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I received an ARC of Orleans by Sherri L. Smith. I was quite excited to read it, living in the Greater New Orleans Area and enjoying books set in this region.

Smith does a great job of creating characters throughout this book. Each character is distinct and are developed in such a way that their flaws and their virtues are quite believable. I found many of the elements incorporated into the story quite brilliant, particularly the role that storm Jesus plays in the Delta region and the mythology behind New Orleans and why it was plagued with so many high-powered, damaging storms.

The story line is believable, which I'm not sure is a good or a bad thing, depending on where you live, I imagine.

The dialect used for narration for one of the characters is quite distracting and it isn't until later in the book that one finds out why it is narrated that way. When reading the first chapter, I wanted to correct the language used in my head. By the end of the book, it read like any other narration.

There is a bit of geography on the city off. Algiers is a neighborhood in New Orleans, not a separate town. The way it is described in location makes it appear as if the author believes it is its own small village or apart of New Orleans East, when in fact it is apart of the city and located on the West Bank of the city. Other than that, though, most of the setting is pretty true to form, at least as much that can be considering the damage that had been done within the storyline of the book.

There was humor mixed in with tragedy, which I think is important. It was nice to see a strong female protagonist.

Overall, an enjoyable read, though because of subject matter, I'm not sure this is a 12 and up book. There are some topics in this book I would not be comfortable with my 12 year old reading. It didn't read like a 12 and up book, not even really a YA book.