“Summoner” follows Allie, 6 months after she lost her mother to cancer, as she rejoins her friends on a crazy dare. Nell seems to find the oddest things to do, and now she has them using a divining rod to locate dead bodies in a cemetery. Although creeped out, not wanting to be a chicken, Allie gives it a try and begins to hear a voice. As we soon learn, Allie has been cursed and can summon the dead- in this case, using a divining rod.

At the same time, Allie is juggling some teenage romantic drama with her recent break-up and the new hottie next door, whom her friend can’t seem to stop hitting on. Cody has just moved from Montana and is haunted by the events of 2 years earlier, where he lost his hand. Allie finds herself drawn to him and luckily, he seems to reciprocate although he is hardly willing to jump into something new himself. To make things even more complicated, he turns out to be her Guardian. When a Summoner is cursed, they get a Guardian to try to protect them from the dead, who are trying to destroy them.

The build-up to the supernatural/horror aspects is very slow, as we know as much as Allie and Cody do (which is to say, nothing). The big reveals come later in the book and we slowly piece together what is happening and how to stop it alongside Allie and Cody. Allie and Cody are both fiercely protective of the other, which may actually stand in their way when it comes to stopping the ghost which is haunting Allie and threatening her existence. Overall, it is more a romance with elements of the supernatural than vice-versa.

The strength of this book is really in the demonstrations of the power of forgiveness and acceptance/overcoming guilt and moving past family death. The supernatural elements were just enough to make the book stand out from the usual contemporary YA romance but overall, it retained a lot of the same feel and personal growth as one without the supernatural. I found the ideas about Summoners/Guardians really unique- here, this isn’t a skill they were born with and didn’t find out about until now- this is a new thing placed on them somewhat at random and they have to figure it out entirely. No special community or anything exists to educate them (though they do get a little help on the way, thankfully), so it really seemed to set itself apart from other, potentially similar books.

Largely for the romance/personal growth, it was difficult to stop reading this one (see if they were too stubborn to let the other one help with their problems), and I enjoyed seeing Allie and Cody’s relationship evolve. The supernatural elements were just the icing on the cake.

Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher through netgalley. All opinions are my own.

After her mother’s death six months ago, Allie Billings pushed everyone away. Finally, one night, she decides to reconnect with her friends, and, on a dare, heads into a cemetery for a night of witching. Allie doesn’t think that anything will come of it, doesn’t even believe that witching is a real thing, but she soon finds herself haunted by a vengeful ghost who has bonded to her.

Allie’s only hope of protection comes in the form of Cody Burkhardt, her cute new neighbor with a tragic past of his own. Cody becomes Allie’s guardian, the one person who can protect her from the evil spirits that wish to harm her. As the full moon draws nearer and the ghost’s power increases, it becomes more and more obvious that this spirit isn’t going down without a fight.

If you’re following my blog, you probably saw my post a couple weeks back that I’d been approved for a boatload of ARCs. What happened was an email from Entangled Teen offering “highly-anticipated contemporary, sci-fi, and paranormal fall ARC’s available... now!” I read the plot summaries and opened the request form, and thinking I’d maybe be approved for one if I was lucky, requested them all. Well, I was approved for every last one. I’m reading in order of release date, so Summoner came first. I picked it up on a lazy Sunday afternoon and finished it Sunday evening. I couldn’t put it down because I just had to know what happened next!

I know that the ghosts are the main focus of this book and Katerina totally freaked me out, but can we talk about the romance for a second? I think that the slow burn almost actually killed me. The anticipation of Allie and Cody’s relationship, just waiting for one of them to make the first move -- ugh, it’s one of my favorite things about YA romances. It was so well done here.

The writing was fast-paced with just enough swoony bits in between the action. I loved both Allie and Cody and rooted for them both individually and as a couple. As for the actual paranormal plot, it’s been a really long time since I read paranormal YA on any kind of regular basis, so I wasn’t really expecting the twists. (If you’re someone who reads a lot of paranormal YA, you might not be as surprised.)

All in all, Summoner was just really well done. This was my first book by S.D. Grimm, but it will not be my last. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more of her work.

I received a free copy of Summoner from Entangled Teen in exchange for my honest review.

Summoner was a read that I hadn't fully expected. It was also a read that gave me topics I'd like to look more into such as witching. I'd like to thank Chapter by Chapter blog tours, Entangled Teen, and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read an e-ARC of this one! You guys can look forward to reading this one in September!

I really enjoyed getting to know Cody and Allie in this story along with their griefs. Allie lost her mother six months before the story began and you get to explore her grief as the story progresses and the holidays come. She's left with a journal full of advice after pushing her friends away until the night she goes into the cemetery on a dare and summons a vengeful ghost.

The way it was written, it made it sound like Cody knew that he was a guardian when he really had no clue. I thought that it was interesting that guardianship could be passed through blood (as seen when Cody's blood mixed with Moose's) so in theory, a person could have multiple guardians.

I actually enjoyed their slow buildup with their romance although it was hinted that it was “love at first sight” neither actually acted on their feelings until after they got to know each other and their boundaries.

For some reason, I kept picturing Allie's dad as being similar to Bella's father, Charlie, in Twilight. I'm not sure if anyone else felt that way or not.

I have to say that while the ending was fairly obvious, I was surprised that one of Allie's friends was a descendant to the spirit that was trying to take Allie's soul. I'm glad that the friend was actually put under a spell and didn't knowingly try to harm anyone.