Switched (Trylle, #1) (2024)

Review for this book is below the PSA. The PSA does not have anything to do with the book but a TOS policy change that Goodreads deemed not to tell their faithful users.

This book started out strongly. Despite the protagonist being a brat (the throwing hissy fits kind) I was very into the story. However, when it got to the middle and she completely forgot about the family she loved because "ooooo cute boy" and the plot seemed to focus purely on her crushing on said boy they lost me. And the overuse of the word "foxy" made me want to hit something. There was some SMASH BANG excitingness at the end but then it went into mopey melodramatic girl mode again.

SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT (BRIEF SPOILERS & MINI RANT)

Seriously I can't stand when girls are like "Oh my relationships over I just want to die now." Nothing in books makes me ANGRIER. I've never called myself a feminist but this boy-centric female protagonist that is so common in paranormals makes me feel like one. It needs to stop! Girls should not lay down and hope to die just because a boy has left them. And it bothers me that women are the ones writing these weak female characters.

Sooo, after finishing Switched I realized 2 things:
1. I'm officially in love with Amanda Hocking
2. Trolls are hot
(3. I also suspect that I am a troll due to the hair thing, but I haven't found any proof yet. I'm looking on it.)

“Did you think you could treat me like sh*t at a dance, then sneak into my room in the middle of the night and tell me that I'm a troll with magical powers, and I'd just be like, yeah, that sounds right.”

It is fun. It is so much fun.
This series is the reason why all my friends call me troll-lover, but I'm not particularly concerned because if Finn was my lover, they would be concerned. And jealous. *cue evil laughter*
I must admit I never thought I would want to be a troll or that a writer could make them such interesting and fascinating creatures, but Amanda did it! I loved the fast pace and the mythology and the twists in the story, Switched was an easy and entertaining read that made me forget stupid reality and stupid reality stuff!

“I look at you because I can't look away Wendy.
That's kinda creepy.
I will work on being less creepy then.”

To all paranormal fans all over the world, Trylle is an exciting world to dive in!!

A more formal (and better xD) review of this is available on my blog. Check it out!

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I hadn't had a book infuriate me this much since A Beautiful Dark.

So Wendy Everly finds out she's a changeling switched at birth, and that she's actually one of the Trylle─a.k.a. trolls. She's also a princess.

Every. Single. Character. In this book. Expected her to know everything about Trylle life already. Nobody even educates this girl. Sometimes Finn, the hero, tries to, but then they end up making out or some other annoying romantic activity.

Wendy was so damn unlikable. She was close to being a TSTL heroine. When her mother, Elora, yelled at her about the stupidest things, she just stood there and took it. She needs to learn to stand up for herself. -_-

I would've probably liked her, or at least respected her more, if she would just stop letting that bitchy mother of hers to treat her like fecal matter.

I didn't like the characters, the story, the romance, nothing. But a friend of mine told me that it gets better in the sequel. I do see some potential in this series, I guess.

I'd probably still read the sequel, just to see if it really gets better. I mean, I got a copy of it already. I bought it at the same time I got this one. I guess I just had high hopes for this series. :/

Picture this - a great life with a loving family,( with the exception of your mother trying to kill you when you were 5). and you're a total brat. all through out this book, i could picture Wendy whining and using her little gift of persuasion *sarcastic ooooh and ahhh* to get her way. It was her own fault for not having friends and being miserable because she never freaking tried. Its a two way street honey. You're not THAT beautiful. speaking of which i was so f*cking tired of her constantly getting compliments. It seemed so fake and gag-worthy.

ALSO, it was one of those stupid love stories. They know each other for about TWO WEEKS, and I'm led to believe the attraction is only physical, and i quote: "my hands were trembling, and that familiar butterfly feeling Finn gave me spread throughout my body.(here comes the funny part) I was in love with him, and I wasn't going to give him up. Not for anything in this world or the next. "
WHAT THE f*ckKKK. WHO ARE YOU!? who. are. you. to be proclaiming your love for someone after TWO WEEKS and you barely even know him past his "gorgeous" face.

and lastly. Wendy... go home. literally. You're maybe upset for about a day or two before you forget all about the family that loved and cared for your ungrateful little ass. I mean really. and yes I know, her and Rhys run away, but she only leaves when Finn no longer works there and she cant get what she wants anymore.

HOT DUDES?

YES.

.......
That's all you need to know, my friends ;)

Please check out Electrifying Reviews for more reviews like this, plus giveaways, interviews, and more!

By now, practically everyone knows Amanda Hocking’s story. Self-published wonder turned multi-millionaire, now with multiple book deals. Before all of the hoopla, I read a little book called Switched. Even before all of the fame, I loved this book. So, of course, when it was re-released, I absolutely had to read it again. And let me tell you, I loved it even more this time around!

Switched is extremely readable and entertaining. Both times I’ve read it, I’ve gotten pulled into the story immediately, and my eyes are glued to the pages until the book is done. The Trylle society is original and intricate, and I loved reading about the complexities of it, and how Wendy fits into all of it.

Amanda Hocking has a smooth, exciting writing style. I’ve never read something by her I haven’t enjoyed immensely, even her blog posts! Her ability to create something so fun, yet thrilling in its own way is unique. I cannot wait to see where she goes in life, because I’m sure that her recent surge in popularity is not temporary.

Wendy is a strong-willed girl, and reading Switched from her perspective was a joy. She is in a tough position, but she doesn’t budge when it comes to what she believes in, and I appreciate that. The other characters are completely enjoyable, and I loved them, and their interactions with each other.

The Princess Diaries meets Tithe in Switched, the highly imaginative, immensely enjoyable novel from Amanda Hocking, an up-and-coming talent. I have nothing but love for Switched, and cannot wait to continue the story with Torn.

First off, Switched is really gorgeous. Just look at the cover. Isn't it so beautiful? I personally chose this edition because the cover has some work of magic in it. It's like, it has an ability to suck me into its world. Beautiful!

Second, the premise is really, really good. I love fae stories, and trolls are something new to me. I wanted to know more about trolls because I really find them interesting.

And of course, the fact that the female character Wendy Everly is a troll and a changeling, I knew I will really like this book.

So, was this book a yay or nay?

I must say, a little bit of both.

I love it because honestly, Amanda Hocking's writing style is so flawless and very easy to read. She uses words that are light and undemanding. She doesn't complicate everything and she doesn't give me trouble analyzing such things. Her character and world-building is also non-complex. What you read is what you get.

Now what made me become (a little) bit disappointed was the plot. It was neatly done, but it was weak. The progression was poorly established. I think there were scenes that weren't really necessary but they were given emphasis (I guess to lengthen the whole book) but to be honest, the interesting things only happened at the last few chapters of the book.

