Sloan has a sky-high IQ, a chaotic personal life, and a dream: to work for the FBI. Her goal is within reach until an error lands her with the FBI's ugly stepchild: the new Paranormal Behavioral Analysis Unit. She'll get to profile criminals, but the pool of suspects is a little more. . .diverse. Yet even as Sloan tackles her first case--a string of victims, all with puncture wounds to the neck--she can't silence her inner para-skeptic.
To catch the killer she'll have to think like one. That means casting aside her doubts, and dealing with bizarre nightmares that started with the job. But the strangeness is only beginning, as Sloan pieces together the shocking truth about a case that's more personal than she ever would have guessed.
Comment: As I've said in other posts about PNR books published years ago, when PNR was a stronger trend, nowadays those stories can be a hit or miss. I've collected several books which are the first in a series with the hopes of discovering a new addictive series but often they have just been waiting and waiting. Nowadays, reading those books can be like a good walk on memory lane or it can be a waste of time but I'm glad to say this book, which I bought in 2012, is a good one for me.
In this novel we meet Sloane Skye, a young woman who just got an internship with the FBI and whose dream is to be a full time agent. When it seems her spot might have been (surprisingly) taken by her college nemesis, she is then indicated to be part of a new FBI branch, the unit that deals with paranormal activity and cases.
Along with her chief and small team of colleagues, Sloan stars her career doing field wok, something she didn't even imagine she could do as an intern.
As the fist case goes, the investigation points out to a vampire-like perpetrator but there are some weird details that make things a little more complicated than that explanation.
Along with the job worry, Sloane also has a chaotic personal life and her high IQ isn't enough to make her deal with things in the easiest way, which means a lot to get over with...
First of all, I must say this is narrated in first person but here is a case of it not being too annoying for me because the heroine is likable enough and this book reds more like a mystery than a romance. It's part of the story that we get to have the information slowly given and processed step by step. It's different with romances because it limits the amount of scenes/situations the reader could see.
This book did surprise me. At this time and age, it's very difficult to read a book without having at least a little notion about it with so many site reviews out there. Reviews might not tell all but they can give an impression of how much one might enjoy a book or not. In fact, I've purchased some books without checking sites like goodreads and had I done that, I probably wouldn't have bought them. Anyway, I've checked goodreads to see the opinion on this book and was put off a little by its very low average grade (side note: grades on GR below 3.7 at least aren't considered to be positive by me and this book has a 3.30) but since I had it, I've decided to try it and see for myself.
I liked the book because although it does have many loose details and isn't always easy to follow the situations and the author often adds things in a tone or manner that are meant to let the reader infer things which might not have any importance at all, the plot is easy to follow for the most time.
I think what I liked the best was how this was mostly a crime investigation. I've seen some comparing with popular TV shows but I haven't watched them all so I suppose I could say it's a little like the X Files even though the majority of the story is very light on the PNR elements. I actually believe that this would have been a stronger story without them...
The PNR aspect of things is both related to the investigation and to the heroine, Sloane. I won't go into spoilers but I must confess it felt a little silly how the author, practically at the end of the novel, came up with a bunch of paranormal details in a row which not only made the plot itself loose power and consequence but also brought too many new information too close to the end and things felt very choppy and unrelated, almost too trivial to be woven into the story.
Up to the last chapters, I was actually having a great time reading. I liked Sloane and her personality, the antics of her mother and roommate and even the slight hints here and there about her relationship with JT, the coworker she found herself a little attracted to and about Gabe, the nemesis we find out was a little misunderstood. The romance side is certainly going to be addressed in the following two books of this - I've learned now - trilogy but in this book I liked how things weren't too mixed up nor exaggerated.
It's really a pity the PNR content wasn't explored in a stronger way, it really just feels like an add-on. I fear for what the next books might do, considering the information learned in the last two or three chapters. This was a good enough book for me, I don't mind I've waited to read it but it's not a priority to get the rest.
Grade: 7/10
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