I tried very hard to get into this book. I tried to both listen to it and read it. I just could not get at all interested in the characters or the story. The description got my hopes up and the reality dashed them back down.

I really enjoyed this short paranormal story. Kit's husband died on 9/11, and she has been struggling with grief ever since. When tragedy strikes again 14 years later, she puts her acting skills to use as a medium in order to make ends meet. Eventually, though, she begins to feel that she may actually be communicating with those who have passed.

I really enjoyed the thriller aspect of this book. I'm often on the fence about paranormal books because I want them to have a real-world explanation (and I'm not saying either way whether this one does). I liked how the mystery played out and was pleased with the ending.

This book was a very quick, creepy read that will definitely make you double-check your locks before bed.

The way the paranormal was subtle and really nice. It is about an actress trying to survive and get money by doing fake seance talking to the dead for 9/11 family victims until she starts to hear them for real. She is not made to be loved she's interesting to read about, all characters do wrong stuff and are Bad, yes i really liked this. The visitors of Kit, the actress, were also coming with pretty good stories it wasn't boring at all, yes i really liked this

When I read the description, I thought I would really like this book but when I started reading it, the story kind of let me down. The description got my hopes up but I got a bit let down throughout the book.

I just couldn’t get into the story even though I really wanted to like it. Sadly, this book wasn’t really for me but I hope this is a book that does interest others.

~ I received this Advanced Reader’s Copy and this is my honest review ~

This just didn’t end up being a book that interested me. When I first read the premise, I was very excited and invested, but getting into it made it clear that it just wasn’t for me. Hopefully it works for others out there!

This is my second book by J.P. Smith. I read The Drowning a few years ago and it was a five star read for me. I loved it so much I immediately requested this one when it became available on NetGalley. Oh, this book was so creepy good, it is a slow burner of a mystery with paranormal undertones. The pacing was perfect to the plot and it was short enough for me to read it in one sitting.

Kit's husband died on 9/11 and soon after she found out she was pregnant. Fast forward fourteen years and Kit's daughter witnesses a woman fall onto the subway tracks. That cause her daughter to faint and hit her head so badly she end up in a coma for three years. Kit is an unemployed actress and can't pay the bills so she resorts to seances to make ends meet and then everything she does starts to unravel before her.

This was a very different thriller and one I enjoyed very much. It is a perfectly spooky read for the upcoming Halloween season. The ending was really good and surprising, I am glad the author did what he did to add a bit of a surprise element...I loved it.

I went into this book blind. It was about Kit, a medium, who lost her husband in 9/11. Her daughter has been in a coma for 3 years after falling in front of a train. Kit isn’t aware that she is being investigated by the police for being a charlatan. Kit never excepts money on the first visit and only accepts donations after. Kit is an out of work actress and she is indeed a fraud. However, when doing a reading to a client she somehow performs a real summoning and sees a dead child. Now, she isn’t sure which is real life and which is afterlife.
This book has super short chapters and it’s a very quick read. I was hopeful that this book would be more spooky but it was a solid thriller.

I went into this book blind. It was about Kit, a medium, who lost her husband in 9/11. Her daughter has been in a coma for 3 years after falling in front of a train. Kit isn’t aware that she is being investigated by the police for being a charlatan. Kit never excepts money on the first visit and only accepts donations after. Kit is an out of work actress and she is indeed a fraud. However, when doing a reading to a client she somehow performs a real summoning and sees a dead child. Now, she isn’t sure which is real life and which is afterlife.
This book has super short chapters and it’s a very quick read. I was hopeful that this book would be more spooky but it was a solid thriller.

Woohoo, what a fun, goosebump raising, unputdownable read! I loved this one, really did blow my mind! Fantastically written with such phenomenal character development! Made me flip pages, stay up way too late, and tingle up my spine a few times! I love paranormal though, so mixing my two favs just made it suberb! So unique, original, and fast paced! Cannot recommend enough!

Will buzz around platforms and use top Amazon reviewer number on release!

