Gritty, straightforward and refreshingly ambiguous, - these are the first words coming to my mind after finishing Premonitions.

Jamie Schultz is not using many tropes and creates this major city magical underbelly that reader doesn't have trouble feeling comfortable with almost instantaneously. The lack of info dumping works here although I would have loved some sort of explanation for magic and how it works with demons taking over the body of a practitioner who's all used up. I would have liked it cleared out.

Also, do not believe the synopsis which makes us think that this book is told from Karyn's point of view. It works very much like Firefly, - all the crew members are involved.

Karyn works with Anna - her oldest friend, Tommy - a magic user and Nail - the mercenary as a team of thieves who are paid for helping certain magical artifacts change owners. Karyn is a seer, and she sees many variations of the immediate future every moment of her life. If she doesn't take "blind" - a very illegal, very expensive drug to diminish her premonitions to manageable level, she can't function at all, because she loses her ability to stay in present - she constantly sees the huge variety of distant futures and it drives her mad. It happens in the book, and frankly the way it's described I'm amazed Karyn manages to do anything at all.



But Karyn's POV is only a part of the book. There is Anna who organises every operation for the team, there is Nail with his limited POV and there is Genevieve - a newest addition and Anna's love interest.

However, there are also villains POVs. One is Enoch Sobell who is a fantastic villain. He is one of those subtle figures who we can't slot into a firm category of evil or good. If he is evil, it's a matter of fact evil. He kills with no remorse and with ruthless practicality, but he also doesn't derive pleasure from it. He is colourful and I found him the most interesting character in this story.

Another villain is Greaser or whatever manipulates him. He is the most trope-y unfortunately and lacks individuality, - you can clearly see that he just serves a purpose of driving the plot.

Anna and Genevieve are refreshingly understated, and actually the whole book has an understated feel. Nothing here is over the top, the humour is subtle and the story is utterly believable. Somehow it made me think of Firefly crossed with Kim Harrison - the story is painted in watercolours instead of oils, and it's quietly enjoyable. ( )

I have a thing for heist books. That’s what Premonitions is and more, mashing up the best elements of urban fantasy, mystery-noir and dark psychological horror. Be prepared for lots of thrills along the way as things spiral rapidly out of control on a high-stakes job, leaving a rag-tag gang of professional thieves floundering in a situation none of them could have imagined in their worst nightmares.

This is the story of Karyn Ames’ crew, who thought they’d hit on the ultimate score when the notorious crime lord Enoch Sobell offers them two millions dollars to steal an ancient occult artifact – just some piece of dusty old bone. But as it turns out, that bone once belonged to something evil, vengeful, and not even of this earth. And it just so happens to be in the possession of a fanatical cult, who will stop at nothing to protect their precious treasure.

There are two main reasons why I love heist stories. One is that they are essentially a problem solving mission to acquire a quest item, with the characters using everything at their disposal to gain their goal, very often leading to some creative solutions. The second part of it is the characters themselves. After all, what’s a heist story without a diverse crew made of individuals with “special” talents? Premonitions shows us how it’s done.

First up, we have our leader, the one who heads up the crew and decides which jobs to take, and that’s Karyn Ames. But Karyn isn’t your typical mastermind who calls all the shots. She has a condition which allows her to hallucinate slices of the future – a useful power when you’re the one responsible for the safety and wellbeing of your crew, but it can also be overwhelming and debilitating when the visions get out of hand. To keep her hallucinations in check, Karyn relies on a very rare black market drug called Blind, which unfortunately is also very expensive. Without Blind, her visions can get very unsettling. It becomes difficult to tell the present from the tangled mess of near or even far future possibilities.

The author has done an incredible job here portraying Karyn’s struggle with her visions coming and going, as well as evoking powerful responses from me with the things she sees. Imagine experiencing scary moments like armed gunmen kicking your door in, not knowing if it’s really happening or if it’s something that will happen in the future (not like that’s any more comforting). Or having gruesome hallucinations of things like bullet holes spurting blood in the middle of your friends’ foreheads even as they are in front you talking like nothing is out of the ordinary. Jamie Schultz ends up capturing the disturbing nature of this very well, and I think it’s one of the best aspects of the book.

