A trio review of Angel's Blood by Nalini Singh has gone up over at Breezing Through.

Once again all the opinions were different with ratings of A, B and C.
Check it out.

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux knows she's the best—but she doesn't know if she's good enough for this job. Hired by the dangerously beautiful Archangel Raphael, a being so lethal that no mortal wants his attention, only one thing is clear—failure is not an option...even if the task is impossible.

Because this time, it's not a wayward vamp she has to track. It's an archangel gone bad.

The job will put Elena in the midst of a killing spree like no other…and pull her to the razor's edge of passion. Even if the hunt doesn't destroy her, succumbing to Raphael's seductive touch just may. For when archangels play, mortals break…

Caressed by ice by Nalini Singh

Published by Berkley Sensation

Why I read this book: This is a fantastic series! I had to read book 3.

As an Arrow, an elite soldier in the Psy Council ranks, Judd Lauren was forced to do terrible things in the name of his people. Now a defector, his dark abilities have made him the most deadly of assassins—cold, pitiless, unfeeling. Until he meets Brenna… Brenna Shane Kincaid was an innocent before she was abducted—and had her mind violated—by a serial killer. Her sense of evil runs so deep, she fears she could become a killer herself. Then the first dead body is found, victim of a familiar madness. Judd is her only hope, yet her sensual changeling side rebels against the inhuman chill of his personality, even as desire explodes between them. Shocking and raw, their passion is a danger that threatens not only their hearts, but their very lives…

Judd Lauren, who is the hero of this story, is an Arrow Psy who we saw in both the previous book of this series. Caressed by ice is the perfect title for this book, he really is an Ice Man.
Brenna, the Wolf Changeling who was kidnapped and tortured in book one, is the Heroine. She is determined to melt Judd, no matter the cost.

In case you have not read the other books, Psy men and women are part of 'Silence'. From an early age they are conditioned not the feel. No happiness, anger, fear, lust, love, etc.

In the Spy-net, Judd was an Elite Arrow Spy. An assassin for the Psy Council, so his conditioning was different than it was for regular Psy. As a child he was abused as part of his training. When Judd starts to feel any type of emotion, something called 'dissonance', kicks in. The higher the intensity of emotion, the more pain he feels. Eventually, it gets so bad that he loss control and could kill someone. In fact, he did once accidentally kill someone because of it.

Judd wants Brenna. Badly. However, he can't risk killing her in the heat of passion. He also refuses to let her be with anyone else. He knows that she needs touch, but to touch her the way he wants to touch her, and the way she needs to be touched is an obstacle that they need to find a way to get over.

As much as I enjoy this Psy/Changeling series, I have to give Caressed by ice a C+. Unfortunately I ended up skimming one part, and totally skipped over all the council POV's.

Judd was a problem for me. As sexy as he sounds, I didn't connect with him at all.

This is a quote from the book...

"As far as the rest of the den was concerned, he was still the man of ice. They couldn't understand how she mated with him. But he earned his stripes as far as being Pack went, so they shrugged and accepted the pairing."

I feel the exact same way as the den. Even though I read the story and know Judd's POV, I still don't feel anything for him. I can't figure out what Brenna sees in him.

My feelings remind me of Lora Leigh's Breed books. As a whole I love the series, but I enjoy the books that have the Hero as the Breed a lot more than I do having the Heroine as the Breed.

I think with this series, I enjoy a Changeling Hero much better. Vaughn, from the second book is still so fresh in my mind and he was such a perfect Hero. Judd didn't come even close to measuring up to him.

I still recommend this series, and I will repeat myself from an earlier review and say that you have to read the books in order.

They are,

Slave to sensation

and

Visions of heat

Visions of heat by Nalini Singh
Published by Berkley

Why I read this: It's the second part of the Psy/changelings books, and I adored the first in the series.

