The Naturals (The Naturals, #1)

by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

[jnikkir]

This review can also be found at my blog, There were books involved...

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Wow. It's really amazing to jump out of your comfort zone every once in a while, is it? I mean, I guess this book isn't strictly outside my "comfort zone" ... maybe just outside my norm. But still, it's good to mix things up. I have to be in a very specific mood to pick up a modern thriller, and luckily, that mood finally struck, because I've been wanting to pick up this book for a long time. And it didn't disappoint.

The Naturals is about a group of teens, recruited by the FBI because of their various natural talents, who work to help solve cold cases using those talents. Cassie Hobbes is the newest recruit, a natural behavioral profiler thanks to her fake-psychic mother -- who was murdered when Cassie was 12, and whose killer was never caught.

The book spends a lot of time introducing us to Cassie, taking us along with her as she moves from her home with her grandmother, to being contacted by the FBI, to moving into the house where the "Naturals" all live and work and train. It takes a little while before getting to the main plot, but I was perfectly happy to spend time getting to know the other Naturals -- Michael, who can read emotions; Sloane, a whiz with probabilities and numbers and facts; Lia, a Natural lie-detector (and liar herself); and Dean, another Natural profiler like Cassie. These characters -- especially Cassie and Dean -- were really the main reason I loved this book.

Cassie herself has a really interesting way of looking at the world -- and looking at people -- since her first instinct is to profile them, and she's usually always right. She's also strong, smart, and very believable as a 17-year-old profiler thanks to her history and upbringing, which I appreciated. In fact, all of the characters are really well-done. They all felt believable as teens thrown together and forced to work as a unit -- they're not always super nice to each other, there's drama, and they don't all get along all the time. I liked that believability. Out of all of the characters, I definitely have a soft spot for Dean, as he's sort of the outcast of the group. Much of his story is spoilery, but just know that there were many moments where I just had to pause and go "Oh, my heart!" in response to something Dean-related. ...OH, MY HEART. I just want to wrap him in cotton and keep him safe and let him watch fluffy movies all day and be happy...

...Erm. Moving on...

Anyway, yeah. If you put great characters on the page in front of me, I'll read about them doing pretty much anything. It's a bonus when the plot is equally gripping -- which is definitely is. Even when the first part of the book is spent getting to know Cassie's new situation working and training with the Naturals, it's still super interesting and intriguing. But then when the plot really kicks into gear... oh man, watch out. I almost never read books in a day, but I was glued to this book and read 90% of it in basically one sitting. It was that good.

There were just a couple things that kept me from rating this one 5 stars. The main thing was that I have to reeeeeally love a book to give it 5 stars -- and though there are elements of this book that I adore, it just doesn't hit the sparkly, head-over-heels-in-love-with-it level, for me personally. (The Naturals is a thriller/mystery, and for any mystery to get me to looove it, the level of character-development has to be out-of-this-world strong. It's really very good in The Naturals, but not OMG good, for me.)

The other thing that kiiiiind of got to me was that there's a bit of a love triangle going on... *grumble grumble* But I massively ship one side of this triangle, and I NEED THEM TO BE TOGETHER, so I'm kind of dying to start book 2. Just so they can be together. Because they will be. Darn it, they WILL BE!!

...Argh. I knew I shouldn't talk about the ship. I knew I would devolve into capslock. Forgive me. Now back to your regularly-scheduled, mostly-coherent review...


In conclusion...

I really enjoyed this book. And I've gone the entire review without saying it, but it does have to be said: The Naturals seriously is a YA Criminal Minds. I usually don't like the whole "comparison" thing -- this book is the YA Game of Thrones! etc -- but here, it really fits. I'm a huge fan of Criminal Minds, and I can say with near certainty that if you like CM, and you like YA, there's probably a 90% chance you will like The Naturals.

...which is really just a diplomatic and rational-sounding way of me saying "OH YOU LIKE CRIMINAL MINDS?? YOU LIKE YA?? YOU SHOULD READ THE NATURALS OMG IT'S SO GOOD YOU'LL LOVE IT."

...aaand back to the capslock.

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There were books involved...