The Naturals

My first audiobook ever! Are you guys proud of me?

I listened to most of this while I walked, finished it in a car trip yesterday. It was nice. Solid plot, some captivating characters, good ending. I don't think I'll be following Cassie through her other adventures, but I had fun listening to this one.

5 stars! To think I picked this book up on a whim, I was unable to stop thinking about it even after I'd gone to bed to get some sleep. SO GOOD!!

Cassie's personality and character were so different, even with her back story, you wanted to see what was going to happen- what would happen to her. I even liked almost all the other characters (well, mostly) Lia was annoying....

The book hinted a lot about Sloane, Micheal, and Lia's backstories- but we really only got Dean's and Cassie's in this first book. I definitely will be reading every. single. book. in this. series.

THAT ENDING!!! I COULD NOT PREDICT A SINGLE THING IN THIS BOOK!! AHHH, I NEED MORE!!!!!!



WHERE'S BOOK 2????!!!!!

I love this book! The ending was completely surprising, I only saw it two pages before the reveal and I was shocked at the motive behind it. Cassie is an amazing person who is super relatable and all the other characters have really grown on me, even the ones I didn't originally like. I rave about this book all the time to some of my friends, it probably gets annoying. I would recommend this to anyone who like YA and crime scenes. You don't have to be a mystery lover to love this book. (Although I kinda am)

must....buy. ...sequel. .. asap!

Awesome thriller about teens with innate natural abilities that are utilized to solve serial murders. The mystery was very well executed and the plot kept my rapt attention till the wee hours of the night. The characters were captivating and nicely developed. I did not predict any of the twists but I wish there were more cold cases that the group of Naturals solved and that I could have seen them more in action. The romance was a bit quick to develop but not unbelievable. I actually like the two love interests even if one of them falls into the brooding you-shouldn't-be-with-me role. The romance didn't overpower the book and for that I'm grateful because the plot was thrilling enough to keep me on my toes.

Overall I am a fan of Barnes' writing style and have been for a while. I would recommend if you like mystery thrillers and messed up teens with crime-solving powers.

We've all heard of Quantico, VA, the small town that is home to the FBI Academy, Laboratory, NCIS, and so on. What most of us don't know is that it's also home to a secret training ground for teenagers who are so intuitively good at profiling and other forensically-inclined psychological skills that they're described as “Natural.” Two FBI agents and one retired Marine run this program and house, using the teens to crack cold cases. Sharpening their skills in a safe environment, so that when the time is ripe, they'll be Super Agents.

The Naturals opens with Cassie – being raised by her grandmother while her father's off somewhere with the Armed Services. She's seventeen and can read people like a Richard Scarry book, which makes her a great small diner waitress. Until she's given the chance to join program and she jumps at it, becoming the fifth member of the team.

Cassie jumps into the training, and picks things up quickly. I really enjoyed reading those scenes – she and Dean, the other profiler, sound so much like Will Graham from NBC's Hannibal that I really got into it. Outside Quantico, things are afoot that will keep this from being all training and cold cases – and I bet, for those who survive, the next books will also pretty fresh cases, too.

Walking into a two-guy, two-gal house – and, apparently, being more attractive than she's aware – Cassie complicates things. Soon she's part of at least one Romantic Polygon. It's not too painful at the moment, but I could see it overtaking things in a book or two. It's marketed as YA, so it was likely anyway – still, you should know it's out there.

None of the characters – including Cassie – are much more than groupings of characteristics and tics at this point, but I'd be willing to guess that they could be within another book or two. For now, they're good enough for what the book is. It really is a fun read

A fast, fun read with just enough suspense to keep you moving, but not as much as you'd get in a Thomas Harris or Val McDermid psychological thriller – a great way to cut your teeth on the subgenre. I'll come back for more – and I'll pass it off to my daughter, who will likely eat it up.

I'll start by saying mystery/crime procedural isn't really my jam, so I know I'm not the target audience for this book. I read it with an eye toward maybe booktalking it to the local junior high kids, since mysteries/MURDER are very popular with them, and some reviews recommended this for grades 7-9. I'm ultimately NOT going to booktalk it–I definitely do think a lot of kids in that age range would enjoy that, and most of them probably wouldn't be too shocked by it, given other media they're exposed to. BUT this is a book about profilers of serial killers, and they talk about serial killers & sexual assault, and I'm just... choosing not to promote this to every junior high kid.

I think the concept–teens who are Natural profilers/lie detectors/emotion readers/whatever are collected by the FBI and sent to live in a training house that's kind of like an un-televised Real World situation–is cool if implausible, and a lot of teens would be into it.

Some teens might like the love triangle? For me, aside from being a little ~over~ love triangles, as many are these days, I was also confused by this one because I could NOT tell the two boys apart and I kept forgetting which one of them was supposed to be the ~bad boy~? Like, they are both broody FBI profilers-in-training.

Overall, a fast, enjoyable mystery (I def did not predict the ending!) and like I said–not my genre. If you (or your teens) are into mystery/procedural you'll probably like this more.

3,5 Sterne

Fact: I'm slightly obsessed with books and movies about serial killers. Fact: I love good audio book narrators. Bring these two things together, and you have The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. It's likely that I was just in the right frame of mind to appreciate this book, but I loved every minute of it! It's been a long time since a book kept me guessing until the end, but this one did just that. That, in itself, is a win.

Cassie was a stellar protagonist. I loved being inside her head, and seeing the world from the point of view of a case profiler. To Cassie, the world is easy to read. She can see the motivations behind what people do as easily as she can see the clothes they wear. It's an interesting talent, and one that pushes the story forward. Even before she joined up with The Naturals, Cassie was the type of character I love to follow. Strong, intelligent, and a cool head on her shoulders. My kind of girl.

Let's talk romance, shall we? I'll be the first person to admit that I'm not generally a fan of love triangles. I feel like so many books out there believe the only tension a book needs is love triangle based angst. While The Naturals does include this tension, it didn't really bother me. I barely noticed the fact that Cassie was torn between two guys because, honestly, who has time to worry about romance when you're hunting down a killer? I liked Dean. I liked Michael. In my eyes, she could have ended up with either one and I wouldn't have cared. Just catch the killer while you choose, okay Cassie?

Best of all, this book kept me guessing right up until the end. It's brilliant really, how easily the stories dupes you into thinking you know who the killer really is. I probably changed my guess at least twice while reading and, I'm happy to note, I ended up being wrong anyway. That's the kind of tension I love in a story. That's the build up that makes me want to keep reading on. By the time the ending actually came, I was so ready to find out the truth. There wasn't one moment of this story that didn't have me wide eyed and reading on.

It's entirely possible that I'm a little biased right now, since it's been so long since I've experienced a book like The Naturals. Still, I can't deny that it was a really fun ride. If you have the chance, I'd definitely pick up the audio book! The narrator is fantastic, and really brings the characters to life. Five stars from this bookworm. I can't wait for book two!