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A review by kblincoln
Omens by Kelley Armstrong
4.0
All the way back in 2001 I read Armstrong's first Otherworld book, Bitten. And fell in love with the strong, very straightforward female protagonist who thinks nothing of putting herself in confrontational situations and needs no guy as her backup. So cool.
We've got another such protagonist here in Olivia Taylor Jones, a socialite who suddenly finds herself in the media spotlight and estranged from her prior life when it's discovered her bio-Mom and bio-Dad are convicted serial killers.
So she finds a small town to hide out in-- Cainsville. Your typical, everyday small town where everyone knows eachother's business, there's a real fortune-teller across the street, gargoyle statues that only come out at night, strangely-behaved cats and ravens.
Meanwhile Olivia is investigating one set of murders her bio-parents are convicted 0f, with the help of handsome, morally-grey lawyer Gabriel. But Olivia's experiencing interesting occurrences in Cainsville, and also paying more and more attention to omens (like seeing an owl or rain on a sunny day) she's noticed her whole life.
The investigation is fine, and Olivia's relationship with Gabriel is certainly interesting because it doesn't follow the usual tropes. Gabriel is definitely not a hero. Neither of them are blind to the fact that he's extremely self-centered. When Olivia gets angry at him, it isn't for not being a good man, it's mostly for breaking contract with her. Interesting angle.
This is definitely "let me introduce these characters, set up a story line, and set the Cainsville scene" kind of book. Nothing really resolves. We don't know (granted, there's a TON of clues about what's up with Cainsville) for sure what's going on with the various forces in Olivia's life, and I wasn't a huge fan of POV head-hopping because when I head-hop I want more insight into characters, and by the very nature of this slow-reveal kind of book that's not possible.
Still, Olivia is exactly the matter-of-fact kind of heroine that's a great antidote to overly-angsty urban fantasy heroines. I'll give the series one more chance to flesh out Olivia's relationships and let us know the stakes behind the various Cainsville players.
We've got another such protagonist here in Olivia Taylor Jones, a socialite who suddenly finds herself in the media spotlight and estranged from her prior life when it's discovered her bio-Mom and bio-Dad are convicted serial killers.
So she finds a small town to hide out in-- Cainsville. Your typical, everyday small town where everyone knows eachother's business, there's a real fortune-teller across the street, gargoyle statues that only come out at night, strangely-behaved cats and ravens.
Meanwhile Olivia is investigating one set of murders her bio-parents are convicted 0f, with the help of handsome, morally-grey lawyer Gabriel. But Olivia's experiencing interesting occurrences in Cainsville, and also paying more and more attention to omens (like seeing an owl or rain on a sunny day) she's noticed her whole life.
The investigation is fine, and Olivia's relationship with Gabriel is certainly interesting because it doesn't follow the usual tropes. Gabriel is definitely not a hero. Neither of them are blind to the fact that he's extremely self-centered. When Olivia gets angry at him, it isn't for not being a good man, it's mostly for breaking contract with her. Interesting angle.
This is definitely "let me introduce these characters, set up a story line, and set the Cainsville scene" kind of book. Nothing really resolves. We don't know (granted, there's a TON of clues about what's up with Cainsville) for sure what's going on with the various forces in Olivia's life, and I wasn't a huge fan of POV head-hopping because when I head-hop I want more insight into characters, and by the very nature of this slow-reveal kind of book that's not possible.
Still, Olivia is exactly the matter-of-fact kind of heroine that's a great antidote to overly-angsty urban fantasy heroines. I'll give the series one more chance to flesh out Olivia's relationships and let us know the stakes behind the various Cainsville players.