I haven’t read Nora Roberts in years but I remember really liking her storytelling and characters in the past. This book was great and no exception to my memories of her being oks in the past.

I loved the family relationships portrayed in this story. They were so rich and warm and the descriptions of Appalachian family life were vivid and welcoming. This story reads like a cosy in some ways. However, there is a terrifying psychic serial killer, so it won’t appeal to all the cozy fans, only those with a higher tolerance for some peril and violence.

I enjoyed this book and will recommend it for others who like family stories, provided they’re also okay with the killer aspects.

Overall, a fun read with a satisfying conclusion.

I really struggle with Nora Roberts. I find the beginning draws me in and then somewhere along the line I lose that spark that for me hooked in the beginning.

My thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this audiobook ARC.

Best-selling author Nora Robert’s is practised in a remarkable number of genres, mystery, thriller, romance, fantasy. This one is difficult to slot precisely, because it is really all of these. It also has a unique time-slip element. The main character, Thea Fox can re-experience past events using a gift of vision, handed down through the female line of her family, that is both prophetic and ‘historic.’ It’s a fascinating concept and enhances what is basically a cat-and-mouse story also distinguished by the fact that the ‘cat’ is the original victim.

The mouse, then, is the perpetrator, a psychopath named Ray Riggs who commits the major crime, the murder and of Thea’s parents in their beds one summer night when young Thea and kid brother Rem are happily visiting their Grammie Lucy in rural Kentucky. Grammie, my also possessing the gift, is awakened in the night with a sudden knowledge that her daughter and son in law have met a violent death at their Virginia home. Thea’s gift goes beyond Lucy’s, although she is a child: she ‘witnesses’ the entire crime and is even ‘seen’ by the murderer. This takes place vividly in her mind. Somehow, and this is never explained, Ray Riggs also has ‘the gift.’

Because the gift that Lucy and Thea share is simply part of local Kentucky lore, the sheriff immediately notifies Virginia police, Thea provides a clear visual portrait and even maps his movements after the crime, and he is quickly caught. Still a teenager, Riggs already has a history of misdemeanours and worse, and gets two consecutive life sentences in maximum security.

Without giving away the plot twists and turns for which the author is famous, let’s just say that, having both exposed and resolved the main story in the opening chapters, much of what follows becomes predictable. Riggs and Thea seemingly formed a tight psychic connection that terrible night. Until the conclusion nearly ten years later, they each ‘use’ that connection to taunt and torment each other. Thea, her family and friends, and eventually her rock-star boyfriend Ty, fear what Riggs might do just by using his mind to ‘push in’ on her. Thea fights back, at times initiating his psychic pain to remind him of who has the upper hand. She is on the side of justice so it’s never a question that the power for good will battle the power for evil. And win.

Because Thea grows up to be an enormously talented and famous video game designer, the battle itself takes place within a number of her video games, in segments throughout the book. These are well-done, reminiscent of the worlds Roberts created, with their sword fights, magic, dragons and dogs, and fierce female avengers, in other novels. But all of it goes on far too long. The first third of the book sets the scene with the children visiting the Appalachian farm and Thea discovering her gift, but, even without the gift or the trauma Thea (and Rem) are too wise and knowing for kids, and Grammy can sound like a Kentucky miner’s daughter, a shaman, and a learned philosopher, in varying degrees. Riggs is just plain bad, and thoroughly delights in his evil, but his own prison musings about his past don’t explain how he got the gift or why or how he ‘sees’ Thea and can penetrate her mind when he has never met her. Why does he hate her so much, a hatred apart from her understandable hatred of him? The subplot about boyfriend Ty, the moody (and really immature) musician who suddenly appears in Thea’s isolated neighborhood after having been her teenage crush, and the four year old son he is raising alone, adds a touch of ‘destined as if by magic’ romance. But not enough for the space they take up.

There remains plenty for Roberts fans to enjoy, however, though a tighter pace and fewer repeats, (Thea tells her entire murder scene story in almost the very same words far too often), maybe fewer characters and less fresh-baked cornbread, would have heightened the thriller factor. And narrator January LeVoy is once again terrific with all the accents, genders and ages of the characters.

Another GREAT book by Nora Roberts. "Mind Games" delivers all the goodness of romance, mystery and a touch of the paranormal. GREAT!!!

