Review: The Summoning (The Darkest Powers #1) by Kelley Armstrong

Goodreads Synopsis: After years of frequent moves following her mother’s death, Chloe Saunders’s life is finally settling down. She is attending art school, pursuing her dreams of becoming a director, making friends, meeting boys. Her biggest concern is that she’s not developing as fast as her friends are. But when puberty does hit, it brings more than hormone surges. Chloe starts seeing ghosts–everywhere, demanding her attention. After she suffers a breakdown, her devoted aunt Lauren gets her into a highly recommended group home.

At first, Lyle House seems a pretty okay place, except for Chloe’s small problem of fearing she might be facing a lifetime of mental illness. But as she gradually gets to know the other kids at the home–charming Simon and his ominous, unsmiling brother Derek, obnoxious Tori, and Rae, who has a “thing” for fire–Chloe begins to realize that there is something that binds them all together, and it isn’t your usual “problem kid” behaviour. And together they discover that Lyle House is not your usual group home either…

Review: At first I didn't know what to expect from this kind of book. I've never read something that involved teens who have the power to see ghosts and to be completely honest it was AWESOME complete and utter AWESOMENESS.

It was modern, realistic and completely had me on a tight rope reading from the first page all to the end. I literally didn't stop reading. Okay, maybe I did to use the ladies room, eat and tweet of course. But seriously, I did not expect to be so drawn in completely by Chloe's maturity (I don't remember being that mature at 15), wit and courage.

The beginning set off really fast and it kind of felt tthat way hroughout the book but its probably just me because of how fast I zoned through the book.

Moving on, when I read the summary the first thing that came to my mind was "Teens with powers all in one place" the X-men? Close, but still completely different. We're talking about half-demons and Shamans and Necromancers. How cool is that?

The secondary characters were well written and I liked them all except for one and I sense some unusual romance going on here which I'll have to wait and read in the next book. Yes, the book only had hints of romance.

I would give 5/5 stars for Kelley Armstrong's masterpiece. It was literally unputdownable. 5-6 hours of reading straight! The writing was excellent, the plot was exciting, the pace a little fast but good, the characters aren't annoying! yay! except for a few who are meant to be annoying, and the cover is absolutely gorgeous. :D I can't wait to get Awakening.

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