Kiss of Snow - Nalini Singh

Since the moment of her defection from the PsyNet and into the SnowDancer wolf pack, Sienna Lauren has had one weakness. Hawke. Alpha and dangerous, he compels her to madness.

Hawke is used to walking alone, having lost the woman who would’ve been his mate long ago. But Sienna fascinates the primal heart of him, even as he tells himself she is far too young to handle the wild fury of the wolf.

Then Sienna changes the rules and suddenly, there is no more distance, only the most intimate of battles between two people who were never meant to meet. Yet as they strip away each other’s secrets in a storm of raw emotion, they must also ready themselves for a far more vicious fight…

A deadly enemy is out to destroy SnowDancer, striking at everything they hold dear, but it is Sienna’s darkest secret that may yet savage the pack that is her home…and the alpha who is its heartbeat…

As most of the Psy/Changeling series' fans out there I have been waiting for Hawke's story for a while now. From the beginning that there were hints that Sienna would be his match, for a while I wondered if Nalini Singh would surprise us with another heroine but I guess too many people were asking for these two to end up together.

Sienna is a Psy, she defected with her family and they are now fully integrated in the SnowDancer pack. From the beginning that she has felt a strong pull towards Hawke but he has kept her at arms length because, after his intended mate died as a child, he doesn't believe he can mate with, and thus make happy, someone else. It's not that he doesn't feel the some pull towards her, just that he doesn't want to give in to it.

In all the other books, whenever their relationship is mentioned, Hawke is the one with the power. He is the SnowDancer alpha after all and he orders Sienna around as he orders everyone else. I was very happy to realise that in their own book Sienna is given as much power as Hawke. She comes across as a strong, determined heroine. Capable of making her own choices, fighting her own wars and leading Hawke to realise that he doesn't want to let her go. Not only that but she seems to have many of his pack on her side!

The fact that they were so well matched made me enjoy the story all the more. I really liked how we get to know bits and pieces of both their pasts, how that shaped what they are and how they feel, how that affects their relationship. The SnowDancer pack is under attack from the Psy's for most of the book and that the final showdown between wolves and Psys really brings out Sienna's powers. I especially liked all that info about the X-Psys and I can't wait to see where Singh is taking the Pure Psy's/ Ghost storyline, if Nikita Duncan is as bad as we've been lead to believe so far and if the Shoshanna/Henry Scott duo will be as evil as they are planning to be. I really want to know WHO IS THE GHOST??

There were just a couple of things that prevented me from giving this one 5 stars. First we are constantly reminded of the age gap between them. Yes, there was an age gap but after reading about that 2 or 3 times I get the idea. Besides Sienna has been gone through so much, which is explained throughout the story, that she is not your average 19 year old. She is powerful, resilient and should be treated as any other adult. Then we have the fact that after they sorted every out and decided to be with each other the story starts to drag and it seems it took them a long time to finally come together. I can see how they have a lot of things to deals with but that really weakened the tension between them.

Despite that, it was a really nice story, especially when you add to it the bits we have about the DarkRiver alpha and his mate (still my favourite couple in the series) and the secondary love story of Walker Lauren.

Grade: 4/5