Minder by Kate Kaynak

Source: Received for review

Publication date: June 18, 2010

Publisher: Spencer Hill Press

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars

Description from Goodreads.com: Sixteen-year-old Maddie Dunn is special, but she needs to figure out how to use her new abilities before somebody else gets hurt. Ganzfield is a secret training facility full of people like her, but it’s not exactly a nurturing place. Every social interaction carries the threat of mind-control. A stray thought 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 the man of her dreams…

When I first saw this book and read the blur I immediately had to add it to my wish list.  It sounded like a nice mix of romance and X-Men (my favorite comic book series) qualities.

The Storyline

I loved the storyline because like I mentioned above it was very X-Men-ish.  Maddie turns out to be a “minder”, what they call mind readers at Ganzfield, and there she meets “charms” who are able to influence people to do whatever they say, “sparks” who can create fire and other people with special abilities.  They are all being trained to use these abilities supposedly for good purposes.  While there Maddie falls for Trevor, a guy with telekinesis powers, and after he is kidnapped and almost killed they discover there an enemy group that is kidnapping and vivisecting the students with these special abilities.  The book ends before you find out more but it definitely leaves you wanting to know more about this group and what those at Ganzfield really end up doing when they finish their training.

The Characters

For the most part I found Maddie really irritating.  Once she meets Trevor she turns into a pretty pathetic and embarrassing character who mopes, whines and panics whenever she is apart from Trevor.  I know they are supposed to be soul mates but do soul mates really have to behave like that when apart?  Aside from her romance she shows signs of being a really strong role model as she protects the fellow students from the charms who use their powers to bully their fellow students and to rescue Trevor so it was sad to see her turn into this mess when she and Trevor are apart, for even short periods when they are in different classes.

Other than that I actually really enjoyed the rest of the characters.  There is a fellow minder, Seth, I would like to see more of and there are a team of other students that Maddie befriends that are have their own strengths and weaknesses that are great supporting characters.

The Romance

I have to admit I am not a big fan of the romance.  Like I mentioned earlier Maddie and even Trevor to some degree were way too needy and dependent on each other.  I don’t care for relationships where the couple are too co-dependent.

Overall, despite the dependency issues this book kept me intrigued and wanting to know what happens next.

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