Omens

By: Kelley Armstrong

Narrated by: Carine Montbertrand, Mozhan Marnò

Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Number-one New York Times best-selling author Kelley Armstrong begins her new series with Omens, featuring a compelling new heroine thrust into a decades-old murder case and the dark mysteries surrounding her strange new home.

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.

©2013 Kelley Armstrong (P)2013 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“One of the best new series debuts this year! With its compelling characters and completely original set up, Omens delivers a powerful combination of suspenseful thrills and supernatural chills. I can't wait to read more!” (New York Times best-selling author Lisa Gardner)

“Like the creepy, spooky town of Cainsville, Kelley Armstrong's Omens lured me in. I was too busy, way too busy for this book, which, through a series of surprises and sleights of hand, had me conspiring for ways to get back to the gripping story, the colorfully bizarre cast of characters, and the clever, strong, smart heroine at its center. Don't pick this book up if you have anything else to do. It will grab you by the collar and won't let you up for air until it's good and ready. And once you’re done, you won't soon forget it.” (New York Times best-selling author Lisa Unger)

“Cainsville might be a nice place to visit, but I'm too creeped out to live there. Luckily, Armstrong isn't, and her dispatches from this village filled with sinister secrets are going to be keeping her readers up well into the night.” (Number-one international best-selling author Linwood Barclay)

Good story - weird choice for narrator

The overall book was really good - as is usual for a Kelley Armstrong book. But the narrator for this particular book was a truly strange choice. She is clearly older and smacks her lips and audibly swallows a lot. For a book with a character narrator that is in her early/mid 20s... this is just odd. And annoying. Disappointing. But a good story.

Wonderful

I loved Kelley Armstrong's adult Otherworld but not as much her YA work. This is definitely in line with the Adult Otherworld. Great story, very engaging. easy to follow. My only issue is I see no reason to have the two female readers. I found that distracting. Still, even with that, well worth the credit and I can't wait for the next book. It does leave quite a lot of threads untied.

Off to a good start

I was hesitant to pick up another series by Kelley Armstrong because the last was a series of hits and misses. It's a nice mix of real world mystery with the otherworldly. It has a variety of characters and sub-plots that make it fun, sexy, and hateful, in other words, I'm reading book 2.

It's like a really long prolog

I expected a better story from K.R, it didnt have the usual supernatural storyline that left me wanting more. i was waiting for the plot to start getting interesting then next thing i know the book ended. I'm not interested in continuing the series. Also one narrorator have a nasally voice which erked me everytime she began a chapter.

Really good

I purchased this on a sale from Audible. I have never listen to this author before & am pleased to say it was definitely worth the money and I would pay the full price knowing how good it is. Though I normally don't listen to books with spiritual powers I made an exception on this series because of reviews and the sale.

HMMMMM....NOT SURE!!!!.

This is a first by Kelley Armstrong. I had a hard time keeping up with the characters in this first one. But I got through it and will move on to the next in the series. I can't say that I like the narrators either especially the one for Olivia's character. Hopefully they will improve in the next book of the series or maybe I'll just grow accustom to the voices.

Give It A Try

The supernatural aspects of this book aren't heavily emphasized, but they are present. The story is strong enough to stand on its own, which is a nice change. So many authors rely on paranormal elements as a crutch to less than exacting story or character development, but Armstrong delivers a solid story with likeable main characters here.

There isn't a ton of romance in this book, but the door is wide open for a really satisfying story here. Anticipation is the best part!

Really Enjoyed

I'm a really big fan of Kelley Armstrong so when this came out I had to read it. Sadly I haven't gotten to it until now but it didn't disappoint!

not cool

What does Carine Montbertrand and Mozhan Marno bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Carine Montbertrand narrated the Uglies series by Scott Westerfield. She was better here than in that work, but even in Uglies her skill as a narrator made up for the kind of weak, gravelly voices she does, and her own odd voice. I think she did well here. I also like having a separate narrator to read all the perspectives of the peripheral characters. That makes the change in perspective more defined.

Any additional comments?

This book could have been really good. It reminded me of American Elsewhere, at first, though much less skillfully written. Then i realized that it's one of those that keeps you listening by repeatedly introducing many weird details that make you want to know what is going on, (like LOST), without ever really explaining any of it. The book then continues only hinting at what's going on with the main plot while leading you through a story full of implausible, cliche, unrelated and incomplete ideas that come out of left field. Thing is, I actually liked LOST.

Omens begins as a mystery revolving around a very strange town and a central family mystery which both beg to be discovered, then in the last two hours of the nine hour story, it completely derails and turns into a mystery based only on a far fetched government conspiracy which has almost nothing to do with the original direction of things.

In the end you're left none the wiser about the town and characters, with a totally undeveloped but obviously budding romance between the female protagonist and a beautiful but disrespectful a***ole who's really only like that because he's wounded and needs to be loved (as usual), and what else? A climax based on a distant and random subplot that was only developed for less than a fourth of the book, and right at the very end? Is it going to be like this through the whole series? It's a good thing to have subplots, I get that, but this book is like... Have you even decided on your plot yet, author?
So frustrating. If this constant, heavy-handed hinting with no payoff is how you get people to buy the next book in your series, then I'm out. That's just stingy and hack.

I wish I had read it

I love the author and I am intrigued by this series. However, I wish I had read the book rather than listened to the audio version. I don't, in general, enjoy when there are multiple narrators, and in this case the main reader used such a flat and nasal voice for the main character (and was also inconsistent with the tone) that I cringed at the start of every chapter.