Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Review: The Veil by Chloe Neill

The Veil
Author: Chloe Neill
Release Date: August 4, 2015
Publisher: NAL Trade
Devil's Isle Book #1
ISBN:  0451473345
ISBN13: 9780451473349
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Review Copy Source: NetGalley
Seven years ago, the Veil that separates humanity from what lies beyond was torn apart, and New Orleans was engulfed in a supernatural war. Now, those with paranormal powers have been confined in a walled community that humans call the District. Those who live there call it Devil's Isle.

Claire Connolly is a good girl with a dangerous secret: she’s a Sensitive, a human endowed with magic that seeped through the Veil. Claire knows that revealing her skills would mean being confined to Devil’s Isle. Unfortunately, hiding her power has left her untrained and unfocused.

Liam Quinn knows from experience that magic makes monsters of the weak, and he has no time for a Sensitive with no control of her own strength. But when he sees Claire using her powers to save a human under attack—in full view of the French Quarter—Liam decides to bring her to Devil’s Isle and the teacher she needs, even though getting her out of his way isn’t the same as keeping her out of his head.

But when the Veil threatens to shatter completely, Claire and Liam must work together to stop it, or else New Orleans will burn…

Chloe Neill's Chicagoland Vampires novels have a prominent place on my bookshelf so when I saw that she had a new series coming out, I knew I would be reading it as soon as I could get my hands on it.

The setting was a big plus for me. I have never been to New Orleans, but have read a lot about it and I found Chloe's version of New Orleans to be very interesting and easy to follow. I enjoyed the post-apocalyptic/Dystopian feel as well as the whole Devil's Isle aspect of the city. The Fae storyline was interesting and I found myself looking forward to more details as I was reading.

For some reason I wasn't overly invested in the main characters and actually connected to a few of the secondary characters quicker, which is a bit weird to me. That's not to say I didn't LIKE the main characters, I did, I just would have liked to feel more invested in them by the end of the book. There was some romance between Claire and Liam, which I actually enjoyed quite a bit. Liam held himself back a lot and it takes a bit for us to find out why, but I was rooting for their relationship (and still am moving forward).

Neill's Chicagoland Vampires series is still my favorite of hers, but I really enjoyed the introduction the Devil's Isle series and I am very interested in seeing what will happen next for Claire and Liam. 

I gave it 3.5/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.