Review: Shaken (Mind Reader #1)

Shaken (Mind Reader #1) by Susan Hatler

 Book Blurb:

High school junior, Kylie Bates, can suddenly read minds. When she touches people’s hands, she’s able to see their deepest thoughts. As if that’s not freaky enough, her dad sends her to help hottie detective, Sam Williams, track down a missing girl. Way too much pressure, especially for a girl who can’t watch Scream without getting nightmares. Then, finding the missing girl leads to much more than Kylie’s prepared for. Like discovering that her dad has been lying to her. That she has a family she never knew about. That the girls have powers similar to hers. Oh yeah, and that someone is out to get her. When the detective’s teenage wanna-be-cop cousin, Trip Williams, approaches Kylie at school insisting she help him solve the case, she discovers Trip might be the only one she can trust, and the only one to help her unravel the secrets behind her mysterious gift.

Review:

I scrolled through the books on my Kindle and blindly chose this book to read. It was a generously ‘free’ download I’d acquired a while back ago. (Not sure exact date). It goes for $3.99 currently on Amazon. I strongly believe it would be a well-enjoyed $3.99 although it would be even better at $2.99 IMO (in my opinion) because it wasn’t all that long a novel.

It is a YA genre novel and one that was decently written. Kylie, the protagonist in the book is in the beginning not very bright IMO. I struggled with the first four or five pages because it seemed ‘off’ but I pushed through the early beginning and am glad I did. Kylie is a neat character with sarcasm, honest emotions, and is entertaining to say the least. The reader gets to see her at her worst and best and for that the character was a solid A for me.

In fact, most all of the characters were solid for me. The only one I definitely did not like was Kylie’s bff. Okay, she was written to be annoying. But it was the writing of the character that really made me grind my teeth. The author just went way over the top with this girl. I definitely feel she could have been written in much better, and still just as annoying. But that was really the only negative (other than the opening cheesiness of Kylie’s underdeveloped writings.) that I could say about the book.

Really, in all the characters were pretty cool. The story was a nice one too. I think the author found her niche with the tale and made it her own. I liked the few twists she was able to get in there. And I was pleased with the overall storytelling. The action and the drama was fast-moving and it made for a one day read as I really did pick it up and read it through in one sitting.

My overall verdict: 7.5/10