The Summoning (Darkest Powers, #1)

by Kelley Armstrong

[Jo]

Chloe Saunders is just an ordinary 15-year-old - that is until she starts seeing ghosts. Ghosts that are appearing all over, horribly disfigured, asking her for help. After one ghost chases her through school and Chloe reacts badly from being terrified, she is admitted into a group home for crazy kids. As she gets used to Lyle House, things seem ok. But then she gets to know the kids at the house better, and ghosts turn up asking for her help there too. Most of the kids have something in common, and Chloe starts to doubt that Lyle House us all it appears to be.

I cannot tell you how good this book is! The Dark Powers Trilogy is one story, meaning that The Summoning doesn't have a story that is resolved at the end, and you're left with a killer cliff hanger!

The Summoning is very much a first book. Most of it is setting the series up; Chloe finding out more about herself, about this "gift" she has, and about Lyle House. It's mainly learning, understanding, and finding things out. It all comes together in the last third of the book, where things are pieced together, and they realise there's something not quite right with the group home, but they're not entirely sure what. Then the action kicks in.

Although the first two thirds are the finding out stages, there's enough happening to keep your interest, to keep you intrigued. And the characters are awesome too. Like the kids in the home; Simon is beyond lovely, Rae is enthusiastic and bubbly, Derek is just so awesome under his quiet mean and moody act, and Liz is happy-go-lucky, but also kind of odd. And by the end of the book you're sitting on the edge of your seat, adrenalin running through you just like the teens in the book, and you can't read fast enough. I have an inkling of a love triangle in future novels which makes the story interesting!

This is really an awesome book, and I can't wait to read the next one, The Awakening, to find out what happens! This is the first book by Kelley Armstrong I've read, and I'll definitely be picking up her other novels. This is a must read!