This is the sort of lite-paranora/suspense combo. Typically I love Nora Roberts books but this one wasn’t for me!
"Mind Games" follows young Thea Fox who along with her brother, are dropped off for the annual vacation at their grandmother's home in Appalachia. Thea though while staying "sees" a man who ends up breaking into her parents home and murders them.
Due to Thea, the man is arrested and jailed.
But Thea realizes this man has the same
"gift" that she does and through the decades she does what she can to stop him.
Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan audio and Nora Roberts for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! I finished this audio book in 2 days - once I started I just couldn't stop listening. I really enjoyed the time the author dedicated to building the characters of Thea and her family, showing us the community and how Lucy and Thea's gifts are an excepted part of their community. Thea was a strong character who didn't rely on those around her to save or rescue her, but listened to herself and figured out how she could care for herself as well and resolve the overarching conflict with Riggs.

This will be a fantastic summer read :)

Nora Roberts does it again and the narrator was fantastic!
This book sucked me in from the beginning. I could not get enough and did not want it to end. It was a different type of story than I have read from her before. One thing I really liked about it was that we got to follow the 2 main characters from the time they were children up to through their 30's. It was great to watch the story play out over all of that time and see how they built great lives despite the terrible thing that happened when they were young.
If you are looking for a great book to read, pick this one up. You will be glad you did !

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to review, Mind Games by Nora Roberts. This review is purely my thoughts and opinions based on this audiobook.

The Foxes take their children to Grandma’s for a couple weeks every summer and this summer is no different. Thea is able to run free in Appalachia and spend time with her Grammie. While the children are enjoying themselves, their parents are entering unknown territory that they were unaware of. Thea and her grandmother, Lucy both have the same nightmare, but then it has become reality. These two have never discussed their special sight they share.

The kids will be staying with Grammie from now on and the is to Thea’s vision- her parents killer will stay in prison, but does prison really keep the killer at bay?

This was such a great read. With their special sight, I felt a sense of fantasy dancing around this title, along with suspense, and a little romance to keep it interesting.

I found myself immersed in Mind Games, by Nora Roberts. I loved the setting and characters that were expertly woven into a gripping story. The narrator did an outstanding job giving a unique voice to each character while bringing them to life. Listening to this audio book was an absolute pleasure

A family with special gifts that run down through the women of the family - can be a blessing and a curse. Fabulous writing— the author really draws you in from the beginning and makes you invested in the Fox family— I did find some sections slow between the 50-70% mark— but they were just moments and then the story would get it’s drive again. I read this book by audiobook and I have to admit during the slower parts of the story LaVoy our narrator was really what kept me interested in the characters LaVoy was amazing at telling the story and her voices and accents for the multitude of generational characters was beyond amazing — it was like listening to different people — male , female . Old and young — and accents — each character had such a distinctive voice it blew my mind . LaVoy’s narration was what truly brought these characters to life for me and helped me stay invested.
This is my second book by Nora Robert’s and she is definitely a Master storyteller — with character that are likable and easy to invest in from the start of the book— full of suspense and intense emotion which was also enhanced by LaVoy’s narration.
I would rate this book 4/5 for the story and writing but bump it up to 5/5 cause the audiobook narration was stellar !

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for this ALC. this is my honest review .

Nora Roberts used to be an incredibly formulaic author. Which I didn’t mind. There was something comforting about knowing that the main character would meet her love interest around the 10% mark, share a first kiss around 25%, consummate the relationship about halfway through the book, have some kind of intense argument about 3/4 in, after which they’ll make up, the plot will resolve, and they will live happily ever after. These books were incredibly predictable, but I still loved them. Nora’s lovely prose, her lovable characters, and her ability to just weave an incredibly engaging story made this predictability cozy instead of boring. Yet, since about 2017, with the publication of Come Sundown and Year One, she has thrown that formula completely out the window, and it shows no signs of returning. And her work is so much stronger for it. Her books now tend to deal with harder hitting topics and are far less predictable in their timelines. You can still absolutely trust that everything will work out in the end, but the journey to that end is much more fraught, and much more likely to take unexpected turns.

Mind Games is no exception to this. We follow our main character, Thea, from the age of 12. We spend a lot of time in her childhood and young adulthood, and that time is never boring. She’s a fascinating character. We don’t really even meet the love interest until around halfway through the book, and the progression of their relationship is slow and organic and lovely. But, while I enjoyed the romance, it definitely wasn’t the focus of the book. Instead, the focus is on Thea’s mental war with her parents’ killer as he serves out multiple life sentences in a supermax facility. For, you see, both Thea and the murderer she helped put away have a gift, and that gift links them. They are both somewhat telepathic, and I found the expressions of that telepathy, especially in Thea’s life, absolutely enthralling.

