The Naturals

The Naturals

by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

For the past five years, Cassie's been living with her father's family while he's serving his country overseas.  Before that, she had lived with her nomadic mother, traveling from city to city.  But her mother disappeared from her theater dressing room, leaving Cassie behind with only memories of her mother's training, talents, and blood.

Now, the training that Cassie's mother had given her, and her Natural talent for reading people and profiling them, has caught the eye of the FBI and their new task force made up of other teens with talents like hers.  There's a Natural lie detector, a Natural pattern finder, a Natural emotion reader, and another Natural profiler, like Cassie.

They've been brought together to solve cold cases, much like the case of Cassie's mother.

But the best-laid plans are often thrown out, even by the FBI, and especially when a new serial killer is on the loose, and seems to be getting a little too close to Cassie and her new friends.

Final thoughts: This was an interesting tale, though you really have to suspend your disbelief to think that the FBI is going to hire a bunch of teens and then put them in the line of fire.  Cassie is definitely a thinker, and sometimes seems to over-think things.  The love triangle is awkward and strange at times, especially since Barnes doesn't make a clear choice of who to root for.  It's an obvious first book in a new series, so there was more exposition than might be preferred and there was the obligatory feeling of setting up for future books.  Overall, a decent read.

Rating: 3/5