Another thing that bothered me was the existence of the Vittras. These are the creatures that act as antagonists. They are Trylle's greatest enemies. In this book, their descriptions unfortunately didn't make an exceptional appeal. Their physicality was so vague. I couldn't really imagine how they look like. Do they look like human or something?

My expectation for this book was also different. Because this book talks about trolls, I really expected to see some unworldly mythical creatures here. Creatures that look like these:

Because we're talking about trolls, right?

So why did I only see humans and no trolls at all? This is fantasy so I was looking for something different. Anyway, I understand it as I've read further, because the author eventually explained it through her characters that trolls don't really look mystical but instead, they look human. So yeah, I couldn't do anything about that. BUT STILL. I want to see REAL TROLLS. :-/

Nevertheless, the thing that absolutely lifted the whole story was Finn. This character is so amazing. I like him from the beginning up to the end. Even though he's brooding and he was quite snobby in most parts of the book, the gentleness and protectiveness in him were so tangible.

I have nothing against Wendy, on the other hand. She's an okay character and she doesn't annoy me, but I think she needs some development. There were parts when she doesn't know what to do and she's very dependent to other people despite her extraordinary abilities. Hopefully her character will get better in the next books.

As a whole, this book is good. I just think it needs more elements to make it really sensational. My friends who have already read this series told me that it's going to get better in the next installments, so we'll see. Good luck to me! (oh, it rhymes! ha!)

Rating: 3 Stars

Trolls! I know, right? Flashy colorful hair, so-ugly-they're-cute dolls we all had at one point? In Amanda's world, these are all misconceptions. They're called Trylle, and they're beautiful, magical and on the brink of extinction.

With an entirely unique lore, Switched is able to stand out from all the other paranormal books available. I was fascinated by the Trylle mythology: How they lived, the monarchy, their custom of switching babies at birth. It was absolutely creative. Into this world comes a collection of commendable characters that are both well developed and easily likeable - even a select few that are fun to hate. Wendy has a big personality. She's had a difficult, traumatic childhood, but that only made her stronger for the wear. She doesn't let anyone manipulate her. She's sympathetic and kind. All of which make her really relatable. I enjoyed going through her dilemmas with her. The stressful demands of becoming a princess overnight, the boy she's falling for- it was all delightful. Almost like a modern day fairy tale.

Yes! The wonderful boys! From sweet to sweaty, Wendy has got more than her pick of lovely bachelors to chose from. I absolutely loved how the romance was played out in Switched. It's passionate and heartbreaking. It doesn't fall with the clichés of today's YA novels. It's unexpected - true to life. Truthfully, I devoured it and I can't fathom choosing a team. She can have them all, right?

While there is still good story development, I did find some parts of the book were a bit slow. A good portion is dedicated to character and world building, however the book does not completely suffer from "first book syndrome" it does have its own beginning, middle and end, but I think the rest of the trilogy will be much more action packed with powerful plot twists.

With this admirable debut, Amanda Hocking has begun a trilogy that has immense potential. Switched is just as beautiful inside as it is on the outside (definite cover lust) and I highly recommend it!

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For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads

Ganz ehrlich? Ich weiß nicht genau warum mir das Buch so gut gefallen hat. Denn Amanda Hocking hat hier keineswegs das Rad der Urban Fantasy neu erfunden. Dennoch konnte mich die Idee mit den Tryll und den Changelings sofort begeistern, da ich sowas eben doch noch nie gelesen habe.
Das Trope allerdings ist recht bekannt: the Chosen One. Aber auch das konnte mir die Story nicht verleiden, da ich Wendy als Protagonistin wirklich gerne mochte. Ich fand sie agierte sehr nachvollziehbar. Auch sämtliche andere Charaktere mochte ich bzw. fand sie spannend, sodass jeder etwas zur Geschichte beitrug. Vor allem Tove und Rhys fand ich spannend und möchte noch unbedingt mehr über sie erfahren. Auch über die Fähigkeiten hoffe ich in den Folgebänden noch mehr zu erfahren.
Ich mochte das Tempo der Geschichte und auch wenn hier objektiv betrachtet nicht allzu viel passiert ist, fand ich es doch nicht langweilig und mochte die langsame Heranführung an die Welt und die Magie der Tryll.
Mich erinnerte das Ganze an eine Fantasy-Version von "Plötzlich Prinzessin" und ich bin nach dem offenem Ende echt gespannt wie es im nächsten Band weitergeht!

Review also posted on my blog.

I finished this awhile ago and am quite glad I decided to do so. There are plenty of suspenseful moments in this book which is why I kept reading bu there are also things lacking.

One thing that got on my nerves was the lack of character building. I mean nearly all the characters felt like cardboard cutouts with no depth or personality. I found them hard to emphasise with. And another hing is I would have liked to know a bit more about the trolls themselves and what I is exactly that makes them more special than humans? I mean yeah they have magical powers that have been diluted over time and they "commune with the earth" don't like to wear shoes and sometimes have a greenish tinge but that's about all that's described oh and they leave their babies as changelings in rich families so that the rest of the trylle can have the money for medical care and a comfortable life when the channelling returns to the community.

Another thing that bothered me was than Wendy HARDLY EVER stood up for herself when her mother treated her like sh*t and everyone else around her just expected her to know everything about trylle culture and forget about her home life. I was so frustrated at times I wanted to reach into the book and shake some sense into her. I just hope she becomes stronger in later books.

I also would have liked to learn more about he vittra and why they are a violent sect of trolls and exactly what they want as this was unclear. But overall a good even read and a series I will continue in time.

Well, this was interesting.
I've read and heard some much about Amanda Hocking lately - even an article on a major Italian newspaper - that I finally decided to give it a try.
I'd like to start by saying that this is my second attempt at a self published author and the first one didn't go well. The other book I read was ALMOST HUMAN ~ The First Trilogy ~ 3-in-1 Edition and the main problem with it was the editing. The book was probably 150 pages longer than necessary and there was so much internal monologue that I skipped and skipped and skipped.

With Switched the fundamental problem is basically the same: editing. This book is better than the one I mentioned above but it still needs a professional hand working through it. It certainly does not need to be cut. On the contrary. It jumped from action to action to action without any character development at all. Wendy goes from finding Finn creepy to falling in love with him without maturing the feeling inside her at all. BAM! I've fallen for him.
The dialogue is horrific at times, there are long parts where the characters are just bickering and repeating things over and over.

