A Summoning of Souls

I’m thinking 5 trillion stars and then 5 trillion more because wow...Leanna Renee Hieber is one of my favourite writers. Her books are absolutely amazing.
A summoning of Souls is one of my favourites.

First of all, if you haven’t read the previous two books don’t start with this one, you won’t understand what’s happening.

A Summoning of Souls picks up where A Sanctuary of Spirits left off. Eve, Jacob and the Ghost Precinct is still after those people who caused the happenings in the previous books. As the relationship between Eve and Jacob intensifies so does Eve’s waking nightmares. She and her team faces an enemy that wants the ghosts gone. All of them. Albert Prenze is a rich man, a powerful man, a true evil. And he will stop at nothing until he achieves his goal. He wants to use Eve as a psychic weapon and if he succeeds, spirits will be gone but not just them - human lives could be in danger too...Jacob among them.

Where to start...do you know the feeling when you read a book and it’s stuck in your head? How the story, the characters made you feel included somehow, like you were part of their lives. When you want more. When you are sad that the book ends but also feel exhilarated because you fell in love with the book. This is where I am. Sad but happy at the same time. Weird feeling.

I adore Eve and Jacob. I so loved watching as they fall in love, as they try to keep their distance - it’s the 19th century, it’s not proper to show their affection - but fail miserably. They are sweet together. Eve despite being only 19 years old, acts more adult, more responsible than lots of people I know. It’s commendable how she relates to her family and friends. She has a strained relationship with her mother but there is a scene where that changes and I must confess I cried with them.
The other characters have also grown on me. Gran, Cora, Antonia and little Jenny are all sweet, caring, brave and amazing people. And Maggie...she is a devious one. I love her because despite being a ghost, she still tries to have a life. She helps Eve and her team wherever she can, she has ideas of her own and she has her fun too.

I can’t wait to read the next book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for my copy. All opinions are my own.

I was given a free copy of this book. I am leaving my honest review.

This is a cleverly written, paranormal mystery. The author evokes the Victorian era remarkably well. The world building is excellent and the characters well defined.

There's a lovely premise to A Summoning of Souls, and a well observed and chosen setting in vintage New York. Social conventions, innovations, nicely observed, There's a kick to modernity and changing times, and how they impact of the spirit world around us. This is neat urban fantasy - much of it identifiable with our own world (love, pain, loss, hardship), but that twist in reality that brings us the supernatural with an interesting crime element. The Ghost Precinct idea is brilliant.

I'm a little long of tooth for teenage romance, and this book oozes it. I can see how it would appeal to a different audience, and don't criticise it for that, it's just not to my personal taste and for me it diverts away a little from the central themes of strong women in an unequal world.

Eve is a gutsy protagonist, fiercely loyal to those around her while dealing with quite extraordinary mental and physical hardship. She's well drawn and believable. This is an excellent series, engrossing and well worth seeking out for a nice slice of YA urban fantasy.

#ASummoningofSouls #NetGalley