Book Reviews and More: All In - Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Monday 6 May 2024

All In - Jennifer Lynn Barnes - The Naturals Book 3

All In

The Naturals Book 3

Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

ISBN 9780316540841

eISBN 9781484719589

ASIN B010RLZRUE

All In - Jennifer Lynn Barnes - The Naturals Book 3

I picked a copy of the first book a couple of years ago because my niece was reading it at the time. However, it got lost in the plethora of books on my kindle and I never got around to reading it. This year my youngest, 13, picked it to read in class for school reading and a book report. She has to read the physical copy and read it in class. She debated between this and the Inheritance Games series, both had come highly recommended, but a few other girls in her class were doing Inheritance. While picking it up I read the prologue and was hooked. My daughter is a little mad that I read it in 1 day and she has to wait and read it in class, but oh well! And she is even madder that I have now read the first three and she has still not finished book 1, and is not allowed past chapter 13 yet. (I had told her on March break to read book 1 and do the report on book 2.

The description of this volume states:

“Three casinos. Three bodies. Three days.

After a string of brutal murders in Las Vegas, Cassie Hobbes and the Naturals are called in to investigate. But even with the team's unique profiling talents, these murders seem baffling: unlike many serial killers, this one uses different methods every time. All of the victims were killed in public, yet the killer does not show up on any security feed. And each victim has a string of numbers tattooed on their wrist. Hidden in the numbers is a code -- and the closer the Naturals come to unraveling the mystery, the more perilous the case becomes.

Meanwhile, Cassie is dealing with an equally dangerous and much more painful mystery. For the first time in years, there's been a break in her mother's case. As personal issues and tensions between the team mount, Cassie and the Naturals will be faced with impossible odds -- and impossible choices.

With lives and love on the line, the stakes couldn’t be higher in this fast-paced, thrilling novel from the #1 bestselling author of The Inheritance Games, perfect for fans of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and One of Us Is Lying.”

I will start this third review with this same preamble, this series started just a year after Barry Lyga’s I Hunt Killers series which I read as they were releasing. I absolutely loved killers. The two series share a lot of tropes, and have some similar events, I believe both are worth reading. This series has a somewhat similar feel, except it is a team of ‘naturals’ young adults with special abilities, such as: human lie detector, ability to read emotions and feelings almost exactly and of course natural profilers. Cassis is brought in as the newest member of the team. This story is set a few months after the first volume. The concluding events of that story are still having lasting impact.

Things have changed a lot since book one. Book 1 was about Cassie’s recruitment and the team was mainly supposed to work on cold cases, until a killer starts sending them gifts. Book 2 has a copycat and is a case that hits close to home. And again they are working on an active investigation. This one starts right after most of the team has been home for Christmas break. They immediately are taken to Vegas and set up to assist with this active investigation. Following along the active agents via camera and microphones. Again the case turns personal when one of them is marked by the current killer. And when they realize this case has links to others, and the scope and scale of their findings are staggering to say the least. And even their guardian Judd gets drawn into the mystique surrounding this case and what they find out.

This story and series are very well written. I think this is the best book in the series, yet. The characters are masterfully written, both our key team of Naturals, Judd, the 2 agents, and even the suspects and victims along the way. This case is dark and grim, and becomes very personal, for all of them. But this time they are all in danger and have all received threats. Cassie and the team must work together and against a clock. This story moves at a great pace, with the whole story taking place over a few days in Vegas, and unlike the old saying ‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,’ the events in this story are going to have serious ramifications in both the short and long term.

Overall, I was very impressed with this story and am desperate to start the next volume. But also hesitant for as of now there is only the fourth novel and a short story only available as an eBook after that to date. The end of the story is drawing near. I am still surprised it took me almost a decade to hear about this series. Especially since when it released, I was reading and reviewing a lot of Young Adult books. This story is a great third novel in a series, and it leaves you desperate for the next instalment. I will state again, because of the serial killer investigations absolutely not for all readers, one student in my daughters class read a few pages and passed on the series, for now at least. My daughter is mad that book four is now on the first page of my kindle, and again I say ‘sorry, not sorry’. A great read for mature teens and young adults, or even some of us older folks.

p.s. both my niece and daughter really prefer the original covers. And I admit I lean that way as well. Fortunately, the eBooks I have still have the original covers for the first three still.

Books by Jennifer Lynn Barnes:

The Lovely and the Lost (2019)

Nobody (2013)

Every Other Day (2011)

…

The Naturals Series:

The Naturals (2013)

Killer Instinct (2014)

All In (2015)

Bad Blood (2016)

Twelve (2017)

…