The Sight by Chloe Neill

August 15th, 2016 Kimberly Review 45 Comments

15th Aug
The Sight by Chloe Neill
The Sight
by Chloe Neill
Series: Devil's Isle #2
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Source: Publisher
Purchase*: Amazon *affiliate
Goodreads
Rating: One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star

The paranormal war that engulfed New Orleans seven years ago is over. But the battle for the city is just beginning . . .

Claire Connolly is a Sensitive, infected with magic when the Veil that divides humanity from the world beyond fell. Magic can easily consume and destroy a Sensitive, and if Claire’s secret is discovered she’ll be locked into the walled district of Devil’s Isle along with every other Paranormal left in the city.

Bounty hunter Liam Quinn discovered Claire’s secret, but refused to turn her in. Together they saved New Orleans from the resurgence of magic that nearly destroyed it. But now a dangerous cult is on the rise, and it will take both Claire and Liam—and magical allies within Devil’s Isle’s towering walls—to defeat the occult threat before magic corrupts them both...

urban snarky ROMANCE SUSPENSE

The Sight by Chloe Neill is the second book in the Devil’s Isle urban fantasy series set against the backdrop of New Orléans. Sensitive Claire Connolly and bounty hunter Liam Quinn face a new threat against humans and paranormal. Can Claire save the city she loves and keep from being discovered? The Sight delivered an addictive story filled with characters you will want to befriend. Join this motley crew as they battle to save NOLA.

We learned in The Veil that seven years ago there was a paranormal war when paras from the other side passed through the Veil. Humans won the battle and locked any remaining paras on Devil’s Isle in NOLA. While we won the battle, the cost was heavy for both sides. The soil in NOLA has been desecrated, electricity is sporadic and all forms of magic have been banned. Humans infected with magic are unable to use it and turn into wraiths.

In The Sight Claire is continuing to learn how to control and release her magic to prevent becoming a wraith. She has become a bounty hunter in training assisting Liam Quinn. A new threat is forming which cast a threat on the city and those they love. A cult is on the rise led by zealot named Ezekiel. He believes destroying all paras and those who support or contain them will restore NOLA. His charismatic charms have humans frustrated with living conditions joining his army.

Neill did a wonderful job of balancing different threads in The Sight. We continue to see Claire focus on controlling her magic while learning more secrets about her father. Secondary characters continue to develop strengthening the bonds between this motley crew of civilians, containment officers, and para. The world building is rich as Neill shares this world with us. The paras we meet are fascinating. Some are creepy and dangerous while others charming.

Claire Connolly our protagonist runs Royal Mercantile off Bourbon St. I love this feisty redheaded heroine. Her struggles are real but she maintains decorum remaining cool and focused. She compartmentalized and her strength makes her a favorite. I have a feeling that when Claire comes into herself she will be a force to be reckoned with.

Liam our smexy hero is a highly skilled bounty hunter who hunts para and wraiths. He lives on Devil’s Isle to be near loved ones. Liam is cocky with dreamy blue eyes and the weight of the world on his shoulders. Despite his alpha tendencies, his respect and appreciation for Claire had me falling hard and fast.

The relationship between Liam and Claire continues even as they try to fight it. The two work seamlessly out in the field making their friendship and courtship feel genuine. Both are strong, independent and stubborn creating delicious banter, snark and chemistry. We also see a little jealous from both parties exposing the depth of the feelings.

The plot involving the cult was action packed with danger around every corner. Their assault forced human and para to work together but not without cost. The tale took dark turns but also had lighter moments reminding us to seize the moment. Neill created this sense of dread as I turned each page causing my pulse to increase. She would then give me happy moments and banter cooling me off, only to repeat the pattern. This made The Sight highly addictive and had this reader consuming the novel in a single day.

The Sight delivered action, suspense, and romance as it tethered me to this world. I cannot wait to go back. The ending had my heart racing and seriously anxious to know what happens next!

