Minders by Michele Jaffe + Giveaway

Minders by Michele Jaffe
"Q: If the boy you love commits a crime, would you turn him in?

Sadie Ames is a type-A teenager from the wealthy suburbs. She's been accepted to the prestigious Mind Corps Fellowship program, where she'll spend six weeks as an observer inside the head of Ford, a troubled boy with a passion for the crumbling architecture of the inner city. There's just one problem: Sadie's fallen in love with him.

Q: What if the crime is murder?

Ford Winters is haunted by the murder of his older brother, James. As Sadie falls deeper into his world, dazzled by the shimmering pinpricks of color that form images in his mind, she begins to think she knows him. Then Ford does something unthinkable.

Q: What if you saw it happen from inside his mind?

Back in her own body, Sadie is faced with the ultimate dilemma. With Ford's life in her hands, she must decide what is right and what is wrong. And how well she can really ever know someone, even someone she loves."- summary from Amazon

First off, this murder part? Doesn't happen until page 350, which leaves about 40 pages of the "ultimate dilemma" to take course. That doesn't necessarily mean that the rest of the book is bad or boring, but it just left a weird taste in my mouth that the whole summary is mostly about the last 50 pages of the book.

Jaffe is one of my favorite authors, and this book was another very good read; not her best (I don't think anything will top Bad Kitty for me), but still a very decent story. I will admit to taking a bit of time to get into it, but once I was, I was flying through the book, wanting to see what would happen next. There's a lot of twists and turns in this thriller and it's an ambitious plot. I do feel like the climax/ending was wrapped up a bit too hastily and abruptly though, which left me a little let-down as I know she can do better. The epilogue though was interesting and I give her props for writing it that way.

I think one of the most fascinating things about this book is the whole Mind Corps thing and being in someone else's mind and shaping that internal world. Jaffe did a wonderful job with that aspect of the book and I wish more time had been spent on it. It's interesting to think about- spending time in any mind and seeing how we think about images, sounds, etc. and how they show up in our mind's eye. That alone, which most of the book spends time with, is worth the price of admission. Jaffe creates this intriguing world for her readers, all in someone's mind, which provides some food for thought as I wonder about how my own mind works.

Overall, an interesting, thrilling new book from Jaffe. I do recommend it and, if you love it too, please spread the word on it. I'm a Jaffe fan for life, and am excited to see what she has in the works next.


Michele Jaffe has kindly offered up a signed copy of Minders for me to give away. All you have to do is leave a comment by next Friday, Feb 7 at 9pm EST. You can also get an extra entry by commenting on my interview with Michele from the other day! The contest is only open to US/Canada residents.

FTC: Received signed ARC from author. Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.