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Friday, June 02, 2017

WEE REVIEW: The Naturals (#1) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Synopsis from Goodreads

Cassie Hobbes is not like most teenagers. Most teenagers don’t lose their mother in a bloody, unsolved kidnapping. Most teenagers can’t tell who you are, where you’re from and how you’re likely to behave within moments of meeting you. And most teenagers don’t get chosen to join The Naturals.

Identified by the FBI as uniquely gifted, Cassie is recruited to an elite school where a small number of teens are trained to hone their exceptional abilites.

For Cassie, trying to make friends with the girls, and to figure out the two very different, very hot boys, is challenging enough. But when a serial killer begins recreating the details of her mother’s horrific crime scene, she
realises just how dangerous life in The Naturals could be...


Published November 7th 2013 by Quercus (first published November 5th 2013)
Source: Bought

Wee Review (4 Stars )

I loved this book, I was surprised at how much it managed to grip me.
 I have been a big fan of Ally Carter (who has blurbed this book) ever since I first
read her I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I's Have To Kill You, and I have to
recommend this series to all Ally fans. I have always considered Ally's books
to be for the younger age group of YA, and I was worried that I wouldn't enjoy
 this book (I think aimed at a similar age group) as my reading
 tastes have matured. However, I got hooked on the plot line and the whole teen
crime drama feel. 


So this book follows Cassie as she joins a small FBI programme of 'naturals' who have different abilities. Cassie's 'gifts' reminded me a bit if Sherlock Homes(especially in the BBC series edition) to solve the crimes by noticing random things about a person and the way he is portrayed or scene and drawing some amazing conclusions. I loved reading about Cassie and her profiling abilities and it was fascinating to watch her profile people from the most simple items and actions.

Although there is a limited number of secondary characters in this book, the majority of them were well fleshed out with some much individual personalities. I enjoyed the dynamics of the teens within this programme, although I will say I felt as thought the romance side of this wasn't completely necessary. It took we a good while to fully understand the 'you' chapters but once I grasped who's point of view it was, these chapters were just fascinating!

I really enjoyed this book, another great series starter for Jennifer Lynn Barnes, it was great to another side of her as author (I didn't realize she had degrees in psychology). I love that she uses her own passions to fuel her plots.