Psy-Changeling Read-Along: Mine to Possess (+Contest)

And here’s Mine to Possess! Aren’t you excited? Our first real look at some of the humans who make up the world Nalini Singh as so elegantly created.

Remember we’re assuming you’ve read up to Mine to Possess so there will be spoilers. But please no spoilers for any books beyond this one.

-Casey and Courtney

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 losing 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 is stalking her life–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, his hunger to possess her, 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.

Here are the past discussions!

World/Society:

Mine to Possess is the first book in the Psy-Changeling series that shows us the human side of the world. The humans are definitely the underdogs; the Psy look down on them because humans don’t have any mental abilities. The Changelings are friendly, yet no one can forget that the Changelings are much more powerful than humans could ever be. Despite that, the humans have carved out their own niche in the world. They try to stay away from the Psy, whenever possible. They work with the Changelings, doing business and passing along any information on the Psy that they can gather.

Main Characters:

Clay – A sentinel in DarkRiver, Clay’s leopard has always been a bit closer to the surface than the others. Clay has been haunted recently by the girl in his past who he believes is dead. And then he sees her and realizes that he was lied to years ago. Now she’s back and she needs his help.

“Tally was scared of him. She might as well have taken a knife to his heart.”

Clay joins up with Talin and they realize that the company she works for (Shine) isn’t quite what it seems. And it looks like that’s how the children are being targeted. And they realize it’s the Psy who are kidnapping and killing the Shine children.

“I need someone dangerous enough to take on a monster.” – Talin to Clay

And through all of this Clay must figure out what Talin is hiding from him because now that he has her back he has no intentions of letting her go.

Talin – She hasn’t seen Clay in years but now she needs his help to find one of her ‘kids’ that she helped get off the street. The problem is that Talin is terrified of Clay because of something that happened in their shared past.

“If Clay hadn’t changed, if he had grown worse…”

But if she wants to save her ‘kid alive’ she has no choice. Talin is also keeping something from Clay. Something that would make him hate her. But he agrees to help her and then Talin realizes someone knows she’s looking for answers and she’s the target now.

“Yes, Tally was his. His to protect. His to possess.”

After Talin joins up with Clay they realize it is the Psy taking the children. They pull in all the help they can get (even from The Ghost!) and mount a rescue mission. But there is someone on the inside who is not happy with these children being taken and helps out.

Changeling Characters:

Teijan – Rat Alpha. One of only three of the rat changelings that did not go rogue. He actually hunted down his former lover when she did go rogue. He is in charge of the Rats…human and changeling alike. He runs the underground spy network that all the Rats are a part of.

Psy Characters:

Ekaterina – A Psy rebel, part of the resistance. Her mind is slowly deteriorating. She assists Ashaya free Jon and Noor.

Marshal Hyde – Assassinated by the Ghost.

Anthony Kyriakus – Replaces Marshal Hyde on the PsyCouncil

Human Characters:

Max Shannon – A human detective who is also searching for the missing kids and their killer. He has a natural mental shield against the Psy.

Forgotten:

Jonquil Duchslaya (Jon) – 14 years old. One of Talin’s kids, he is an ex-gangmember. He was kidnapped by Larsen and tortured. He cooperated so that Noor would be spared. He’s ‘power’ is a hypnotic voice that can usually convince most people to do whatever he wants them to do. He now lives with Talin and Clay.

Noor Hansen – A young girl kidnapped by Larsen for his experiments. She was spared most if not all the torture because Jon cooperated to save her. Her power is unknown. She now lives with Talin and Clay.

“Her eyes met his. Big, brown, filled with excruciating fear and—at seeing him—a desperate flash of hope.” – Noor on first seeing Jon

Devraj Santos – Director of Shine and default leader of the Forgotten. He is as determined as Talin to stop the Forgotten children from being taken and killed.

Subplots:

The Forgotten are introduced along with the ShadowNet.

Ashaya has some unfinished business with Dorian.

The Ghost assassinates a Council member.

Hints for the Ghost:

So there are a few hints this go around.

The first is that even though the Ghost claims not to care about what’s going on in the world outside of the PsyNet he still passes information along about the human (Forgotten) children being kidnapped.

Another is that he managed to get into Marshall Hyde’s house to plant a bomb. So could he be a teleporter? Or is he well known enough to not raise any flags when there?

And finally he is known to a certain degree. At the time of the bombing he made sure he was in public with a minor official for an alibi.

The Ghost just keeps getting more and more intriguing.

Glossary of Terms

Vocabulary from the previous novels can be found on their discussion pages:

• Slave to Sensation is now posted here.
• Visions of Heat is now posted here.
• Caressed of Ice is now posted here.
• Wild Invitation is now posted here.
• Mine to Possess is now posted here.

The Forgotten – The ancestors of the Psy who chose to drop out of the PsyNet instead of joining Silence. The Forgotten have interbred with humans and changelings and as a result have new powers instead of the standard Psy powers. THe Forgotten where forced to scatter when the Council went on the attack. As a result there are many people who have a heavy Psy ancestry and do not know it.

Shine – On the surface a corporation that helps street kids leave their old life behind. In reality, Shine is trying to reconnect with all the Descendants of the Psy who left the PsyNet (The Forgotten).

ShadowNet – Created by the Psy who dropped out of the PsyNet instead of joining Silence. The ShadowNet was not a sure thing and many of the defectors believed they would die as soon as they disconnected. It is not believed that the ShadowNet can allow any pure Psy to join since it has changed so much since it was formed.

Rat Pack – A group of mostly humans and three rat changelings who live under San Francisco. They run a spy network of sorts and help DarkRiver when asked.

Discussion

So what do you think about our first Human/Changeling pairing?
What about Talin specifically?
Did you like Clay’s backstory?
And what about the Forgotten? Like/Dislike?
Do you like how this book ended with the setup for the next book already a given?

Wild Invitation and Mine to Possess Giveaway Winners

Last week we gave away a copy of Mine to Possess to anyone who answered the question Which secondary character do you want to see next? Everyone had some really fabulous ideas, and the winner is:

Andrew G who said “I would love to read more about Jem and Kenji. They should have their story told.“

The week before that we had a shiny new copy of Wild Invitation to give away to anyone who answered the question This is the first time we’ve seen the Ghost, without knowing anything more, who do you think he is? Not necessarily his name, but his role in the Psy Culture. Is he someone important, a former Arrow, or could he be a complete unknown that no one could have seen coming? Everyone had some really fabulous ideas, and the winner is:

Michelle K who said “I think the ghost is going to be someone we’d never expect- Nalini is tricky that way!“

Congratulations Andrew and Michelle! I’ve already sent an email, so if you haven’t gotten it, please check your spam folder.

Giveaway

Thanks to Nalini Singh and the wonderful people at Penguin, I have a couple of every single novel in the Psy-Changeling series, and while some of them have been claimed, all of them haven’t. So this is what we’re going to do – we’ll be giving away all the books in one shot at the end of the Read-Along. That means you have 13 different chances to enter for any one of the Psy-Changeling novels. Join in on any of the discussions and you’ll automatically be entered to win.

To enter, all you have to do is answer this one question: what do you think about our first Human/Changeling pairing?Don’t be afraid to answer any of the discussion questions above either!

The contest will stay open until July 1st, at which time we’ll determine the winners with help from this snazzy plug-in that Jackie has.