I loved following Thea through her life. I adored the Appalachian setting, where Thea and her brother, Rem, grew up, nestled in the Kentucky foothills. Their grandmother, Grammie, is a gorgeous, talented, spitfire of a woman with a touch of the same gift that Thea has in spades. I loved her so much, and she was such a wonderful guardian to her grandchildren. Though their family experienced some incredible trauma, she built a beautiful life for those kids. I also loved the relationship between Thea and Rem, and the career paths they chose for themselves. Thea’s path adds an extra layer of meaning to the title, which is fun. There are other wonderful characters in this story, but as they don’t show up until the halfway mark, I’ll leave them for other readers to discover for themselves.

Nora’s strengths are, in my opinion, her characters and her settings. She does a brilliant job of crafting characters with instant depth, who it’s impossible not to fall for within paragraphs of meeting them. The relationships she builds between them are rock solid and honestly enviable, even for those who have such relationships in their real lives. And the settings are always beautifully drawn, rendered in Technicolor and incredibly enticing. I love where I live, but the temptation to move to Kentucky and raise chickens and make soap was strong.

Even though her characters and settings and her writing itself are the big draws to Nora’s work for me, she never tells a boring story. And this one was no exception. I was completely captivated by every aspect, from the horrific to the charming. It was a really strong plot. I was reminded just a touch of Stephen King’s The Shining in terms of Thea’s and the killer’s telepathic war, but without the horror elements.

Mind Games was a solid, always engaging read, populated with a host of wonderful characters. I was completely hooked from the first page to the last, which is high praise for any book. It’s a story I will absolutely revisit, as I so often do with Nora’s work. I’m so thankful I was given the opportunity to read this early, and I can’t wait to get a physical copy in my hands and on my shelf. And if you're an audiobook fan, January LaVoy did a magnificent job with the narration, as she always does!

This was quintessential Nora Roberts. Cheesy, over the top, entertaining. I love January LaVoy's narration of her books so much.
A negative for me was the "mental fighting" between the characters. It was so out to lunch lol

This was a good story! I loved the concept though I really thought the killer was really going to cause trouble and be released and come for her. Some of the dialogue was hard to read but I guess the author thought that it was "Kentucky." Loved the slow burn of the romance. It didn't feel forced, but natural. Would recommend.

This book was classic Nora Robert and absolutely excellent. I loved it so much. The plot was unique and the characters captivating.

I am an avid Nora Roberts fan, it's honestly hard to guess how many books by her I've read in my lifetime but in the last two years it's...23. Nora Roberts has always existed for me, a love instilled in me from my mom years ago.

This book was a cute, more modern read from my favorite author. I love how she is able to sprinkle in a bit of magic into the everyday, mundane life. The narrator of this audio made this book 10x better, the voices she was able to portray so differently were truly a work of art.

So grateful to NetGalley for this early preview so I can have bragging rights to my Mom!

Nora is a master at mind twisting plots and stories! This book was no different and I LOVED IT. I was here for all the pages of wonderment, romance, fantasy. Every time I read one of her books I can't help but think, "she's amazing, how on earth did she think of that?" BUT SHE DOES and she executes it with perfection!

She gives the romance that she gives in every book, even if its a slow burn with this one. She gives us the impossible with the women of sight who can also be hurt by it. She gives HEA but turmoil within the pages of the story. The characters are well thought of, well loved, and well put down on paper. The narrator was effective and executed the reading perfectly!

I simply cannot say enough about this. I read the book and listened to the audio and IMMEDIATELY told everyone I know to preorder. And preordered it myself for my shelves. Nora never lets me down, this book was no different. In fact, some how she makes it so that I love every book I read better than the last. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE!?

I raise my hands, glass and hat to you Ms Roberts. Wonderful job!

Wow. Sooo much to unpack here great for book club. A wild ride with a little of everything. The name definitely fits the book.

