Review of Mind Games

Mind Games by Carolyn Crane put me through the ringer. On one hand, I wanted to smack the MC Justine and throw the book in the trash. Then I’d read more and want to high five Justine and read the rest of the series. Then Justine would have a brainfart or confront someone she should fear and I’d hate the book again. All over the place with this one.

I loved the premise. Mind Games has no standard UF elements. No vamps, shifters, witches, etc. The world building wasn’t painful to get through either. Big plus.

Plus Justine is a hypochondriac. I thought I would find her whiny. Justine’s problem isn’t her whininess though. It’s her brain. It only works half of the time. Justine is an above decent UF character, suffering from only a few of the UF chick template problems.

UF Girl Checklist:

Mysterious MC with no real friends, family, connections

At the start of the book, Justine has a job, a boyfriend, and casual friends. She existed before the book began!

MC’s power isn’t fully realized in the first book

I’m not sure where Crane plans to take Justine, but her power seems to be her idealism and fluctuating brain power.

Smartass MC without genuine humor, usually a few throwaway lines

Justine isn’t funny. I don’t remember her trying to be funny. Her stupidity was funny sometimes.

Reckless MC often pisses off people who could easily kill her

Okay, here’s Justine's big problem. She'll confront someone who has betrayed her and announce she knows he has betrayed her. Yeah, so if the guy’s a douche who enslaves you, maybe he’s a douche who would kill you for knowing he’s lied to you. Justine never considers this. She’s trusting to the point of being fucking stupid.

An asexual heroine incapable of noticing hot dudes in the room

Oh, hell, no! Justine is horny for three guys! THREE! She has sex with two during the book and almost sex with another one. The girl is so horny that even when facing the guy who is evil, she’s creaming her jeans. When then facing another guy who is evil, she’s thinking about how much chemistry they have. As much as I love a UF girl who wants to get laid, I had an issue with Justine's inability to think clearly around hot guys. Fuck, Justine, pull your vagina under control until you’re out of danger!

A weak love triangle made even weaker by the asexual MC

Well like I said, Justine isn’t asexual. There’s actually a love quad, but one guy never has a shot. I was also irritated by the cheating taking place in the book. It was unnecessary and dirtied my view of Justine. I was pleasantly surprised by the fourth guy in the quad, but the main guy is the reason I nearly didn’t finish the book.

No strong chicks in book besides MC/Only men worthy of admiration

Shelby is a decent female character. So while men run the show, Crane wasn’t afraid to have other women around distracting from Justine.

Unhappy childhood

Of fucking course

Okay, so my two main gripes with this book are Crane’s word choices and Packard.

Let’s start with the word choices. She describes a man’s nose as meaty. This guy is supposed to be hot. She talks about cinnamon eyelashes. Again he’s supposed to be sexy. Later she describes a cock as cucumbery. Yeah, I didn’t need that visual because instead of imagining a big dick, I’m thinking about a salad. Her wording every once in a while would jar me out of the story, usually to make me giggle. At other times, Crane pulled me in with Justine’s descriptive thoughts. I just have to say it one more time – cucumbery cock. Sexy shivers.

Packard sucked ass and I hate him. There, I said it. I’ll admit I’m not a big fan of gingers. Gingers of the world can hate me all they want, but it’s tough to make a guy ginger sexy. The dude’s got to be described as rugged. I hated Jaime Fraser, but at least for a ginger, he was described in a hot way. Not Packard. He’s sporting red curls, pale skin, cinnamon eyelashes, and a meaty nose. Swoon.

Even if he was hot, I’d still hate him. Justine waxes poetic about how amazing Packard is. How powerful, funny, imposing, and sexy. Yet the guy’s a dweeb. His dialogue is weak and he never does anything impressive. True, he spends all of his time in a restaurant, acting like everyone’s douche dad, but hell, he ain’t sexy. Justine also talks about their chemistry. Show it. Please, I’m begging you! Instead Packard stares at Justine a little and says she’ll do a super awesome job and the bitch creams herself. I don’t know what Justine saw in Packard because he was lame.

SPOILER…NOT EVEN KIDDING…GIVES AWAY BIG PLOT POINT…

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Packard tricks her into working for him (forgetting to mention the enslavement part or how her brain will deteriorate without his help). Justine is mad, but not really that mad. After all, he’s so sexy. Yuh-huh. So at one point, she zings Packard and she knows this gives them a connection. He says it doesn’t mean he has any control over her, YET she’s hot for him and wants him even though he’s a douche. Justine never thinks he’s using the connection. Idiot. Packard isn’t sorry for using her either. He put her in danger, but really cares for her. I call bullshit on that.

Then he is playing her even more later and she trusts him enough to say to his face that he’s full of shit and lied to her and is the bad guy. Even after her ridiculously risky speech, he still thinks she’s his pussy and he owns her. When he finds out her pussy belongs to another, he’s pissed and makes threats. Then five seconds later, Justine trusts him again. Then five seconds after that, he’s saying she should pick him because he was nice enough to enslave her and he understands her even though he didn’t understand how she wouldn’t want to be enslaved. Or how she would give her pussy to another.

Yeah, Packard didn’t understand shit, but he’s still in the running? With his lies, enslavement, and meaty nose? How is that frigging possible? All I can think is Crane dated a super hot ginger and Packard is his clone so she can’t see what a loser he is.

Ah, glad to get that off of my chest. Oh, and I hate Packard. I wish he would die. I’d start a petition to kill him too. Otto was really interesting and way sexier and more complicated than Packard. I was beyond pleased when he turned out not to be what Packard said. Death to Sterling Packard! Even his name means douche in a language I created just to make that point.
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I almost didn’t finish the book because of Packard which would have been a shame because it’s a great story. Crane clearly knew where she was going and I only finished because there were hints she wouldn’t play it safe and obvious. The end of the book is perfectly set for the rest of the series.

So if you hate Packard and think you should give up, I feel your pain, but push on, friends. If for nothing else than to read about a character’s cucumbery cock. That is a winner description right there.

Indie Angie Rating - 4 stars****