Title: Kiss of Snow
Author: Nalini Singh
Series: Psy-Changeling #10, Psy-Changeling Season One #10
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Dark fantasy, Paranormal romance, Shapeshifters
Pace: Fast
Format: Novel
Publisher: Gollancz
Year: 2011
5th sentence, 74th page: Warm and curvy and muscled in a supple feminine way, she’d surprised him with the softness of her.

Since the moment of their defection from the Psynet and into the SnowDancer wolf pack, Sienna Lauren has had one weakness. Hawke. A dangerous Alpha, the response he draws from her could almost compel her to madness.

Hawke is used to walking alone, having lost the woman who would’ve been his mate. But Sienna fascinates the primal heart of him, even as he tells himself she is far too young to handle the wild fury of the wolf.

Then Sienna changes the rules and, suddenly, there is no more distance, only the most intimate of battles between two people who were never meant to meet. Yet as they strip away each other’s secrets in a storm of raw emotion, they must also ready themselves for a far more vicious fight.

A deadly enemy is out to destroy the SnowDancer pack, striking at everything they hold dear, but it is Sienna’s darkest secret that may yet savage the pack that is her home… and the alpha who is its heartbeat…

I have been waiting and waiting for the story of Sienna and Hawke since first meeting Hawke in Slave to Sensation. The slow filtering of information about their mutual attraction throughout the past nine books, just increased my need, no, my desire to find out how their story progressed. Add to that the fact that Kiss of Snow has the first real incursion by the Psy into SnowDancer territory, and this whole book was absolutely impossible to put down.

Sienna’s immense power and abilities have been hinted at throughout the stories, but the actual meaning of the X designation and the danger of this are finally explained beautifully. This, combined with Sienna’s power and the true reason behind the Laurens’ flight from the PsyNet illustrated a beautiful young woman who is beginning to grow into her powers. It is this ability and sense of growing that not only finally brings her story to the limelight, but also makes Hawke acknowledge what everyone else has long known – that the two highly volatile characters are made for each other.

Unlike the other Psy-Changeling stories, there were two tales of romance and mating throughout Kiss of Snow. Walker and Lara were a completely unexpected match, but one that somehow made complete and total sense. Their caring natures and unquenchable desire to nurture the young not only balances out the vivid fire and aggression of Sienna and Hawke’s romance, but also the costs that the beginnings of war have upon the Pack.

<- Declaration of Courtship

Texture of Intimacy ->

Image source: Goodreads