The second part of the book was definitely better than the first. The writing flowed better, even the dialogue got better and I almost never "furrowed my brow" like the characters so many times did. I was kind of shocked at the end when the escape scene is described in approximately 20 lines. It felt like Hocking was tired of writing or had finished her word count for the day and decided to cut it short.

Plotwise once again I can't really say this book was anything new or original. I appreciated the Troll theme - that is new - but the rest is pretty much standard in YA lit now. Finn, especially, reminded me of a mix of Patch from Hush Hush (the stalking) and Sonny from Wondrous Strange.
Wendy I didn't like AT ALL. What a pain in the ass she is. She kind of sounds like a badass at the beginning and then she turns in this whiny, please-Finn-save-me thing. Tove and Rhys I liked, especially Tove, an interesting character with a lot of potential. Matt is a totally underdeveloped character and i'm guessing we'll see more of him in the next installment.

All in all, I can say this book was OK. Considering it is self published it is even good. But I also think that Hocking needs to mature as a writer, get published and acquire some new ideas. I will be looking for her work in a few years time.

*Sigh*

So I went into this with low expectations. I had heard that the books were riddled with typos, so on and etc. But I made the argument to myself that most people do. "It's only $0.99."

What I liked... 1. good pacing. The books have a zip-zip pace to them, and I think that's what draws a lot of people in. 2. There is a sense of playfulness.

What I didn't like.

1. Trolls... treillings, whatever you call them. Just, really? I just couldn't get beyond the image in my head from a Merlin episode where a troll posing as a queen seduces Uther and spends most of the episode eating rotten produce. Just ew. And there wasn't really an effort made (besides the snooty name change offered by the troll-mom) to adjust the reader.

2. The typos. But meh, not the end of the world.

3. The total inconsistency of the plot. The human brother is real the heroine. And the mom trying to kill the troll daughter... um, in a different story it would be completely justifiable and she would be the protagonist. Like, you have to suspend a great deal of brain power to be like "okay, losing your son wouldn't make you crazy..." because I think it would.

4. The reason for the switching... is disgusting. For money? Really? REALLY? That's the only reason. At the cost of a human child being separated from their family... I couldn't get over that.

Finally, a lot of this would be justifiable if the writing was more complex or had just "a bit more." But I think these books are representative of works too quickly written.

Sigh, I wanted to like these more, but I can't recommend that anyone else read them when compared to the whole slew of books on the market that are bettered edited and written with more care. Overall, I'd give this book more like a 1.5, but I have zero desire to read the rest.

Ugghh! I like Amanda Hocking. I loved her series My Blood Approves, but this book was disappointing.

Originally I tried to read this when it was first self published, and couldn't finish it. I got about halfway, put it down, thinking I have way too many better things to be reading right now than this troll book. It wasn't even like I hated it, I just got incredibly bored and got to a point where realized I didn't care about Wendy or what happens to her.

So we know that recently it was republished and a lot of my friends have rated this book in the 4-5 star range so I began to wonder if I was missing something. I was also prompted to try the repubbed version because it was supposedly polished up a bit, and so I gave it another try.

Well, that was stupid. I should have just trusted my instincts and known that just because so many other people enjoyed this book didn't mean I would magically change my mind about it. Also, I'm really happy for Amanda and all of her success so I just really wanted to like this series.

I'm not going to go into too much detail about the things I liked or didn't like, because there are a large amount of points already made for both, but as a simple short list the things I didn't like were: Wendy, Wendy's Mom, the dialog What I liked was: Flynn, the originality of the story and the changeling aspect. The world was creative, but the story and characters didn't offer much. The synopsis really made this book seem interesting, too. Oh well.

To those who love this series I would like to know why. This book didn't "suck me in" from the beginning, or even by halfway.

Switched (Trylle #1), Amanda Hocking
Switched - the first book in the Trylle Trilogy...
When Wendy Everly was six-years-old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. It isn't until eleven years later that Wendy discovers her mother might have been right.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: بیست و ششم ماه ژوئن سال 2014 میلادی
ا. شربیانی

2 Stars

Overview:

“Did you think you could treat me like sh*t at a dance, then sneak into my room in the middle of the night and tell me that I'm a troll with magical powers, and I'd just be like, yeah, that sounds right.”

So trolls

Only not those.

And not those.

Instead:
Wendy has spent her entire life feeling as if she does not belong. Her mother attempted to kill her when she was six-years-old, claiming she was a “monster,” and since that time, Wendy has moved from place to place with her loving brother and aunt. Until she moves to a new school and meets a mysterious new boy with a striking eye color (black) and a penchant for climbing in her windows at night, who dutifully informs her that she is actually a troll who was switched at birth.

Remember 2008-2009? When Beyonce first let us know that if we liked it we should have put a ring on it and Britney repeatedly told us what she thought of womanizers. Michael Jackson died and Obama was elected US president.

This is also when Twilight became super popular and there was this surge of Paranormal YA. This was initially published in 2010 on the heels of this, and out of that wave of paranormal books this does stand out. It is fairly original, has a fun premise and moves quickly. If I’d read this back then, I probably would have enjoyed it. But looking at it now, it’s just a string of paranormal clichés

Pros:

Like I said, this is fairly original in some aspects. The overall ideas about trolls (or Trylle, as Wendy’s ‘tribe’ is called) and changelings are very well thought out and creative.

The pacing in this was great! It moved very quickly without being confusing and it was very much a short, action-infused read.

Yay for MC calling love-interest out when his staring is creepy.

Cons:

Alllllll the clichés:
-“I’ve never fit in anywhere!”
-Mysterious new boy with ‘striking’ eyes.
-He’s climbin’ in yo windows
-The lost princess!
-Insta-love
-With hints of a love triangle!
-“My hair is so wild and my eyes are so plain but everyone who sees me is in awe of my beauty!”

Okay, but Wendy’s brother really freaked me out. He’s portrayed as a ‘loving, but protective’ sibling, but what he actually does is scream at Wendy when she does something he doesn’t approve of and threatens to “kill everyone at the dance” for upsetting her. This is not okay.

I understand Wendy’s relationship with her ‘mother’ is complicated, but she kept flip-flopping. One paragraph she would call her a “good mother” and the next say she was a horrible woman who only ever attempted to murder her. This was never really addressed in any nuanced way, only Wendy making alternating exclamations.

In Conclusion:

A fairly original idea that gets bogged down with clichés.

Review for book 2: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Switched follows Wendy Everly, a teenage girl who had always felt awkward and out of place (her mother trying to kill her when she was six doesn't help her self-esteem much), into a journey to discover her true origin. First she was approached by Finn, a 'tracker' who insisted that Wendy was not human but a supernatural being --I won't reveal what kind of supernatural being she is, because her true identity is pretty much interchangeable with vampire/fairy/werewolf/alien, etc. You only need to remember that as supernatural creatures, everyone in Wendy's race is beautiful, rich and possessed one psychic power or another. You know, just the same-old, same-old YA supernatural creatures trapping.

