Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Publish Date:November 5, 2013
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary, Crime
Series Name: The Naturals (#1)
Plot (from Goodreads):
Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But it’s not a skill that she’s ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they’ve begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie.
What Cassie doesn’t realize is that there’s more at risk than a few unsolved homicides—especially when she’s sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own. Sarcastic, privileged Michael has a knack for reading emotions, which he uses to get inside Cassie’s head—and under her skin. Brooding Dean shares Cassie’s gift for profiling, but keeps her at arm’s length.
Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms closer than Cassie could ever have imagined. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive.
Why I Read this Book: I saw this book at my local library and it looked really interesting. I am a forensic science major so I naturally love crime books.
Review
This book was a little slow in the beginning but the pace really picked up. I loved the criminal profiling that occurred in the book. I loved that each character had their own distinct personality and each character was very complex.I loved the crime aspect of the novel. I am not a psychology major, but the criminal profiling seemed to be realistic. The author has a degree in psychology and also has her PhD so I trust that they are accurate.
After about 50 pages in, the book is very fast paced and filled with action. There is a love triangle that is a bit cliche, but what book nowadays does not have a cliche love triangle?
I read this book in one day and I truly loved it. This is part of a series and I am not sure how many books will be in the series. I think this book would have worked perfectly as a standalone novel, but there were a few things that were left unanswered that may be answered in the next novel. This is one of the books that I would have preferred to be a standalone novel though.
Final Statements
Recommended Reading Age: 16+ for intense scenes and sexual references
Overall Rating: 4.5/5
Any comments as a Christian Gal, as that was what I was really interested in.
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