Book Review: Intuition by Jayne Fordham

Title: Intuition
Author: Jayne Fordham
Genre: Supernatural, Suspense
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: March 2012
Rating: 4
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Review copy provided by Enchanted Book Tours.

Olive can know a person’s past whenever she touches them, delving into their deepest emotions and most well-guarded secrets. Although she tries to refrrain from using her powers, that’s easier said than done. Then she’s contacted by an agency who wants to put together an “Elite” team, a team of people with other intuitive gifts. Together they have to stop a series of supposed terrorist crimes happening all over the country.

The people in Olive’s squad all have gifts of their own. Cadan for instance can read other people’s emotions – if they’re anxious, happy, sad, and a lot more than that. Whereas Olive can see the past, Hope can see the future. And Zac can manipulate people into behaving a certain way. But there are more uncanny resemblances between them than just the fact that they’re all gifted with something related to emotions. They were all born on April Fool’s Day as well. And they’re not the only ones.

What author Jayne Fordham has written here is supernatural suspense at its best. I was immediately enthralled with the characters, especially Olive. She’s a psychologist, so she’s used to helping out patients deal with traumas and experiences, but once she gets thrown into the action herself and suffers from a near-death experience, she has trouble adapting her psychologist skills to her own life. This, along with several other characteristics, make her very human. She struggles between staying in a relationship with her long-time boyfriend Trent who obviously doesn’t love her the way he should, and she relies heavily on her friends in time of crisis. I wish we got to see more of Olive’s relationship with her parents though. We see a brief scene of her talking to her Mom, who has bought a gigantic number of socks on ebay, but that’s about it. Her Mom does sound like a fun character though, so I hope we get to see more of her soon.

I liked Hope and Zac, but it felt like they were a bit underdeveloped. Hope doesn’t show any real personality, making her the weakest link in the entire squad. She seems friendly enough, but is she really? I wish Olive would’ve taken more time to get to know Hope personally so the readers could get to know her as well. Knowing one’s past is relatively simple compared to possibly knowing the future, and I would’ve liked if the book delved more into that topic as well. It seems overlooked. Our main character Olive is a bit wary of Zac from the start. He’s over-confident, sometimes bordering on arrogant, but we soon figure out why. I actually thought Zac was, next to Olive, the most interesting character. Again, I wish I could’ve seen more of him, but hopefully in the next few books.

Cadan, the other remaining member of the Elite team, soon becomes Olive’s love interest. He’s everything her current boyfriend isn’t: attentive and caring, not a big fan of going out and getting drunk, intuitive and intriguing. There was genuine chemistry between these two characters and I was cheering for them early on, especially when Olive’s boyfriend turned out to be an idiot. Olive definitely has a lot more patience than I have, because she stayed with Trent longer than I would’ve.

This book relies heavily on its plot, and the plot itself is very intriguing. There are supposed terrorist attacks happening all over the country. Fires start seemingly out of the blue and firemen are left wondering what the heck is going on. But then the Elite Team gets a lead, and the cause of the fires may be more supernatural than anyone believed at first…

Intuition is a decent, fast-paced novel with some intriguing plot twists and loveable characters. It’s the ideal book to read on a rainy afternoon or when you’re getting ready for bed. Although aimed primarily at adults, there are no inappropriate scenes, and it could be read by young adults as well. If you’re a fan of supernatural suspense, you don’t want to miss out on this one.