Okay, maybe there're unattractive Trylles around, but they just totally escaped Wendy's notice anyway.

And then Wendy left her adoptive human family (called 'host family' in the book) behind to follow Finn into the hidden world of Trylle.

*plot spoiler warning*

From this point onward we are treated with Wendy's adjusting to her new home and into her new role as the Princess of her race.

It's only the beginning of the story, and I already found myself running into troubles with the characters, plot development and the setting of the story.

How many times had we ran into this 'ordinary girl turns out being a princess/queen/ruler of a supernatural race' settling before? It's overused, beat-to-death, tiresome, unoriginal and wish-fulfilling to the extreme. And the author, Miss Hocking lacks the skill to make that overused setup become refreshing or believable.

For her entire life, Wendy was a misfit who had a crazy mom who tried to kill her, then one day she followed that hot guy (who she knew barely a thing about) to an entirely unfamiliar Trylle's community and was told that she was in fact the daughter of the ruling Queen of said community. She just sucked it all up? What about her adoptive family? From start to end Wendy's brother and aunt had been nothing less than loving, caring and self-sacrificing to her, and after she left them behind, she didn't spend a second to miss or worry about them, while knowing said brother and aunt must be worrying themselves half to death for her? Not even a phone call to tell them she's safe? (she made one brief phone call before she escaped, but that's more or less just this) What kind of person is that!?

Then out of the blue, in around page 200 we're informed that Wendy had missed her adoptive family all along. What? I need to tell you the whole book is narrated in Wendy's first person POV, but I never see she did or feel anything to indicate that she missed her poor brother and aunt! She didn't spend a second to think about them, she never lost sleep thinking of them, she didn't try to contact them, plus said brother and aunt were barely in her thoughts as far as I can see. What a classical example for the 'Tell, not show' failure.

There's one little detail about Wendy being unable to zip up her dress so she asked Finn to do it for her. Goodness, why can't she ask a maid to do this, or ask Finn to find her a maid to do this!? When a girl asked a guy to zip up or zip down her dress in her private room, that can only mean: (a) she's seducing him, (b) she's too stupid to realize her request is very suggestive and the guy might get the wrong message, (c) she's too stupid to realize her request is inappropriate and might make the guy feel uncomfortable. On top of it all, Finn was supposed to be Wendy's mentor and bodyguard, not a goddam lady in waiting!

As to the reason why Wendy was sent to her adoptive family as a changling, it's even more questionable. The Everly family was chosen because they are rich and powerful, therefore Wendy's birth mother, Elora, figured that if she placed her daughter inside this family, it would ensure a large sum of inheritance slipping into the Trylle's possession eventually. So Elora just sent Wendy to the Everlys even knowing something might go wrong and Wendy might end up being harmed. And after Wendy learned all about it, she barely reacted to her mother's deception. Can this be serious?

Plus after all the craps Elora and almost everyone else had dumped on her, after seeing firsthand how unjust and suffocating the Trylle's lifestyle is, it takes Finn's departure to boost Wendy into deciding her life as a Trylle was miserable and she wanted to escape? That makes her look like a lovesick little fool instead of a heroine with a mind of her own.

*end of plot spoiler*

Okay, to be fair; it's stated that Wendy was uncomfortable and/or angry about a few things which were viewed as normal practices in the Trylle's society: (a) the treatment of the human changlings, (b) the practice of sending Trylle's babies to rich human families for the inheritance, (c) Elora's cold treatment to her subjects. But the problem is, so far I still haven't seen Wendy actually spoke up or acted up for herself or the people around her, she just ranted about the things she didn't like and that's it. It makes her look very spineless.

That's one more thing which bothered me: ever since Wendy's arrival to the Trylle's community, no one had ever been explaining to her what was going on or how she was supposed to behave. Not even Finn, who was supposed to care about Wendy and was appointed to Wendy as her tutor at the very first day, but the guy still failed miserably at teaching the poor girl anything of importance (e.g. the Trylle's politic, the social norms, the culture, how to protect herself, etc). But then whenever Wendy did or said something wrong, she was being snapped at not only by her mother, but also by Finn himself! God, I feel that Wendy was being treated worse than a three years old. But you know what? Whenever her mother or Finn hissed at her, Wendy just sucked it up and apologized like it was her fault that no one had taught her anything useful. That girl really had no backbone.

There're a lot of description about designer gowns and fancy balls but not enough of world-building to make the Trylle's supernatural world outstanding. The Trylles are supposed to be able to wield magics of different sorts but this field was rarely explored since the noble Trylles refused to use their magic and everyone delayed teaching Wendy how to control her magic. (and Wendy didn't seem to be the slightest interested in using her power, neither) That makes the Trylles look like a group of self-important blue-bloods more than anything else.

The pace of the story is also terrible, most of the book is taken up by the romance/tension between Wendy and Finn, and the long, detailed progress of Wendy's makeover as a princess, which makes me wonder whether I was reading The Princess Diaries instead of a story about 'a world both beautiful and frightening'. The events which took place in the book are disjointed. The supposed baddio, the Vittra, attempted to kidnap Wendy at the beginning of the story and then they were nowhere to be found till the ending part. To make things worse, nobody mentioned the threat from the Vittra or ever explained to Wendy what the Vittra really was! Goodness! A Princess who will soon to be Queen isn't supposed to learn about their enemy!? What the hell!? There's a bonus story "The Vittra Attacks" at the end of the book, which is meant to show us how things go on the Vittra's side, but this bonus story is very forgettable and not impressive in anyway.

Secondary characters such as Tove and Willa capture my attention much more than the leads: Wendy and Finn ever can, I like Tove well enough and wish that he'd establish himself as a young man who has a mind of his own and the strong will and strength to change things around him in the sequels. But no, please don't drag him down by making him one of Wendy's love interests. Tove deserves better than this.

As the story progresses, I also found it getting more and more difficult to suppress my disbelief, which resulting in me bursting out with "What. The. Fxxk! It can't be serious!", "Hell, no fxxking way!" and "Fxxk, I can't believe he/she really did/said that!" repeatedly. I hope it's enough to let you know how bad things had gone.

I just don't understand why Switched can be so much of a failure when the setup has so much to offer: we have a crazy mother trying to kill her daughter, insisting said daughter is a monster, we have a confused girl trying to come to term with her new role, we have conflicts between the heroine and her powerful but unloving birth mother. The story could have been great, but the author failed to deliver, that's it.

