Review: Omens by Kelley Armstrong (Cainsville #1)

Omens (Cainsville #1)
Kelley Armstrong
Published: Aug. 20, 2013 (Penguin)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: purchased

Reviewed by: Jenn

Rating (out of 5): 4 stars

Omens is written by one of my favorite authors, Kelley Armstrong. If you haven’t read anything of hers before, then please do yourself a favor and pick up one of her books, any of them, it doesn’t matter, the woman is a master storyteller who can get you glued to a page with just a few words. I adore her Women of the Otherworld series, so I went into this book with high hopes that it would be just as good.

I can’t say I was disappointed, but for me it just didn’t hold up to my expectations.

Don’t get me wrong, this book started out with a bang. Young socialite, engaged to handsome rich boy, happy, no worries, until POW…she finds out she’s adopted and her biological parents are actually notorious serial killers. Olivia leaves her comfortable life in Chicago to escape all the press that surrounds her and ends up in the small quirky town of Cainsville, where things take a turn for the weird.

I’ll admit, I was pretty hooked at the start of the story, I couldn’t put it down, and I stayed that way up until the halfway mark. That’s when things started to slow down for me. I enjoyed the growing relationship between Gabriel, the super hot attorney with some deep dark secrets, and Olivia. Even though Gabriel seemed sullen and cranky though most of the story, it fit his personality. I enjoyed the cast of quirky characters that you’re introduced to in the town of Cainsville and the idea that there was something paranormal lurking around every corner.

Olivia has a tough time at the start of the book. Heck, her life is based on lies and deceit, who wouldn’t? When she gets to Cainsville she discovers that she wants answers and she will use whatever and whoever she can to find them. She grows through the story, going from born with a silver spoon in her mouth to someone who is willing to do anything to find out about her past. She has no problem going toe-to-toe with the tough Gabriel, and not letting him bully or manipulate her like he does most everyone else. She toughens up and I really enjoyed that about her character.

What bothered me the most about Omens is I expected something a bit different than I got. I wanted paranormal. I got more of a conspiracy theory. I wanted creatures and spells and well…Omens. I got a bit of that, but not enough for this lover of the other world. There are hints that everything in Cainsville is not what it seems, and that the people who inhabit the small town are all a little more than they appear to be, but I wanted more than hints. I wanted to see…to know…to learn.

I kept reading because I know that this author will give me strong writing and lovable characters. She will spin a tale that will make me want to read to the end, even if I am not a hundred percent on board—she’s just that good. I kept reading because even though I didn’t get exactly what I wanted out of the story, it was a good story.

Will I read the second book? Yes. It’s written by Kelley Armstrong, and I know that she can do amazing things in her series. I’m also hoping that the second book will bring me more of the otherworldliness that I am looking for. Will it be on the top of my to-be-read pile, probably not, but it’s in my TBR pile and that is all that matters.

Sexual content: sex