Omens
by Kelley Armstrong
Series – Cainsville #1
Publisher – Dutton Adult
Publication Date – August 20, 2013
Rating 3 Stars
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Omens started out really strong. I was immediately drawn in to the drama surrounding Olivia finding out the truth about her birth parents and how her family reacted. I was fascinated with how she came to find Cainsville and with the town itself. I was loving the story all the way up through the halfway point but then it started to fall off a bit. What I had, up to that point, thought was going to be a paranormal thriller ended up being more of a conspiracy filled suspense drama. The paranormal elements were mentioned throughout but then went unexplored kind of leaving the reader hanging. The "reading omens" aspect was one of the best things about the book so when it went in a completely different direction than what I felt I was promised, I was left feeling a bit disappointed.
I enjoyed the interaction between the two main characters. I like the relationship that's building between them and that it is not one of those instant-love situations. It took me a while to warm up to Gabriel, it happened at about the same rate that Olivia started looking at him differently, so I thought that was really well done. Gabriel has a lot of annoying traits and habits and Olivia views him very realistically which is refreshing. He is the more consistent of the two characters in the way his actions match his personality as I was led to understand it. Her actions are a bit more all over the place.
It seemed like Omens promised one thing but delivered something very different. Maybe if I had been looking forward to suspense with a ton of conspiracy theory and convenient coincidences, I wouldn't have been left feeling underwhelmed by how Omens ended. I may still read the next book in the series with the hope that the paranormal aspects will be more prominent in future books in this series. I can see the potential for this to be an amazing series. I love the concept of a town like Cainsville and I do want to see where this series goes.
Rating - 3