The Final Words: Don't buy this book or download it no matter how cheap it might be, it doesn't worth it even though the book cover is quite pretty. If you want to read books about the nobles of supernatural creatures, the Vampire Academy series has so much more to offer.

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#1 Switched - ★★★★★
#2 Torn - Not Read Yet

Wendy Everly knew she was different the day her mother tried to kill her…

Her mother told her she has been switched at birth. Unable to fit anywhere, bored and frustrated by her small-town life, she also has to hide her secret - the fact that she can somehow influence people’s decisions, without knowing how or why she does it.

When the dark and handsome Finn shows up at her bedroom window one night, her life changes forever! The secret she has been waiting for has finally been revealed. Finn holds the key to her past and has an answer to her strange ability. He is also about to introduce her to a place she never imagined could exist: Forening, the home of Trylle.

Among the Trylle she is not different, but she is special. But being special also brings danger wherever she goes and with everything around her being new, Finn is the only person she can trust. But will trusting him be enough to stay alive?

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My Thoughts:

I absolutely LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Switched, and I need to buy the second book in the series as soon as possible!

Wendy is a girl that you immediately want to be friends with. Witty, honest and caring, willing to do everything for the people she loves - she is so precious and I wouldn’t let anyone touch her!

Finn - he is the fiction version of my boyfriend… Dark, handsome, brutally honest and his ego can sometimes get in the way. He is a tracker - and his job is to find other people like Wendy, who have special powers. Finn is a sort of a body-guard. And because Wendy is special and the future Queen, she cannot be with anyone that is not the same or similar rank as her. Which means that being with Finn is impossible.

Not allowed.

Frowned upon and could result in banishment for both. Loss of crown type of bad.

From the first chapter I was into Wendy’s world and this book was so quick to read. I read it in less than a day and it felt too short! It’s a page-turner in every sense of the world.

The world building as well as the Trylle people were quite interesting and unique. I also loved the fact that even though Wendy and Finn were amazing characters, we met so many other characters, who were also very well portrayed in their own way and all left a mark: Elora, Rhys, Matt, Tove, Rhiannon, Willa… All of them had their own uniqueness, and I can imagine how hard it can be to give life to so many characters in such a small book.

I rooted for Wendy and Finn’s romance, as you can imagine, and I have to say, I was a bit disappointed with the ending. However, I knew that was the right choice for Wendy at the time, and also, it left a great cliff-hanger for the second book, for me to read. I think that in the second book, a few old things will open up again and maybe, this time, the ending will go as I wanted it to go in the first book.

I recommend this book with all my heart to all of you that love fantasy and young-adult romance. You will read it fast and you will fall in love with it even faster. Switched is definitely a book I am adding to my favorites.

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Switched begins with a flashback. Our narrator, a seventeen-year-old named Wendy Everly, tells us the occasion that she first became aware that she was a “monster.” She was six years old and throwing a tantrum at her own perfectly nice birthday party. But we can’t quite dismiss little Wendy as nothing but a brat, because her father died very shortly before her birthday.

Wendy storms back to the kitchen to yell at her mother for buying her a chocolate cake when Mommy knows full well that Wendy doesn’t like chocolate—this is the reader’s first major clue that something’s wrong with Wendy. For this, the spoiled child deserves perhaps to be sent to bed early, lose dessert privileges, or get bopped on the head with a rolled-up newspaper.

But no, Wendy’s mother declares that the little girl is a monster and no offspring of hers. She stabs at Wendy erratically with a large knife, and probably would have killed her had not eleven-year-old Matt, her biological son, stepped in just there. As is, Wendy has a giant scar on her stomach that will stay forever.

Fast-forward eleven years. Matt and Wendy live with their aunt Maggie, their mother having been institutionalized shortly after the knife incident. Matt has done all right for himself, but Wendy has bombed out of several public schools, and has a rep for being sullen, difficult and rather stupid, all of which is true.

There’s a boy in one of Wendy’s classes who stares at her. He has black hair and pale skin and beautiful dark eyes, and his name is Finn. On the day our story begins, Wendy decides to ask him why he stares. “Everyone stares at you,” he replies with no visible emotion. “You’re very attractive.” He’s a lot like every other sulky, leather-jacket-wearing, late 2000s paranormal YA love interest, but unlike Edward Cullen or Jace Wayland, Finn just spits it right out. Credit where credit is due.

Why is he named Finn, though? A guy named Finn is almost always a wholesome character. He’s supposed to be a farm boy who shelters fugitive princesses and wears the sweaters his momma knitted for him, or a former Stormtrooper with a heart full of empathy for Resistance pilots, scavenger orphans, mechanics, and space goats. Same goes for a lad named Ben, James, Sam, or Will. The emotionally-unavailable bad boy with a hidden heart of gold archetype is more likely to be named something like Nick or Jack.

Finn also tells Wendy that he’s noticed her ability to think something at someone and make them change their mind. She has always been able to do this—say, she looks at an angry teacher and thinks “You aren’t going to send me to the principal” and the teacher, a bit befuddled, sits down and tells her “You don’t have to go to the principal’s office.” Sometimes she wonders if this is what her mom meant about her being a monster. At any rate, it frightens her that Finn (or anyone, for that matter) knows of this talent of hers.

She uses this talent to persuade Matt, who knows better and is very worried, to drive her to the asylum for an audience with their mom. Wendy interrogates the woman but comes away with little she didn’t already know. Her mother raves that Wendy, as a baby, somehow disposed of Michael, the mother’s biological second son, and substituted herself. Matt dismisses this as the ranting of a lunatic but his sister thinks there might be some truth to it.

Wendy goes to the school dance for the first time ever, solely to talk with Finn some more, but he says something callous, she becomes enraged, and she hurriedly leaves before he can explain. Good thing he just decided to climb through her bedroom window and explain it to her anyway. This is one of a few spots where the book treads a little too close to Twilight, although given the changeling theme, it could also be a nod to Peter Pan (our heroine’s name is Wendy, after all) or Labyrinth (albeit Jareth is much, much cooler than Finn).

Did I say changeling? Turns out that Wendy is not only adopted, she’s not even technically human. She belongs to a race of creatures from Norse folklore called the Trylle—known to humans as trolls, but not to be confused with the monsters that live under bridges and/or eat jellied Dwarves.

Nope, these trolls—er, Trylle—look human enough, although they’re prettier than most of us and might have a green undertone to their skin.

The Trylle culture is dying out. For the past several generations they have swapped their royal/high-ranking babies with human infants, so the Trylle babies can acquire wealth and education while in human society, then bring at least some of that back to their true people once they return. Finn is a Tracker, a low-ranking Trylle whose job is to find adolescent changelings and bring them home. And Wendy is the only daughter of the Trylle Queen, the inexorable Elora.

