Omens - Cainsville #1 - Kelley Armstrong

Amazon | BN | Indie book | library

"I waited in the shelter drop-in center for my next appointment. The murmur of children’s voices wafted in from the play area. Low murmurs, hesitant, fractured. Guilty giggles, cut short, as if the children weren’t sure they had anything to giggle about."

Spoilers.

What I enjoyed:

She has another series that I am interested in reading but was too afraid to start there. So, I went with her other smaller series to see if I would enjoy my time with it. I have enjoyed my time with this story it was just enough weird, normal and moved the story at a great pace so easy to get through.

She writes in a very familiar way for me. It feels like you're at home snuggled with your favorite story.

I enjoy all the characters in this series in some way or another! It's rare that I do and I enjoy it.

Good:

Olivia, goes from a privileged life with a wealthy family to ...something else entirely. She has no emotional support from her adopted mother after the news breaks out. Her fiancee, this man who is going into the political life...is out of the picture.

She finds herself the daughter of serial killers. She ends up in Cainsville. She ends up with the help of a lawyer, Gabriel Walsh.

She has abilities, she can see omens and eventually goes through visions that help them along their investigations. Her mother wants her to know that they are innocent and that if they just dig deeper into the last murders she knows that it will prove they're innocent.

Then, well, chaos.

Also, down the road I can't remember when exactly she ends up with a cat. She names him TC, the cat.  If you like characters who accidentally adopt cats into their life.... it is in this story.

I absolutely enjoy the we hate each other/grumpy thing that is going on with Olivia and Gabriel. Most authors tend to struggle with this type of thing and make it look like the beginning of an abusive relationship. That is not what I saw while reading this so it was less disturbing to read about so that was nice.

Bad:

There is a murder-mystery and a mystery about the old town that she's moved into. The murder-mystery and proving her parents are innocent are just there to move her toward Gabriel and Ricky.

Ricky's introduction into this book for me, was extremely fucking weird. It feels as if the last part was meant to be a different book completely. Like, she had remembered that there was going to be a love triangle and she forgot the 3rd piece to that triangle and rushed to put it in there.

It didn't feel as natural as the rest of the story for me. It pulled me out for a moment and I had to go back to read a few pages to get back into the story.

I like Ricky and his story and his part of the story gets better as the books move on. It just gets crammed in at the end of the first one.