FIRST LOOK: Omens by Kelley Armstrong

For anyone who isn’t familiar with my book reviews, or has never read anything I’ve ever written (because, let’s face it, I mention it quite a lot!) I am a massive Kelley Armstrong fan, so jumped at the chance to review Omens. It’s been a few months now since Armstrong wrapped up her majorly successful Women of the Otherworld series with Thirteen, so it’s a big step to start a whole new series without having the Otherworld series as a backup.

Back to the point at hand, Omens is the first book in Armstrong’s new series, Omens and Shadows. Olivia Jones is going about her privileged life as if its any other day, attending a charity event with her fiancé, voluntarily helping out the less fortunate than herself, little does she know her life as she knows it is about to be blown apart when her Mother reveals some information about her birth.

When Olivia discovers that she was adopted, she thinks things couldn’t get any worse…until she finds out just who her biological parent are. Notorious serial killers. Both still alive, in prison. The wider population seeks revenge for the cruel acts her parents committed, and Olivia finds herself in immediate danger.

Running for her life, she realises that when she needs her friends and family the most, they are no help to her at all when they learn who her birth parent are. After all, who would truly trust the product of two people that committed such vicious and violent acts on another human being?

Armstrong’s characterization is, without a doubt, the best I’ve ever come across. Within a single scene she is able to establish a characters traits and characteristics, and her writing style makes me actually like half the characters (usually it takes me a while to like even a few in a series). Olivia isn’t the spoilt little rich girl everyone assumes her to be; in fact, she is far from it. When she becomes the center of the media’s attention, she going into hiding in the small town of Cainsville where she is determined to live a normal life, free from all the perks money as offered her. She gets a job, finds an apartment and tries to figure out what to do.

Kelley Armstrong

Further into the novel we are introduced to Gabriel Walsh, successful lawyer and possible suitor for Olivia. He is as you would expect, if you are familiar with Armstrong’s previous male characters in other novels; a strongly masculine man, complete with the arrogance that comes with the territory. Overall, Gabriel is an interesting character that adds another dimension to the novel; I admit, I’m intrigued to see what will happened between him and Olivia in the following books.

 

Armstrong’s previous novels have all had a supernatural element to them, and Omens is no exception. Being the first book in a new series, things get off to a slow start on the supernatural front, but there are plenty of clues and indications here and there, and the next book should have a few treats in store for readers.

So, an interesting start to a brilliant new series, Kelley Armstrong is back doing what she does best, writing A-class bestsellers. The second book in the Cainsville’s series is scheduled for release in early 2014; until then, we will just have to be content to with Armstrong’s next release, Wild Justice, third in the Nadia Stafford series, which I cannot wait to read! 

You can purchase Omens here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Omens-Cainsville-Trilogy-Kelley-Armstrong/dp/184744511X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376505141&sr=8-1&keywords=omens 

Review of Kelley Armstrong's Darkness Rising Trilogy

I am reviewing this series based on my faith in the author, and not on the plot or storyline this trilogy follows. In fact, reading the blurb on the first book, it does nothing to draw me in. I feel that all young adult books have become one and the same. If authors want to get their book noticed among the hundreds of thousands currently available to teenagers, they should really put more effort into wording the blurb on their novels. This is the deciding factor for most readers about whether they are willing to invest their time in your story or not, and I feel that some out there at the moment could do with a good rework, this series included.

But don’t let the vague blurb put you off, Armstrong’s writing could pull off the worst plotline in history, and do it well.

The world seemed to dip and darken and I smelled wet earth and thick musk and fresh blood. The wind whipped past, like I was running. Running so fast the ground whizzed beneath me and the wind cut across my skin . . .

I’ll start at the beginning, with the first book in the trilogy, The Gathering. We are introduced to Maya Delaney, a sixteen-year-old girl living a relatively secluded life in the tranquil town of Salmon Creek, which has a population of only two hundred. Maya has always felt a close bond with nature. She practically lives in the woods, and spends most of her time looking after the animals that get hurt in the area, and she feel like the paw-shaped birthmark she has on her tattoo is a sign that she belongs close to these wild creatures.

