Curious Minds

I cannot believe I’ve never read a Janet Evanovich novel. I think, because they are so popular, I decided to be a snob and NOT read what everyone else was reading. After all, I’m a book connoisseur … not an average reader. Guess what? Connoisseurs LOVE Janet Evanovich – so go ahead and pick it up. The masses were right on this one.

“Curious Minds” is a new series, the Knight and Moon series. Nothing to clever, just the last names of the two main characters.

I adored the ease of the read. Adventure, puzzles, a wee bit of possibly-some-day-kind-of-romance (she hooks me there so I have to keep reading the series…).

Miss Moon is a recent grad of the prestigious Harvard University (business school AND law school) and has landed show more her dream job in big world banking. She decided at a young age the way to help people would be to help keep their money and investments safe. Enter: gold supply hijinks.

Her first assignment is to “babysit” as she puts it, an eccentric, albeit handsome customer who has requested to actually see, gaze upon, his gold. Hmmmmm, who wants to see their actual deposited gold? Mr. Knight, that’s who. After visiting his home tucked away in Washing D.C., Moon is essentially asked by both sides to continue this interesting request. Her boss asks her to “report back” about Knight’s escapades and Knight keeps busy, chasing the goals. No worries though, he always “has a plan.”

They criss-cross the country – planes, RVs and automobiles in search of Knight’s gold. When “visiting” the Fed and realizing that the rumors are true of the world’s gold supply being traded for tungsten bars, the sleuthing moves to high gear. A source on the inside, a mysterious blogger, an eccentric billionaire and a fresh out of grad school banker hit the road.

The gold saga is wrapped up by the end of this novel, but the smolder between Knight and Moon has just been sparked. Curse you Janet Evanovich – I must read the next installment AFTER I’ve caught up with the Plum series and numerous stand alones that have now been highly recommended … my husband and my pocketbook rue the day that I finally picked up my first Evanovich novel and promptly fell in love. show less

Curious Minds is the first book in Janet Evanovich’s Knight and Moon series, and it delivers exactly what her fans have come to expect—fast-paced fun, quirky characters, and a good dose of humor mixed into a light mystery.

Riley Moon, a smart and ambitious recent Harvard grad, lands her dream job at a prestigious financial firm—only to find herself assigned to eccentric billionaire Emerson Knight. Emerson is brilliant, socially awkward, and prone to unusual habits (like keeping a live zebra on his estate). When a client’s gold goes missing, the unlikely pair are drawn into a conspiracy that reaches much further than either expected.

The chemistry between Riley and Emerson is the highlight of the book. Their personalities clash in show more all the right ways, and their banter gives the story its energy. The mystery itself isn’t overly complex, but the plot moves quickly and keeps the pages turning. It’s more about the ride than the destination, and Evanovich makes the ride entertaining.

Readers who enjoy the Stephanie Plum books will feel right at home here, though this series leans a bit more toward adventure and less toward slapstick. Curious Minds is a light, amusing read—perfect for when you want something clever and fun without being too heavy. show less

Very fun book to read, with classic Evanovich humor and hijinks. Riley is an ambitious young woman who isn't too happy when her dream job at a big bank turns into a job babysitting one of its biggest customers. Emerson is rich and eccentric, as well as brilliant and handsome. He is also somewhat clueless when it comes to dealing with people.

The first encounter between Riley and Emerson sets the tone for the book. All she wants to do is let him know his money is safe after some banking glitches. She doesn't quite know what to do when he insists on accompanying her back to the bank so that he can "see his own gold." At that point, the discovery that his usual bank contact has been missing for a month and is accused of embezzling from the show more company gives Emerson the brilliant idea that he and Riley should investigate Gunter's disappearance. Her boss tells her to keep an eye on Emerson and report back.

I thoroughly enjoyed Emerson's antics. The man is scary smart but doesn't have a cautious bone in his body. He comes up with wild plans that Riley tries, unsuccessfully, to talk him out of. Strangely enough, they nearly always work out, usually thanks to Emerson's refusal to believe that they won't. Riley is often left scrambling to keep up with Emerson, though she does have some shining moments of her own.

There is also some chemistry buzzing around Emerson and Riley. The first thing that she notices about him is how good looking he is. This frequently causes some distraction on her part. Emerson's lack of social skills become more evident in these situations as he blurts out occasional comments that could be offensive if Riley chose to take them that way. Nothing really comes of it, but the potential is there for the future.

