Mine to Possess - Nalini Singh

Clay Bennett is a powerful DarkRiver sentinel, but he grew up in the slums with his human mother, never knowing his changeling father. As a young boy without the bonds of Pack, he tried to stifle his animal nature. He failed...and committed the most extreme act of violence, killing a man, and lost his best friend, Talin, in the bloody aftermath. Everything good in him died the day he was told that she, too, was dead.

Talin McKade barely survived a childhood drenched in bloodshed and terror. Now a new nightmare stalks her--the street children she works to protect are disappearing and turning up dead. Determined to keep them safe, she unlocks the darkest secret in her heart and returns to ask the help of the strongest man she knows...

Clay lost Talin once. He will not let her go again and hungers to possess her with a clawing need born of the leopard within. As they race to save the innocent Clay and Talin must face the violent truths of their past... or lose everything that ever mattered.

I wanted to start the last book in the Psy-Changeling series when I suddenly realised that I had missed this one. Since I had both of them I thought of reading this one first.

It's always good to revisit the Psy-Changeling universe. I like how we get to know more with each book without ever getting lost or confusing each species characteristics. Having said that, I must confess that this was my least favourite book in the series. Unlike the previous stories this one features a changeling hero and a human heroine.

Clay and Tallin were childhood friends. They were separated when Clay killed Tallin's foster father who had been abusing her and is sent to juvenile prison. While he is there he is informed that Tallin has died. This was not true, Tallin asked for Clay to be told that because she was mad he had abandoned her (he didn’t, he was sent to jail, but I guess an 8 year old may had some trouble with the difference). And now they meet again after 20 years (or close) because Tallin decides she needs Clay's help to save some problematic kids that have been kidnapped and murdered.

My first problem with the story was that I had some problems believing the characters reunion. I think Tallin had a lot of nerve asking Clay for help after making him believe for so many years that she was dead, and I think Clay should have been more mad about it and definitely take longer to accept her explanations and her request. Clay is a Dark River sentinel; he is close to going rogue when Tallin enters his life again. Tally who he knows to be his mate but who is dying from a strange disease.

Then I had a problem with the romance. I'm afraid I didn't like Tallin very much and I wasn't really convinced with how she dealt with her childhood abuse. The fact that one was human and the other changeling also didn't bring as much conflict to the story which I thought could have been a good thing. Instead Tallin fears Clay for something that happened in the past and he keeps hoping that she accepts his leopard and that's it, no real conflict and tension. I did not see them falling in love as much as I felt they just continued with the same feelings from childhood.

I did like the kidnapped children's plot. Since I already read the other books in the series I was happy to meet some people who will enter in the future books and especially I was happy to meet all the couples from the previous books. Singh is really good at writing past characters in the books without it being forced and it was great to see the world develop to a point where there's a better balance between the species.

Grade: 3/5