Review : Born of Deception by Teri Brown

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : Born of Deception (Born of Illusion #1)
Author : Teri Brown
Publication Date : June 10th 2014
Publisher : Balzer + Bray
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Budding illusionist Anna Van Housen is on top of the world: after scoring a spot on a prestigious European vaudeville tour, she has moved to London to chase her dream and to join an underground society for people like her with psychic abilities. Along with her handsome beau, Cole Archer, Anna is prepared to take the city by storm.

But when Anna arrives in London, she finds the group in turmoil. Sensitives are disappearing and, without a suspect, the group’s members are turning on one another. Could the kidnapper be someone within the society itself—or has the nefarious Dr. Boyle followed them to London?

As Cole and Anna begin to unravel the case and secrets about the society are revealed, they find themselves at odds, their plans for romance in London having vanished. Her life in danger and her relationship fizzling, can Anna find a way to track down the killer before he makes her his next victim—or will she have to pay the ultimate price for her powers?

Set in Jazz-Age London, this alluring sequel to Born of Illusion comes alive with sparkling romance, deadly intrigue, and daring magic.

Personal Thoughts

Having loved the rich, atmospheric and complex Born of Illusion, I was looking forward to being reacquainted with Anna van Housen and her narcissistic but absolutely fascinating mother in Born of Deception. Sadly, Born of Deception failed to live up to my expectations and unlike the first book, it ended up frustrating me.

The problem with Born of Deception is that it strived to focus more on the unnecessary romantic drama than to focus on the promising plot line and world-building. It was a wild mess and ultimately led to the butchering of many of the characters in the book. Anna and Cole's relationship was strained from the start and the lack of communication between the two was quite enraging. Moreover, the two of them constantly became jealous of opposite sexes being present in the lives of their significant others. The number of times Anna got jealous when Cole would simply talk to a woman, no matter how old the woman was, was more than infuriating at times and undoubtedly made me want slap some senses into her. It was beyond ridiculous and just showed how insecure she was in the relationship. Add to that a futile love triangle whose only purpose was to probably incite anger in readers. And when I mean futile, I really mean futile. The character of Billy had absolutely no substantial role other than to be part of this love triangle that made no sense to me in the first place and was extremely superficial because it was based on attractiveness. Because of this mess with the romance, it was also hard for me to feel any sort of connection with Anna and ultimately, the book was excruciating to read.

Born of Illusion also had a highly atmospheric setting because the author took her time to detail the 1920s New York City background that the book was set in. It's what truly sucked me into the story. With Anna moving to London in this new installment, I felt like there was a lack of that richness the first book had. The elements of magic that were so well incorporated in the first book were only merely mentioned in Born of Deception. All of this led to what I would call a mediocre and disappointing sophomore novel. The plot in Born of Deception could have been exciting and interesting had I not been able to predict the killer immediately upon meeting him/her. It was so predictable because the author tried to force the idea that it wasn't him/her from Anna's first meeting with this person. Sadly, Anna's mother who I found to be manipulative and bipolar, was also missing for most of the book. She was fascinating in the first book and the sometimes unhealthy relationship between the mother daughter duo was one of the highlights for me. I wish Teri Brown had developed their relationship further instead of giving so much spotlight to the romance.

Ultimately, I think fans of the first book are going to be sorely disappointed with Born of Deception. It lacked that freshness and spark that the first book had because of the unlikeable characters, the absence of strong world-building and the omission of magic which stemmed from the disastrous romantic relationship. If you haven't read this series yet, I would recommend only reading the first book.

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 2/5
Characters : 2/5
Writing : 3/5

Thank you to Edelweiss and Balzer+Bray for the e-ARC of Born of Deception.