Susan Kaye Quinn

Open Minds is one of those stories that took me by surprise. I'm not a big fan of the paranormal romance boom, I mean really, I'm a forty-five year-old male. But this story had just enough action, just enough intrigue to keep me interested. And in the end it was very light on the romance anyway, with only limited "snogging" between characters.

What Open Minds is then, is a well-thought-out look at what would happen in a world where everyone could read minds. There are no secrets. There can be very little crime. But what happens if you turn out to be a zero? Someone who can't read minds at all. Very quickly we can see that you'd be ostracized. An outcast with few if any friends. Who would trust someone whose mind you couldn't read?

Then the author takes it one step further and introduces characters who can not only read other people's minds, but they can control them. That's where the fun begins. There is a whole secret world that no one knew about, hidden in plain sight. I love, and am always drawn to, books with that concept.

There can be many parallels in this story drawn with Hunger Games: a strong heroine, kids in jeopardy, etc... but Quinn makes this story interesting and a great read without having to resort to killing off little kids. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Hunger Games, but felt it did go a bit far at times.

Overall, I would say this is up there with my favorite reads of this year. I'm already planning on lending it out to my friend’s teenage girls, who really are the target market here.

I highly recommend it. Find out more at the author's site: www.susankayequinn.com