DECEPTIONS

In the third book of the Cainsville series (Visions, 2014, etc.), Olivia Taylor-Jones is at the apex of a love triangle while magic forces tug at her from both sides.

With her birth parents in prison for multiple murders, Liv has escaped the spotlight of the national media only to become a local celebrity in Cainsville, where the community elders seem to have more at stake in Liv’s love life than they’re letting on. Picking up from where they left off in Book 2, Liv and biker Ricky Gallagher are still heating up the pages between action scenes, while she and attorney Gabriel Walsh are still working together at Gabriel’s law firm and holding each other at arm’s length. What these two men have to do with Liv’s fairy heritage—half Tylwyth Teg, half Cwn Annwn—is up for interpretation. Haunted by disturbing visions of Welsh fairies from Cainsville’s past, Liv must separate truth from lore to clear her parents’ names and end the cycle of tragedy. Gabriel’s psychic aunt, Rose, pores over ancient texts with scholarly precision to interpret the omens, but the books in this fictional world are as unreliable as the fairies. Liv’s visions, in contrast, are heart-pounding and gruesome: in the recesses of her mind, the clues roll in like fog. Unlikely allies Ricky and Gabriel team up to help the woman they love fight against dangers both real and imagined. Meanwhile, Liv’s deranged ex-fiance, James, fears that she’s been brainwashed—and he’ll do anything to bring her back to the mortal world.

Shifting alliances, mercurial villains, and multiple retellings of ancient tales make the details hard to follow but rewarding to catch.