Monday 20 August 2012

Review: Forbidden Mind by Kimberly Kinraid


THE STORY (From Goodreads):

Sam thinks she's months away from freedom. After spending her life in a secret school, rented out to the rich and powerful as a paranormal spy, she is ready to head to college like any normal eighteen-year-old. Only Sam isn't normal. She reads minds. And just before her big going-away party, she links to the mind of a young man who changes everything. Drake wasn't raised as a 'Rent-A-Kid.' He was kidnapped and taken there by force. But his exceptional physical strength and powers of mind control make him very dangerous, especially to Sam. When they meet, Sam is forced to face the truth of her situation, and to acknowledge that not all is as it seems in her picture-perfect world. For what awaits her on her eighteenth birthday isn't a trip to college, but an unexpected nightmare from which she may not be able to escape. To survive, they must work together. But will their powers be enough to save them before it's too late?

MY THOUGHTS:
I'm in love with the free samples on  Smashwords at the moment. Although lately I've started to think that it's a very clever marketing scheme though of by some corporate dark elves who know that curiosity and obsessiveness is my weakness. I must admit I was drawn to Forbidden Mind for superficial purposes. The premise of kids with super powers is one that I'm exploring in my novel as well. But that's beside the point for this review :)

The Basics
From the very first sentence, I knew what I was getting into with Forbidden Mind. Sam is like a female super-spy complete with telepathic powers. The only problem for her employers is that she has a conscience.And she wants out. That's when things go wrong and the plot begins to twist in some very unexpected and somewhat disturbing ways. I can't go into too much detail without revealing spoilers but let's just say that Kinrade has a gift for upping the creepy factor of an organization that is largely faceless throughout the story. You can see why I liked this book. Forbidden Mind does what many books on telepathy leave out. It provides stream of consciousness insight into the minds of the people Sam is reading and for the most part their thoughts were very entertaining. Even though the powers weren't new, Kinrade puts her own twist on the classics and I loved her idea of the Rent-A-Kid program.

The Novella Trap
As much as I enjoyed how quick the story leaped, I feel like Forbidden Mind suffers from the novella trap. Too much plot condensed into too few words. There are a number of aspects (plot/relationships/characters) that could have been fleshed out a lot more.I'm a big fan of sling shot pacing but I have to admit there were parts of the story which moved too quickly even for me. Characters were introduced and revelations made only to be snuffed out shortly after. Much too early for their existence to have much on an impact on me personally. Though they don't physically meet until long after their psychic relationship blossoms, I still didn't feel like the connection between Sam and Drake was realistic. Thumbs up for non physical attraction romance (even though they're both hot, it's still YA remember?), thumbs down for what could be construed as insta-love.

Sometimes Less Is More
Novella trap issues aside, Forbidden Mind is without many of the other YA traps which knock off stars for me. There was no angsty teenage psycho babble, no love triangle, no TSTL heroine and best of all no secretly bitchy best friend. There was just plot, action and powers.

What more can I say? Despite being so short, Fobidden Mind was interesting and fun to read. I actually stayed up late into the night reading this one which doesn't happen that often anymore.


THE RATING:

4/5

28 comments:

  1. I'm reading a dystopian novella and I can agree with you on what you said: just plot, action, and powers. It may be quick, but it works! Glad you enjoyed this one! :)

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    1. That's all I'm asking for! I just dont care about all that filler anymore. Too little time too manu books.

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  2. The description makes it sound great, but not being fleshed out is a major problem with something like this. I have heard a lot of stuff that has wonderful ideas but felt like everything was to cramped together. Nice review!!

    Beth ^_^
    http://sweetbooksnstuff.blogspot.com/

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    1. It's a really great books despite the obvious things that may be glossed over. If you go into it knowing it's just a fun story, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

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  3. I LOVE free samples! I download them on my Nook all the time. I'm kind of picky, and if I'm not blown away by the sample it saves me the cost of buying the whole book.

    I love novellas and this one sounds great, despite the fact that it might be *too* short. I'm going to check it out. Thanks for the recommendation!

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    1. I only just found out about the amazon free sample feature not log ago! Am so glad because it's saved me heaps. I think you'd like this one. The world building is quite good for a novella.

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  4. "Characters were introduced and revelations made only to be snuffed out shortly after. Much too early for their existence to have much on an impact on me personally." I find that as a wonderful explanation of a bunch of free book's I've read (and have yet to review:/ ) It's like they decide all these things without me coming to the same conclusion. I'm left feeling like "Woah!!! How did we come to this conclusion? Where's the progression of events." It just happens to early sometimes.

