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lpcleland's review against another edition
3.0
Enjoyable easy fun read. Characters were distinctly developed. Action and plot development a little predictable but not enough to take away from the fun. Clever banter between main characters.
nicetory_99's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
kathydavie's review against another edition
4.0
First in the Knight and Moon romantic suspense series and revolving around a newly hired financial analyst, Riley Moon, and the eccentric billionaire, Emerson Knight.
My Take
It's a comic and shallow romp with two new characters in the Evanovich stable with an odd blend of crazy with a soupçon of suspense, although that prologue and how it ended had me wondering from page 5 on…
The romantic end of it is mostly tell; I was not feelin' it. I suspect part of my problem with Curious Minds was the bad guys' approach to Riley as a problem. It was too quick and too predictable, both in how they viewed her and their decision to cancel her. It was symptomatic of the whole story.
I do like Emerson, even when he drives Riley nuts with his metaphysical obsessions which contrast with his modern day actions and detecting. And I like his family's charitable activities. As for those wisecracks…oh, yeah, lol.
Okay, the whole Knight family is nutso. His great-great grandfather Lamont adopted the moniker Mysterioso AND commissioned a statue of his mistress to overlook his grave, so "that his wife would never visit his grave" … and … "he'd have peace in the hereafter even if he couldn't have it in this life".
Evanovich and Sutton (E/S) enriches Riley's character with her shared car obsession, but that's pretty much it. I had expected some fancy driving or tinkering, and…nope.
Maxine is a good example of why you shouldn't let vengeance take over your thinking. Of course, she's not anywhere in the same league as the Grunwalds, father and sons.
It's cute. It's funny. And those witticisms do make you think.
The Story
Riley Moon has been assigned to assure Emerson Knight that his newly inherited fortune is in good hands. Only, Emmie wants to see it. He wants to see those piles of gold bars.
It's an insistence that leads to breaking-and-entering, a wild chase across the country, a "visit" to Area 51, and an even wilder rescue.
The Characters
Newly graduated from Harvard Business and Harvard Law, Texan spitfire and very ambitious Riley "Moonbeam" Moon has landed her dream job as a junior analyst. Her daddy had been a county sheriff in Bishop Hills, Texas, and is obsessed with muscle cars and NASCAR. Her mom is a grade school teacher. Of her four brothers, we meet Lowell, who is the oldest and a conspiracy nut, and Dwayne, who is a year older than Riley and is with the highway patrol. Aunt Rose and Uncle Charlie live in a doublewide.
The incredibly rich Emerson Knight is brilliant, eccentric, and has little to no sense of social etiquette. He's also obsessed with the metaphysical. Good thing or he'd probably be homeless. He lives in the family mansion in Washington D.C., Mysterioso Manor, with its oddly assorted collection of zoo animals and his relatives: Aunt Myra and cousin Vernon who has his own automotive obsession. Vernon, moonlighting with his cousin's "title" of Mysterioso, runs a conspiracy blog. Mitchell Knight had been Emerson's father, a communications and aerospace mogul. Sophia Delgado had been his supermodel mother who ran off with soccer star Ronaldo Diaz. Lamont Knight, Senior, had been his great-great-grandfather and a legendary robber baron of the Gilded Age. Thiru Kuthambai Siddhar is Emerson's metaphysical mentor. Larry Quiller had been Emerson's chauffeur as a kid. Mr. Pip is a monkey. The staff that never stays includes Danielle and Melody.
Blane-Grunwald (B-G) is…
…a mega-bank founded by the now-deceased Professor Bertie Gruenwald who went on to be chairman of the Federal Reserve. His sons are Werner, who heads up the bank while Günter is more middle-management, Hans is a commanding general of the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command now running the NSA, and Manfred is about to be appointed an associate judge to the U.S. Supreme Court. Hmmm, I wonder if there's a German theme going on here…
Maxine Trowbridge is Günter's assistant. Yvette Jaworski is a much-disliked woman with wild tales about the gold trade. Lawrence Tatum and Daniel Ferguson are employees who committed suicide.
