I was a bit confused by this. On the surface it's right up my alley but I felt so overwhelmed by the amount of exposition here that it was really killing my ability to enjoy this book. I get that it's the first in the series, and the magic system seems really complex, but it seemed complicated to the point of being ridiculous. If you asked me to explain how anything worked there I doubt I'd be able to do it.

I really think the story suffered for having to be the one to set up every subsequent book in a series, and I wish authors knew that they don't necessarily have to do that. You don't need to lay it all out there. That's what an appendix is for. Or what a guidebook or a wiki is for. The first time I read LotR I sat there with my Middle Earth guidebook in one hand, just in case I needed it, and the book in the other. If an appendix is good enough for the grandaddy of all fantasy epics, then it's good enough for the Summoner series too. There is an appendix in the book, btw, but it's just one listing all of the demon species, which are so obviously named that I'd be surprised if any adults in the room don't get them right off the bat....but technically it's a kids book and they might not so that's okay. I think as an adult that reads loads of YA I'm spoiled for the really mature YA (like the Folk of the Air or ACOTAR, neither of which is really true YA imo, but I digress). It's really easy to forget that kids are supposed to be reading these books and get pissed off when the narrative comes off as really juvenile.

In any case, some things that stood out to me (for good or ill):
- The relationship between Fletcher and Ignatius. And just Ignatius. I'm a sucker for cute little animal sidekicks.
- The magic system - it seemed overly complicated at times, and way too reliant on inanimate objects (like special crystals and pieces of leather...guess I like my magic a little more organic) but it was interesting.

Spoiler

And I really loved what Fletcher did with the tattoo and the scrying crystal at the end...though that made me want to effing laugh at picturing all of the other battle mages holding big rocks up to their heads when they need to scry or something.

- Chapter endings were SO AWKWARD. And it really really really bothered me. I mean they ended so randomly some times and so suddenly that I was wondering why things were even being split up into chapters. I'm used to some sort of denouement at a chapter end, so it was extremely off-putting....I have no idea if that had anything to do with the fact that this was a Wattpad story first. Never read anything on Wattpad, but if someone is posting stuff in bits and pieces and then sort of lumping everything together in a book when they're done I could see how it might affect things. There was just no flow with the chapters and it felt kind of choppy and sort of took me out of the story at times.
- Also the Pokemon and Harry Potter influences here were so heavy handed that it was distracting at times. I'm not the first person to have made this observation, and I know HP in itself borrows from lots of other stuff, as do most modern fantasy books, but sheeeeeeeeeeeeeesh it just could not get any more obvious. Here's my mental list made flesh: Fletcher = Harry, Ignatius = Hedwig, Arcturus = Lupin, Rook = Snape, Tarquin = Draco, Isadora = Pansy Parkinson; Infusing/summoning demons so obviously like using Pokeballs that I expected Fletcher to be like "Ignatius, I choose YOU!" half the time.
- Fletcher is a cool kid, and I enjoyed the dynamic between him and dwarf friend Othello, but the dialogue felt super-stilted at times. It didn't seem like the author maybe understood how real people speak to each other? Not sure if that makes sense, but it was just awkwarrrrrrrrd.

In closing, I didn't totally hate this, but it didn't live up to my expectations. However, I will say this - we've seen loads of examples where the first book in a series is trash (Throne of Glass comes to immediate mind) but the series improves markedly as it goes along. It's for that reason that I'm not willing to throw in the towel on this series entirely until I've read at least through book 2. Writers mature, people change, so if we're looking at a series it's worth sticking with it for a little bit more. Also, I think the kiddies will absolutely love this. In fact, I know they do, because my husband brought the books into his 6th grade class after he was finished with them and the kiddos went crazy borrowing them. Anything that gets kids excited about reading and about BOOKS is already markedly better than any video game or electronic doohickey out there. I just wonder if they might skew a little too juvenile for me to personally enjoy them....because I'm so, like, mature and grown up and stuff :-P