Hello again, how are you doing? Welcome back to another review!
The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Genre: YA mystery
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 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. Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms close. 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.
This series kept popping up on my feed that I finally decided to give in and see what the hype was about last year. And holly molly, I UNDERSTAND IT NOW!! This is one of the best book series I’ve read so far and I’m really surprised it was published like 10 years ago?!!? Where WAS I??
It’s like the perfect blend of suspense with a dash of romance on the side. One of things I really LOVED was how deep the characters are, like each one of them has their own backstory and motivation. I also thoroughly enjoyed seeing the world through their eyes, like there’s sooo much we might not pay attention. I found myself trying to do that irl and I was like woah, you’re kinda immersed in the story, aren’t you?!
Another aspect that made the series so intriguing were, of course, the characters. As I said, each one of them has their own backstory that we get to see and understand more in each book. I also loved how like Cassie’s “superpower” is not exactly the unique one, like you know how in stories the main character has the most unique ability that no one has? Well, in this, there are at least 2 profilers, while the others are one each. It isn’t like a really big thing but I found it refreshing.
If I was to rank the books from the most to least, it’s in the following order:
- Bad Blood (5 stars)
- All in (5 stars)
- Killer Instinct (4.75 stars)
- The Naturals (4.5 stars)
So basically, the opposite publishing order :p
This is the type of series that gets better and more captivating as the story goes on, the stakes gets higher and higher till the very end. Like once you start, it’s hard to put down. I can only imagine how The Inheritance Game will be. (Fun fact: I just realized they’re by the same author while writing this review)
Rating: 5 STARS
librorum in sempiternum 