Review: Born of Deception (Born of Illusion #2) by Teri Brown

Born of Deception by Teri Brown
336 Pages
Release Date: June
Publisher: Balzer & Bray
Genre: Historical/Paranormal
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss
Rating: 4 STARS

Goodreads Summary:
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.

Original and authentic, Born of Deception, does an awesome job following up Born of Illusion to London. I love the time period and how we're able to see a different setting compared to Born of Illusion. While it was a bit slow at times, the plot and the introduction of the Society definitely makes up for it. I love seeing the way the researchers and the Sensitives clash as they both try to ensure they get what they want. It was pretty to get suspicious of some of the characters. I will admit that the plot was predictable and wasn't as complex as I thought it would be. It was interesting to see the way real magic gets involved and how each person deals with the problems that arise.

So Anna goes through a lot of character development in this book. She deals with having a new life and being independent. Her now strained relationship with Cole through their circumstances ultimately lead to Anna questioning her decisions and what she wants. I do like how she acknowledges the problems in her life and tries to deal with them in her own way. It was really cool seeing Anna being able to keep her abilities away from her work as a magician. However, the most irritating part of this book was all the jealousy that she and Cole both feel. Usually I'm totally cool with jealousy becomes its irrelevant and it's sometimes just funny seeing them get jealous. But in this book it was totally overdone and the characters were way too insecure and how heavily emphasized the jealousy was just had me groaning.

I think this is the first time in a long while where I doubt if a character should be together with who they're in love with. Don't get me wrong, I love Cole but his character was just lacking and it was easy to get frustrated with him and his actions. At the same time, I understand that he's busy but he is a bit clueless when it comes to girls and the way they think. And with how little we got to see him and Anna together, it just made it altogether more hard to see they were in love. Anna especially would say she loves him but I feel like it's rarely shown . Also Billy, the new character that's introduced, is awesome and charming and I was really happy to see that Anna made a friend she could lean on.

While I did have some problems with the story, it was worth reading and I would definitely recommend this to historical fiction and paranormal lovers. And if your day is in need of some magic, then this book should help :) Happy Readings!