I was excited to start this read, but I couldn’t get into it. For me it was a do not finish. I liked the premise, but got lost in the different stories.

The Summoning has been on my radar and I was stoked to be approved for a Netgalley copy. Thrillers with a bit of potentially supernatural events are typically right up my alley.

I think I was expecting something different than what the book ended up being, but I actually still enjoyed it quite a bit. I loved not really being able to tell if Kit was a fraud or not. She claimed she legitimately wanted to help grieving families, but was an actress. Was she just getting into character? I always appreciate it when I can’t figure out a main character.

The beginning felt a little bit clunky, but I loved the way it ended. Without going into too much detail, there were some things I didn’t see coming and I loved the final chapters!

I recommend this one, but it’s not the ghost story the synopsis makes it out to be.. it’s definitely more of a thriller/mystery.

3.5 - this book was.. wow!

meet Kit, a widowed actress who is forever between gigs and decides to make money off fooling those with lost love ones. at first, Kit seems like such an awful person. how could someone knowingly fool another person who is grieving? but just read on, you will come to understand Kit and all her troubles and how she feels abt what she does to pay the bills.

there is such a strong feel of paranormal and suspense throughout the whole entire book. as things are playing out, the reader is on edge, waiting for things to keep progressing, waiting for a ghost to appear. that was my favorite part of the whole book; the ambiance.

there are some things that i did not understand, some unanswered questions and some holes in the plot. there were some things that happened that just didn’t seem to fit with the plot, and for that reason, i could not rate this one higher.

thank you NetGalley for an advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review!

In The Summoning, Kit is drowning in medical bills and payments on her mortgage. As a struggling actress, who became a widow on 9/11, she decides to be a medium. For a time it works, but right when she starts getting investigated for fraud, the seances start to feel a little too real.

There was so much going on in this book! I was constantly trying to figure out if it was supernatural or all a lie. I was very interesting in figuring out all the secrets, however I feel like a lot was left out. In the end I had more questions than I started with. It had a lot of loose ends that I felt could have been dealt with. It did have the perfect tension to have me wanting to keep reading, I just was a little disappointed to not get answers to a lot of the questions brought up throughout. For me, this was a 3.5/5.

I received a digital copy of this book free from NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for an honest review.

This book started off amazing. The creepy atmospheric writing had my skin crawling and I was immediately pulled into this psychological thriller. I thought Kit was a very interesting character and I felt for her.
Issue was in the last 25% of the book. There were SO many elements that are just never explained. I was completely confused as the story unfolded because happenings contradicted each other.

I am left with so many questions and a really disappointing explanation for the main plot. With an actual ending, this would have been a phenomenal book.

I was pleasantly impressed with this book. I thought at first, I was not going to like this book. It took a few chapters to get into the story. Once I did, though, the book was incredible. Kit was so sure that her ‘medium’ talent was her acting and research skills. After her daughters accident, things begin to go strange. She really begins to hear from those passed on. So many things are going on with this book. There are police involved, fraud charges and missing persons. I do not want to spoil this book so read this book if you love great haunted stories.

This book starts out as a slow burn. The atmospheric build up is amazing, and the characterizations draw you in.

At first, you don’t know what to make of Kit, who is a 9/11 widow. She’s an actress by trade, but also a medium. She researches obituaries and memorials, and offers her services to grieving families. She prepares as though she’s playing an actor in a play. Is she taking advantage of these people?

You learn more about her tragic background and her daughter, Zoey, who suffered from tragic accident three years prior. You start to feel more empathy towards Kit instead of dislike.

Kit gets a client who isn’t who they seem to be, which leads her down a path of what is real and what isn’t. She starts to question her own sanity, as do others in her life.

There are two different plot twists, which will make you go back and read the pages again. You’ll question everything you have just read, and you will want more. The ending ties the events to gather well. I wish there was more in this story, because I didn’t want to stop reading.

