Page 15 - NOV2024

November 2024
NEWFOUNDLAKELIFE.COM Page 15
Book of the Month:
Community
By BrittaNy amalfi
It’s been a minute since I cov- ered a Naturals novel, but when I reviewed the first book in the saga, I promised you all that I would deliver a full series review no matter how long it took! So, here I am with a review of All In, which is number three in The Naturals series. In a lot of cases, it can be rare when a series just gets continuously better with each book, but All In certainly delivered with its continuation from the first two books.
As the third book opens up, we’re thrust back into the world
of the Naturals program
and the sarcastic, spunky teenagers that come along
with it. The teenagers are heading to Las Vegas
after a string of brutal murders on the Strip. Cassie Hobbes and her friends are a group of ex- traordinary kids, but this
case proves to be baffling.
Even with her profiling
gift, Sloan’s tremendous number knowledge, Lia’s human lie detector ability,
and Michael’s emotion readings, the Naturals
are at a standstill. All of
the victims were killed in public, and the killer used
a different method every
time. The weirdest part
of it all? Each victim has
a series of numbers tat-
toed on their wrist. The Naturals only have so much time to uncover the killer before the case takes an even more brutal turn, but with the puzzling facts
of this case, they might have fi- nally met their match.
My favorite thing about All In was that we finally got to
see the Found Family trope in full swing. It’s been some time since all of these kids came together in book one, and now they’ve finally grown so accustomed to each other they’re fight- ing like loving siblings. A group of teenagers who each come from a broken family uniting under the fact that they all have extraordinary abilities makes for an excellent read. And, let’s not forget, the stakes are high as Cassie and her friends are put in dan- gerous situations when working for the FBI, so seeing them be protec- tive over each other is excellent.
All In was another book that kept me guessing the entire time. Jennifer Lynn Barnes does a fantastic job of leaving the reader guessing without making
the story too predictable. I love that each book will tie up loose ends that keep the reader satis- fied but still have a bit of a cliff- hanger to make the reader pick up the next book. In this case, I only have one more book!
The character development of the teenagers was also another significant factor to this ook. Now that they’ve spent some time in the Naturals program, we’ve really seen Cassie and the gang start to mature while recognizing their own flaws. Funny enough, Barnes does an excellent job of making her characters relatable even when they have insane gifts that put them in an FBI program at eighteen.
If you’ve been following along with my reviews of The Naturals series, you will want to pick up All In. It’s the third book before the explosive final installment, which, of course, I will review as soon as I read it! You don’t want to miss this book!
All In The Naturals #3 by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
SCAN ME