Read Chapter One of The Sight

CHAPTER ONE

New Orleans
Late November

We rode in a truck that had seen a lot of miles—more than two hundred thousand of them, according to the odometer. The windows were open to the heat and humidity and sunshine, all of it powerful even in the early morning. But that was New Orleans for you.

I piled my red hair into a topknot and futzed until the bun was secure, then leaned my head against the door. Even the hot breeze felt better than none. The truck rocking beneath us, the city nearly silent around us, my eyes drifted closed.
“You gonna fall asleep?”

I slitted a glance at the man in the driver’s seat. Liam Quinn was tall and lean, built of hard, stacked muscle. His hair was dark and short, and matched the scruff along his jaw. His eyes were a shockingly bright blue, with lashes dark and thick enough to make a fashionista jealous.

He was undeniably handsome, undeniably sexy, and undeniably off-limits.

And I was getting loopy from lack of sleep. I could have used a ten-minute power nap. Or a four-hour power nap. But since I still had something to prove, I sat up straight, blinked hard to force my eyes to focus. “Nope. Totally awake and eyes on the road and checking my six.”

He looked amused. “You’re just stringing words together. Bounty hunters don’t sleep on the job.”

“I’m a bounty hunter in training,” I pointed out. “And I wasn’t sleeping. I was . . . silently debriefing.”

Liam was the actual bounty hunter, and we’d spent hours searching the Lower Ninth Ward for a wraith, a human infected by magic. We hadn’t found him, which was a bad result for everyone. Containment wouldn’t be happy, and the wraith was still on the loose, still a threat to the public and himself.

“You did good tonight. We didn’t get a great result, but you did good.” He paused. “And I’m still thinking about that football.”

I nodded. “Yeah. I’m still thinking about the baseball cards.” We hadn’t found the wraith in the several abandoned houses we’d searched, but we had found a former bachelor pad with a man cave and plenty of sports memorabilia.

“I know the owners could come back,” I said, letting my fingers surf in the wind outside the truck. “It’s unlikely, but it’s possible. It’s just—somebody really loved those cards, and they’re getting moldier by the day.”

Liam smiled a little. “And you want to put them in the shop.”

The “shop” was Royal Mercantile, my store in the French Quarter. Or what was left of it after the war with the Paranormals.
They’d come through the Veil, the barrier separating their world from ours, and spread destruction and chaos across the south. New Orleans had been ground zero.

“For display and for safety,” I said. “Not for sale.” I glanced at him, his muscles taut beneath the short-sleeved shirt, strong hands on the steering wheel. “You like to sports?”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Do I like to sports? You sound like a woman who’s never said that word before.”

“My dad didn’t care about sportsball.”

“You know that’s not a thing.”

“I do,” I admitted. “But I like the sound of it.” I looked at him, the long, rangy body with a powerful chest and arms.

“I’d say quarterback—possibly receiver. Maybe pitcher, maybe power forward in sportsball.” It wasn’t difficult to imagine him muscling in for a layup.

He shook his head, but a corner of his mouth was still quirked in a grin. “I played sportsball in high school. Power forward.”

“Nailed it.”

“What about you?” he asked.

“I ran track for a couple of years in high school, until I realized I didn’t really like running.”

“You do plenty of running now,” he said, turning onto North Claiborne.

“That’s because I’m chased. If there’d been Paranormals and wraiths chasing me in high school, I’d have put more effort into it.”

When the truck began to slow, I glanced up. The street was clear; we were the only vehicle on the street. “If we’ve run out of gas, you have to carry me back to the Quarter.”

Liam just shook his head. “Look,” he said, pointed to the side of the road.

A billboard in front of an auto repair shop had been covered in eye-searing yellow paint. DEATH TO PARANORMALS had been painted in enormous red letters across it.

“I came down this street yesterday,” Liam said, squinting into the sun as he leaned over to look through the window, his cologne lingering faintly behind him when he sat up again. “That wasn’t there.”