Irene Grunwald is Günter's alcoholic wife who smokes dope, can't wait to get out, and is frustrated by all those buried Saint Nicholas statues.
Edward Rollo is an NSA agent with a psychotic bent.
The Federal Reserve is…
…the central banking system of the U.S. John Varnet is the vault auditor. William McCabe is the current chairman of the Federal Reserve and a former B-G employee. A Good Delivery bar meets benchmark standards of what's an acceptable large gold bar.
Those who owe Emerson a favor include…
…Lieutenant Lepofsky and Lieutenant Dannay investigating that first murder; Wesley Bachoo is with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development of the Sovereign Republic of Mauritius; and Archbishop Aberrai, who conducts the Red Mass for the legal community.
The Carlyle is a luxury hotel in Manhattan that keeps a suite available for Emerson. Maurice is the receptionist. James is a porter. Dr. Bauerfeind is a chemist who developed a process to analyze the origins of gold. Amy "Xandy" Zavier is the guide at Area 51 and a former dental hygienist from Des Moines. Freddie Schmidt is a friend of Dwayne's. An amanuensis is "a literary or artistic assistant, in particular, one who takes dictation or copies manuscripts". Oracle is a superhero alter ego for Barbara Gordon after she ended up in a wheelchair. Andy Gattle is a friend of Vernon's who rents out junker RVs.
The Cover and Title
The cover is a dark night sky, pink clouds floating across that view that angles up with the colonial blue gridded sides of skyscrapers in each corner of the cover, pushing our focus to Evanovich's name outlined in blue and filled in with embossed silver with Sutton's name almost invisible underneath in an embossed royal blue. The series information is in the same blue below Sutton's name in very small print. The title is at the bottom of the cover in a silver embossed font.
The title may be plural, but it's Emerson all the way with his Curious Minds.
My Take
It's a comic and shallow romp with two new characters in the Evanovich stable with an odd blend of crazy with a soupçon of suspense, although that prologue and how it ended had me wondering from page 5 on…
The romantic end of it is mostly tell; I was not feelin' it. I suspect part of my problem with Curious Minds was the bad guys' approach to Riley as a problem. It was too quick and too predictable, both in how they viewed her and their decision to cancel her. It was symptomatic of the whole story.
I do like Emerson, even when he drives Riley nuts with his metaphysical obsessions which contrast with his modern day actions and detecting. And I like his family's charitable activities. As for those wisecracks…oh, yeah, lol.
Okay, the whole Knight family is nutso. His great-great grandfather Lamont adopted the moniker Mysterioso AND commissioned a statue of his mistress to overlook his grave, so "that his wife would never visit his grave" … and … "he'd have peace in the hereafter even if he couldn't have it in this life".
Evanovich and Sutton (E/S) enriches Riley's character with her shared car obsession, but that's pretty much it. I had expected some fancy driving or tinkering, and…nope.
Maxine is a good example of why you shouldn't let vengeance take over your thinking. Of course, she's not anywhere in the same league as the Grunwalds, father and sons.
It's cute. It's funny. And those witticisms do make you think.
The Story
Riley Moon has been assigned to assure Emerson Knight that his newly inherited fortune is in good hands. Only, Emmie wants to see it. He wants to see those piles of gold bars.
It's an insistence that leads to breaking-and-entering, a wild chase across the country, a "visit" to Area 51, and an even wilder rescue.
The Characters
Newly graduated from Harvard Business and Harvard Law, Texan spitfire and very ambitious Riley "Moonbeam" Moon has landed her dream job as a junior analyst. Her daddy had been a county sheriff in Bishop Hills, Texas, and is obsessed with muscle cars and NASCAR. Her mom is a grade school teacher. Of her four brothers, we meet Lowell, who is the oldest and a conspiracy nut, and Dwayne, who is a year older than Riley and is with the highway patrol. Aunt Rose and Uncle Charlie live in a doublewide.
