Review - The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong

The Awakening (Darkest Powers, 2)
by Kelley Armstrong
ARC/HarperTeen/April 28, 2009

Today is the official release day of The Awakening!! Browse Inside it over in the sidebar!

The Summoning (Darkest Powers, 1) - this summary was written while I was reading the book during The Dewey ReadAThon

So far we've met Chloe and she sees dead people. She saw a custodian, at her school, who looked as if he was in a fire and he started chasing her around the school - appears he needs help so he can leave the school - she was screaming, teachers came and they sent her to a group home. Most interesting resident so far - Liz - she can moves things with her mind. Also, we just uncovered some possible powers for the other students at the Lyle House with Chloe.

• Simon - can levitate things
• Rae - can burn people with her touch

Chloe's Aunt Lauren seems to be hiding something. She's really upset over Derek "bothering" Chloe. Hmm.... Derek and Simon have filled Chloe in on a little of their background. Turns out Derek is sort of a superman and also extremely bright. We keep seeing Liz as a ghost so Chloe is wondering if she is now dead. Rae and Chloe broke into the closet in the basement but Chloe didn't get to talk to a ghost. She did find a box of old property records though! Simon can do some spells. Don't know about Rae yet - I think she may be hiding something. She might be a spy. It turns out that Tori is actually crazy. Also, the adults KNOW the children have powers. Apparently the founder of the Lyle House used to bring supernaturals there to do experiments on them. Chloe learned this by talking to some ghosts. Now Chloe, Derek, Simon and Rae are on the run and Dr. Davidoff and the others are chasing them. Chloe is hurt and the girls have been separated from the boys!

The Awakening

Picks up where The Summoning left off. Chloe and Rae are caught by the Edison Group but not the boys. The Edison Group are a bunch of supernatural doctors who like to do experiments.
They experimented on Chloe and the other kids when they were little. They were hoping to help them assimilate better. This didn't work. Now Chloe and Tori are trying to find Simon and Derek and hopefully Kit, Simon's dad. He is a supernatural too and supposedly he can help them. They look for a friend of Simon's dad, Andrew, because they think he can tell them where Kit is. Tori and Simon are on a bus while Derek and Chloe stopped off so that Derek could change. He got about 3/4 of the way before the change reversed itself. There appears to be some sort of romance in the air between those two but Derek keeps pushing Chloe towards Simon, prolly cause he, Derek, thinks he might hurt her. They eventually find Andrew but isn't sure he can help them. They also need to find out what happened to Chloe's Aunt Lauren. Chloe has accepted her life as a necromancer and is now looking forward to kicking The Edison Group's butt and hopefully finding Kit. I can hardly wait for the next book! 5 stars and a definite purchase.

I get to see Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr (@Melissa_Marr), and Kim Harrison when the visit Anderson's Bookshop (@AndersonsBkshp) in Naperville, Il on June 2nd as part of the Supernatural Summer tour. It is sure to be a blast!