Book Review: "Visions" by Kelley Armstrong

I've been waiting it seems like a year for this sequel to come out but it's really only been six months. How is that possible, huh? I guess I was totally excited to read it and it felt like time slowed down to a snail's pace, lol. I loved  Kelley Armstrong's first book, "Omens", read my review here. I am so thrilled to be able to review a Kelley Armstrong book once again. "Visions", which comes out on August 19th is, once again, a mystery with paranormal twists. It's based in a little town called Cainsville where the central character Olivia Taylor-Jones lives. Olivia is a twenty-four year old woman who just found out (in the last book) that she was adopted and her real parents are notorious serial killers, Patricia and Todd Larson. Until this revelation in the last book, Olivia's life was idyllic. She was raised with a wealthy, sophisticated Chicago family who gave her an ivy league education. She had a fiancé who, himself, was a prominent and wealthy businessman on his way to becoming a senator. All of this crumbled the night reporters showed up on her mother's doorstep, hounding Olivia for information and how she felt about her birth parents. Olivia ran and ended up in Cainsville, a strange little town with interesting people that seemed inordinately protective of her and interested in her future.

"Visions" continues directly from the previous book "Omens". Olivia, still teaming up with her pit-bull lawyer, Gabrial Walsh, a sometimes morally wayward man with an unusual past of his own, continue to delve into the case of her parents' horrifying crimes. The pair are looking to prove the Larsons innocent of all wrong doing but there are sinister forces trying to actively prevent Olivia and Gabrial from succeeding.

Visions opens with Olivia stopping by her old mansion where she used to reside with her wealthy mother. Olivia is there to pick up a few things that she was unable to take with her when she left her old life so abruptly, on the run from the press. As she collects her laptop and some extra clothes she notices someone is sitting in her car! She surmises it's just another nosy and pushy reporter and goes to give them a piece of her mind. When she flings the car door open a dead body dressed up to resemble Olivia falls out. Is Olivia seeing a vision, an omen like she had started experiencing in the last few months or is there truly a dead body leaning out of her car? She calls Gabriel immediately as she runs into the house, securing the alarm and the deadbolt. So starts the mystery of the dead body.

In this continuation of a great series that adds a soupçon of the paranormal to a spectacular mystery series, we follow Olivia and Gabriel on a meandering path as they try to find out why there is a dead body and what it has to do with Olivia. Through the mystery we learn huge amounts about our main characters, Olivia and Gabriel. Olivia's paranormal gifts are also explained, giving the reader a little more clarity about what might be going on in Cainsville.

This was an excellent second book in an ongoing series. I found myself gobbling up the pages in huge chunks, staying up well past my bedtime unable to put the book down. Interestingly, Kelley Armstrong handles the paranormal aspect of this book expertly and doesn't force the reader into a head space that is unbelieving. I found myself actually considering the unusual possibilities of paranormal happenings as I was engrossed in the pages of this book. This is a spectacular summer read. It expertly combines mystery, intrigue, romance and paranormal events all in one very enjoyable book. My one problem is that I'm going to, once again, wait months to read another Kelley Armstrong Cainsville novel. Write fast Kelly, please write FAST!

Best,
Jenn

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