Minder by Kate Kaynak

Summary/Cover Image from Publisher's Website:

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...

Review:

Don't you always love when a book manages to impress and surprise you time and time again? Well, I do, and thankfully enough that's exactly what happened with Minder, the first spellbinding addition in the Ganzfield series.

After a fatal accident involving three boys and Maddie Dunn and a single, mind killing thought, Maddie is recruited by Ganzfiled, the opulent, fancy academy for teens who have special abilities like herself. At Ganzfield, Maddie learns she's a minder, someone who can not only read people's thoughts and implant her own in them, but overload their brains so much that they can die. Loving the fact that she's finally learning about her ability and making new friends, Maddie finally fells at home so to say, even though the other teens aren't always too nice to her and the fact she's kind of scared of her ability and what it entitles. Better yet, when she meets Trevor, everything gets even better. Though, even with this fun, there's still a stealthy, killing man out there who has only one goal in mind: kill off all of Ganzfield's population. Will Maddie and her friends be able to stop him in time? Or will he succeed? Only time and more pages will tell.

With Minder, Kate Kaynak has created quite the cast of diverse and interesting teenagers with a range of "special abilities." I always truly enjoyed finding out more about what each group (the sparks, charms, RVs, healers, etc.) could do, and how their talents affected their attitudes towards life in general. Though, my favorites out of the bunch would have to be main character Maddie and her group of friends. All were thoroughly developed, in my opinion, which has left only more eager to find out more about them in the future. Better yet, even with their talents, I think everyone one who reads this series will at least find one character to relate to. The only thing I wasn't too big on about the characters was how fast Maddie and Trevor's relationship occurred, because as you know if you're a long-time reader of my blog, one of my biggest book pet peeves is unrealistic romantic relationships.

Moving on, the premise of this was pretty great, because who doesn't love a book about a boarding school with students who are more than just the average teen? And the execution was even better, because not only did Kate constantly surprise and impress with the amount of world building and plot development she did within this, but I was unceasingly on the edge of my seat, dying to know what would happen next, as Kate also does a pretty great job when it comes to the sudden twists and turns everyone loves to hate.

Full of surprises and heart stopping moments, Minder is the perfect start to a series I feel I'll come to love even more as time goes on. And Kate Kaynak- she's a pretty fantastic author too so far!

Grade: B+

Minder is now out!

Source: Author. Thanks Kate!