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304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 6, 2016
Actual rating: 3.5 stars“I don’t know. Am I afraid of what you might be? Or am I afraid of what I know for certain I would be without the constraints of law?” He looked me straight in the eyes and asked, “Am I more afraid of you or myself?”
I don't know where I stand with this book and the whole series. From one side, it is quite an interesting Sherlock Holmes retelling where Mcs are Holmes and Moriarty. And as well as we know, Moriarty is Holmes's nemesis. So I definitely thought it's ingenious from the author's side to make Moriarty a girl, and make them fall in love with each other, and then turn them into enemies. Just wow of an idea for the fan of Sherlock Holmes like me. But. Of course, there's always but. If in book one I liked Mori (Moriarty), I liked how strong and often cruel she was to survive. Well, in Mind Games Mori definitely lost her core. She became whiny and overly dramatic, I couldn't stop rolling my eyes, because of her logic in handling her life choices. Drama for the sake of drama.
The mystery part, on the other hand, was intriguing and entertaining. The plot line from book 1 continues in this one, and our characters have gotten themselves in more troubles, or better say: troubles have found our characters again. The dark mood of the story is still there too as the gruesome parts - not much of them, but still some murder scenes were quite graphic.
What I still liked more than anything is the shades of gray. Lock and Mori struggle with inner demons and their nature. Yes, yes, they'd be wonderful sociopaths if only they'd let themselves, and knowing the original story, we are well aware of who will let their dark side win. The only problem is I am not sure I see the needed development in Mori's character. In this part she was way weaker as a character than in book 1. But there's going to be book 3, and it's going to be a breaking moment for Mori: take it all or leave. She's got some powerful enemies rounding on her and I am really curious how the whole situation will resolve itself.
As for the romance, I didn't feel it the way I felt it in book 1. I still don't see the needed gap between Lock and Mori in order for her to become Moriarty. Because of the excessive Mori drama there wasn't a needed balance to show us that transaction from love to hate, on the contrary, the characters fell in love even deeper, which was not what I expected or wanted, but, again, we'll see.
All in all, I expected more from Mind Games, but, somehow, I still stayed quite satisfied with its events. I guess the last book will be the one to solve my predicament: to love or not to love this series.
