#ReadAlong Caressed By Ice #ParanormalRomance

This year I am participating in a Read-Along organized by Anne at Booksofmyheart.net. You can click here to read about the Read-Along and Giveaways. 

I've just finished reading the third book in the series and we will be having a group discussion about it on January 21st.  Books are even better when you get to talk about them with other people! 

And now here's my review of book #3, Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh. 

Writing a series of books is hard. Juggling characters and plots and settings has to be harder than hearing cats. Knowing this, I appreciate how well Nalini Singh has crafted the Psy-Changeling series.  As I read book three, I continue to see how the book's universe is slowly expanding. Characters that were just mentioned in book one or two are moving into prominent positions.  New details about how the Psy-Changeling world is continuously added like brush strokes of different shades of color to a landscape being painted.

Each book in the series so far, like many other romance series, focuses on a different couple. This book is the story of Judd and Brenna.  Unlike the first two books, Judd's conditioning to Silence protocol isn't failing. He has been out of the PsyNet and with the Changelings for months before things heat up between him and Brenna. The timing of this book in the Read-Along is perfect as in the book it is also winter so we read descriptions of snow in the mountains near Tahoe.  

This book deals with trauma, specifically the sexual trauma Brenna has experienced and slow imperfect healing from that trauma.  Even in this paranormal world, there aren't shortcuts and magical overnight healing for Brenna. Having started this journey into the Psy-Changeling world two books ago, by this book I think we as the readers are ready for Brenna's gut-wrenching struggles and are able to understand that this story will not have steamy sex scenes until Brenna is ready. 

We also learn more about the Psy-council who are the big bads of this series and about an unknown character "The Ghost" who is leading a nascent revolutionary group. I'm staying spoiler-free for this series so totally speculation on my part here when I say, I wonder if Ghost is Kaleb the new member of the council.  There are so many threads to pull on in this series, it's such a delight to read! 

How sad would that be!  I wonder if at some point some of the Psy characters we are learning to love will begin to sing? 

Thanks for reading! Happy Wednesday! Do something nice for yourself today!