Book Review: The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (The Naturals #1)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre: Mystery

I may be in the minority when I say this: The Naturals is better than the Inheritance Games, and I will die on this hill. I know, I know, this is just the first book. But considering the ending was a good closure for the plot of the book and it didn’t really leave off on a cliffhanger, I think I can have this opinion already. It definitely exceeded my expectations and had me impressed and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the series entails.

Continue reading for more details.

Synopsis:

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.

Review:

I loved all the characters because of the diversity in personalities and character traits which was influenced by what type of “Natural” they were. Cassie, our main character and a Natural profiler, definitely was the most stereotypical or basic character from the lineup. She felt like an average character and didn’t really feel like she had much depth to her. I didn’t dislike her though because with all the rest of the characters, a bit of basics didn’t take away from the story but instead just balanced everyone else out.

Michael, a Natural with emotions, was more mysterious or at least trying to keep his past hidden. Though, to be fair, most of the Naturals did the same. Though he continued to throw Cassie off from accurately profiling him and definitely had more to him than he let on. I think getting into his past in future books will be interesting. He’s one of the ships in the love triangle and definitely had me in the beginning of the book over Dean. Dean, a Natural profiler as well, did not have the best first impression as he pushed Cassie away from the first moment and just didn’t seem into anything. Though his character definitely has a lot to unravel and I can’t wait to get into that in future books and see how his character develops, especially his relationship with Cassie, which by the end of this book had me pretty happy and leaning more towards him over Michael.

“Studying mutilated bodies was routine. Talking to me—apparently, that was hard.”

I have to say, I feel like the love triangle doesn’t really feel like a love triangle. I feel like it’s pretty obvious who endgame is already, though the author could totally throw a curveball at the end, who knows. Personally, I didn’t feel much chemistry between Cassie and Micahel which is such a shame because as a Natural for emotions, there is SO MUCH potential for brewing chemistry, tension, and sparks. Michael’s just jealous and lowkey possessive, it felt. Dean and Cassie start building this natural chemistry as they work together, both being profilers, and the relationship between them just feels more natural like the way they bounce ideas off each other and understand each other’s trains of thought. Though, let’s see how the author plays this out. 

“I looked at Dean, and suddenly, I could breathe.”

Lia, a Natural liar, and Sloane, a Natural Analyzer, are great characters as well. Lia is exactly how you’d expect a Natural liar to act, very rebellious, head-fast, and hot-headed. Sloane is a nice balance to her as she’s very quirky and sweet as she harmlessly shares facts as her way of helping, though there is way more to her abilities than just fact sharing. Both of them add to the character lineup and plot as they both are curious and adventurous in their own ways.

“Sloane slipped an arm around my waist. "There are fourteen varieties of hugs," she said. "This is one of them.”

The first half of the book, the pace was a little slow as they introduced the program and characters. Though it was all interesting so it wasn’t too boring. Though the plot started picking up pace after the mystery aspect of the plot started unveiling and I couldn’t stop reading! The plot twist(s) I definitely didn't see coming, either of them, and the only two ways they could’ve been guessed was a) a super lucky guess or b) reader is just really good at reading between the lines. Though, I wasn’t sure if the twists made sense or not. I might’ve missed a detail when reading but I was wondering if either twist was possible but after thinking about it some more, I realized both were completely possible but also may have been some luck at play as well. Either way, the twists were jaw-dropping and I couldn’t stop reading as they went through the crime scenes, case details, etc making this a pretty successful mystery for me. One thing that I didn’t expect, but not an issue, in the plot was that the ending of the book/plot pacing felt like this was a standalone book rather than a series because I expected an overarching plot continuing throughout the books rather than an individual plot for the book, though again, not a big issue. 

Lastly, I was really impressed with the thoroughness and details throughout the book. I loved reading the “you” pov which really hooked me into the mystery even though at first I was genuinely confused by what the purpose of that pov is until Cassie went through her profiling lessons. Though, I think that was such a nice touch. I was really positively surprised when I read through the profiling lessons that Cassie and Dean had and how it was so thorough and detailed and felt like a true lesson one would get in the FBI about profiling and made sense. I feel like the author really did proper research in the topic and knew what she was getting into which I really liked.

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