A slow but enjoyable simmer of a start. 
 The Gathering starts this trilogy out rather slow. I think that is just Kelley Armstrong's style. I have to admit I am a long time fan having read about 14 of her books. Her adult Women of the Otherworld series is one of my favorite urban fantasy series. 
 So she does take awhile to rev things up. I thought The Gathering was going to be different. It starts with an action packed opening scene where you are holding your breath to see how that turns out. But things promptly settle down with a short jump forward in time. From then on anything dealing with Maya and any special traits she has are mostly hinted at. It remains this way almost completely to the end of the book. 
 Maya has a snarky, without being mean, personality. Dialogue like below had me chuckling and totally loving her. 
 "something's wrong with her." "Um, yeah. She climbed a tree to escape a cat. She's suffering from a serious case of stupid." Page 14 
 "Have you met the tattoo artist? Is he hot?" "He's a she," Mom said. "Is she hot? Cause I'm still young, you know. My sexual identity isn't fully formed." Page 37 
 "Or," I said, turning to Rafe, "if you want to skip the whole awkward meet-the-family social event, you could just submit your life story, including your views on politics, religion, and every social issue imaginable, along with anything else you think they might need to conduct a thorough background check." Mom sighed. "I really don't know why we even bother trying to be subtle around you." Page 202 
 What I really enjoyed was the portrayal of the awesome relationship she has with her adoptive parents. The love and interaction there is so endearing. Then you have her best friend Daniel who seems like the perfect dream boat who does so much for Maya, that you can't help but adore him. I could sense there is tension there and once Rafe comes into the picture I saw the setup for a possible love triangle. I am disappointed if that is indeed the case since there was already a love triangle in her first young adult trilogy Darkest Powers. I guess I will have to wait and see. 
 My biggest pet peeve is that I am a big believer that even if a book is part of a trilogy or a series that it should still be able to stand on its own two feet. I like there to be a major goal or obstacle that must be overcome and for something considerable to be achieved. With The Gathering it was very much just the setup for the next two books. I've already started book two so obviously I still enjoyed The Gathering.