Omens by Kelley Armstrong Narrator: Carine Montbertrand
Series: Cainsville #1
Published by Dutton Adult on August 20, 2013
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 486
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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.
Omens is the debut book for the Cainesville series by Kelley Armstrong. It has been described as a paranormal book, but I really didn’t see much paranormal in the book itself. Olivia Taylor Jones, the heroine, has the ability to read omens. It is a skill she slowly develops over the course of the book. There were a few hints that made it sounds like there was witchcraft in Cainesville, but nothing really substantial to prove it.
Olivia finds out at the first of the book that she is actually Eden Larsen, daughter of a serial killer duo. The information blows up into a media circus and Olivia finds herself basically on her own. One thing I could not figure out is why she refused to take money from her adoptive mother. She has a trust with the family, and you would think she would take advantage of it, but instead, she struggles to find work and an apartment on her own. She meets Gabriel Walsh who is a former lawyer of her biological mother, Pamela Larsen. He wiggles his way into being a go between to try and earn what money he can wiggle out of the mother and daughter. Gabriel is from Cainesville too, and I wonder if he doesn’t have some kind of abilities himself. Throughout the book, Gabriel and Olivia become “kind of” friends, but still, Gabriel has secrets that would make Olivia drop him like a hot potato should she find out.
Once Olivia meets Pamela, Gabriel and Olivia set out on a course to find some kind of evidence that might prove the Larsen’s innocence.
The plot in Omens was a good one, it just didn’t really fit for me. I am used to the older crowd with more paranormal and more romance. This, I think, I would put more in the New Adult category. The book really only resolves one of the series of murders, so I’m sure the following books will address the others. I’m guessing one per book.
I think if you are looking for a good New Adult book, this would be right up your alley, but do not go into it prepared for a lot of paranormal elements.
Read for: Cover Girls Book Club
Challenge: 2013 Audiobook Challenge
About Kelley Armstrong
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.
About Kelley Armstrong
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.
