Twenty-four-year-old Olivia Taylor Jones has the perfect life. The only daughter of a wealthy, prominent Chicago family, she has an Ivy League education, pursues volunteerism and philanthropy, and is engaged to a handsome young tech firm CEO with political ambitions.
But Olivia's world is shattered when she learns that she's adopted. Her real parents? Todd and Pamela Larsen, notorious serial killers serving a life sentence. When the news brings a maelstrom of unwanted publicity to her adopted family and fiancé, Olivia decides to find out the truth about the Larsens.
Olivia ends up in the small town of Cainsville, Illinois, an old and cloistered community that takes a particular interest in both Olivia and her efforts to uncover her birth parents' past.
Aided by her mother's former lawyer, Gabriel Walsh, Olivia focuses on the Larsens' last crime, the one her birth mother swears will prove their innocence. But as she and Gabriel start investigating the case, Olivia finds herself drawing on abilities that have remained hidden since her childhood, gifts that make her both a valuable addition to Cainsville and deeply vulnerable to unknown enemies. Because there are darker secrets behind her new home and powers lurking in the shadows that have their own plans for her.
When I heard about Omens last year, I assumed it was going to be another urban fantasy as that seems to be Kelley Armstrong's forte. It is, but I also got some heavy psychological thriller/looming prophecy vibes as well, which I'm normally not a huge fan of. Once again, however, Kelley Armstrong manages to completely change my mind about books and opened up a whole new world to me.
I am seriously impressed with this book. Everything about it is weird and maze-like, so when you think you know the answer to a question, you're proved wrong and forced to backtrack along with our wonderful protagonist, Olivia. Olivia surprised me with every page, and by the end of the book I started to realise that she's a lot darker than I thought. That's how I'd describe every character; darker than you originally think. Actually, that's how I'd describe Cainsville the whole goddamn book.
There's a sweet looking author who works on his book in a cafe, who I swear is going to be revealed to be a vampire. I just know it. Olivia (or Eden, depending on what you want to call her) can read omens and senses death around her. Gabriel seems like he only cares about himself, and he does, but towards the end of the book you see that he's not as cynical and mean as you think.
I read Omens in less than a day, and I really regret that. I wish I'd prolonged the amazing experience, but come on, we all know that's never going to happen. I can't sing high enough praises about Omens and Kelley Armstrong. Seriously. However, I've narrowed down my list of favourite parts to just two I'd like to share with you guys:
1) There's no heavy disgusting odour of over-written romance that makes me want to gag. There is a very subtle hey maybe Gabriel & Olivia might end up together in a later book vibe, and they obviously care for each other towards the end of the book. At the beginning of the story, they do both just use each other to get ahead in whatever game they're playing (well, Gabriel is playing a game, Olivia, not so much).
2) You know those horrible endings when everything's fine and the author realises they haven't actually told us what the hell has been going on? So then they try to whip up a crazy plot-twist ending that literally leaves you with your mouth hanging open and you're just thinking... well, okay? This book has none of that. Kelley Armstrong left plenty of time at the end to build up to the big finish which involved lots of blood, bullets & bodies. And yet, I was still extremely surprised by it all.
If you don't have this book, you need it. I loved it, and it's going on my 'favourite books' shelf in my room. I'm going to buy Visions (book 2) as soon as I can, hopefully this week.
~Ciao!~
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