Finn wants Wendy to come to the hidden Trylle stronghold in Minnesota with him, but she hedges, thinking of the worry she’d cause her aunt and especially her brother. Then she gets attacked by a rival band of Trylle, called the Vittra, and realizes she endangers her human family if she stays…

Content Advisory
Violence: Stylized, action-movie style fights between the Trylle and the Vittra. Very little actual weaponry used. Lots of punching and flying through windows. No gorier than the average Rick Riordan book.

Sex: Finn and Wendy make out a few times, despite not knowing each other well at all. The night before he has to leave the settlement, he spends snuggling in bed with her—snuggling is all they do. Before that, she suspected that her mother had a creepy, Mrs. Robinson-like relationship with him; in reality, Elora had been in love with Finn’s father and had some sort of maternal feeling for him, which she squelched as soon as she realized he liked her daughter and was a threat to the Trylle aristocracy. Elora is currently having an affair with a Trylle lord, the father of one of Wendy’s new friends, which is thankfully not shown in any detail.

Rhys invites Wendy to join him for a Lord of the Rings marathon and she falls asleep on his couch. Finn gets there and assumes the absolute worst, despite a lack of any real evidence.

Language: There’s one F-bomb and a variety of less pungent four-letter words in here.

Substance Abuse: Social champagne drinking, including by the underage and very awkward Wendy.

Nightmare Fuel: Nothing.

Politics and Religion: Nothing.

Conclusion
Switched is definitely part of the post-Twilight paranormal trend: awkward brown-haired heroine, sulky love interest with no concept of personal space, glamorous hidden society in some rural part of America….too much melodrama for a story that just started and characters we barely know, and prose that veers from fine to patchy.

This paperback edition includes four bonus chapters called “The Vittra Attack.” The publisher labels this a short story but it isn’t—it has no arc of its own and is hard to follow until you finally see where it connects to the main body of the story. These four chapters are from the POV of a Vittra named Loki, whom I assure you I was not picturing as Tom Hiddleston with long black hair.

Ahem. Loki drives the getaway car for the two Vittra who tried to capture Wendy. He gets pushed around by the Vittra king, but is close to their queen, for some reason. Loki is never shown or mentioned in the book proper, so I don’t know why Hocking considered him important enough for his own bonus chapters. At any rate, the book would have been improved if his chapters were woven into the main book—it would have added at least some sense of urgency.

It’s silly, fast-paced, not terribly deep, and enjoyable enough that I’ll probably read the second book. It’s a good deal better than the aforementioned Twilight Saga or the Mortal Instruments series, but not nearly as much fun as the Percy Jackson books.

If you want a melodramatic YA urban fantasy trilogy that’s actually mostly good, though, check out A.G. Howard’s Splintered trilogy. It has one very annoying major character, but the prose and worldbuilding are solid. ["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>

Originally read: 6/21/2012
Reread: 2/19/2016 full review to come....

Alright, I don't know if I'm just super generous with my stars or if these are really good books. I loved this book I couldn't put it down! Something new and of course cheesy romance but clean.

Well you hear all the time about changeling stories but about the human that is taken not the other way around! This time it's actually about the changeling itself, which was nice and was brought back to the world that they are actually from. It was a new story for me! I liked it a lot!

I really like Wendy the main character. Her narration is really strong and I could just picture her so clearly. She's a genuinely nice, level headed person despite the fact that her mother tried to kill her when she was six and everybody keeps their distance from her. The storyline with her mother was so creepy and fascinating!
Finn (another character you'll love) tells Wendy she is a changling and everything goes nuts after that! It was obviously a shock for Wendy and the reader to find out that her mother wasn't crazy at all- she was telling the truth when she said Wendy had been switched at birth. But it's creepy for a "motherly figure" in ANY book to try to kill a character which makes it creepy.

So this Finn character is supposed to be her guide in the matter of her being switched and has come to "collect" Wendy and bring her back. However, it did seem that she missed out on many of the undercurrents of silent communication that ran from Trylle to Trylle, and definitely that of Elora, the queen. This could be attributed to her recent arrival, and her more important place in the Trylle hierarchy, especially since Wendy is not part of the Fey but is in fact a Troll! Now these trolls are elegant and beautiful and have awesome powers. Finn explains that he’s a tracker, someone who goes out into the world and brings back the changlings; changlings in these books are the troll children who are switched out for other children.

Intrigued? good! It was overall a fun cute book! so check it out! tell me what you think!

I can't wait to start the next book!

Language: Moderate (1 F-bomb and a few other choice words)
Sexual Content: Mild
Drugs/Alcohol: Mild
Violence: Mild

Overall: I would recommend it!

"Second" read:
I’d been in a reading slump for weeks. I didn’t like it so I thought I’d turn to an old favourite.
This definitely did the trick as I finished it in two days plus started reading comics again!

Either I had forgotten or not realised, everything happens so dang quickly!

I didn’t like how fast Finn went from ‘weird dude who stares at me all the time’ to ‘I can’t imagine my life without him’.
Knowing how that plot ends definitely helps. This is a teenage infatuation that feels like it will last forever.

I really like that we’re shown Wendy’s age in the way she’ll throw a fit or is incredibly rebellious against her mother’s wishes.
Plus, this an entirely new environment that the young girl was launched into with very little prep or information.

It’s great when an author can make character’s feel like individuals. I love so many characters in this series and it was so nice to read about them again.

I loved the little hints of things to come. We weren’t given all the plots laid out all at once so the next books would have nothing to provide.
Having not read this series for a while, I’m sure I missed a few details. But that makes me all the more excited to continue!

I have to say, I think my favourite part of this book is the short story at the end.
It features my favourite character in this series Loki and it actually feels different from the story we’d just read.

"First" read:
This series has been one of my favourites since I discovered it.
I loved the characters and how descriptive Hocking describes this world she's created.

It was great to see Wendy actually reacting to what was happening to her. I completely agree with Wendy and how she handled the situation (2023 me can't say I 100% agree with her attitude).

Something I also loved was how Wendy's family (the one she grew up with) never left her mind. She missed them terribly consistently throughout the whole story which leads Wendy to her decision at the end.
It was a softer side to her that we might not have seen otherwise.

Finn reminds me of a few other book love interests. A tough exterior who doesn't shed a lot of light on himself but is fiercely protective of the MC.

My version of this book has an added short story "The Vittra Attacks". It is in a different perspective.
As soon as I read it, I desperately wanted to know more about this Loki character.

