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The Naturals (The Naturals, #1)

Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Start date: July 1, 2024

Finish date: July 31, 2024

Discussion: Series

Why we're reading this: This will be our July new series book. The discussion will be added July 1st, but we wanted to make sure …more
[close] This will be our July new series book. The discussion will be added July 1st, but we wanted to make sure you all had time to get the book and read it!
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Series

* New Series- One Dark Window
By Bailey · 18 posts · 87 views

last updated Oct 28, 2025 05:06AM

* Continuing Series- Fearful by Lauren Roberts
By Bailey · 2 posts · 32 views

last updated Oct 15, 2025 04:49AM

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What Members Thought

Jun 28, 2015 Michael rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, audio-book, mystery, read-in-2015, summer-reading-2015

Cassie's mother taught her a lot of things -- including how to read people. But Cassie's ability is far more than just figuring out clues about a person in order to give them a psychic reading. She has a natural ability as a profiler -- something the FBI is aware of and wants to take advantage of.

Recruited to a team of fellow teens with natural abilities (Dean can profile, Lea can read if you're lying, Sloane is gifted in reciting facts and figures and Michael can really, really read people), Ca Cassie's mother taught her a lot of things -- including how to read people. But Cassie's ability is far more than just figuring out clues about a person in order to give them a psychic reading. She has a natural ability as a profiler -- something the FBI is aware of and wants to take advantage of.

Recruited to a team of fellow teens with natural abilities (Dean can profile, Lea can read if you're lying, Sloane is gifted in reciting facts and figures and Michael can really, really read people), Cassie is promised that she'll get to enhance her abilities and maybe use the FBI resources to finally track down who killed her mother.

The world that Jennifer Lynn Barnes has created for her The Naturals series is a fascinating one. The idea that there would be five teens who would come together as a kind of Criminal Minds for the younger set works very well. It also creates a very bizarre household where there are body outlines in the swimming pool, a test lab in the basement and a library full of cold cases for Cassie to train on.

When The Naturals sticks its procedural aspects, it works very well. I'll give Barnes a lot of credit -- she was able to put in enough red herrings as to who the central villain of this novel was to keep me guessing (wrongly as it turns out) over the entire run of the book.

It's when The Naturals gives us the young adult trope of a love triangle and a conflicted girl trying to choose between two competing guys that I found myself rolling my eyes and wanting to fast forward the audio book. Dean and Michael both engage in a contest to try and woe Cassie and she's clearly torn between the two. But as I listened to the audio version of this book, I couldn't help but wonder why these two guys were so into. Beyond the mystery surrounding her mother, there really isn't a lot of detail given about Cassie. There's not much reason given to why the guys are so in love with her other than she's our narrator and entry point into this world.

At times, I found myself thinking that a book told from Sloane or Lia's point of view might be a bit more interesting.

I suppose I should just be thanking my lucky stars that there are no sparkly vampires or misunderstood mythical creatures lurking in these pages.

And while Cassie may lack the depth I was hoping for, I will admit that Barnes creates enough of a backstory for Michael and Dean that we can see why Cassie is torn between them. Both offer positives and negative reasons why Cassie could or should choose one or the other.

Luckily Barnes keeps the angst to a minimum, concentrating more on the team and the serial killer who may be targeting Cassie. The final few chapters and the big reveal are all well earned by Barnes and the questions about if and how this ties into the fate of Cassie's mother are intriguing enough.

They're intriguing enough that despite my eye-rolling at the love triangle, I'm willing and interested enough to give the next installment in this series a try. ...more

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Dec 31, 2017 ijul (yuliyono) rated it really liked it

Shelves: buku-berbahasa-inggris, young-adult, thriller-mystery

enggak nyangka bakal suka, but I'm loving it. perfect book to open my 2018, tapi enggak yakin bakal lanjut ke buku 2, sih. lagi kepingin ngabisin timbunan, dan buku ini sudah nangkring di daftar timbunan lama banget. ...more

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May 11, 2025 Susan rated it it was amazing

Whenever I think of YA mystery books I think predictable and the obvious choice of the character who did the murders. In The Naturals I had it all wrong and not once guessed who was the bad guy until the end. I gave this book 5 stars because it deserved it. It was well written, I liked all the characters and I even liked the little love triangle (even though it's a trope I usually hate) I ended up liking both of the guys involved.

I requested all the rest of the books in this series right after I ...more

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