Karyn’s predicament with her condition makes her the most interesting character, but the rest of her crew are no slouches either. Anna is the second-in-command and best friend, ever competent and dependable. Then there’s Nail, who is most definitely the guy who brings the big guns. He’s the expert on ordnance and how to dish out the punishment. Finally, there’s Tommy, the eccentric and somewhat creepy practitioner of dark magic arts, probably because his line of work involves doing some pretty unsavory things. A mid-mission addition is Genevieve, liaison extraordinaire and a love interest for Anna, and pretty good at some of that sorcery herself. And of course we also have to talk about the client, the ruthless criminal overlord Enoch Sobell himself. Is he the crew’s ally or villain? Both or neither? There are so many surprises when it comes to this mercurial character, you’ll just have to read and find out more.

All told, there’s plenty of delicious twists and turns in this one, a treat for fans of the urban fantasy genre who are especially looking for a touch of something darker and more ominous, but without sacrificing the action and the fun. Premonitions ends up being a lot more than the sum of its parts, although it does stumble briefly on a couple of bewildering segments. Perhaps my only issue with the story is the jumble of factions involved in the main conflict, at times causing a few instances of confusion when it’s not clearly explained who’s going after who and which group has taken over which other group. In the end it’s not an issue that I found overwhelming, and I enjoyed the overall story in spite of it.

Ultimately, Premonitions ended up being a pretty damn good read. Considering how the book has been on my radar for a while, it didn’t disappoint. With this, the series is off to a great start and I’ll very likely pick up the next book because I think I’d like to know more about this world and its characters. ( )

Exciting read! I hadn't heard of Premonitions until the author emailed me, but I'm glad I decided to read it. I really enjoyed the crew, especially Anna (and not just because we share a name), she's a great character. I actually liked Anna more than the main character Karyn. Premonitions is dark and gritty. A mixture of suspense and fantasy. The heists will have you on the edge of your seat. Set in Los Angeles, made for a nice change of scenery. I think urban fantasy fans will loved this one. ( )

Good

Karyn Ames hallucinates the future, she’s the leader of a small crew who procure antiquities and magical gewgaws using her skills to avoid trouble. However her hallucinations are bad, they can take over her life, so she takes a drug called blind, only really available from one fairly creepy drug dealer who lives in a ruin and is overly fond of rats. When the group are approached by a notorious crime boss who wants them to steal a relic from a cult the crew agree because there is a two million dollar payout for them if they do. Told from a variety of POVs this is a smart, modern supernatural heist novel that is a whole ton of fun. This is the first in a series, with the intro to the second in the back, so could feel a bit unfinished in a lesser writer’s hands, however it has a very satisfying wholeness to the story and yet the world is such that you know you’re not done with the characters.

Schultz will no doubt be compared to Wendig as they both have female protagonists who glimpse the future and both writers have a knack for witty prose and fast moving plots.

Overall – Great start to a series & I’ll definitely be tracking the second book down ( )

I don't use star ratings, so please read my review!

(Description nicked from B&N.com.)

“TWO MILLION DOLLARS...

“It’s the kind of score Karyn Ames has always dreamed of—enough to set her crew up pretty well and, more important, enough to keep her safely stocked on a very rare, very expensive black market drug. Without it, Karyn hallucinates slices of the future until they totally overwhelm her, leaving her unable to distinguish the present from the mess of certainties and possibilities yet to come.

The client behind the heist is Enoch Sobell, a notorious crime lord with a reputation for being ruthless and exacting—and a purported practitioner of dark magic. Sobell is almost certainly condemned to Hell for a magically extended lifetime full of shady dealings. Once you’re in business with him, there’s no backing out.

Karyn and her associates are used to the supernatural and the occult, but their target is more than just the usual family heirloom or cursed necklace. It’s a piece of something larger. Something sinister.

Karyn’s crew and even Sobell himself are about to find out just how powerful it is--and how powerful it may yet become.”

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