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Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Book Review: Omens: A Cainsville Novel by Kelley Armstrong

Omens (Cainsville #1)
by Kelley Armstrong

Hardcover, 486 pages
Published August 20th 2013 by Dutton Adult

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong begins her new series with Omens, featuring a compelling new heroine thrust into a decades-old murder case and the dark mysteries surrounding her strange new home.

Twenty-four-year-old Olivia Taylor Jones has the perfect life. The only daughter of a wealthy, prominent Chicago family, she has an Ivy League education, pursues volunteerism and philanthropy, and is engaged to a handsome young tech firm CEO with political ambitions.

But Olivia’s world is shattered when she learns that she’s adopted. Her real parents? Todd and Pamela Larsen, notorious serial killers serving a life sentence. When the news brings a maelstrom of unwanted publicity to her adopted family and fiancé, Olivia decides to find out the truth about the Larsens.

Olivia ends up in the small town of Cainsville, Illinois, an old and cloistered community that takes a particular interest in both Olivia and her efforts to uncover her birth parents’ past.

Aided by her mother’s former lawyer, Gabriel Walsh, Olivia focuses on the Larsens’ last crime, the one her birth mother swears will prove their innocence. But as she and Gabriel start investigating the case, Olivia finds herself drawing on abilities that have remained hidden since her childhood, gifts that make her both a valuable addition to Cainsville and deeply vulnerable to unknown enemies. Because there are darker secrets behind her new home and powers lurking in the shadows that have their own plans for her.


Kelley Armstrong’s Omens: A Cainsville Novel is the first book in her new series. Olivia Taylor Jones, daughter to a prominent Chicago family, finds out that she had been adopted at the age of twenty-four. Maybe that wouldn’t have been so bad except that her biological parents turn out to be notorious serial killers. Needless to say, this makes things a little uncomfortable for her adoptive family, especially since they didn’t know. 

Devastated by the news, and the publicity that comes with it, Olivia decides to look into the matter herself. With a little help, she ends up in Cainsville, Illinois, where she meets Gabriel Walsh, her birth mother’s lawyer. Gabriel, a man of questionable moral fiber, helps Olivia meet her mother. He starts an investigation into one of her mother’s murders. One she swears she did not commit.

Olivia and Gabriel make an unlikely pair, but that just makes it more enjoyable to read their story. Olivia, a strong smart woman, has no trouble handling Gabriel, whose only motivation is himself. 

If fact, I wasn’t completely sure about the book until the moment they met. Once they did, I was hooked. Lucky for us, this happens rather quickly. From then on, it was a quick read, especially since it was a rather long book. I enjoyed the storyline and can’t wait to find out more about Cainsville, and its inhabitants. However, I liked the characters and their interplay so much that the story was almost secondary for me.

As for romance, you would assume with the way I am writing that there was a whole lot of it. Actually, the book is considered Urban Fantasy and does not contain a whole lot for you romance lovers, however I would suggest you give it a try. Olivia and Gabriel give us hope for future books and I for one want to be there when and if it happens. 

5 Hopeful Sheep


LisaA

About the Author:
Kelley Armstrong has been telling stories since before she could write. Her earliest written efforts were disastrous. If asked for a story about girls and dolls, hers would invariably feature undead girls and evil dolls, much to her teachers' dismay. All efforts to make her produce "normal" stories failed.

Today, she continues to spin tales of ghosts and demons and werewolves, while safely locked away in her basement writing dungeon. She's the author of the NYT-bestselling "Women of the Otherworld" paranormal suspense series and "Darkest Powers" young adult urban fantasy trilogy, as well as the Nadia Stafford crime series. Armstrong lives in southwestern Ontario with her husband, kids and far too many pets.

3 comments:

  1. I really liked this book. I can't wait to get book two.

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  2. It's already on my list, can't wait to read it :)

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  3. This series is so on my wishlist and I am glad it is holding up to the hype. Thank you for sharing with us. I have a request in at the library and now I can't wait to get my email telling me it is my turn to read it :)

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