The Calling by Kelley Armstrong

Reading Level: Young Adult
(4 out of 5)

The Calling is the second book part of the second trilogy in the Darkest Powers/Darkness Rising series.  Let me try and break it down.  The Darkest Powers series started with Chloe.  Those books were The Summoning, The Awakening, and The Reckoning.  In this trilogy you learned about the Edison group and Project Genesis, which happened to be Chloe, Derek, Simon, Tori, and the other kids.  Chloe is a necromancer, Derek is a werewolf, Simon is a wizard, and Tori is a witch. 

Then I was excited to find out that there is a short story called Facing Facts continuing right after The Reckoning in the anthology Enthralled.  If you go here http://www.darkestpowers.com/blog/ and start with May you get to read a free story from Derek's point of view that starts off from the story in Enthralled.  But you better hurry because I don't know how much longer it will be on the blog for free.  And it's a good story.  I love these characters.  I wish she would write more about them.  That's probably why I like the Darkness Rising series so much because it's same world and at the end of this book it hints towards a run in with these characters.  My fingers are crossed.

In  the first book The Gathering you meet Maya.  You find out that Maya lives in a relatively small community that is also run by the St. Clouds which are part of the Edison Group.  Maya has a best friend Daniel and then she meets Rafe and finds out she is a skin walker.  She can shift into a cat.  At the end of The Gathering there is a forest fire and Maya, Daniel, Rafe, Nicole, Haley, Samantha, Corey, and the Mayor which is Nicole's dad are airlifted out in a helicopter.  That is how The Calling begins.

When The Calling begins it becomes apparent right away that the pilot isn't taking them where he says he is and it quickly spirals out of control.  Rafe falls out of the plane, the plane crashes, and the mayor dies.  Now they are stranded in the middle of nowhere hunted but people they don't know.  The kids soon find out that they were experiments in Project Phoenix and that Project Genesis was a failure. Oh and Maya's biological father is one of the men after them.  Towards the end of the book all have been captured but Maya, Daniel, and Corey.  All they have is a contact name and no way of knowing how to find him.  I am so ready for the third book but unfortunately it probably won't be out until next year.  I always seem to be waiting.