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Finding out you’re adopted can be difficult enough – so how about also finding out that your birth parents are notorious serial killers?

This is exactly what happens to Olivia Taylor-Jones, pampered rich girl, engaged to a future senator and heir to a fortune. But one day she discovers – thanks to an “outing” in the newspapers – that’s not the life she was born to. Besieged by the press and haunted by the return of memories of a childhood she’d forgotten, Olivia – or Eden – leaves behind everything she knows to face life on her own. It’s not that simple though, as various forces steer her towards too-charming-to-be-true town Cainsville, and she slowly discovers powers of premonition that are somehow linked to her past. Olivia is determined to learn more about her real parents and their crimes, and finds herself questioning whether they were even guilty at all.

This is a bewitching, enjoyable read with fleshed-out characters and a compelling story that would easily have scored higher had it finished 100 pages earlier. Alas, the ending adds a CIA-filled, conspiracy theory storyline that just doesn’t fit, and if you’re hoping for any resolution of Cainsville’s mysteries or Olivia’s abilities you’ll find this volume wanting. Omens is, almost inevitably, the first in a series, but despite its flaws, we’re still impatient for the next in line.

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