A must read from Ms. Roberts.
I’m a huge fan of her books and I love how her books develop. I love the suspense.
Thea suffers a traumatic loss that bring her and her brother and grandmother closer together.
I love how Ms. Roberts makes you feel and keeps you on the edge of your seat.
A definite page turner.
Can’t wait to see what’s next from Ms. Roberts.

Reading Nora Roberts is like sitting down in a comfortable armchair in front of a roaring fire. You know you can relax and settle in.

I really liked Thea and the entire supporting cast, the small town Kentucky setting. The whole thing is just so competently constructed, I sunk into the story and hundreds of pages just flew by.

My one niggle is that I always hate reading Villain POV so I skimmed those sections.

Note: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley.

I finished this in the early morning hours as this cute pup thought it was breakfast time.

I used to gobble up Nora Roberts book like they were life affirming air but as I get older I like to take my time with them. Reading a few chapters a night was my reward for doing the hard things throughout the day.

Mind Games has quickly become a favorite NR book. I adore the setting of Appalachian KY. I love my home state and enjoy when writers do it justice.

Thea is the strong heroine we want in life. The kick butt and take names later female. Family is everything to her whether that be blood or ones she has picked. You mess with family and she will take you down like sticks in a windstorm.

A few scenes will take your breath away at the gruesomeness of a serial killer’s mind. A few scenes will leave you smiling from ear to ear with love. A perfect 4.5 star read.

I have really come to enjoy the new direction Nora Roberts has taken in her last few standalones. They aren't the typical romantic suspense formula and I have enjoyed the change. In fact this is more suspense to me than romantic suspense, but I'm here for the change. In Mind Games we have Thea, who has the sight and on a particularly horrifying night when she was 12 she ends up seeing her parents murder. Because of what Thea saw she is able to give police enough information to locate the killer and put him behind bars. The killer also has the same ability so they have a connection of sorts that Thea spends most of her life working to block out.

As Mind Games progresses we watch Thea (and her brother Rem) grow up in the mountains of West Virginia. We see them grow and change and I loved these glimpses into how they because the adults they are now. As we enter the final phase where Thea is being bombarded by her parents killer she is also falling in love with former boy band extraordinaire Ty, who has an adorable son. Thea and Ty's relationship was fun to watch unfold and you can easily seem them being pulled to each other.

Mind Games felt like the older Nora Roberts books that I used to devour. Thea is a strong and stable through all the adversity that is thrown her way. I can see myself right there in the Applachians with Grammy making special candles and soaps and all the baking. I felt the ending was a bit flat for how long Thea and her parents killer went head to head. Then it was over so quickly from all the build up. I feel the romance in her books now really fall flat. But compared to her recent last 4-6 books I felt this has been closer to her previous work. I enjoyed the dog and the little boy and how Ty was her childhood boy band crush. Now that would be something to end up dating/marrying your boy band crush. Hanson brothers anyone?

MIND GAMES is a must-read for fans of suspense, romance, contemporary and, of course, Nora Roberts!

Reviewed by Annetta Sweetko

Complete review: https://freshfiction.com/review.php?id=86724

Once again Nora roberts knocked it out of the park with this book. I love how she weaves her stories and how descriptive she is when describing the places. Definitely a great read.

This book is fascinating and keeps you invested from start to finish. They are when she is young and visiting her grandmother with her younger brother while her parents spend time together. Sophia has a gift which allows her to see things when her parents are being killed. Her grandmother knows about her gift and convinces the police that the Knows who the killer is and gets him arrested and convicted. What’s most fascinating is later when Thea is an adult she realizes that the killer also has the same gift as her and can be in her mind as well. It’s fascinating and interesting to see how she is trying to get with her when she meets Ty , who is a single father. I really liked the characters in the book and the plot itself was fascinating.

Nora Roberts does it again with her romantic suspense novel. I will read anything that Nora Roberts writes because I just know it’s going to be good.

Thea has a special sight just like her grandmother and when tragedy strikes she is forced to come to terms with how powerful this sight can be. As she gets older she struggles with the monster inside her head and wonders how she can get rid of him.

This was a different concept than other novels I’ve read by her but I enjoyed it just the same. I felt a wide range of emotions throughout this book. It sucked me in from the first page and didn’t let go until the end.

Overall rating of this book is 4.5/5 stars!

Mind Games by Nora Roberts has slid right into my top favorites of 2024 and beyond! I loved the interwoven storylines, the different points of view, and being able to read and experience the main character's life from childhood to adulthood. The underlying gifts Roberts blesses her characters with played right into and exceeded my love of intuition and the unexplained. Once you read this, you'll know what I mean - and read this you should! If you love HEA, with full circled storylines, fully formed characters, and connection then Mind Games should be added to your TBR!

Thank you to the author, publishers, and Net Galley for my advanced copy of this title in exchange for my honest review. I loved it so much that I even purchased it in hardback and audio! This review has been left on Good Reads and Amazon.

good mystery and i loved the friends too. I really enjoyed the romance and how it solved . I also loved reading this author. Really enjoyed her friends. Great book.

This book was absolutely brilliant. It shows you all parts of Thea’s life and how she ends up to be the adult she is. I absolutely cried in some parts that will just break your heart. The characters were amazing and it felt like coming home in other parts, with the southern traditions. This is one of my favorites by Nora Robert’s and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great book.

Rating: 3.5

In Nora Roberts' newest standalone novel, Thea sees her parents murdered over a state away thanks to a family gifted based down to the women in the maternal line in the family. I kind of think about it as the shining ability, if you're familiar with the King novel. Anyway, this ability allows her to form an eerie bond with the man who killed her parents through the next few decades. As she grows up then settles in rural Kentucky, she's able to keep the murderer at bay, but when she's ready to settle down into a new relationship she realizes it's finally time to separate that bond for good.