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    1. I'm normally really annoyed by this sort of thing as well. But it sort of works in a novella because there is so much other stuff happening at the same time.

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    2. I'm glad that it being a novella didn't ruin it for you. I hope that with it now being re-published as a full length novel it will appeal to those who don't enjoy novellas! And each book in the series just keeps getting longer!

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  5. I love when you review books, Lan because they're almost always one that I haven't heard of. The premise for this sounds like something I would really love. Don't like that you think it was too condensed though. That might be more of an issue for me. I may try to find this for my Nook if I need a quick read. :)

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    1. It's a pretty awesome premise and some of the plot twists are seriously cool.

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    2. I'm glad you enjoyed the fun plot twists, Lan. They were fun to write. :) Kristen, the one big problem with the book being too short is now resolved. Lan had an older version. It's since been re-written and re-published with Evolved Publishing as a full length novel. It still has a very similar story line to the original, but with added content and more of everything.

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  6. Sounds interesting with the way you say the book writes out what people are thinking as the protag actually hears it. That's cool!

    Seems like it should have been weeded of the excess narrative that it must not have needed. Gotta be careful with novellas not to jam-pack too much stuff into them.

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    1. Yeah I really enjoyed the steam of consciousness thoughts. I think there was just enough of it to make the story interesting. I was just surprised at how short it was.

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    2. Hopefully with the new and improved full length version of Forbidden Mind, it will have all the things you enjoyed without the problem of being too short! I really love how the new version turned out!

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  7. I've never heard of this novella before. It sounds really interesting and something I'd probably get into myself, but the thing that's putting me off is the novella part. If it was a full length novel, I'd probably give it a closer look. I dislike investing in stories that don't give the characters or the plot enough time to make a connection for the reader. I'm glad you still liked it though.

    Thanks for stopping by
    @ Livin' Life Through Books

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    1. I think you'd like this one based on the books on your blog that you've enjoyed. I still liked it despite how short it is and you know how terribly picky I am!

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    2. I'm so glad you enjoyed the book, Lan. And Felicia, the book is now twice as long with a lot of added content. It's been completely rewritten, so the version that's available now isn't the one Lan reviewed. It's no longer novella length. I hope that helps ;)

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  8. Thanks SO MUCH for this awesome review. I wanted to let you all know that after seeing some of the feedback about it being too short, I talked with my publishers and we re-released the book on June 26th (It's exclusive to Amazon right now) and it's twice as long and way more fleshed out! Also the second book is much longer and third book is over 100k and will be released in Oct.

    So, if any of you would like to try it, but were nervous about the novella length, it's now a full-length novel and I hope you'll give it a shot! It's being featured on EReader News Today so my publishers discounted it to 99cents on Amazon as part of the promo, and you can still read a sample. It still has all the cool super-powers ;)

    Again, thank you for taking the time to read and review. I really appreciate it. It's reviews like this that inspired me to take the book to the next level and really give it everything it deserved! I hope you don't mind me sharing this in your comments!

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    1. I'm the author of FORBIDDEN MIND, btw. Just to clarify! Lol

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    2. Thanks for stopping by Kimberley! Glad the review made your day. I'll be sure to check out the next books in the series!

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    3. Thanks! :) Keep in mind that the final book especially pulls from the NEW content in the revised version of Forbidden Mind, which is the only version now available. If you'd ever like review copies, please visit my contact page at http://KimberlyKinrade.com and I'd be happy to provide them to you. Again, thank you so much! I'm delighted that you loved it despite how short it was, and I hope that moving forward, the extended content will appeal to a larger demographic of readers! xo

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  9. Yep, I need to read this one now. ;) I love free samples. They keep me from buying really stupid books.

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    1. :) Yay! I hope you enjoy it. I've been told the series keeps getting better. I know I've enjoyed writing each book more and more. This last book is so much fun!

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    2. Yep me and free samples are new best friends! It's amazing the amount of books I've gotten samples for and haven't even read!

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  10. I loved this honest and fair review. It's hard to strike a balance between a fast pace and deep characterization. I'm not fond of teen babble either, so much so that I don't even know what "TSTL heroine" means. 0_0 I'm hopelessly out of the loop...

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    1. TSTL is a blogger thing! It stands for Too Stupid To Live. You know, those heroines who do really stupid things that make you want to pull your hair out!

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  11. I can honestly say that I'd never read a novella until recently. But now I've read four or five, and I must say, they're way more enjoyable than I thought. Something about getting all the plot in without having to slog through more boring bits, I think. Although there have definitely been a couple of novellas that, after finishing them, I found myself wishing they were full-length books, just so I could spend more time with the characters!

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