It gives you a sneak peek in how the other tribe works plus leads into a moment from the next book Torn.

This was my first (and only) book with 'trolls' as the supernatural creature. I enjoyed this take on those tales. Plus there's a political plot that adds some good world building.

Switched is all about mystery and adventure as well as the joy and heartbreak of first love. Definitely recommend if you love simple fantasy stories based in the real world.

⋰⋱⋰⋱⋰⋱*Not for me anymore*⋰⋱⋰⋱⋰⋱
This review is purely for me and might contain spoilers and facts from the book to keep myself in the known at all time. It's also very long and somewhat detailed.

“Sorry to disturb your sleep.” Mr. Meade cleared his throat so I would look up at him.
“It’s okay,” I said.

“Trylle is the name of our ‘tribe,’ if you will.” He rubbed the side of his temple. “This is hard to explain. We are, um, trolls.”
“You’re telling me that I’m a troll?” I raised one eyebrow, and finally decided that he must be insane.

“Did you think you could treat me like sh*t at a dance, then sneak into my room in the middle of the night and tell me that I'm a troll with magical powers, and I'd just be like, yeah, that sounds right.”

“When something is important to you, you make sure its safe.”

“I look at you because I can't look away.”

How had it turned into this? I had lived my whole stupid life without him, and now I could barely make it through the hour.

'Switched’ by Amanda Hocking caught my eye due to its high position on Amazon Kindle’s bestsellers and it’s awesome price of 99 cents. Without knowing a thing about the book other than the brief synopsis I read before I downloaded the story, and the overwhelming number of positive reviews, I figured it would be an awesome quick read.

‘Switched’ is about Wendy Everly, a girl who lives with her aunt and brother in an attempt to control the chaos of her life. Her mother, Kim, tried to kill her on her 6th birthday, and since then her life has been a downward spiral of changing homes and failed friendships. Within this backdrop we discover that Wendy has some peculiar abilities, and is given an opportunity by a mysterious boy, Finn, to move once again to a new place where she can finally fit in. However, if she decides to make the move she will have to leave behind her brother and aunt, the only two people who have ever cared about her.

I’ve only revealed the first 20 pages or so and it sounds like a decent story line right? However, once the story begins to progress you discover that it doesn’t go anywhere. The plot never advances, the characters are underdeveloped, the conversation is so far away from colloquial it seems as if the ‘speaker’ is rummaging through a thesaurus before deciding on each word choice, and the romantic elements in the story make you cringe with the overwhelming amount of cheesiness. I suppose if you’re into the new ‘supernatural teen romance’ genre that is emerging, this book could be for you. But for anyone that is not familiar with this genre, stay clear of this book. Wendy experiences ’0′ change throughout the book and the story ends literally and figuratively exactly where it began.

I was astonished to see how many positive reviews this book received, and I understand that Hocking is not attempting to write a literary masterpiece that is applauded by college English professors, but to me, the story was barely enjoyable. My 99 cents would have been better spent on the ‘Fruit Ninja” app for my iPhone.

On a bookshelf with 5 shelves… shelf 5 being the highest and best, it doesn’t even make it to the shelf.

I reread this for nostalgia and I forgot how much I loved this series.

Don't get me wrong- it wouldn't hold up if I was reading it for the first time now- but I still love it. This was one of the books that made me fall in love with YA, and I owe it so much for that.

My two star rating really says it best... it was ok. As other reviewers point out, the story feels really rushed in the beginning. You don't get a chance to know the characters before you are thrown into the action. And for me, that is a pretty big flaw. I need to be interested in a character before I care what happens to them.

In my opinion, this is yet another book jumping on the "Twilight" bandwagon. Angsty teenage girl moves to a new town, starts a new school, and is immediately attracted to the dark mysterious boy who stares at her in class and treats her poorly. She starts to like him and low and behold he doesn't show up to school one day, but instead appears at her bedroom window. Then it is revealed that mysterious boy is actually not a boy but a mythical creature. The only major difference here is that the girl turns out to be one too. And even though there wasn't a really obvious love triangle happening in this first book, it's pretty easy to predict that there is one developing and it will probably appear in one of the next books.

The use of "Trolls" was really weak as well. There was nothing at all interesting about them, and they basically were no different than humans except they are picky eaters, have messy hair and don't like to wear shoes. It really just felt like the author just used Trolls because vampires and werewolves have been so overused.

And finally, a large dose of deus ex machina is given to us at the end of the story. Wendy decides to escape with Rhys, and when confronted with a fence surrounding the community Rhys suddenly "remembers" a hole in the fence whereby the two can exit. That same hole they conclude, was also used by the Vittra to enter said community. Two very important details that are conveniently solved by a sudden appearance of a hole in a fence.

Anyway, the book is slightly entertaining even though the reading level seems much younger than YA. There is enough action and teenage romance that I'm sure some readers will enjoy the book more than I did.

I do not give out 1-star ratings lightly. At least, not within the last year. Nowadays, if I don't enjoy a book, I'll give it 2-stars since I understand the effort that goes into writing/editing/publishing.

But this book honestly bothered me so much and I told myself I wasn't going to go off on it, but I think I might. So, bear with me and my rant …

The number one thing that bothered me about this book is how Wendy's "mother" is described as being beautiful in an “anorexic” way. I wrote the actual quote in an update, and I don’t feel like looking it up now, but I’m honestly shocked. Anorexia is not something to strive for, it’s something people truly struggle with and to use it as a way to describe someone as beautiful? No. It could have been written differently. It should have been written differently. How was this not caught by editors? Wendy, the main character, is seventeen and that means young girls will be readings this book and what if some of them are struggling with image/weight issues? Is that really something to write in your book?

Honestly, I almost feel like ending the review here, but I won’t because other things bothered me, too.

Wendy. The main character? Yeah, she bothered me. Why is she so self-obsessed? Constantly reminding the reader that she’s SO pretty. We get it, girl, you’re pretty.

Also, Finn. I didn’t like him at all. He was annoying from the start and I disliked him even more when it felt like there was insta-love going on between him and Wendy from page 3. It felt incredibly rushed and unnatural. He’s also boring! I don’t understand what’s so interesting about him. So, he’s attractive? Cool. Many people are. It’s not a personality trait. Wendy can show you that.

Also, I have no idea what the plot was or if there even was one. Everything was all over the place and I was pretty much disinterested in everything. Trolls? It had a slight potential of being interesting, but it wasn’t. I’m just bummed that I have the whole series, curtsy of a gift I received years ago, and the last two books will remain unread.

Buddyread with Melissa
(re-read for me)

Melissa's review here She couldn't get into it but its all good:)
-----

2.5 to three stars

Didn't love it as much this time around but it was a nice trip down memory lane, so to speak.

