Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Visions of Heat

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Visions of Heat by Nalini Singh

9 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.

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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

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vivivi's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

3.5

It's okay. It's sort of similar to the first book where Sasha had to use herself as bait to identify the killer... Faith had to do the same thing. I like the hints that there's more to her father than they know. That's cool.

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rakizaka's review

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medium-paced

2.0

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sunnysky's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective medium-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? It's complicated

4.25

I couldn’t get into the pairing at first- they were so different and had no chemistry (especially Vaughn).

But by the end I liked them together, and I gotta give the author props for that.

Also I love Psychics. I loved Faith as a character and the development of the F-Psi lore.

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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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ruthiedr89's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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adoras's review

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emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

I really enjoyed the first book in the series, but this one was, for the most part, a massive disappointment. My first problem is that it uses a lot of the same elements as the first romance: a possessive Changeling man and a repressed, more naive Psy woman. Because we'd already been over a lot of these concepts and seen the great initial worldbuilding, a lot of this feels like a pale imitation. But many of the things that did feel different about their dynamic made me really uncomfortable. Vaughn is incredibly aggressive and possessive and one of his traits is that he's more "animal" than the other shifters, while Faith, as an F-Psy who can predict the future, is more "delicate"--she's been sequestered for most of her life, and touch can make her spiral and is (at first) incredibly physically and emotionally uncomfortable for her.

Because of these elements to their characters, a lot of their interactions involve Vaughn ignoring her boundaries. And yes, to an extent there's a good plot reason: Faith has to be able to live in the world and accept stimuli. But the extent to which it happens, and the way it's mingled with Vaughn giving in to his attraction to her, is really gross to me.

Some quotes that I highlighted because they made me uncomfortable (and these aren't all of them):

Faith shifted a subtle inch. Vaughn knew she was attempting to increase the distance separating them, but he didn't want that. He moved with her and felt her spine stiffen.
She didn't react in any obvious way, but he could feel her tension. Good. He wanted her disturbed—that damn shell she had around herself irritated the hell out of him.
He hadn't touched her again after she'd threatened to leave midway through the meal, but she knew the promise had ended the minute they'd finished breakfast. If she exited this room, he'd start pushing her again.
The cat wanted to play, but the male knew when to demand and when to let be.
"What are you doing in my bed?" she asked, too surprised to suppress the question. "I just wanted to know if I could do it."
'Careful, Faith.' It was a soundless whisper. 'He won't stop when you tell him to.'
...but the cat lived by instinct and it said Faith was his to take.
Faith NightStar was about to be hunted. He had no intention of harming her and every intention of breaking down the sensual walls that separated them. By the time he finished, Faith would be enslaved by her body's hunger, the woman core of her screaming out for him. It would take patience, but Vaughn was used to stalking prey without break for hours, days... weeks.
This aroused, he had trouble controlling the beast. It was something Faith was going to have to deal with, but not today.
"How would you like it if I thought of you as you're thinking of me and my body?" He grinned. "You know how I'd like it."
Encouraged, he continued with his erotic fantasies, playing with a woman he'd decided was his. Faith might not agree, but Vaughn had never lost marked prey.

Another element of the plot is that Vaughn could lose control and hurt Faith during sex/foreplay. Even though he's terrified of hurting her and doesn't end up doing so, I really don't like that as a conflict/theme. It plays into this idea that men don't want to hurt women, but sometimes it just happens. We're also given to understand that he needs to have sex with her without waiting too long because she's his mate. While I understand that Changelings need touch, the focus on him needing to have sex also plays into harmful ideas about men and women. (To be fair, at a later point he does tell her that he won't die from blue balls, and that if he's going "cat", she should leave the situation and not worry about him.)

The last third of the book really picked up. One thing that I liked about Faith and Vaughn's romance is that they completed their mating bond a little earlier than Sascha and Duncan. It was nice to see them together as a slightly more settled couple, and I actually really enjoyed them after that point. What we did get of the politics and further worldbuilding is really good; I loved learning about the NightStar family, seeing more of the Council, and especially the NetMind. I will be continuing this series because I've heard that the third book is one of the best, and that it switches up the dynamic from a male Changeling and female Psy.

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joinreallife's review against another edition

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2.0

Reread March 2021: Oh boy, I hated this even more the second time around. I do not think it has aged well. And as much as I've changed in the last five years and grown as a person, the only thing that amused me during this read was the notes Five Years Ago Jordan made, which were EXACTLY the issues I had this time around.

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