The suspense of the story is pretty good. Emerson's missing gold leads them to uncover a plot that would wreak havoc on the world's finances. There are multiple twists and turns as our duo discovers fake gold bars, evades a sadistic NSA agent, is chased across the country to Area 51, and escapes death before saving the day. The bad guys' plot occasionally seems over the top, but parts of it are scarily realistic, especially the megalomaniac tendencies of the bad guys.

I also really enjoyed the secondary characters. Emerson's Aunt Myra was a trip with the way she treated Emerson. She certainly has her hands full dealing with him and his menagerie. She's no simple housekeeper though, as she proves several times throughout the book. I especially enjoyed the story of her encounter with some of the goons. Her son Vern comes across as a good ole boy, but he too is more than he appears. I liked the little bit we saw of Riley's family, and how close and supportive they are of each other. I hope to see more of them in the next book. show less

Wow, I think my expectations were too high when I saw Janet Evanovich's name. This book was very weak on all fronts. Either Evanovich was just dialing it in, or co-writer Phoef Sutton is a horrible writer, or both.

Emerson Knight is a very wealthy, eccentric client of Blane-Grunwald bank. Riley Moon is fresh out of Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School and has just started a new job at the same bank. Riley is given the unenviable assignment of keeping Emerson happy, answering his questions, etc. Somehow this assignment leads to a mystery about a missing person, missing gold, and nefarious underdealings by who-knows-whom.

First, let's talk about the main characters. Wow, zero depth. Emerson's supposed eccentricities felt show more incredibly forced. His odd way of looking at things, his martial arts skills, his exhorbitant wealth...All of it feels like the authors are trying to create a character like Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's character Aloysius Pendergast in their Pendergast series. But whereas Pendergast is likeably eccentric, Emerson just seems like a character that is trying to be likeably eccentric. And Riley Moon - she's supposed to be in her late 20s, but she talks and acts like a 15-year-old. Very immature in both language (How many times do we have to hear her say "crap on a cracker"?) and behavior, she was incredibly annoying and not worthy at all of being a protagonist. As for the bad guys in the book, there was no character development at all, no interesting factoids to make the reader think "oh, that's what makes them tick." They were completely one-dimensional with no personalities, and their behavior was very stereotypical Hollywood bad guy material - and only from a bad Hollywood movie.

Now, let's talk about the plot. Again, all surface and no depth. The plot moves too fast, jumping from one thing to the next. There was no time to develop plot parts in depth before moving onto the next plot element. Because of this, there was no real story line to follow. Even what little plot there was made me groan when it revealed itself; this was no interesting mystery - it was a boring, contrived plot line. The entire book was like an action movie where you're wondering what's going to happen next, not because you're engaged in the story line, but because you're just wondering what the heck is the point of everything.

When I finished the book, I was puzzled as to why this book was so bad. I've read Evanovich's books before; her Stephanie Plum series is quite entertaining. I don't expect considerable depth from Evanovich's books, but I do expect good writing and a good story line. I expect to be entertained. "Curious Minds" was painful to get through; it was that bad. So, in my puzzlement, I decided to read the bio of co-writer Sutton. And that's when the light bulb went on in my head. Sutton is a Hollywood guy - he wrote for sitcoms, drama series, etc. And that's exactly what this book was like - a Hollywood story. But even Hollywood stories can be done well. This book was not.

The book jacket indicates that this book is the first in a new series starring Emerson and Riley. Yikes. I can't imagine reading any more books like this one. Count me out. show less

I was so excited to win this ARC from Early Reviewers. I have been a fan of Evanovich's Stephanie Plum and Lizzy & Diesel series for years, and the premise of this book seemed interesting. I liked the idea of an educated protagonist, Riley, who (rather improbably) has degrees from Harvard, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Law School at the ripe old age of twenty-eight. I was willing to suspend disbelief, since I really wanted a non-klutzy well-educated Evanovich heroine. But I was ultimately disappointed.

What makes Evanovich's books great is the quirkiness of her characters, clever dialogue, and situational comedy worthy of prime time. This has remained the case even in her coauthored books, including the most recent Lizzy and show more Diesel novel which she wrote with the same coauthor as this book, Phoef Sutton. But this book has a slapdash quality that holds a lot of promise and little payoff. In the course of the first Stephanie Plum and Lizzy and Diesel novels, you get a rich sense of the characters, their relationships, and what formula the rest of the books will take. Riley and Emerson have promise as characters and there are hints at quirky family members and fun backstories, but the book asks you to take a lot on faith that you'll learn more in subsequent books. The mystery is forced and I don't really understand Riley's motivation to jump into this adventure. The sexual tension between the protagonists is tepid at best. Ugh, I'm so disappointed! I wanted this book to be good SO BADLY.

