PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE PSY-CHANGELING SERIES AS TANGLE OF NEED IS THE ELEVENTH BOOK IN THAT SERIES.

Tangle of Need by Nalini Singh

Title: Tangle of Need (A Psy-Changeling Novel, 11)
Author: Nalini Singh
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Gollancz (7th June 2012)
Source: Local Library
Blurb:

Adria, a wolf changeling and resilient soldier, has made a break with the past. Now comes a new territory, and a devastating new complication: Riaz, a SnowDancer lieutenant already sworn to someone else.

For Riaz, the primal attraction he feels for Adria is a staggering betrayal. For Adria, his dangerous lone-wolf appeal is beyond sexual. It consumes her. It terrifies her. It threatens to undermine everything she has built of her new life. But fighting their wild compulsion towards one another proves a losing battle.

Their coming together is an inferno . . . and a melding of two wounded souls who promise each other no commitment, no ties, no bonds. Only pleasure. Too late, they realise they have more to lose than they ever imagined. Drawn into a cataclysmic Psy war that may alter the fate of the world itself, they must ame a decision that might just break them both.

Rating: *** (3 stars)
Review:

Tangle of Need is the eleventh book in the Psy-Changeling series by Nalini Singh (I cannot believe that there are eleven books, it doesn’t feel that many).  It tells the story of Adria and Riaz who are both part of the wolf pack SnowDancer. Neither have had an easy time, and have returned to the centre of the SnowDancer pack to try and move on. Singh helpfully provides a list of characters and their designations at the beginning of the book so that if you’ve forgotten at a glance you will know who the character is connected to.

Like the rest of the books in the Psy-Changeling series, there are multiple plot threads running through Tangle of Need. There is the main thread of the story which is Adria and Riaz’s story, but there are also threads that focus on Councilor Kaleb Krychek, Hawke and Sienna, the Healers and Alice, Councilor Ming, The Arrows, the bad guys, Mercy and Riley, and I am sure there are more that I missed. There is a LOT going on in Tangle of Need. That being said, I never got lost or confused in the narrative and followed what was going on in the story with ease. The one thing I did dislike about the numerous plot threads was that not all of them were wrapped up in this book. A lot of Tangle of Need seemed to be about setting up and foreshadowing what is going to happen in the next book. I found this both interesting and frustrating.

Adria and Riaz are not bad main characters. I found the plot thread which focused on them really interesting. I think they are the first couple in the series who haven’t been affected by the mating bond, so it was really interesting to watch their relationship unfold on the page. It was also interesting to see both of them struggle with the fact that they weren’t and probably never would be mates, and what it would mean for them and their relationship. It was an interesting contrast to the previous stories in the series, and I enjoyed the way that Singh resolved it.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a LOT going on in Tangle of Need. A LOT. Singh does a good job at building the tension throughout the narrative. War has been coming in the Psy-Changeling world for a while, and there have been hints (and more than hints) about this in previous books, but in Tangle of Need that war starts spilling out onto the page. Singh doesn’t just focuses on the impending battle, though it is a strong thread throughout the book. I also liked the fact that she provided updates on both Riley and Mercy’s relationship and Hawke and Sienna’s.

Tangle of Need is a great addition to the Psy-Changeling series. It adds another dimension to the relationship between the three races, and does a good job foreshadowing the next book. It would have been nice if more of the plot threads had been resolved by the end of the book, but I guess we’ll have to wait for book twelve for that.