Just Didn't Grab Me And Win Me Over

The Veil - Chloe Neill

3.5
New Orleans after a great battle between our world and a magical realm. New Orleans was ground zero and is now littered with the ugly residue from an unfinished battle. It is ruled by a kind of Marshal Law with a prison Devil’s Isle, for magical beings in the middle. Corruption and greed never far from the heart of man play dangerous games of life, death and possibly the end of humanity. A small group of magical and human residents stand and fight for what is left of this world. Two very different people are at the center of this movement without even knowing it.
Claire is a young woman left alone with her memories and general store filled with ghosts of past generations. She has had moments of magic, unwanted and untrained that if used or discovered would send her to Devils Isle. She is a smart mechanically gifted woman, who only wants to maintain her family’s heritage and honor their memory. She doesn’t want the future predicted by her magical status. Her world starts to unravel when a hunk of man walks into her world.
Liam, scared inside and out, a bounty hunter has one goal, centered and focused he works all avenues to reach that goal. He circulates the city, networks and fights for his right to live and search for answers. Answers to his sisters death, the increased attacks and the evolution happening. He is the thunder to Claire’s lightening and together they make one wreck of a storm.
There was a plethora of interesting side characters with magical abilities just lightly touched on books and a few friends. The villains were double sided evilness with a side of stinky. One guy, oh boy, I wanted to rip him into pieces when he searched and destroyed. He had way to little of a part. I think this first book built a strong future for the series with a large cast to pull from.
I thought the beginning was very slow, it was difficult to stay focused with the lack of action. It was a slow easy build with pieces of the puzzle slowly falling into place. I was frustrated and had to restart it several times when I just drifted from the story into a day dream. I am not a fan of a slow daily grind type of story and that was how it started. As I got move into the book I grew more interested, started to see a picture of possibilities. Oh there could be some serious fun with the bits she threw in. Here was part of the problem she threw out the interesting bits but centered 95% on one matter. She had these interesting “paras” magical ones that just kind of came out of the woods with little explanation. It was a wonderful moment but baffling. The history was was too brief, the others motivations too brief, the betrayals to obvious. I wanted some of the magical bits to bite me where it would hurt and I only got a little nibble and no love bites. Love, no romance, no it is more of an unhealthy teasing and I was cheering for any other match. I didn’t love it, wouldn’t re-read it, but I would read book 2 in hope that this was just a case of first book in a series meh.