Some things that didn't annoy me the first time did in this re-read and in some instances the world building had me shaking my head.

Don't regret reading it again but I think I'll be giving my copies of the series away now.

I've been doing research on publishing for the last year. I'll have to write aseparatepost about the changing nature of the biz, it's relationship to other publishingbusinesses(like video games), and the rise of the self published ebook author. But inany case, I stumbled upon thisindependent and self published author who is selling very well (mostly on Amazon) with no prior print history. I figured I'd check one out. Switched appears to be her best seller and she says on her blog that it's her favorite.

This is a funny little paranormal romance about a girl whose mother hates her and thinks she's a changeling -- but she is. In fact she's a troll. She's then dragged off to her real mother. The first 25% is slightly "high school novel," and the later 75% "fish out of water."

Overall, I'm not sure what to make of the book. The first person voice was strangely engaging and I pounded through it easy in an afternoon. Still, it felt like a first (or maybe second draft), and it's full of flaws.

According to her website the author has roughly ten novels, mostly written in 2010 and she pounds out the first drafts 2-4 weeks! I consider myself fast at 2,500-4,000 words a day of first draft, but I have to admire that kind of lightning pace. The book was short. Maybe 50-60k words and it could perhaps be classified as "engaging" but could've been "really fun read" with some real editing.

There is a crazy amount of "tell," in this book. A lot of it buried in the overzealous volume of interior monologue. Characters are constantly attributed characteristics directly, without them being shown. Often, these characteristics are never shown. The protagonist gives the straight dope on things as she sees it, but this often feels more like how the author wants the reader to see it than how it really is. In fact, there isn't a whole lot of "show" in the book at all.

The author is a solid writer. The sentences themselves are well formed, but a lot of them needed to come out, or be trimmed down. Conversations are redundant. Dialog points are redundant. The author loves the words creepy and foxy. Really loves creepy. The important scenes feel drained of emotion as the excessive interior monologue and somewhat forced dialog rob the moments of any real drama. The more casual conversations feel better than the important ones. When there's action it's awkwardly blocked, so that you have to go back and reread lines sometimes to figure out what happened physically. The overall plot is pretty straightforward. The end was abrupt and unsatisfying too.

But still.I can't say it didn't have a certain charm. I enjoyed reading it, more than many published POCs (like for instance Personal Demons). The fantasy concept is decent and didn't bug me.

Of course the novel only cost 99 cents! The writing is probably on par with Twilight(see my review HERE). Not that that's high praise. It just needs a lot of revision. Some plot changes to increase drama, charactertune-ups, and most of all line editing (see my detailed post on that HERE).

This is an Indy book. It's professional, but it's also the novelequivalentof a B movie. Written quickly, revised quickly, and sold cheaply. The author has enough talent to shoot higher.

I read this after reading The Kanin Chronicles so I knew couple of things beforehand like the world of Trolls isn't exactly what one would expect and also who Wendy ends up with and where. Although this world of Trolls doesn't bother me anymore as I accepted that in The Kanin Chronicles. I know after the disappointing Kanin Chronicles, I shouldn't have gotten into this but when I got to know that this series is from a princess's pov I thought I'd give it a try and I won't lie that this disappointed way more than The Kanin Chronicles.

Wendy Everly finds out before her 18th birthday that she's not part of the human world and is a Troll lineage Trylle. She's whiny extremely whiny. Her brother, human brother Matt loves her like anything and always takes care of her along with their aunt.

Finn, who's a tracker comes to retrieve Wendy and tells her who she is and what she's meant to be. They fall for each other. I liked Finn's character.

Matt, who's Wendy's human brother is a sweetheart. He takes care of Wendy and loves her. Matt's mother is in an asylum after she attempts to murder Wendy on her sixth birthday when she suspected that Wendy was a changeling and not her daughter. Also, Kim knew that she'd given birth to a boy and not a girl.

Besides Matt and Finn I didn't like much in the book. It's just some action, lot of drama, some heartbreak and lots and lots of moping.

Also, my heart went out to Kim Everly. How she was robbed of all those years in that asylum knowing that she was right and still she was made the bad guy. I'm not saying attempting murder on a six year old is okay but she had her reasons. Yet I felt her punishment was way excessive. This business of changeling and abandoning human children to orphanage is absolutely cruel as I mentioned in my Frostfire's review. In this case the human child, Rhys, was brought to the Trylle world and treated very coldly by Wendy's biological mother. How can she expect someone else to treat her child better when she treated Rhys like that.

If not for Matt, Finn and Rhys I wouldn't have picked up the next book in the series.

1 star

REVIEW

I read these three books back-to-back-to-back on my Kindle. The story had me so engaged, that I could not put it down. I was reading in the car, at school, on my bed, at the dinner table, and in the media room. You could call it an obsession.

In this paranormal tale, Wendy learns at the age of seventeen that she is a troll. Oh, but she isn’t just ANY troll, her past is filled with mystery, deceit, and some unexpected ancestors. Amanda Hocking carefully twisted this plot with all sorts of surprises. I guarantee that you have not read a series quite like this before.

Plain and simple – Wendy rocks! She starts out unsure and confused. I mean, who wouldn’t be questioning things if they just found out they were a troll. The beauty lies in how Wendy grows and changes. As her confidence grows, she becomes the girl (err troll) she was always meant to be.

Let’s talk romance. Wendy has more boy trolls after her than she keep track of. They are all nice in their own way, but they each have their unique traits. Finn is protective. Loki is a flirt. Tove is like a brother. I loved them all.

If you are looking for a battle, you have come to the right place. Amanda Hocking has written some of the most epic battle scenes ever. Sure these scenes are filled with the physical battle, but they also contain the emotions behind the fight. They were so real that I could FEEL them.

This series about trolls surprised and entertained me. I will definitely be looking for more Amanda Hocking books to read.

RATING

5 Loved

COVER COMMENTS

I like how the covers are so similar and work together to tell the story. I also love the turquoise and black because it has a mysterious feel to it.

DNF.

So, I really didn't like Switched.

Here's the deal: Wendy is probably one of the most annoying protagonists I've ever read about. It's not that the story was boring, however much I read it - that wasn't it. I really didn't like the characters (plural), and if I don't, how can I read this book?

(I don't like how authors like their guys to be alluring or sexy or emotionless bastards or whatever. Sure, it's cool sometimes ... and sexy, but it's becoming some sort of YA trend and the effect of it is wearing off. I want some BAD SEXY SARCASTIC WITTY guy.)

The character I probably liked-ish was Matt.

But for a self-published book? Nope. Not my cup of tea.