The Society by Lilith Saintcrow

So...finished this last night. I really enjoy Lilith's books, mainly because I love her storylines. Well, and her writing. *g* I enjoyed The Society, but not quite as much as I did Dark Watcher and Storm Watcher. Not to say it was bad, because it's not, but it works at a slower pace than the others. There's more buildup to this one. Eh, before I talk more, maybe you'd all like a synopsis. Here's the book description from ImaJinn Books:

The black-ops government agency called Sigma broke Justin Delgado, trained his psionic talent and turned him into a killer. Then he escaped and joined the Society, an underground resistance movement of psions determined to use their talents to bring Sigma down. Competent, cold, and cruelly efficient, he's the best operative the Society has, a legend among the psions who fight a shadow war against an enemy that owns the courts, the press, and the police. Feared even by his own teammates, hunted by the government, and too damaged to feel anything but clinical rage, he is utterly alone—until he meets Rowan. When Rowan Price stumbles across Delgado’s team in an abandoned house, he is assigned to make contact with her, bring her in, and keep her alive—because Rowan is one of the most powerful psychics the resistance has ever encountered. She possesses a talent that can heal shattered minds and broken bodies, or it can incite riots and revolution. If the government gets its hands on her, she could very well mean the downfall of the resistance, because nobody, not even Rowan, is quite sure how far her talents extend or how powerful she could eventually become. Twenty-four hours after she meets Delgado, her life is shattered and she's on the run from Sigma. If Sigma can't take her freedom, they'll settle for her life. She is simply too powerful to be left alone.

The Society will welcome Rowan, if she can stay alive long enough to join them. Unfortunately, there's a traitor buried in the ranks of the resistance, ready to betray everything the Society has worked so hard to achieve. If the Society goes down, Rowan is at risk. God alone knows what Delgado will do to keep her safe, because Rowan is fast becoming the only thing in the world he cares about…

The book starts out fairly fast, with Rowan coming across Delgado at an abandoned house and running from him once he tells her he's a paranormal investigator. She's always thought of herself as a freak and anything paranormal, well, freaks her out. Unfortunately for her, she's also one of the most powerful psions that Delgado and the people he works for have ever encountered. They realize that Sigma (a government black ops group bent on controlling all the psions for their own use) won't be far behind. Delgado is charged with getting her, but before he can get her to trust him and go with him on her own, Sigma attacks her house, kills those she loves, and it's only because Delgado was there that she escapes.

It takes them a few weeks to get to The Society HQ, but the time is compressed as we get it from Rowan's POV and she's sedated for most of it. Once at HQ, we learn more about what Rowan can do and more about her, Delgado, The Society, and other secondary characters. It's all interesting and keeps the pages turning, but the pacing seems a bit off. I'm not sure why yet. I think perhaps it's that I didn't feel that I was in Del's head as much as I would have wished. Or Rowan's head, for that matter, when it came to how she felt about him. I know how she starts to come to terms with what she is, but the relationship with Del wasn't as developed as I would have liked. The moment she seduces him gave me a "huh" moment as it seemed to come out of the blue and I don't recall her ever thinking about him like that before. I did like that after they sleep together, they're still at odds with how they feel about each other.

The ending with the traitor seemed to happen too near the end, and it was a little too obvious who it was for my liking. There was never anyone else who it could be, and that was kinda disappointing. I like to wonder who the traitor will be.

The ending also sets up the next book and this seems to be a series with recurring characters. Del and Rowan's relationship is by no means finished, and the ending is pretty surprising.

Despite the problems I had with it, I enjoyed reading it a lot and I liked the world the author has created here. I look forward to learning more about Del and Rowan and the rest of the cast in the next books and suspect they will be of a faster pace since there isn't as much setup to get through. I think if the blurb intrigues you, you'd like the book. Just keep in mind that it's definitely the first book in a series and ends on a cliff-hanger.