I've always had Nora Roberts books on my never ending TBR, which is why I was so excited when I got approved for this book! OH MY GOSH, I loved everything about this book. If you like a thriller but with more of a plot, you'll love this one. I could read about Thea, Grammie, and Ty's life in this small town in the Appalachia Mountains for ever. I loved how the main plot of this book was about Thea and her life journey. It did include a love story but at the end of the day it's still her story, the MMC is only a supporting role. This entire book was such an interesting concept. I loved every minute of it! I thought it was the perfect length and perfect pace. I couldn't stop listening to it.
The narrator, January Lavoy, did a fantastic job. Five star performance! All of the accents and voices were absolutely perfect!!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio arc of Mind Games by Nora Roberts!

Much thanks to Nora Roberts, MacMillan Audio, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for allowing me use of free galleys in exchange for an honest review.

*thumbs down fart noise*

DNF 34%---about 5 hrs of listening. 5 hrs of plodding through a story that couldn't find a plot with three editors and a diagram.

Some might call this a "slow burn," but I feel that phrase gets used more and more as a cop-out for a pace that's somewhere between boring and mindnumbing, a story that takes the scenic route toward making any kind of point, and a word count goal that holds a manuscript hostage until its requirements are met. So sure, we can call this a slow burn, but I definitely mean the cop-out kind.

Roberts likes to tell her stories in a straight line, which speaks to my heart, but I wonder if a prologue and strategic flashbacks instead wouldn't trim the fat in her style. She includes soooo much useless information. A mere sample of the straw that broke my back in this instance was "[A]t fourteen, she cut her hair to chin length, an impulse she regretted for months after. She won an award in math, an accomplishment that both thrilled and embarrassed her. When she was fifteen, they lost Aster and grieved. The best of best friends, Maddie brought them flowers. They called the new cow Betty Lou."

Now, it could be that the climax of this---what genre is this supposed to be, anyway? So far the story would suggest paranormal thriller, but I doubt it was marketed as such---hinges on Thea's bad style choices, the death of an old milk cow, or the name of her replacement. But somehow, I doubt that as well.

A huuuuuuge chunk of the 34% I managed to get through could have been cut out. And I decided not to let Roberts's ego waste any more of my time.

Book Title: Mind Games
Format: 🎧
Author: Nora Roberts
Narrators: January LaVoy
Publisher: Macmillan Audio/St, Martin’s Press
Genre: Women’s Fiction/Thriller + Romance
Audiobook Pub Date: May 21, 2024
My Rating: 3.7 rounded up
Pages: 435
I was always a big Nora Roberts fan – read over twenty of her novels. Although mysteries were my first love and my ‘go to’ stories which started when I was nine and found Trixie Belton and then Nancy Drew mysteries. Later I switched to Romance and then back to Mysteries but Psychological Thriller became a love at first read!
When I hear that Nora's recent novels were far more involved than just romance, I decided to give this a try. Also narrator January LaVoy is my favorite audiobook performer.

The story begins when John and Cora Fox take their children Thea-12 and her brother Rem – 10 to Grammies farm in Redbud Hollow, Kentucky for their annual two weeks stay,
There is no doubt Grammie Lucy is pleased as she loves her grandkids and doesn’t see them enough!
Only their stay ends up longer than the two weeks.
As we suspected something bad happens to John and Cora when they return to their suburban Virginia home.

The ‘mind game’ begins as Thea, has a gift in which she can get into the minds of others and see what they see (Grammie also has this gift). When Thea sees the terrible thing that happened to her parents, she is able to profile enough information that the police had to check and found Ray Riggs the sicko who did it-he actually confessed.
The mind games continue as he also has the gift and knows that Thea is responsible for his capture.

Story alternates between Thea and Rem having a somewhat normal life but the Sicko murdered continues to get into Thea’s mind.
True to a Nora Roberts story - Yes! There is romance however it doesn’t happen until nearly 50%. When Ty, a musician and his five year old son Bra return to Kentucky and end up next door to Thea.

Story slowed down a bit but kept me curious. I did like the story however disappointed that the main characters has to use an expletive to complete nearly every sentence. It seemed excessive to me – as I mentioned I haven’t read Nora Robert in some time so perhaps it is normal. I expected the profanity from Riggs and he more than lived up to it – the encounters with him were disturbing.

I do love narrator January LaVoy; her performances of the characters was sooo enjoyable. She made Bra even more adorable.

I was hoping there would be ‘Acknowledgements’ and “Authors’ Notes’ as I was curious the research Ms. Roberts did for this story. However, a. Audiobooks seldom include this.

Want to thank NetGalley and Macmillan Audio/ St. Martin’s Press for granting me this early audiobook.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for May 21, 2024.