I tend to enjoy the standalone novels from Nora Roberts as there is a good mix of romance and some mystery, most of the time. This one is similar but lighter on the mystery and romance and a little heavier with the paranormal, which I didn't mind. I thought the novel could have been shorter. The second half of the book seemed to drag on more than necessary. Once the romance is started, it just started to drag a little bit more for me personally. The romance didn't feel forced, but didn't feel as genuine as other ones she's written about in the past. I loved Grammie and her no-nonsense way of life and just living in general. She reminds me of my own grandmother, minus her shining ability. Overall it's easy to fall in love with all of the characters, minus the murderer of course. This may not be my favorite novel of hers, but I still found it enjoyable.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin Press for a copy in exchange for review consideration.

I have read and enjoyed many of Nora Robert's books. This book is not one of my favorites. I found parts of the book slow and feel that they could have been left out of the book. Reading the other reviews tells me that I am in the minority. I think that I had an issue with the characters' ability to see into each others' minds. The main character, Thea, inherits this ability from the other women in her family. It is never explained how the killer of her parents has the same ability.
I enjoyed the parts of the book where she met and started a relationship with her rock star teenage crush, Ty. and his son, Brayden. It's disappointing that this part didn't begin until about half way through the book.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

“Mind Games” by Nora Roberts - 4 stars (Pub Date: Out Now!) is a stand alone book (no trilogy required) with interesting characters, an easy-to-follow and super-interesting story laced with a taste of the supernatural. The setting and world building is also great, and the whole experience was entertaining. This book is particularly tight in it's dialogue, and the pacing is really solid.

Good things: Roberts delivers again with a consistent, interesting, narrative with characters I care about, living experiences that I want to know about, love stories and big baddie battles that are satisfying and tied up nice and neat. Nora Roberts is like the favorite meal you’ve fixed every few weeks since you learned to cook. You make it the same way every time, sometimes you throw in a few minimal ingredient changes, but you never vary too much and it’s always good, filling, and tasty. With Mind Games being a stand alone novel, I got the full story in one book, and felt full enough to try something new and inventive from other authors now that I”m settled.

Opportunities: The endings of Nora Robert’s books are always so damn short! I spend pages and pages reading about gardens and farm chores, and candle making, and murder scene descriptions, and relationship building scenes, and super cool psychic powers, and I’m fully engaged and invested in the book and THEN IT JUST ENDS IN LIKE 3 PAGES. This book has a great ending. It checks all my boxes for interesting, loose ends addressed, characters drive towards the sunset I want them to drive towards, but it’s literally a micro-percentage of the larger book and it feels very abrupt. This is the second or third time this has happened with one of her books, and it takes an AMAZING experience and immediately ratchets it back down to simply great. I want her to take just a little more care and time in wrapping it up, PLEASE. Give the readers time to revel in the conclusion and settle into their goodbyes.

Final Thoughts: This is a fun read. I’ve never hesitated to return to Nora Roberts, particularly when I’m in a slump and I’ve been in one for a while now. I read this in less than 2 days and I loved the characters and plot. I feel like I had my spaghetti dinner, and I’m ready to jump back into more varied cuisine again…so I’m 100% appreciative of this author and her consistent delivery. But PLEASE give me a few more pages of exposition to say goodbye to the protagonists, their family, and the great world you’ve placed them in, Ms. Roberts!

I appreciate the opportunity afforded me to have an early read of this book by netgalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for my honest opinion. The opinions in this review are expressly those of ButIDigressBookClub and are intended for use by my followers and friends when choosing their next book. #butidigress #butidigressbookclub #mindgames #noraroberts #netgalley #netgalleyreviewer #arc #arcs

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Review Shared on Goodreads - www.goodreads.com/leah_cyphert_butidigressbookclub
Publishing Review 5/30/2024

I loved everything about this story. The thriller aspects didn't dominate the story but they were always there under the surface of life going on for Thea. We got to see her grow up and see her character fully developed. The relationships were just as much a part of the main story as the thriller aspects. The concept of mind games is so clever....not capitalized because I'm referencing the game in the story, not the title.

It’s been a very long time since I read a Nora Roberts book, but I’m glad I picked this one up because it was so good!

I loved the small town Appalachian vibes mixed with the horror of what Thea was going through. This was like a contemporary romance/chick lit mixed with Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep and that seems like a weird mix, but it worked somehow.

The characters were wonderful and I felt immersed in Thea’s grandmothers world just like Thea felt each summer when she visited. It was a breath of fresh country air, but also a book that had me on the edge of my seat. I don’t want to give much away since I went into this pretty blind, but I highly recommend it.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The title of this book is aptly named! The writing sucked me into the book from the beginning but towards the end of the book, the story dragged on and I just wanted to get to the end quickly. I liked the sinister twist of Thea linking minds with Ray which added a sense of danger and adrenaline to the story by wondering when he would enter her mind next. However, my favorite part of the story was the romance between Thea and Tyler. I would have loved the book if it was written as a romance novel because the characters were so charming and likable! I kept waiting for the tense moments to ruin the lovely, budding relationship between Thea and Tyler letting Ray win the mind game. I liked how the story ended even though it was a little dark for me as I read the events as they played out! This is a great read for readers who enjoy psychological thrillers!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I received a free copy of, Mind Games, by Nora Roberts, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Twelve year old Thea has a gift, she can see things in her dreams, that actually come true, like the murder of her parents. This is such an intriguing book, though I would of liked it better with out the swear words.

Wow! What a crazy wonderful faced paced story full of twists. Not your average love story, but one you won’t be able to put down.