Leanna Renee Hieber is back with a new book in her Spectral City series! In case you missed it last week, Leanna wrote a lovely guest post for us on the many possibilities of ghost stories in her works and in her life. In her Spectral City books, ghost stories help the psychic ladies of NYPD’s Ghost Precinct to solve mysteries and save lives! A Summoning of Souls is the third book in this trilogy, and it comes out tomorrow, July 21. WORD Bookstores will be hosting a virtual release party on their Instagram page tomorrow at 7:30pm EDT.
In The Spectral City, Eve Whitby and her team start out looking for a missing child and a missing ghost, but soon find themselves embroiled in something much bigger. In the sequel, A Sanctuary of Spirits, the girls uncover a secret society bent on harnessing the souls of the dead through macabre works of art. Now, in A Summoning of Souls, Eve must finally confront the mastermind behind both the organization and the disappearances. Albert Prenze, half of the Prenze family duo that made a fortune selling tonics, has been presumed dead for several years. In truth, he has spent this time honing his mesmeric powers and plotting out a Great Experiment: with the use of electricity and new technology, Prenze believes he can completely rid the world of ghosts forever. Eve will have to gather all of her allies to keep Prenze from destroying her beloved spirit world—without becoming a pawn in his plan, herself.
Amid all the fighting and chaos, one thing that Leanna is particularly good at is making time for romance. Eve and the handsome Detective Horowitz have spent the last two books in a slow-burn romance that at last comes to a head—and let me tell you, when they do finally kiss, it is absolutely worth the wait! But this book also introduces a new and rather unusual romantic pair: the ghost of the young socialite Maggie Hathorne and the exorcist-in-training Reverend Coronado. Now, you might think ghosts and exorcists go together like roaches and Raid, but in the case of a friendly ghost like Maggie, it’s always good to have an exorcist on hand while learning how to use the ghostly power of possession without harming her host. Possession tends to be the most terrifying type of ghost story, and I’ve only rarely seen it played for comedic effect, like in the film Beetlejuice. But Leanna manages to write possession scenes that are both humorous and have an underlying layer of compassion for the person whose body is being manipulated beyond their control. Maggie and Coronado get to engage in some playful flirting while treading gently around the interesting questions of consent raised by the act of possession.
As I’ve spoken about in my previous posts, romantic relationships aren’t the only important type of relationship in the Spectral City series. In my review of A Sanctuary of Spirits, I touched briefly on the complicated yet loving relationship between Eve and her paranormal-averse mother. A Summoning of Souls delves into this relationship much more deeply. Natalie had been rather scarred by her youthful encounters with the paranormal (which you can read about in Leanna’s Magic Most Foul series). So when Eve decided to embrace channeling ghosts as her life’s pursuit, a distance opened up between mother and daughter that has been difficult for them to bridge. In this book, Natalie finally confronts her past trauma and opens up a dialogue with her daughter that leads to greater understanding. I love the way that Leanna often defies Gothic genre conventions that tend to be rooted in sexism—in this case the trope of the absent mother. In many Gothic novels, the heroine is an orphan or otherwise separated from her mother, in order to set her up as an isolated, vulnerable woman who can easily fall under the control of dangerous men without the comfort and guidance of a mother. Eve Whitby, though, is anything but an isolated Gothic heroine. She has a whole network of powerful women around her, from a host of female ghosts to her colleagues at the Ghost Precinct and mentors like Gran and Clara Bishop. But even with all of this female support, Eve still craves a closer relationship with her mother. And she gets it. By opening up a dialogue and facing her discomfort with the supernatural, Natalie rejects the role of the absent mother and commits to being a supportive presence in Eve’s life.
If you preorder A Summoning of Souls now from WORD Bookstores, you can get a signed copy and a bunch of Hieberverse goodies, as well as being entered for a chance to win a custom made piece of jewelry, art, or accessory design handcrafted from Leanna’s Etsy store, Torch and Arrow. You can also purchase a copy from this Bookshop.org affiliate link. When you read it, come back and share your thoughts in the comments!