The incredibly rich Emerson Knight is brilliant, eccentric, and has little to no sense of social etiquette. He's also obsessed with the metaphysical. Good thing or he'd probably be homeless. He lives in the family mansion in Washington D.C., Mysterioso Manor, with its oddly assorted collection of zoo animals and his relatives: Aunt Myra and cousin Vernon who has his own automotive obsession. Vernon, moonlighting with his cousin's "title" of Mysterioso, runs a conspiracy blog. Mitchell Knight had been Emerson's father, a communications and aerospace mogul. Sophia Delgado had been his supermodel mother who ran off with soccer star Ronaldo Diaz. Lamont Knight, Senior, had been his great-great-grandfather and a legendary robber baron of the Gilded Age. Thiru Kuthambai Siddhar is Emerson's metaphysical mentor. Larry Quiller had been Emerson's chauffeur as a kid. Mr. Pip is a monkey. The staff that never stays includes Danielle and Melody.
Blane-Grunwald (B-G) is…
…a mega-bank founded by the now-deceased Professor Bertie Gruenwald who went on to be chairman of the Federal Reserve. His sons are Werner, who heads up the bank while Günter is more middle-management, Hans is a commanding general of the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command now running the NSA, and Manfred is about to be appointed an associate judge to the U.S. Supreme Court. Hmmm, I wonder if there's a German theme going on here…
Maxine Trowbridge is Günter's assistant. Yvette Jaworski is a much-disliked woman with wild tales about the gold trade. Lawrence Tatum and Daniel Ferguson are employees who committed suicide.
Irene Grunwald is Günter's alcoholic wife who smokes dope, can't wait to get out, and is frustrated by all those buried Saint Nicholas statues.
Edward Rollo is an NSA agent with a psychotic bent.
The Federal Reserve is…
…the central banking system of the U.S. John Varnet is the vault auditor. William McCabe is the current chairman of the Federal Reserve and a former B-G employee. A Good Delivery bar meets benchmark standards of what's an acceptable large gold bar.
Those who owe Emerson a favor include…
…Lieutenant Lepofsky and Lieutenant Dannay investigating that first murder; Wesley Bachoo is with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development of the Sovereign Republic of Mauritius; and Archbishop Aberrai, who conducts the Red Mass for the legal community.
The Carlyle is a luxury hotel in Manhattan that keeps a suite available for Emerson. Maurice is the receptionist. James is a porter. Dr. Bauerfeind is a chemist who developed a process to analyze the origins of gold. Amy "Xandy" Zavier is the guide at Area 51 and a former dental hygienist from Des Moines. Freddie Schmidt is a friend of Dwayne's. An amanuensis is "a literary or artistic assistant, in particular, one who takes dictation or copies manuscripts". Oracle is a superhero alter ego for Barbara Gordon after she ended up in a wheelchair. Andy Gattle is a friend of Vernon's who rents out junker RVs.
The Cover and Title
The cover is a dark night sky, pink clouds floating across that view that angles up with the colonial blue gridded sides of skyscrapers in each corner of the cover, pushing our focus to Evanovich's name outlined in blue and filled in with embossed silver with Sutton's name almost invisible underneath in an embossed royal blue. The series information is in the same blue below Sutton's name in very small print. The title is at the bottom of the cover in a silver embossed font.
The title may be plural, but it's Emerson all the way with his Curious Minds.
mothermoth's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
theavidreaderandbibliophile's review against another edition
3.0
Curious Minds by Janet Evanovich is A Knight-Moon Novel (first book in a new series). Riley Moon has just graduated Harvard Business and Harvard Law and has landed her dream job as a junior analyst at Blane-Grunewald in Washington, D.C. The second week on the job her boss Werner assigns her to Emerson Knight. Emerson Knight lives in Mysterioso Manor and is very eccentric. The bank has sent him numerous requests to visit since the death of Emerson’s father, but he has ignored each and every one of them. So, the bank sends Riley to Emerson. Riley is actually glad to get away from the office. Her boss is slightly smarmy and keeps calling her “Moonbeam”. Emerson presents Riley with an unusual request. He wants his gold (he owns actual gold bars). Riley explains that it is not that easy. So, Emerson will settle for seeing his gold and he would like a meeting with Gunter Grunwald. Emerson’s simple requests turn out to be not so simple. Gunter has disappeared. There is also money missing from six clients (Emerson is one of them). Riley and Emerson set out to get answers. They are in for one thrilling and dangerous adventure.
