Genre: Adult Mystery with a Paranormal Tease
Cainsville Series, Book 1
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Description (taken from Kelley Armstrong's website):
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.
Olivia is the daughter of a wealthy and well-known family in Chicago living the good life until she suddenly finds out who her real parents are. She's related to serial killers, and the whole world wants to know more about her. As her mother abandons her to the media, she sets out to make a life of her own in a town that doesn't really know who she is (but they really do). But then she meets Gabriel, a guy who wants to help her if it means he'll make some big bucks along the way. As Olivia begins to reconcile with her birth mother, she begins to look at the murders. Can she figure out if her birth parents really committed these atrocities? Is there something a little paranormal going on in her new town?
When I found out Kelley Armstrong was starting a new series, I was super-excited. I picked up the book and noticed it was huge, almost 500 pages. I was thinking, Yes! I'm in for a treat. And then I started the book. It was slow, super slow. I had a hard time getting into it. Yes, we'd see some short and obscure mysterious and paranormal clues here and there. But it wasn't enough to get me invested in the story. And then I come to the ending and think, That was it?!?! I just wasted 500 pages of my life, and I'm not satisfied.
While Kelley Armstrong is really good at holding onto the mystery, this story wasn't so good at leaving you satisfied. It's like the author didn't want to show all of her cards in one move, but she failed to realize that we didn't even see the backside of the cards either. I can't be interested in the game if I don't know what kind of game I'm playing. And the paranormal teasing? I can't take it.
Sorry, I'm not planning to continue this series. If the books were 300 pages, maybe. But I kind of feel like I was jipped here...
I love Kelley Armstrong and like you, was excited to see that she is starting this new series! I'm disappointed to read that you didn't like it! I may still read it but I'll keep your comments in mind. Thanks for letting us know your thoughts!
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