“It’s new,” I said, gesturing to the buckets, brushes, and cans of spray paint that littered the parking lot around the post.

“I don’t suppose you sold that stuff. Know who bought it?”

I shook my head. “The supplies didn’t come from my shop. The only paint I have is white, and I don’t have any spray paint.”
“The brushes?”

I shook my head again. Whoever had painted the billboard had used foam rollers to color in the large letters. “Only bristle brushes. They’re not from Royal Mercantile.”

The supplies could have come from anywhere—and from anyone with an ax to grind. The war with the Paranormals had started seven years ago and ended a year later, but the billboard proved the animosity hadn’t completely faded.

“We should tell Gunnar,” I said, thinking of one of my closest friends, and the second-in-charge at Containment, the division of the Paranormal Combatant Command that managed everything in the former war zone, including Devil’s Isle, the prison where Paranormals were incarcerated—or were supposed to be. There were fugitive Paras who’d managed to evade imprisonment and fugitive humans newly infected by magic who hadn’t yet been rounded up. That’s why bounty hunters like Liam had jobs.

His gaze still wary, Liam drove on, taking us closer to Devil’s Isle’s towering walls. “Tell Malachi and the others, too. They should know someone’s got an attitude problem.”

Malachi was an angel and a friend, and a member of Delta, a group of humans and Paras dedicated to changing the treatment of Paranormals. Their existence proved that not all Paranormals were enemies, just as the billboard proved that not all humans were allies.

The tricky part was telling the difference.

# # #

It was a Saturday morning in the French Quarter, and there wasn’t a single person in sight. My shop—the first floor of a three-story town house on Royal Street—was one of the lucky buildings that hadn’t been destroyed, although we sold a lot more MREs and bottled water these days than antique sideboards.

Liam sputtered to a stop in front of the store. Our victory flag—a gold fleurs-de-lis on a field of purple—flapped in the breeze from the second-floor balcony.

I climbed out of the truck and into heat that was already oppressive at eight in the morning, then leaned down to look through the open window. “You want to come in for some iced tea?”

“Yes,” Liam said without hesitating, and turned off the truck, followed me to the door. I picked up a scrap of paper and a dead leaf from the tiled threshold, unlocked it.

Anticipating a hot day, I’d left the shop closed up. I’d found a small air conditioner at a swap meet a few weeks before, and I’d managed to get it running. The power had stayed on long enough to cool the air by a few degrees, wring out a little of the humidity.

“Oh, that is nice,” Liam said, pausing inside the door with his eyes closed, black lashes dark against his cheeks and his hands on his lean hips.

Longing, hot and strong as fire, burned through my chest.

I was a Sensitive, one of the few humans exposed to magic who’d developed magical powers as a result. That meant I was a nearly wraith, an almost wraith, a could-be wraith. Liam was supposed to hunt people like me, to lock them safely away in Devil’s Isle. Instead, he’d introduced me to people convinced I could control my magic, that becoming a wraith wasn’t inevitable.

But it was always between us, the possibility the magic would overpower me and he’d be forced to take me in. He believed that would be cruel and unfair to me. And despite the chemistry between us, that wasn’t a gap he’d been able to bridge. So I’d worked to ignore the heat, the connection. It took a lot of conscious effort on my part. And even then, I wasn’t very good at it.

I flipped the CLOSED sign to OPEN, forced myself to put space between us, to walk through the front room past bins of duct tape and bags of Camellia red beans and into the small kitchen. I opened the refrigerator, let the air chill my burning cheeks, then pulled out the pitcher of iced tea. I could’ve used a stiffer drink, but that would have to wait.

I poured two glasses, found Liam standing at the counter’s far end, where I’d spread the shards of a cuckoo clock that had hung in the store. I settled myself on the stool behind the counter, slid his tea over.

“New project?” he asked.

