I’ve been burning through this young adult series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, and All In just might be my favorite yet!
Yes, so far all of them have been pretty tame, but it is a young adult series, so it really is delivering for its genre. This time around though, Barnes has made the twists truly unhinged. I think I already liked it better because almost all of the action took place in Vegas. Yes, the hotels were fictional, but that still didn’t make me picture it any less. And yes, the underlying mystery of Cassie’s mother is explored and then some. In fact, very early on it is revealed that a body has been found and through trace testing on a scarf found with it, have determined it is in fact Cassie’s mother.
Now that she knows that her mother is gone, she’s determined to find who and why. I never in a million years would have guessed at the answer that was presented at the end. It still leaves a massive cliffhanger, so it makes sense that Barnes was saving it for the final novel. This time around, Sloane gets her time to shine. I’m worried we’ll never spend any real quality time in the lives of Michael and Lia, though we continue to get hints throughout this one. Anyway, once it’s made known that they’re heading to Vegas for their next active case, Sloane has a bit of a breakdown.
We learn that her father is the owner of one of the most prestigious hotels on the strip and he really wants nothing to do with her. It’s Sloane’s father who’s made her feel that she is less than. Turns out though that she has a half brother who is nothing like her cold father and wants nothing more than to get to know Sloane. She’s also made the most useful by figuring out that this new killer is operating by the Fibonacci sequence in the dates he kills on, as well as the location. That’s cool enough in and of itself, but then they take it up a notch by finding out that these kinds of murders, along with method of kill, has been going on for centuries and it likely linked to some seriously messed up cult.
We also learn that a cult member has some past ties to our group of agents and naturals, and he’s gotten immense pleasure keeping tabs on them over the years. It appears that Cassie is the main draw now though, and it somehow involves her mother. The reveal at the end is truly crazy and I love Barnes for taking that turn. Why not make this fiction really fictional? I’m really looking forward to how everything wraps up. My only real complaint that’s maintained throughout these three books so far is still feeling like I only know these characters and their relationships on a surface level. Nothing just seems that deep. Oh, well. At least the action lived up to my expectations this time around.