I'm going to stick with Stephanie and Lizzy (though Stephanie has been going a bit downhill lately...) and probably won't pick up the next book in the Knight and Moon series. I just get the sense that Evanovich is really over extended, and I don't understand why she felt the need to start yet another series when she has so many other plates spinning. show less

Ok, let’s get the obvious out of the way: Riley Moon, heroine of Curious Minds, the first entry in, what I’m sure will be, a new mystery series by Janet Evanovich and Phoef Sutton, is basically Stephanie Plum’s sass mixed with Kate O’Hare’s competence, while her counterpart, kookie millionaire Emerson Knight is a mix of Ranger and Nick Fox, minus the people skills. Not that any of this is bad - if you like Janet Evanovich’s other series (and I definitely do!) you’re going to love this one (I liked it a lot). It helps, however, to get over the idea that the story is going to be anything original or surprising. (It does take until page 216 for Riley to “[do] an eye-roll”. I was surprised it took that long…)

Riley Moon, show more a recently-hired “junior analyst with mega-bank Blane-Grunewald” finds herself yanked away from her desk and assigned to super-rich client Emerson Knight. Knight wants to see his gold, a seemingly simple request that sets the two of them on an adventure chockful of crazy characters, brutal bad guys, witty quips and hijinks galore - everything you’d expect from a Janet Evanovich story.

As I mentioned before, I’m an Evanovich fan and found many of the characters and situations familiar, I enjoyed almost every minute of this book. (except the eye-rolls. Janet and co-authors please, Please, PLEASE!!!! Enough with the eye-rolls!!!!) The heroes were fun and quirky, the mystery was exciting and the writing, very enjoyable. For those who aren’t already fans, the characters might be a little flimsy (right or wrong, I filled in a lot of blanks, myself) but, if you like modern, genre mysteries, this will definitely make for an afternoon or two of fun! show less

This will be a wonderful book when it grows up.

It has the snappy, snarky dialog we expect from JE, the two main characters have potential to be fascinating, and the plot is good.
Other than that, this is a sketch of a novel.

The main characters – Riley and Emerson - are lacking in depth. Backgrounds are thin. Oh, yes, Riley has degrees in Business and Law from Harvard, but since she doesn’t use her education once in Book 1, she might as well have had a degree in basket weaving from Reeds & Shuttle University - and been more interesting. Emerson is rich, which doesn’t make him unique among hero-wannabees, although he is also smart and clever. But he comes across as a Sheldon Cooper, an idiot savant. Leading to my next observation:
show more
Motivation is shallow. Riley and Emerson don’t change, they don’t grow. They are like Lego characters. They move from here to there, but we don’t know how. I know more about Emerson’s Aunt Myra than I know about Emerson. And therefore, I like Aunt Myra more than I like Emerson.

The plot is clever, but it’s a rock, careening downhill. There are no interesting detours – little side trips into a part of Riley or Emerson’s worlds, or Washington, D.C. or New York. There’s not one single red herring; not one single event that doesn’t directly lead to the exciting conclusion.

Speaking of which, we know who did it early on. Very early on. This means the straight-plot-shot from page one to page 322 is woefully under-written. When there is no mystery to engage me, then in addition to a stable full of secondary characters and detours, side trips, and red herrings, I want suspense of some sort, otherwise, why is this called a thriller?

Look, if I know from the beginning who did it, and if I know this is the first book in a series, then I know R&E will not only get out alive, but will confound the enemy and foil his plot. No suspense, no thrill. How do Ludlum, Fleming, Deaver, and Child get around this? Secondary characters and interesting detours, and what I think of as “the creep factor” – you know when you’re so deep in a book, a phone suddenly ringing has you scraping hair off the ceiling.

I know JE can write suspense set in a rich, busy world teeming with lots of fascinating characters I haven’t met before who I want to read more about. Phoef Sutton is a long-time writer, a producer for Cheers and Boston Legal – TV series which depended heavily on ensemble acting. What happened? This book, in its infancy has four interesting characters: Aunt Myra, Xandy, Vernon, and Larry. In a 322 page book, that means one intriguing character every 80 pages. That’s putting a lot of pressure on these four characters to carry the book – I mean, the sketch.

I received this book from Library Thing Early Review. show less