Used to cold silence, Faith NightStar is suddenly being tormented by dark visions of blood and murder. A bad sign for anyone, but worse for Faith, an F-Psy with the highly sought after ability to predict the future. Then the visions show her something even more dangerous-aching need...exquisite pleasure. But so powerful is her sight, so fragile the state of her mind, that the very emotions she yearns to embrace could be the end of her. Changeling Vaughn D'Angelo can take either man or jaguar form, but it is his animal side that is overwhelmingly drawn to Faith. The jaguar's instinct is to claim this woman it finds so utterly fascinating and the man has no argument. But while Vaughn craves sensation and hungers to pleasure Faith in every way, desire is a danger that could snap the last threads of her sanity. And there are Psy who need Faith's sight for their own purposes. They must keep her silenced-and keep her from Vaughn...

Faith Nightstar is a Psy who predicts the future. She is kept secluded because anything can trigger a prediction and keeping her in a controlled environment seems to be the best way to handle things. So she as been told.

Faith starts to have visions of pleasure, and she thinks that she is going crazy, as nearly all Psy with her powers end up nuts. Also, Psy don't feel. Ever. So, her predictions must be wrong.

Vaughn is a sentinel for Alpha Lucas, who we met in Slave to sensation. He is rather guarded and hard. Something, or someone, as it turns out, is making him feel like he needs to keep an eye on the Psy compound. HE has no idea why until one night when he catches Faith sneaking out and he follows her into Lucas' Changeling territory. Even though he does not trust her right off the bat, he feel protective of her. Faith asks for help from the Pack Alpha and once that help is granted, Vaughn takes on the task of keeping her safe, and he soon recognizes Faith as his mate.

Faith fights her attraction for Vaughn but once it becomes clear that it is only he who can bring her back from her darkest predictions, she learns to lean on him for support.

I went into this book with very high expectations, and they have been filled. I'm giving Visions of heat an A-. This book felt good to read. It had action with Vaughn fighting and going all alpha male to protect his mate. It has mystery in trying to find a killer that Faith was having visions of, but most of all, it had true romance.
I also liked seeing all the players from the first Psy/Changeling book.

It's best to read this series in order as there many come-back characters.
Slave to sensation

Slave to sensation by Nalini Singh

Published by Berkley

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 co-existence, 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…

This is a series that I was hesitant to start. It's very popular among bloggers, and I have yet to see anything bad said about any of the books. I have a bad track record when it comes to these kind of books. The uber popular hyped up books tend to not be my cup of tea. I usually end up disappointed and a little bit mad that I let myself get sucked into something that wasn't as good as promised by so many.

I read Slave to sensation and I loved it.

Sascha lives in a world where babies and children in her race are conditioned to not have emotions. They are taught to feel no happiness, anger, guilt, sadness, love or anything else. The Psy leaders decided to go ahead and do that to their young in order to stop members of their race from killing others.

Occasionally the conditioning, or Silence, as they call it, does not work properly, so the Psy who feels anything or acts on emotion is taken into rehabilitation, where their minds are turned to mush.

Sascha is struggling with herself because she she has never felt like a 'normal' Psy. She knows that she is 'broken' and she hides it as best as she can. It gets harder and harder to do that because her mother is a powerful Psy who is a member of the council, and she would not think twice about turning in her daughter.

Lucas is the Alpha pack leader of the Panthers. Several female changelings have been kidnapped and murdered an he knows that the killer is a Psy. He goes into a business venture with Sascha and her mother in hopes of getting some insider information about the Psy who is killing the females.

It doesn't take long for Lucas fall for Sascha. He recognizes her as his mate, but she denies her feelings for him. As Psy she is not supposed to feel anything, but she knows that there is something happening to her.

As Lucas asks for her help in finding the killer, she spends more and more time with him. She tries to hide that she is starting to have feelings for him, but he and his pack wont let her pretend. They encourage to touch, love and feel.

I wont too much away, but Sascha is not a broken Psy. She is a special type of Spy that is rare and thought to have been extinct.

I am so happy that I read this book. Visions of heat (book 2) is in my TBR, and I wont wait long before reading it. Nalini Singh created an interesting world full of passion and intrigue. I found myself reading as fast as I could so that I would find out what happened next. Then I had to force myself to slow down as I did not want the story to end. Without hesitation an A+.