I looked over the piles I’d already separated into wood and metal fragments, the figures of Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf that had traveled across the clock’s front. “This is the clock Agent Broussard’s cronies smashed. It was a gift from my father, so I’m going to put it back together.”

“You know how to put together a clock?” he asked, sounding impressed.

I smiled. “With enough time and patience, you can figure anything out. I’m ignoring the mechanisms for now—the gears are so small. I’m going to fix the case first.”

The bell on the door rang as two Containment agents walked in wearing their dark fatigues. I didn’t exhale until they offered small waves, headed for the canned goods. I was still waiting for the shit to hit that particular fan again.

“You want to help?” I asked Liam, offering a bottle of wood glue.

He frowned over the pieces. “I’m not sure this is my crafting sweet spot.”

I snorted, poured glue into a small dish, dabbed a brush in it. “And what would be your crafting sweet spot?”

“Chopping wood,” he said as I daubed glue on the back of a wood sliver. “Changing oil. Fighting marauders.”

“I don’t have any wood that needs chopping, and I don’t have a car. Marauders are more likely. Glad to know you’re prepared for that.”

Liam made a sarcastic sound, then glanced up at the wall of clocks still functioning. “I should get back to Devil’s Isle, say good morning to Eleanor.”

Liam’s grandmother lived in Devil’s Isle, but by her choice. Only a few knew that she could see magic, the result of a blow during the war from a magical weapon.

The door opened and my other two closest friends walked in. Tadji Dupree waved hello as they walked into the store. She wore dark fatigue pants, a flowy tank, and enormous earrings of gold and silver discs that shone against her dark skin.
Gunnar Landreau was tall and militarily fit, with dark, wavy hair, pale skin, and a trickster’s smile. He wore dark Containment fatigues, but he was very decidedly on our side. Whatever “side” that was.

“You two nearly match today,” I said, gesturing at the fatigues as they came forward. “Pulling a Cagney and Lacey thing? Or Abbott and Costello?”

“Did their clothes match?” Liam asked, head cocked.

“No,” Gunnar said dryly. “Those were the only duos she could think of. Did you know she didn’t have a television growing up?”

“Deprived child,” Liam said, looking back at me thoughtfully. “Although that does explain ‘sportsball.’”

Tadji snorted, put her messenger bag on the counter with a thud.

“We had a television,” I corrected. “We just didn’t watch it very often.” I gestured to Tadji’s bag. “What do you have in that thing?”

The Containment agents approached the counter with an armful of water and MREs, so I put down my brush and moved to the metal cashbox and receipt pad to deal with their purchases.

“My notes,” she said. “I’m hoping to write up some of my outline today.” Tadji was working on a degree in linguistics. “And I’ve heard a rumor there’s a coffeehouse in Tremé.”

We all went still, looked at her.

“There’s a coffeehouse in New Orleans?” one of the agents asked, hope in her eyes.

“That’s the rumor,” Tadji said. “Woman set up a little café in her living room, sells muffins and coffee. I’m going to check it out.”

“And report back,” I requested, putting the agents’ purchases into a bag and offering their change. I closed the cashbox again, looked at her. “Like, Folgers, or what?” Coffee was relatively rare in the Zone—a high-priced luxury.

Tadji’s eyes gleamed. “I don’t know. But I’m going to find out.”

As the Containment agents left, I looked at Gunnar. “And what’s on your agenda?”

“Keeping the Zone running smoothly, as per usual.” He glanced at Liam. “You find that wraith in the Lower Ninth?”

“We didn’t,” Liam said, and Gunnar looked at me speculatively.

“‘We’?” he asked. “You went with him?”

“Bounty hunter in training,” I said, offering him a salute. “It still makes for good cover.” And gave me a chance to be sure that any wraiths taken into Devil’s Isle were treated as well as possible. We owed them that much, at least.

“No sign of the wraith,” Liam repeated, “but we found something else. Giant billboard on Claiborne. ‘Death to Paranormals’ painted over it.”

