Evocation

Summoner's Circle, Book 1

De: S.T. Gibson

Narrado por: Oscar Reyes

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of B&N's best books of 2022 A Dowry of Blood, comes a spellbinding and vibrant new series.

The Devil knows your name, David Aristarkhov.

As a teen, David Aristarkhov was a psychic prodigy, operating under the shadow of his oppressive occultist father. Now, years after his father's death and rapidly approaching his thirtieth birthday, he is content with the high-powered life he's curated as a Boston attorney, moonlighting as a powerful medium for his secret society.

But with power comes a price, and the Devil has come to collect on an ancestral deal. David's days are numbered, and death looms at his door.

Reluctantly, he reaches out to the only person he's ever trusted, his ex-boyfriend and secret society rival Rhys, for help. However, the only way to get to Rhys is through his wife, Moira. Thrust into each other's care, emotions once buried deep resurface, and the trio race to figure out their feelings for one another before the Devil steals David away for good . . .

Contains mature themes.

©2024 S.T. Gibson (P)2024 Tantor

Unfortunately, what did outmost, was the narration?

This is a prime example of how narration can make or break a story. On the plus side, the narrator was pretty good with different voices, male and female accents and what not, but he has this annoying issue with breath control. He pauses in the wrong spots Like he doesn’t know how to control his breath in order to complete a sentence and it just is really distracting. Also I think part of it is the writing the lack of transition from one idea in a paragraph to another. It’s jarring when they’re talking about something and then the next sentence is a totally different idea. It was really distracting to me, which is why I couldn’t give this more stars.

Horrible performance…entertaining storyline.

The narrator is horrible. Holy cow - the reading is choppy, weirdly breathy, and he mixes up some of the character voices. I do NOT recommend the audible version of this book! The story line is good - but it’s so hard to get beyond the terrible reading.

A Relatable Situation in a Fantastic World

David and Rhys are both flawed characters that make you both want to love and hate them, with Moira being a stand-in for the reader sometimes, even though she has her own flaws. The relationship is clearly the main focus of the story, with a supernatural subplot, so if that’s not your thing, give this one a pass.

3.5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ Review

Three magical beings have to come together to find out what is making one of them sick and lethargic. Two of them are ex’s and they have to work through unresolved feelings in order to work together.

Poly rep
LGBT Rep

Spent too much time explaining things that didn’t need explaining. Spent too much time on scenes that could’ve been a page long.
This could have been a short story or more action scenes and magic could’ve been added to the book.
Found myself sleepy throughout most of the book.

the storyline

I've been in a reading slump lately, and I don't think I've finished a book at all this year. until this month. this book was amazing, had me on my toes the whole time. I got it done within 3 days.

Great storyline!

Great story! Awesome love interests! Wish for more spice and more adventure in the spells and slightly better description.

devoured in a day

really really loved the story and the characters. thought the narration was great.

one small plot quibble: characters all seem a little too young for life experiences pre book.

Relationship story with supernatural background

This is a book that I read/listened to for my book club. It’s not something I’d normally pick myself- which is actually a nice way to broaden my library. I thought the book would focus more on the supernatural mystery versus the dynamics of the throuple. That was not the case and personally I’d had preferred the former. The writing is okay, and the performance was decent aside from some strange pauses that others have mentioned, I didn’t find it as distracting as others. Overall, if this is the type of reading you normally go for I think it’ll be a solid pick. Personally I could take it or leave it.

DNF

I stopped at chapter 5. I simply could not take the narration anymore. Or maybe the whining characters and the fake southern charm of Moira. IDK its all just too much for me.
I bought it on sale, so thats lucky.
I may try it later, if so I will adjust review

Disappointing

I love Gibson’s previous work, so I went into this expecting to really enjoy the story. Unfortunately Evocation falls very flat. I can’t really think of anything I liked about it. Incredibly lackluster storytelling, irritating characters, and very little magic. I wish I would have used my credit on something else.