Visions - Kelley Armstrong

Summary: As #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s new Cainsville series continues, Olivia’s power to read omens leads to the discovery of a gruesome crime with troubling connections to her new hometown.

Omens, the first installment in Kelley Armstrong’s exciting new series, introduced Olivia Taylor-Jones, daughter of notorious serial killers, and Gabriel Walsh, the self-serving, morally ambiguous lawyer who became her unlikely ally. Together, they chased down a devious killer and partially cleared her parents of their horrifying crimes.

Their success, however, is short-lived. While Olivia takes refuge in the old, secluded town of Cainsville, Gabriel’s past mistakes have come to light, creating a rift between the pair just when she needs his help the most.

Olivia finds a dead woman in her car, dressed to look like her, but the body vanishes before anyone else sees it. Olivia’s convinced it’s another omen, a sign of impending danger. But then she learns that a troubled young woman went missing just days ago—the same woman Olivia found dead in her car. Someone has gone to great lengths to kill and leave this young woman as a warning. But why? And what role has her new home played in this disturbing murder?

Olivia’s effort to uncover the truth places her in the crosshairs of old and powerful forces, forces that have their own agenda, and closely guarded secrets they don’t want revealed. (Summary and Pic from goodreads.com)

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

My Review: There comes a time in the life of a book that’s part of a series where it has to decide: is it going to commit completely to the series and cater only to those in the club, or is it going be a part of a series but remain comprehensible to the non-series reader who may just pick it up randomly?

Well, this book is certainly part of the former.

I've read other series by Kelley Armstrong, and usually I have read the entire series. This one I did not—I just read this book, which is #2 in the series. Peeps, I was lost. I mean, it wasn't like I could never figure out what the heck was going on, but I certainly had that feel like there was a cool kids’ club and I wasn't a part of it.  For example, the characters were never really described in this book. It was clear that if I hadn’t read the first book (which I hadn’t), I wasn’t to be part of the in-crowd and would have to flounder around looking past events and people and just be good with it. And, I mean, what can I say? It’s a series and it’s meant to be read as such, but I’ve certainly read other books that do a better job of introducing back story than this one.

My other complaint is that I had a hard time with the mythic/supernatural entities, most of which were in Welsh and therefore hard to figure out how to pronounce (although she would throw a bone here and there about how to say it) and hard to remember what they were and what they did. I’m thinking that maybe this was included in the first book as well? That maybe the mythic/supernatural entities were discussed more in depth? Cause I was confused. They certainly weren’t part of my normal mythos of vampires/werewolves/mermaids/etc.

I do like Armstrong’s writing. Like I said, I’ve read other series of hers, and I have to admit that were I to actually say that I liked a paranormal romance series, it would be one of hers. This was not my favorite, though. The story was a little more confusing and the characters were older and therefore edgier than I would have expected from her, even though this is not a YA Fic book.

All of this means that I haven’t decided if I want to go read the first in this series or the one after this one, or just let it go and stick to her YA fare. There is certainly an interesting element to the story, and I think if I knew what was going on, I would appreciate it a lot, but…I don’t really know what’s going on.

My rating: 2.5 stars.

For the sensitive reader: This book has language and sexual content, although not outside the realm of others in this adult genre.