“Lovely,” Gunnar said. “I’ll have someone take a look.”

“Who has that much free time on their hands?” Tadji asked.

“There are plenty of people out there with delusions about Paranormals,” Gunnar said. “Plenty of people who believe in conspiracies, or who think the government owed them something after the war.”

In fairness to those people, the government did know about the Veil. But it hadn’t known who’d waited for us on the other side.

Speaking of angry humans, loud voices began to fill the air with what sounded like chanting.

“What is that?” I asked, glancing at the door.

“Maybe protestors?” Liam asked with a frown.

“Could be,” Gunnar said. Liam, Tadji, and I followed him outside, then to the corner and down Conti.

About a dozen men and women, most in their twenties or thirties, but a few older, a few younger, stretched across Bourbon Street. They all wore nubby, homespun fabric in bulky and shapeless tunics and dresses.

Their arms were linked together, and they sang as they walked, their voices woven into an eerie, complex harmony. I didn’t recognize the song, but it sounded like a hymn, with lyrics about death and smiting and Calvary. If this had been a different time, they might have been congregants walking to a country church. But I hadn’t seen many churchgoers carrying bright yellow signs with CLEANSE THE ZONE OR DIE TRYING in searing red paint.

Leading the group was a man with pale skin, dark hair, medium build, and a heavy beard. He was flanked by two women—one pale, one dark, but both with dark eyes that looked across the French Quarter with obvious disdain.

It wasn’t the first time there’d been protestors in the Quarter; there’d been plenty during and shortly after the war, when it was popular to complain about how the war was being fought, or how it had been won. But the war had ended six years ago, and as a Sensitive, I wasn’t feeling very sympathetic to antimagic arm waving.

Liam shifted, moving a protective step closer to me while watching the group with narrowed eyes.
Gunnar’s expression was cold and blank. That was a particular skill of his—that level stare that showed authority and said he wouldn’t take shit from anybody.

The man in the front glanced in our direction, stopped, and lifted his hands. Like an orchestra following a conductor directing his symphony, the protestors stopped behind him, and silence fell again.

He walked toward us. He wore an easy smile, but there was something very cold behind his dark, deep-set eyes.

“Good morning,” he said, in a voice without a hint of Louisiana in it. “Can we talk to you about the Zone?”

Gunnar didn’t waste any time. “You have a permit?”

The man’s eyes flashed with irritation, but his smile didn’t change. “I don’t subscribe to the notion that citizens of this country require a permit to exercise their First Amendment rights.”

Gunnar didn’t even blink.

“Of course,” the man said, “we also respect human laws. It’s just that we believe those laws should be enforced to their logical conclusion.” The man pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket, offered it to Gunnar.

“Any law in particular?” Gunnar asked.

“The Magic Act,” the man said. “All magic is illegal. And all magic should be removed from our world . . . by any means necessary.”

 

The Sight by Chloe Neill Devil's Isle 2 review from Caffeinated #urbanfantasy #NOLA Click To Tweet
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About Kimberly
Kimberly is a coffee loving book addict who reads and listens to fictional stories in all genres. Whovian, Ravenclaw, Howler and proud Nonna. She owns and manages Caffeinated PR. The coffee is always on and she is ready to chat. Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

45 Responses to “The Sight by Chloe Neill”

  1. AngelErin

    I’m glad you liked this one!! I keep seeing great reviews for this. I really need to read the first book. It’s right up my alley! Lovely review!

  2. Naomi Hop

    The ending had my heart pumping too! I cannot believe how it all went down! I loved that Claire and Liam fought their feelings… but they worked through them! *Fist pump* GReat review Kimberly!!

