I received this book for free from Tantor Audio in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Veil by Chloe NeillLength: 10 hours and 9 minutes
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Published by NAL Trade on August 4th 2015
Pages: 336
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Amy Landon
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Also by this author: Kicking It: These Boots are Made for Stalking, Blood Games, The Veil, Midnight Marked, Dark Debt, The Sight, Blade Bound, The Hunt, Wild Hunger, The Beyond, The Bright and Breaking Sea, "Slaying It"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…
Not a bad start to a new series.
What I thought of this book.
I have only read the first book in Neill’s CV series and I really enjoyed it. So I was really curious about this new series and I thought the first book was a good start.
The Veil has a lot of world building which to me kind of slows the pace down a bit, but still give you an interesting story. It’s set in New Orlean it a time when the veil between worlds has been split open allowing magic into our world. They closed the veil but there are some paras still in NOLA and some humans were infected with magic called sensitives.
Clare is one of those sensitives and she has done a good job of hiding the fact because if your found out they send you to Devil’s Isle. Most sensitives eventually turn into wraiths because they can’t handle the magic and they get kind of scary. She was doing good about keeping it a secret till she sees a girl in trouble and she goes to help and someone sees her do magic. That someone being Liam, a bounty hunter who gathers up wraith and sends sensitives to Devil’s Isle.
Instead of turning her in though he takes her to Devil’s Isle so she can learn to control her magic. She finds out that there are a group of sensitives that are trying to keep the city safe.
Clare is a decent character with a lot of spunk. I like how she tries to stand up to the Counsularis when they come in messing up her store for no reason. I would have a hard time standing by and letting them destroy my property.
Liam seems like a pretty decent guy, at least he didn’t turn her in for being a sensitive. I am not real sure how I feel about him though, but he is likable enough.
Gunner is the one I think I like the most though so far and he has known Clare the longest. There is a great cast of characters that I do hope get to know more about as the series continues.
The best part was the last couple hours as that to me is when it started getting interesting and learning who the bad guys where and them trying to open the veil and all the good action was towards then end. 🙂
Over all I thought it was a decent start to a series. I know the first one always has a lot of world building and can be a bit slower because that is how a lot of urban fantasy are. I am not sure if I consider this one a die hard dystopian because they didn’t seem to be hurting for things as much as most dysopians I read.
If your a fan of Chloe Neill or like urban fantasy then I think you will like this one.
The Narrator:
This is my first time listening to Amy Landon and she was great. She really brought the story to life and she had pretty decent male voices which is hard to do. I really liked her and hope I get to listen to her again.
Reading Challenge:
This does sound like an interesting read. I do like Chloe Neill’s stories and I do like dystopian stories. Great review.
You will probably like this one then! 🙂
I felt the same way. I do have to say that I liked Clare which is more than I can say of Merit from Chicago Vampire series so I will stick with this series 🙂
Well I can’t really compare as I have only read the first in the CV series and I really liked it, but that doesn’t mean that if I keep reading it that my mind might change..lol. I do have the second one in the CV series to try…but I think maybe the second book for this one will be better. 🙂
I haven’t read anything from Neill yet, Stormi, but I’ve been hearing good things about The Veil. I might start here. It might be nice to get into a series from the ground floor. 🙂 Thanks for sharing the snippet – I like the narrator. So maybe I’ll give it a listen…
The narrator really rocked this one so I think you should try the audio too!
I so want to try this one and I may do it on audio. I don’t mind that the first one has problems, a lot of UF first books do trying to establish a world. Brilly review!
I loved the narrator, she was really good. 🙂
Sounds like a good read. Thanks for sharing.
It was pretty good for first in a series. 🙂
I really enjoyed The Veil, too, Stormi, and it’s good to know the narrator is good as well. You know, if I decide to pick up the next installment in audio 🙂
Have a great day and happy reading / listening 😉