if he was going to sleep again. As darkness closed over him, her quiet statement circled his mind like an endless river.

Because I'm broken.

And the Psy don't allow broken creatures to live.



Sascha was waiting for him when he arrived at the office the next day. Troubled by the disquieting intensity of the dream, he tried to draw her into conversation but hit a brick wall. It was as if she'd retreated deep within herself, so deep that she'd almost ceased to exist.

"Are you all right?" He could feel the shadows around her, feel her... as if she were Pack.

"I'd like to suggest some alternatives to the materials you're planning to use," she said, instead of answering. "My research tells me this type of wood will weather better in the site environment." She slid across a sample and an accompanying inch-thick report.

Frustrated by her intransigence, he fingered the sample. "This stuff is cheaper."

"That doesn't mean it's no good. Please read the report."

"I will." He put it aside. "You look like hell, Sascha darling." No way was he going to let her push him away, not after last night. She was Psy and he'd been dreaming some pretty odd dreams. He could do the math.

Her hands tightened on her organizer before she got herself under control. "I've been having trouble sleeping."

Every instinct he had told him it was time to press hard. "Dreams keeping you awake?"

"I've told you, the Psy don't dream." She refused to meet his gaze.

"But you do, don't you, Sascha?" he said softly. "What does that make you?"

Her head jerked up and he glimpsed something very lost in her eyes in the second's window before her computerized security-blanket chimed. "Excuse me." She walked out of the room and he knew it was because of him, not the call. He'd finally reached her. If that call hadn't interrupted them...

"Damn it." His claws sliced out of his hands, an indication of just how much control he'd lost. Forcing them back in, he went to hunt down his elusive prey.

She was gone.

Ria, his administrative assistant, gave him the message. "Said she had to leave to take care of something but that she'd be back for the two o'clock with Zara."

Lucas took the message with an ill-hidden frown. "Thanks." His tone said otherwise.

"Sorry. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to let her go." Ria screwed up her pretty human face into a scowl. "You're supposed to warn me about things like that." Mated to a DarkRiver leopard for the past seven years, she had no problem talking her mind with Lucas.

"Don't worry about it. She'll be back." Where else could she go? If he was right about her, then her very uniqueness might get her rejected by her own people.

What worried him was that rather than calculating how he could use her weakness to further his own goals, he was concerned for her. The unexpected development was enough to disturb both man and beast - how had one of the enemy gained a slice of his loyalty?

This book, and the rest of the series, remain on my Keeper Shelf.  I don't know how many times I have gone back and reread passages. Watching the byplay between Sascha and Lucas, especially in the last half of the book, still has the power to make me giggle and sigh.

In 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…

Available at the following retailers:
Amazon     BN     Kobo     ARe     Paperbackswap