The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong

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…

I have read Kelley Armstrong before, so this was not the first time. I have been working my way through her Women of the Otherworld series, and for the most part, I am a big fan of the series. I had originally planned to read another book in that series, but then this arrived in the mail and I thought I would give it a try. The first book in The Darkest Powers series, it was a really interesting first book to the series. Was I blown away by it? No. It was not even great for a young adult novel. For me, it was just interesting enough that I will probably continue the series. It is like Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampires series in that respect. I will read them if they are easy to find, but I will not go out of my way for them.

The biggest criteria, for me, for an average book is that I can hardly remember what happens in them. That is my problem with this book. I only kind of remember it, and it was not all that long ago that I read it, so it should still be fresh in my head. I suppose one of my big problems with teen fiction is that I get so annoyed with the heroines. In many cases they are the naive young ladies that romance novels contain, just younger. Maybe in some cases I am too close to that age to really appreciate the freshness of youth? I don't know. I find that my biggest problem with a lot of the popular young adult series is that the main character annoys me (*cough* Bella *cough*), and that normally takes away from my enjoyment of the book. I have also had a lot of issues the last couple years with adult books narrated by young people. I just have no patience for them, I guess.

Anyways, I am just rambling here... So, yes, just an average book. A few interesting scenes, but nothing that will blow your socks off. If you want to read Kelley Armstrong for the first time, start with the Women of the Otherworld series, and if you want a good young adult novel, there are probably better ones out there (The Host, for example). That being said, I plan to read book two, so it was not terrible.

My thanks to Random House for sending me a copy of this book!