A review by andye_reads
Minder by Kate Kaynak
4.0
Sixteen-year-old Maddie Dunn has special abilities, when her emotions get out of control, she has the power to hurt people with her mind. After a very traumatic incident, she is approached by a man who speaks to her in her mind, and claims he can help her control her gift and even make her more powerful. But she has to leave her life behind and go with him to Ganzfield. Ganzfield is a secret training facility full of people like her, people that have all kinds of abilities. But it's not exactly a nurturing place. The "Charms", with their ability to use the power of persuasion, have been reeking havok on the other students. Every social interaction carries the threat of mind-control. A stray thought from a "Spark" can burn a building to the ground. And people's nightmares don't always stay in their own heads. But it's still better than New Jersey--especially once she meets Trevor, the man of her dreams...
Kit's Review:
My mom actually got this ARC in the mail for review but she was reading some other books so I stole it :) I LOVED this book, and I know I say that a lot but I really, really mean it this time! It only took me 2 days to read and that's only because we went to DC all day on Thrus. (I SO could have finished it in 1 day) I loved how the conversations she had with people in their heads flowed so well with the normal conversations, it wasn't hard to follow at all. I did think it had some X-men-ish qualities but I still enjoyed it immensly (and honestly I thought it was better than X-men). The whole abilites/powers thing could have been really cheesy but the way she wrote it made me think it could actually happen. Now I'm just waiting for Dr. Williamson and Cecelia to show up at my house, charm my parents, and I'd go in a heartbeat! Absolutely flawless! Now I just have to figure out how I can get my hands on the second one... Maybe I'll have to settle for reading it again.
~Kit
Andye's Review:
I really enjoyed this book as well, but maybe not quite as much as Kit! :) I thought it was a great story, and I love X-Men, so that aspect was right up my alley. There were Charms (people who can make you do what they want by the power of suggestion), Sparks (people who can control fire), Healers (obvious), Minders (people who can read minds), and Telekinetics (people who can move objects with their mind). I love the idea behind this book, and I thought the storyline was really fun and exciting. Maddie was a fantastic character. She was strong and kind, and she wanted to use her ability to help improve the school and stand up to the Charms. Trevor was so sweet and good to Maddie, always putting her first. I love seeing a relationship that is built on unselfishness, and truely knowing each other for who they are, not just how they look.
The problems I had with Minder were pretty minor. I thought that the relationship between Maddie and Trevor was way too fast. I wish there had been a little more build up, because that's half the fun of a romance. They fell so quickly that the majority of the book they were just staring at each other thinking how in love they were. So, that made it a little slow in the middle for me. I also wasn't crazy about how much sex was talked about. Maddie can hear people's thoughts, and there were a LOT of sexual ones. I know that teenage boys think about sex a lot, but that's all Maddie seemed to "hear" in anyone's mind, and it seemed like there could've been a little more being thought about by the students than sex :)
Otherwise, I thought this was a really great book. It was a lot of fun to read, and I'm looking forward to seeing where the next books, Adversary(8/20) and Legacy (2011) take us!
Kit's Review:
My mom actually got this ARC in the mail for review but she was reading some other books so I stole it :) I LOVED this book, and I know I say that a lot but I really, really mean it this time! It only took me 2 days to read and that's only because we went to DC all day on Thrus. (I SO could have finished it in 1 day) I loved how the conversations she had with people in their heads flowed so well with the normal conversations, it wasn't hard to follow at all. I did think it had some X-men-ish qualities but I still enjoyed it immensly (and honestly I thought it was better than X-men). The whole abilites/powers thing could have been really cheesy but the way she wrote it made me think it could actually happen. Now I'm just waiting for Dr. Williamson and Cecelia to show up at my house, charm my parents, and I'd go in a heartbeat! Absolutely flawless! Now I just have to figure out how I can get my hands on the second one... Maybe I'll have to settle for reading it again.
~Kit
Andye's Review:
I really enjoyed this book as well, but maybe not quite as much as Kit! :) I thought it was a great story, and I love X-Men, so that aspect was right up my alley. There were Charms (people who can make you do what they want by the power of suggestion), Sparks (people who can control fire), Healers (obvious), Minders (people who can read minds), and Telekinetics (people who can move objects with their mind). I love the idea behind this book, and I thought the storyline was really fun and exciting. Maddie was a fantastic character. She was strong and kind, and she wanted to use her ability to help improve the school and stand up to the Charms. Trevor was so sweet and good to Maddie, always putting her first. I love seeing a relationship that is built on unselfishness, and truely knowing each other for who they are, not just how they look.
The problems I had with Minder were pretty minor. I thought that the relationship between Maddie and Trevor was way too fast. I wish there had been a little more build up, because that's half the fun of a romance. They fell so quickly that the majority of the book they were just staring at each other thinking how in love they were. So, that made it a little slow in the middle for me. I also wasn't crazy about how much sex was talked about. Maddie can hear people's thoughts, and there were a LOT of sexual ones. I know that teenage boys think about sex a lot, but that's all Maddie seemed to "hear" in anyone's mind, and it seemed like there could've been a little more being thought about by the students than sex :)
Otherwise, I thought this was a really great book. It was a lot of fun to read, and I'm looking forward to seeing where the next books, Adversary(8/20) and Legacy (2011) take us!