April 19, 2013

The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong


Title: The Summoning (Darkest Powers Trilogy #1)
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release date: July 1st 2008

Rating: 4/5

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My name is Chloe Saunders and my life will never be the same again.

All I wanted was to make friends, meet boys, and keep on being ordinary. I don't even know what that means anymore. It all started on the day that I saw my first ghost - and the ghost saw me.

Now there are ghosts everywhere and they won't leave me alone. To top it all off, I somehow got myself locked up in Lyle House, a "special home" for troubled teens. Yet the home isn't what it seems. Don't tell anyone, but I think there might be more to my housemates than meets the eye. The question is, whose side are they on? it's up to me to figure out the dangerous secrets behind Lyle House...before its skeletons come back to haunt me.

This is the second time I read The Summoning by author Kelley Armstrong and this trilogy is set in the same world as her adult series Women of the Otherworld. I did read several books of her adult series before I read this book and I do not know if that has anything to do with it, but I LOVED this book! I declare myself a fan of Kelley Armstrong, I love both series.

The Summoning is narrated by Chloe Saunder a fifteen year-old girl, she´s studying at an art school and her dream is to become a screenwriter and direct a Hollywood film, but that dream is ruined when she sees her first ghost and nobody believes her and and her family think that she have a nervous breakdown, so she is sent to a home for "troubled" teens. There she meets other patients that are there for some unknown problem, since this house has a policy that their patients do not discuss their diagnosis with others. But Lyle House, is some sort of boarding school/house where the patients receive psychological help, a tutor (to help them to catch up or not fall behind in classes), and they also have to do chores around the house.

Among the patients at Lyle House, Derek is 16 years-old, he has attitude problems and  his foster brother Simon is 15 years-old, is a popular guy, Tori is 15 years-old she´s, the typical popular girl who mistreats everyone, Rae likes to play with fire (literally) and Chloe´s roommate Liz is a good girl and she´s Tori´s best friend.

My favorite character is Derek Souza, he has bad temper, he isn´t interested in interacting with anyone other than his brother, but underneath all that there is a guy very protective, strong, extremely intelligent. Team Derek!!

Overall, The Summoning is a very good first book, with action, adventure, mystery, paranormal elements, with unexpected twists (as this was the second time I read it the twists were not so unexpected), excellent and lovable characters. And with a cliffhanger ending. I highly recommended it.

13 comments:

  1. Great review! I love this series, well I love all of Kelly Armstrong's series. :) After you read this series you should read The Gathering because The Summoning series leads into it.

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  2. I haven't read this series, but the books seems to be great!

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  3. I haven't read this series, but the books seems to be great!

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  4. You had me at "ghosts"! Love ghost stories! Thanks for the post and your thoughts!

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  5. I read this once, a long time ago, but I never got back to the series. I think I liked it pretty well, but I honestly don't remember it for the most part. Seems to me, after reading your review, that I should go back and read it again. I don't think I would regret it. I am a rereader anyway!

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  6. I have this trilogy but was waiting to finish the series Women of the Otherworld. May have to rethink that.

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  7. I love this series! Derek is one of my favorite characters too. I have read a couple of her adult series and thought they were also good. I can't wait to read The Rising.

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  8. I've read most of her adult books but somehow I missed this one! I love everything I've read from this author, and this one sounds great too! Great characters action and lots of surprises are what make her books excellent and I can't wait to read this one! Thanks for sharing your comments!

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  9. This looks great - glad that it is the first in a series. I always seem to want to start with book 2 and then have to go back and read book one.

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  10. Does this series or her adult series take place first? I am going to assume the YA series probably does because it wouldn't make sense the other way around. Anyway, sounds interesting and it's on my TBR already, I just didn't know there was also an adult series!

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  11. @Rachel Edmundson - The adult series and this trilogy takes place in the same world but the character are different, so far their paths have not crossed.
    And the adult series take place first, but these characters are completely different from those of the young adult novel.

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  12. I read almost all of KA's other books so when I saw this in the young adult section - I bought it out of curiosity. I'm glad I did. It is about young high school age children but it's still her slow build writing that holds the readers interest without losing any of the detail of the world she creates.

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  13. When I first read it, I wasn't too convinced. I was too focused on how annoying Chloe was. But something about Derek made me read on and now I see the first book with new eyes. It really is a great book to start off the series. Glad you enjoyed it(:

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