Reviews with content warning for Drug use - Visions of Heat

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Visions of Heat by Nalini Singh

3 reviews

alexlynx's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I was really invested in the story. The Psy and changeling lore was really interesting and the philosophical questions on the importance of emotions were fascinating.
But the relationships between the characters? Mhm. Difficult. It is made quite clear again and again that all characters in romantic relationships consent to the behaviour that their partners, specifically their changeling partners, portray. Yet consent is quite frankly a slippery slope in this book. A lot of the phrasing of thoughts, wants, wishes, etc. from the male mc are very worrying. And while the female mc's thoughts voice consent, some of it is given because she knows he needs it. Which is..a little uncomfortable.
I still had fun following the plot but you can bet that I wanted to punish several characters multiple times.

Content Warnings

rbradley923's review

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emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Content Warnings

just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

What did I tell you? The “I need a paranormal romance series to binge” bug has bitten me. I started this one basically immediately after finishing Slave to Sensation and here I am, like 24 hours late, already done. Now granted, I did have some plane travel hours in there, so the reading time was higher than normal (as a percentage of my “hours in the day” as compared to regular life), but still. I called it. And here we are.

In this second installation of the Psy-Changeling paranormal romance series, we get the mating of Vaughn D’Angelo and Faith NightStar. Vaughn is a sentinel in the DarkRiver Pack of which our previous male MC (Lucas Hunter) is alpha. However, Vaughn is not a leopard, but rather a jaguar, adopted by the Pack after almost going feral to survive being abandoned by his parents as a child. So his animal side is much closer to the surface than many of the other changelings. Faith is a powerful F-Psy, meaning she has visions of the future (very beneficial for Psy business interests). She’s been kept basically in isolation since she was a child “for her own protection.” But Faith is feeling the cracks in her emotionless façade and when she seeks out the DarkRiver Pack to try and speak to Sascha about it, her interactions with Vaughn are hot and heavy from the start. But though they may have a connection that will overcome her Psy emotionlessness, that doesn’t mean the Psy are ready to lose such a major asset, so soon after Sascha, without a fight.

Well, the “this is pretty much what you expect it to be” review from the first book in this series could, potentially, be copy and pasted here. So may of the aspects remained the same. Which, I realize, could be taken in a negative way. But I’m here to tell you that the part of me that was so ready for this binge is very happy with that. I want exactly what this series is giving. It’s such a low stakes and highly entertaining reading experience.

There was definitely a different kind of sexual heat in this one, with the tension and build-up being the primary “steam” factors, since due to Faith’s intense touch sensitivity, she has to slow roll that part. And the “alpha male” vibe was, if anything, stronger here. But also, for all that, maybe healthier? Because Faith needed so much time/space, and Vaughn was deeply careful for his part, there was an interesting dichotomy in his extreme animal-ness and the intensity with which he held back. That gave this story a little something different. And while the “you have to choose: changeling mate or Psy loyalty” aspect was the same too, because of the “future visions” piece (and the related mental health scare involved) there was a unique tension as well. Again, it made it different enough, while still holding to the original formula. Past that, there was a bit more expansion as far as world-building, which I did enjoy, since, as I mentioned in the review for Slave to Sensation, there was some really cool psychic/mental power sci-fi type details. And the way this one developed gave some great, but not overbearing, foreshadowing for future plotlines and Psy-changeling relations on a larger level, which holds promise for the future books in the series to stay fresh.

I flew through this second book, because now that I’m more familiar with the world, the page-turning is happening even faster – the details build on the structure I’m already comfortable with. I like Faith and Vaughn together more than Sascha and Lucas, I think, (though I was excited with how involved in the story those two remained – I’m glad we aren’t fully leaving behind each couple as we move onto future main characters in the romances), but I also feel like their story is not going to stick out as far as details, more an overall vibe of liking them better as a pairing. This second one stood up/added to the first well, for me, and I’m already getting started on book three!

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