I would like to thank J.P. Smith, Poisoned Pen Press, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Summoning was different than I thought it would be, which is a good thing. The description made it look as though the protagonist, Kit, mainly targeted the relatives of people killed on 9/11. I thought it was too early (even though it's been 20 years) and too raw for a book to have a protagonist who is scamming 9/11 relatives of the dead. That was only a small part. The majority of her targets (or clients, as she thought of them) were indeed mostly moms of dead children. Kit thought she was helping them because she made them feel better even though she actually didn't contact the dead.

Until the day she started having visions of their murders or hearing their voices in the night.

Kit scans the memorial section of the New York Times looking for "clients" but most are not from 9/11. If you are triggered, there are a lot of mentions of 9/11 because Kit's husband died in the North Tower.

The are surprising twists, especially the climax. I could see the bad ending coming for the lousy detective boyfriend but never anticipated the way it came about. I never anticipated what would happen to the protagonist. Some good zigzags on the part of the author.

I enjoyed The Summoning more than I thought I would. It's more of a mystery story than supernatural or horror, although there are ghosts. Thanks to Netgalley and Poisoned Penned press for allowing me the read and review The Summoning.

The Summoning
by J.P. Smith

Every year, as the anniversary of 9/11 inches closer on the calendar, Kit Capriol scans the memorials published in the New York Times. It’s a simple thing to look up a name and phone number, to reach out to surviving family members who might still be yearning for connection with their lost loved one… to offer assistance. After her husband went down in the north tower, Kit scraped by as an actress, barely supporting herself and her daughter. But now Zoey is in the hospital, bills are due, and the acting work has dried up. Becoming a medium is almost too easy for someone used to pretend for a living—and desperate clients aren’t hard to come by.

Now, though, something has changed. The seances Kit holds in her apartment are starting to feel unsettlingly real, and the intriguing man she met at a local bar could be more complicated than he seems. As the voices of the dead grow louder in her head and the walls of her apartment close in, Kit realizes that despite her daughter’s absence, she hasn’t been quite as alone as she thought…

I enjoyed the book. I must say I got it wrong a couple of times on what was happening to Kit. I would recommend this story for anyone who has a day to readan unusual but good book

Kit, an out-of-work actress needs money, her husband died on 9/11, and her daughter has been in the hospital for the past three years in a coma after an accident in a subway station. Bills are piling up and she can't seem to get any roles. She begins looking through the New York Times obits and memorial pages contacting family members left behind, letting them know that she is a medium and has received a message from their dead love one.

Some people have said that this is a horror book, but I did not see that in the book at all. It is more a slow burn suspenseful thriller with a hint of paranormal thrown in when Kit starts hearing from actual dead people while trying to " contact " the fake ones.

I am still not sure how I feel about Kit. What she does seems morally wrong, but is it really? The people seem to find joy from hearing from their lost loved one, so she is also bringing joy to some very lonely people, so there is that. Yet I also understand her will to survive ad provide the medical treatment her ill daughter needs. Unlike Kit, I probably would have just went out and got whatever normal job I could.

There was a lot going on in this book, emotional and financial stress, loss and grief, some mystery. Smith is a good writer, there were times I felt as overwhelmed as Kit did, who was in a downward spiral and a very unreliable narrator.

The ending has a little bit of a twist to it but it was nothing that was completely jaw-dropping. However once again I will say that the writing kept me engaged and entertained and had me wanting to get back to it when I had to set it down to do life things.

Kit's husband was killed on 9/11 and her daughter Zoe has been in a coma for three years after falling in the subway and hitting her head. Now she's struggling to keep her head above water financially. Regrettably, she opts to exploit grieving widows by posing as a medium who can connect them to their loved ones. Not nice. Then she meets David but she doesn't know his secret. She thinks all is well- it's not. She''s also starting to spin- really hearing voices and other creepy things are happening. She's also a very unreliable narrator, This has merges the paranormal with other elements and has some good twists, Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. I didn't expect to root for Megan but I did.