  3. Kristin

    Ya know, I didn’t put 2 and 2 together that Chicagoland was written by the same author but duh! Same name. This just looks and feels waaaaaay too different. I still need to read the first book but I still need to buy it. I just know it’s on my TBR and that I really, REALLY wanted to read it last year and then… yeah, so distracted by other books. But I’m putting the first book on my Amazon Wishlist so I remember to look for price drops 🙂 I will get to this one b/c I always love book written around NOLA, just like Sentinals, which I need to get back to. Welcome back!!!!!

  4. Melissa (Books and Things)

    Aw man! Another brilliant review of this book. I so need to get book 1. I have a feeling I’m going to like this one a bit more than Chicagoland Vampires (I’ve only read a couple of books in that series so far though).

  5. Mary Kirkland

    It’s been a while since I read her. I really need to pick up a few more of her books because I liked the ones I read. Thanks for the review.

  6. Jessica

    Oooh very nice! I STILL need to read this one! It’s been in my review pile for awhile but as always I struggle to pick my next read! Even among the review books, they’re ALL ones I so desperately want to read! LOL! If only I could read super duper fast or be able to go without sleep and still be a functioning human being! That would be awesome! And teleportation, can’t forget that! Haha! Glad to hear this one continues the excitement of New Orleans and Claire’s adventures! Looking forward to reading this one…eventually! LOL! Great review!

  7. Stormi Johnson

    I can’t wait to get my hands on this one to listen to what happens next. Started this series on audio and so I think it’s best to continue it that way…lol. 🙂

  8. kindlemom1

    Woo hoo! So happy you loved this as much as I did Kim, I thought it was fabulous and that ending! Gah, we need book three now!

  9. Silvia

    Your review piqued my curiosity and also reminded me I have this author’s titles sitting on my list since what appears to be forever . . . Really need a few more hours during the day, where’s the petition for that? *sigh* Happy you had a great time with this book, Kimberly! 🙂

    • kimbacaffeinate

      Yes..or we need a day between Saturday and Sunday dedicated to reading. You would think one of these dystopian worlds I read about would have created such a day!

  10. Tracy Terry

    A book I’ve been hearing a lot of – mostly positive it has to be said – and yet I’m still not convinced.

    Great review, thanks for sharing your thoughts on a series I’m sure we’ll be hearing lots more of.

  11. Leona

    I’ve really been looking at this series instead of finishing the CV series. I hope that this series refrains from all the kinks I found with the CV series.

  12. Debbie Haupt

    First welcome home, glad you had a fab vacation, I enjoyed seeing pics and traveling alone vicariously with your.
    I’ve seen this around Kim and your review just decided it on the wish list!

    • kimbacaffeinate

      Thanks. I need a vacation to recover from my vacation..LOL I got laundry done, and went food shopping so at least that is done. PJ day today!

  13. Katherine

    I’ve been seeing this book everywhere lately! I’m pretty sure that’s a sign that I need to go pick up the first book in the series stat!

  14. Maggie

    Kim, this book/series sounds very exciting. I haven’t read urban fantasy since Feverborn by Karen Marie Moning. I think I am due and this sounds like the perfect book to bring me back to such an exciting genre.. By the way – happy blogoversary! I know we started blogging around the same time (may just a few days apart). How exciting!

  15. Nick

    I cannot wait to pick this one up, Kim. I adored the first book and it looks like the story has gotten even stronger here. I’m especially looking forward to watching the relationship between Claire and Liam develop even further.
    Fabulous review, Kim!

  16. Melanie Simmons

    This sounds like a pretty good series. I started off reading Chicagoland Vampires, but got upset about a plot point and quit that series. I did like the writing style. Now that two books are out and this series still seems to be going strong, I might have to give it a try. Great review, as always Kimberly. 🙂

  17. Christy LoveOfBooks

    I’m really liking this series too. Yah, Liam and Claire are great together, but I enjoy the dynamic between those two and his brother the best. They’re pretty funny together.

  18. Brooke Banks

    Oh, this sounds a bit like The Sentinels of New Orleans and I loved that. I’ll have to check it out, good looking out!