Curious Minds had some snippets that I liked, but, for the most part, I did not enjoy Curious Minds. It was too silly to be enjoyable. We have an extremely eccentric millionaire. Emerson wears Converse sneakers (I liked that part), sleeps in a tent in the library, the weird house, the various zoo animals, extremely brilliant, etc. Emerson is many various characters slapped together (Sherlock Holmes for one and Richey Rich is another—I am dating myself with this reference). Let us not forget his Aunt Myra and the pet armadillo. I found the characters to be flat. If there is supposed to be chemistry between Riley and Emerson, I did not feel it. The “mystery” is no mystery. It is a storyline that must play out (we are not given the opportunity to solve the mystery). We follow Riley and Emerson as they investigate the gold issue and the bad bank men (another cliché). I was very disappointed by Curious Minds. It is not my type of story. I prefer more serious mystery novels (with a mystery that I can try and solve). I am just not a fan of slap stick comedy (I do not like the Three Stooges either). I give Curious Minds 2 out of 5 stars. I will be steering clear of this series in the future.
Curious Minds had some snippets that I liked, but, for the most part, I did not enjoy Curious Minds. It was too silly to be enjoyable. We have an extremely eccentric millionaire. Emerson wears Converse sneakers (I liked that part), sleeps in a tent in the library, the weird house, the various zoo animals, extremely brilliant, etc. Emerson is many various characters slapped together (Sherlock Holmes for one and Richey Rich is another—I am dating myself with this reference). Let us not forget his Aunt Myra and the pet armadillo. I found the characters to be flat. If there is supposed to be chemistry between Riley and Emerson, I did not feel it. The “mystery” is no mystery. It is a storyline that must play out (we are not given the opportunity to solve the mystery). We follow Riley and Emerson as they investigate the gold issue and the bad bank men (another cliché). I was very disappointed by Curious Minds. It is not my type of story. I prefer more serious mystery novels (with a mystery that I can try and solve). I am just not a fan of slap stick comedy (I do not like the Three Stooges either). I give Curious Minds 2 out of 5 stars. I will be steering clear of this series in the future.
mimikins34's review against another edition
2.0
It was fine. I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it to anyone. I’ll listen to the second one, but only cause its free from the library and takes up time on my drive home.
lurker_stalker's review against another edition
4.0
I'd only read one Evanovich book before this one and had a great time with it. I had never heard of Phoef Sutton but wanted to give this book - the first in a new series - a shot. I'm happy I did. It was truly a fun, non-stop joy ride filled with murder and mayhem. The story line was interesting (tracking down stolen gold) and the characters were truly a hoot. The bad guys were bad and the good guys were lovable and a load of fun to get to know.
I'm looking forward to reading more about these characters in the next book.
I was given a copy of Curious Minds through NetGalley and Random House in exchange for an honest review.
I'm looking forward to reading more about these characters in the next book.
I was given a copy of Curious Minds through NetGalley and Random House in exchange for an honest review.
liz_newbern's review against another edition
4.0
Curious Minds is sort of an interesting cross between a slow-burn romantic comedy and National Treasure. Evanovich and Sutton take the reader on a ride into the strange and at times absurd as Riley Moon is dragged into Emerson Knight's passionate pursuit of answers about the wereabouts of his money.
It is a fun and fast-paced read, that at times moves so quickly, you almost have to double-back to esnure you didn't miss anything. It is certainly not for anyone looking for a deep serious read, but may appeal to readers of Evanovich and Sutton's Lizzy and Diesel novels, which shares the quick-witted and often absurd scenarios that the characters often find themselves embroilled in.
It is a fun and fast-paced read, that at times moves so quickly, you almost have to double-back to esnure you didn't miss anything. It is certainly not for anyone looking for a deep serious read, but may appeal to readers of Evanovich and Sutton's Lizzy and Diesel novels, which shares the quick-witted and often absurd scenarios that the characters often find themselves embroilled in.
kansas_girl's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
hmushock's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25