Mind Game

Rating:
Summary: A Riveting Romantic, Paranormal, Suspense Thriller!!
Review: "Mind Game" is the second book in Christine Feehan's GhostWalkers series. This novel stands on its own, however, and it is not necessary to read the first book in order to appreciate this one. I think the plot and pacing are much better in "Mind Game" than in the former novel, however, and the characters are more fully developed.

A deceased scientist, Dr. Peter Whitney, had experimented on a group of gifted orphaned children decades before the story begins, in order to enhance their psychic abilities. While part of the experiment worked and the children's abilities were increased, the doctor was unable to control and utilize their talents. The children were all left psychologically deformed. They do not have the defenses, or shields, normal people do to protect themselves from sensory overload. This overload causes terrible headaches, inability to concentrate and sometimes severe seizures. When Whitney saw that his experiments were not proceeding in the direction he planned, he asked for military volunteers, disciplined officers from the special forces, and attempted the same experiments with the same results. These military psychics became known as GhostWalkers because they were eventually caged, no longer considered human, and were forced to escape and live in the shadows. Whitney's adopted daughter, Lily, one of the children used in the experiments, discovers her father's military victims. She moves them into a mansion which has been overhauled to provide the men with protective facilities, where they can live and train to immunize themselves against this sensory overload.

In Lily's search to find the children she grew up with, she discovers that one of her dearest friends, Dahlia LeBlanc, has been living a hermit's existence in a secluded residence in the Louisiana bayou country. Dahlia works for a US government intelligence agency, where she retrieves stolen, top secret technologies and information. She remembers very little of her childhood with Whitney and believes she is insane. Her government handlers, in order to control her for their own purposes, have told her that all her memories of former friends, like Lily, are products of her imagination. Dahlia has amazing telekinetic abilities which she is unable to control and can cause damage to other people if she becomes overly excited. Any strong emotion she feels turns into energy which causes fires. Unknown assassins attack her home while she is away and murder her nurse and caretaker - instead of their real target, Dahlia.

Lily Whitney sends GhostWalker Nicholas Trevane, a very strong silent type, to rescue Dahlia, and bring her back to be with the other GhostWalkers. Dahlia thinks she is the only one possessing paranormal gifts and doesn't realize what was done to her years before. Trevane walks into the attack on Dahlia's home and the failed attempt on her life. He becomes determined to find and destroy her assailants. Trevane almost kidnaps her when she does arrive and finds her companions dead. She agrees to go with him when he triggers her memory about Lily and briefly explains the situation. However, the danger is just beginning as violent death follows the two, who begin to form an extremely intense and unusual attachment.

This is a riveting story, a real suspense thriller, filled with romance and the paranormal. Very original and a terrific read!
JANA

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and Sexy!
Review: Great beach read. Hated to put it down to eat dinner. Really liked the characters. I look foward to reading the other book in this series.

Rating:
Summary: Mind Game
Review: Her code name was Novelty, but Dahlia Le Blanc was so much more than a mad scientist thought her. Despite or because of the tortures she went through growing up, she developed into a woman with amazing gifts. Yet her blessings isolated her from everyone who could help her, who could love her. It made her a perfect target for an assassin, but one of the people who was allowed to care about her is in a position to help save her. Lily (from Shadow Game) remembered the girl who was her friend, and now as part of the Ghost Walkers, she sends Nicholas Trevane to find Dahlia and make her safe. As it happens, Dahlia and Nicholas' gifts and love are a perfect match, making them an unstoppable team. It also makes for twice as much temptation and even more danger.

**** Christine Feehan continues to amaze readers. This series is worlds removed from the Carpathian land, with edgier action and a different kind of heat. Once again, she makes the unbelieveable seem possible. ****

Amanda Killgore

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Summary: Her writing has suddenly REALLY improved!
Review: I had enjoyed some of the earlier Dark /Carpathian series books, but finally I got so turned off by the horrible writing in some of the later ones that I swore off buying any more Feehan books. (The absolute worst Feehan book was an abomination called "The Scarletti Curse" -- possibly the single worst-written book I have ever read. The Carpathian book "Dark Gold" was pretty awful too, though not NEARLY as bad as that Scarletti thing.)

Her writing style had seemed to stagnate into infantile sentence structure (maybe Grade 5 at best) combined with over-the-top lurid but extremely repetitious sexual prose. The same phrases and situations were repeated over and over even within a single book. There were always lots of "molten lava," "erupting volcanoes," "so beautiful she/he took his/her breath away," "power clung like a second skin," "she/he turned him inside out," and on and on and on. The characters came to have interchangeable personalities and the perpetually victimized heroines were always needing rescuing by steely-thewed, jealous-to-the-point-of-homicide, brooding men. Because these men were basically interchangeable, their dialogue was sprinkled with apparently random foreign phrases, usually in French or Italian, that apparently served to demonstrate the hero's coolness (often hard to perceive otherwise) and distinguish him from all the other men running around.