Things start of relatively normally, with Maya going to the local, and only, high school. It is described as being a state school with all the benefits of a private school; students have extra curricular activates that Maya suggests are a big part of her and her friends life, for example swimming, boxing, dancing, singing, climbing etcetera. When her life-long best friend, Daniel, the school boxing champion, is suspicious of the new student, Rafe, Maya takes notice. Daniel has a gut instinct for knowing what people are like from the off, and its never been wrong before. But he begins to feel these ‘bad vibes’ a whole lot more than usual.

But Daniel isn’t fully recovered from his girlfriend, and Maya’s best friend, Serena’s death a year ago. Are his instincts off? Maya is intrigued by Rafe; a guy who likes to make everyone believe he is a typical bad-boy, but Maya knows he doesn’t really smoke and drink, so what’s his game? Then there’s his sister, Annie, who Rafe claims had an accident, and is brain damaged. But when Mays notices the same paw shaped birthmark on Annie’s arm as Maya has on her hip, Maya realizes this may be more than just a coincidence. To top everything off, a journalist starts asking questions and hanging around the otherwise quiet town. Something that out of the ordinary is noticeable, so when she goes missing and later turns up dead, Maya knows something very strange is happening.

Is it a tragic accident that Selena, captain of the swim team, and the best swimmer in Salmon Creek, drowns? Or is it something more?

Maya and Daniel do some digging and begin to suspect that the St. Clouds, the owners of Salmon Creek, are involved in medical research that is less of the ‘research’ and much more experimentation, with a supernatural element.

The first book isn’t all that I felt The Summoning (the first in Armstrong’s previous YA trilogy, Darkest Powers) was; the plot was very predictable, and I found I really didn’t care much for the characters at first. Especially as the main characters are a large group of friends, it is hard to get to know the personality of each.

This is why the second book in the Darkness Rising trilogy was much better, in my opinion. By this time, the reader has already got to know which characters they prefer and why, and the predictability of the plot has past. The Calling begins where The Gathering left off; with the gang leaving Salmon Creek on a helicopter to escape a forest fire, which Maya suspects is man-made. Things take a turn for the worst and they find themselves stranded in a dense forest with no food or water, and the wildness of nature surrounding them – not to mention a cougar or two.  It is this book that Armstrong pulls the friends together and puts to use her best talent; writing amazing characters with witty dialogue.

The third and final book in the trilogy, The Rising, sees Armstrong doing something unexpected; she links this trilogy to her previous YA series (mentioned earlier) by a meeting between the two groups of teenagers. There were many references to them in the first books in the series, but to actually introduce the characters to each other gives fan of the other series, like myself, a chance to catch up with the other characters and see how they’ve coped since the end of the trilogy.

As this book is set in the same world as her previous Women of the Otherworld series, expect Armstrong to reference many of the more popular characters and names fans of the books – like myself – will be delighted to recognize.

Perhaps this series isn’t all I was hoping for, and I strongly suggest reading her first Young Adult trilogy, Darkest Powers, before starting this one. They are closely entwined but I far preferred the character building in Darkest Powers to Darkness Rising. However, if you are already familiar with the Darkest Powers trilogy, and became fond of the characters, then Darkness Rising is the series for you. Catching up with Derek, Chloe and Simon made me glad I read this new series, even if it fell short of the un-clichéd YA novels I had hoped for.

This review is not aimed at dissuading anyone from reading this series, and if you do, I have no doubt you will find it better than almost all the other YA urban fantasy novels currently on the market, but Kelley Armstrong has written much better, and will write a much better series in the future, I have no doubt. 

To buy The Gathering, click here.

To buy The Calling, click here. 

To buy The Rising, click here. 

To read more about Kelley Armstrong's previous YA trilogy, Darkest Powers, click here.