I was recommended Kelley Armstrong's Cainsville series by a
co-worker two years ago. I'll admit I took my time getting to it. I was very
interested but my "To Be Read" list is epically long, so it just got
put on the back burner. The co-worker who recommended it said Omens was written for me. Well, she wasn't
wrong.
The main character of the Cainsville
series and I have some freaky connections.
Her name is Olivia, as is mine.
She has blonde hair and green eyes. I've
dyed my hair darker recently but once again, the same.
She is very stubborn, very sexual, and very
superstitious. Also she is twenty-four turning twenty-five. Me too!
Now I know looking at that list, it's
pretty easy for those character traits to fit many different girls, but there
is one more. A big one.
Olivia was adopted. So was I. I'm now into
book three and have stumbled on to a few more freaky coincidences, but they
only make me love the books more.
As for the actual story, the premise is
interesting. Olivia is a wealthy young woman who comes home one day to a media
circus. This is how she discovers she was adopted. Her parents? Notorious
serial killers. It is this discovery that spirals the reader into the mist of
the story and into the town of Cainsville, a small town outside of Chicago, where
nothing is exactly normal and many things are unexplained. The book provides
many clues as to what is coming. Many of the clues are italicized or emphasized
and very hard to miss. Armstrong does this so that readers can hunt down the
answers and figure out where the story is going on their own. She included a
forward in the book, mentioning these clues but also suggesting the reader
ignore them and let the mystery unfold for you as it does for Olivia and her
allies. I chose to do the latter, but trust me when I say I was tested. I am
way to curious a person to survive a long wait for answers. If the next two
books, Visions and Deceptions had not already been published, I
would definitely have cracked.
I don't want to delve in deep because I
hate spoiling books for people but if you are like me and love murder
mysteries, private-eye stories, fantasy and legends then Omens is the book for you. Kelley Armstrong
once again shows her flair for creating characters who are raw, with thoughts
and fears and flaws just like our own. They might be slightly more beautiful
than your average person, but hey, this is fiction, it’s to be expected.
Even without all the similarities to the
character, I know I always would have loved and connected with Olivia. She is a
no-nonsense, self-sufficient, cocky woman who isn't afraid to attack head-on
what's coming for her. All the characters she encounters in the town have their
own quirky personalities that bring life into the story. I'm especially fond of
Gabriel, a lawyer who approaches Olivia with an interesting proposition.
It took me all of five days to devour the
first three books and I am eagerly awaiting the fourth, Betrayals, which is released this
August 2016. I would definitely recommend picking up a copy and seeing what you
make of Cainsville for yourself.
