Mind Games

by Merline Lovelace

For Air Force special agent Taylor Chase, invading a billionaire's island fortress was headache enough. But partnering with Dr. Mark Wolfson forced her to revisit the darkest chapter of her past. As his lab assistant, she'd been his lover—and turned into another one of his telekinetic experiments. He'd influenced her thoughts and dominated her very being, and she'd sworn off him forever.

Yet when the sheer horror of the billionaire's plan was revealed, Taylor and Mark realized only their telepathic bond could save them. But could they handle the deep-rooted extrasensory passion that had blown up in their faces years ago? Their very lives depended on the answer…of just who was controlling whom.…

Genres: Paranormal Romance, Harlequin, Paranormal

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 2008

About the author

After a 23-year AF career, Colonel Merline Lovelace launched a second career as a writer, basing many of her tales on her own experiences in uniform and on her travels all around the globe.

The USA Today best-selling author now has more than 11 million copies of her books in print. Her works have won numerous awards, including the Romance Writers of America's prestigious RITA. Merline is especially proud to have been named the University of Oklahoma's Writer of the Year and the Oklahoma Female Veteran of the Year.

Reviews

[Paula Brandon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Taylor Chase is an air force special agent tasked with extracting brilliant scientist, Oscar Hayes, from a private island. It is suspected that he is being held there against his will by the reclusive billionaire who owns the island. If he is there by choice, Taylor has to take with her Dr. Mark Wolfson, who is conducting research into something known as remote influence. It's basically mind-reading. He's there in case they need to convince Oscar to leave the island. I think? Taylor and Mark have a past. She was his student and lover and he used her as one of his subjects without her consent.

If there's one thing my romance doesn't need, it's mind-reading! I've come across this a couple of times and I am honestly stumped as to how anyone could find it romantic or sexy! Being with someone who can read your mind whenever they want to is not romantic - it's creepy! It's invasive. It's more mind-rape than mind-reading. Even worse, the "hero" is not hero material at all. He's a predator! He was a university professor who began an affair with a student, used his powers to read her mind, and did it all without her consent or knowledge. Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck! He should be in jail, or at least losing his tenure! He didn't improve from there. He kept reading Taylor's mind while on their mission despite her telling him not to. He teaches her a trick to block him. When he continues to read her mind and she berates him, he tells her that it's her own fault for not employing his blocking trick better! What the ever-loving fuck? If that's not a metaphor for victim blaming, I don't know what is!

The plot itself is a bit of a bore. It takes 100 pages for Taylor and Mark to even reach the island. From that point, it's mostly still all talk and no action. The climax is handled pretty well and mildly exciting, but the enjoyment from that quickly dissipates as the book carries on for another 20 pages and tries to throw in a black moment that literally only lasts a moment before Mark is forgiven for the fact that he has once again been using Taylor as a test subject all throughout the mission. But it's luuuurrrve, so it's okay, am I right?

Don't let anyone you know use remote influence to get you to read this trash.

[Darla Stokes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a romantic suspense with a paranormal angle. Our heroine is Taylor... *sigh* didn't we get over showing how strong and independent heroines were by giving them traditionally male names back in the 90s? It always makes me think that the author is intentionally trying to confuse the reader, so the book starts off with me being mildly irritated. She's an air force special agent, and her mission is to find out what a reclusive billionaire is doing with a brilliant scientist in his island fortress. To invade there, she needs the help of our hero, Mark, a colleague of the scientist, who studies telepathy (which the back of the book calls telekinesis, for some reason). Unfortunately, Taylor used to be Mark's research assistant and unwitting guinea pig.

The action/adventure parts are compelling, but the telepathy seemed out of place. Taylor doesn't trust Mark not to try to telepathically manipulate her, which seems sensible of her, but the resolution of that conflict isn't remotely satisfying. In addition, it really doesn't seem to have anything to do with the suspense story, which gets more over-the-top evil as it goes on.

It felt like there were two stories here, either one of which would have been fine on its own, if it had been fully developed, but instead they were mashed together, to the benefit of neither.

On the plus side, it was a quick read, and mostly held my attention.

[Stacie]

Dr Mark Wolfson has physic abilities. In the past, he worked with lab assistant Taylor Chase. He influence her thoughts and used her behavior as part of a telekinetic experiment. She found out and felt betrayed. They are forced to partner up again and then realise that only their telepathic bond can save them.

[Savannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the action in the story and the tension between the characters. Fantastic read. Looking forward to reading more books from this author.

[Shanna_redwind · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun read, with the woman being the agent and the guy the civilian. I didn't feel the chemistry between them all that much, but the book was fun to read.