So, when I saw a copy of "Mind Game" at the library, I almost passed it by. SHE should have paid ME for reading that Scarletti thing, so the fact that I didn't have to pay wasn't enough by itself. But then -- what the heck? -- out of curiosity I decided to see what Ms. Feehan was up to in this new series, of which this is the second book.

The writing style of "Mind Game" is so different compared to the many earlier Feehan books I read that I consider it quite possible that Ms. Feehan has at last hired a competent ghostwriter. There is a sparse sprinkling of Feehanisms -- by my informal running count 4 "volcanoes," 1 "volcanic," a "he was so beautiful he took her breath away," and at least one "turned him inside out." (Any good ghostwriter could have deliberately added those.) But by gosh there is an interesting story, the characters have depth and definition, the sex scenes are hot without being so ludicrously repetitious and floridly written, and I was sorry to have the book end.

Wow!! If the book represents a new effort at higher-quality writing by Ms. Feehan, I salute her. If she has sensibly hired someone to write her books for her, then I salute him or her. Either way, this is actually a good read and holds promise for a good series.

It would be nice if this dramatic improvement manages to spread into Feehan's Carpathian series. Otherwise, I think it's about run its course.

Rating:
Summary: Oh LORD...
Review: I read some really good review of this book and was hoping for... more. I enjoyed Shadow Walker - and allowed much because it was a 1st book setting up a series - so stuff had to be explained. But this was just too complicated.

The science of it is what drove me over the edge I believe. How detailed CF tries to get with it all. This is a Sci/Fi romance - I'm willing to suspend my disbelief - but don't try to over analyze or over explain. I was sitting there half the time I was reading the book trying to figure out how it is that gravity will suspend for Dahlia and how she appear invisable... How CAN she walk on air? It was too distracting this time around. It took away from the characters and the basic plot.

And I liked them. I thought Dahlia was pretty well adjusted for being basically unable to be around people all her life. Nick showed himself to be the typical alpha CF male - and he had a lot of appeal. The situation of them being alone and running most the novel - it reminded me a bit of several of her Dark series books where she keeps the central characters alone as long as possible. It got a little boring after a while and all that was left for them to talk about was her AMAZING abilities that only HE could help her control. The two seemed good together... but I kept getting bogged down in the over abundance of science - which I'll admit confused me to no end.

So I'm holding out for the sequel to Wild Rain... Praying for something great and - yeah, less convoluted.

Rating:
Summary: Explosive read.
Review: I thought this book was really good. I have not read the first one in this series yet, but its coming in the mail any day now. I am a fan of her Dark series as well and I think this series will be just as good. Its a nice change from all the Dark books, but it still has her flare. I thought it was great and I cant wait for the rest of the books. Its a nice cahnge of pace with the men just as hot! Highly recommended.

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Summary: A great read for sci-fi lovers, who also love romance!
Review: I've read through all the reviews and have to laugh at the people who criticize these books for their "abundance of science" and claim they are difficult to understand and/or follow. I guess that's why they are in the "sci-fi romance" genre. If you don't like reading about "science" and have difficulty understanding scientific logic, don't read a sci-fi book! It's that simple.

Personally, I love them. I found them very interesting as well as entertaining and sexy! I'm a big sci-fi fan and always love when I find an author that can successfully merge good steamy romance with interesting, and mentally stimulating sci-fi.

Way to go C.F.!


Rating:
Summary: Second in a new great line by Christine Feehan
Review: Mind game is the second in a new series by our beloved Christine Feehan who is famous for her Carpathian novels. This new series is developing a following of it's own and I perdict will take it's place in the "must read, gotta have it" catagory of Romance novels. Well written, sometimes funny, always HOT, this book tell's Nico's story. One of a select group of military men who were experimented on to enhance their psychic ability. These 'enhancements" left our hero and his friends vunerable to the outside world. Nico is sent to bring home another victim of the mad doctor. Falling in love with her was never part of the plan.... If you like romance novels with a edge, sexy and hot, and funny. You are going to love this series.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Zzzzzzzzzzz..... Boooooriiiiing.... I couldn't quite believe the reviews that gave this book 4 or 5 stars. They either read a completely different book or they gave it such a high rating simply because it's Christine Feehan (who, for yet another unknown reason, they love).

I decided to try Mind Game after reading the summary on the back cover - I had never read a Christine Feehan book and after this I probably never will. The premise was what made me buy the book; Dahlia, a woman with heightened psychic abilities, is pursued by a killer and the only person she can trust is a dark, handsome stranger named Nicolas Trevane (a man who's part American Indian and part Japanese and yet his name is Nicolas Trevane... Hmmm..) The first warning signs flashed through my mind in the first chapter. The style of writing, the dialogue between the characters just seemed so... stiff and unreal. It even became repetitious at times; in the first few pages she seemed to love the word "obviously", which she, obviously, used again and again... obviously. Still, since I payed good money for the thing I kept going... And I found myself skipping and skimming through pages because it's just so damn boring.

Don't buy this book. If you must, borrow it from the library, borrow it from your friend, but don't actually pay money for it.