Omens (Cainsville, #1) by Kelley Armstrong Also by this author: Deceptions, Betrayals, City of the Lost (Casey Duncan, #1), A Darkness Absolute (Casey Duncan, #2), This Fallen Prey (Casey Duncan, #3)
Series: Cainsville
Also in this series: Betrayals
Published by Penguin Audio, Dutton on June 24th 2014
Genres: Occult & Supernatural, Suspense
Pages: 512
Format: Audiobook
ISBN: 0142181064
ASIN: B00E827JQE
Goodreads
#1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong introduces a chilling new world
Kelley Armstrong has been a dominant presence on the New York Times bestseller lists for more than a decade. And while her devoted fans flock to each new book, the Cainsville series is sure to attract an even broader readership. In Omens, Olivia Taylor-Jones is shattered to learn that she’s adopted. Her biological parents? Notorious serial killers. On a quest to learn more about her past, Olivia lands in the small town of Cainsville, Illinois. As she draws on long-hidden abilities, Olivia begins to realize that there are dark secrets in Cainsville—and powers lurking in the shadows.
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#Cainsville #KelleyArmstrong #Omens #SerialKillers #Carine Montbertrand #FirstInSeries @KelleyArmstrong @mozhanistan @PRHAudio
Hmmm . . . it seems the hashtag #SerialKillers has shown up in more than one of my recent reviews. Do I have a fixation on serial killers? No. Do serial killers make news? Yes. Do serial killers make great suspense stories? Heck yes! So, in Kelley Armstrong’s Cainsville series, we have a lovely young woman, Olivia Taylor-Jones, from a prominent family. Olivia has an attractive, rich, and successful fiancée. She spends her days using her education to help women who are victims of abuse on a voluntary basis because rich young ladies don’t have to work for money. What, you may ask, does that have to do with serial killers? One day the rich young lady with everything going for her wakes up in a world where her parents aren’t her parents and she is really Eden, the biological daughter of a couple in prison for the serial murders of 8 people. And, as if that isn’t enough of a life-changer, Olivia finds the couple is just a wee bit strange, as in supernaturally strange. Her adoptive father has passed and her totally shallow adoptive mother flees to Europe to console herself for having this daughter from Hell. Olivia finds she is no longer a society darling, she is practically penniless until she comes into her inheritance, and she is viewed as genetically predisposed to be a despicable person. There you have the basic premise for Kelley Armstrong’s Cainsville series. Omens, the first book, lays the groundwork for the storyline and introduces us to the citizens of Cainsville, PA and two really hot guys who may or may not be potential love interests for Olivia/Eden. Visions, Deceptions, and Betrayals are the next three books and, since each has been reviewed by Lover Karen, I am taking a giant step backward to review Omens in audio format.
Because Omens has been widely reviewed, I will let my 5 Star rating speak for itself and cut to the chase with my take on the narration. I think I’ve stated before that in my opinion, narrators fall into roughly 3 categories: those who improve the quality of the story, those who detract from the quality of the story, and those whose performance neither adds nor subtracts from the quality of the story. Carine Montbertrand and Mozhan Marnò fall into the latter category. Both are experienced narrators and performers and each one interprets the words of the author and the voices of the characters with skill. Ms. Marnò, in particular, has the quality of voice that adds just the right touch of otherworldliness to the third person viewpoint sprinkled throughout the book. Because I really like the continuity of narrators in a series, I’m pleased to say these ladies also perform Visions, Deceptions, and Betrayals.
If you haven’t tried the feature where you can add audio to a digital book for times when you are unable to read, Omens would be a good candidate for this. While both narrators give creditable performances, switching between listening and reading shouldn’t affect the overall experience. If you haven’t let yourself be drawn into this series, I certainly recommend it. If you do go to Cainsville, be sure to watch for gargoyles, black cats, ravens, and things that go bump in the night!
About Kelley Armstrong
Kelley Armstrong has been telling stories since before she could write. Her earliest written efforts were disastrous. If asked for a story about girls and dolls, hers would invariably feature undead girls and evil dolls, much to her teachers’ dismay. All efforts to make her produce “normal” stories failed.
Today, she continues to spin tales of ghosts and demons and werewolves, while safely locked away in her basement writing dungeon. She’s the author of the NYT-bestselling “Women of the Otherworld” paranormal suspense series and “Darkest Powers” young adult urban fantasy trilogy, as well as the Nadia Stafford crime series. Armstrong lives in southwestern Ontario with her husband, kids, and far too many pets.
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