Review: Switched by Amanda Hocking

Title: Switched (Trylle #1)
Author: Amanda Hocking
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 293
Where I Got This Book: LibraryThing Early Reviewers (ARC)
Rating: 5 Stars

Goodreads Summary: When Wendy Everly was six years old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. Eleven years later, Wendy discovers her mother might have been right. She’s not the person she’s always believed herself to be, and her whole life begins to unravel—all because of Finn Holmes. 

Finn is a mysterious guy who always seems to be watching her. Every encounter leaves her deeply shaken…though it has more to do with her fierce attraction to him than she’d ever admit. But it isn’t long before he reveals the truth: Wendy is a changeling who was switched at birth—and he’s come to take her home.

Now Wendy’s about to journey to a magical world she never knew existed, one that’s both beautiful and frightening. And where she must leave her old life behind to discover who she’s meant to become…

My Thoughts: I really loved this book. I thought Wendy was a wonderful, strong character who was really able to handle all that was going on when placed in such a tough position. I loved all the scenes when she butted heads with Elora, the Queen of Trylle. She never became submissive to her but really held her own and spoke up for herself. I also loved the connection she had with her brother and I thought her conflictions about leaving home to go to Trylle where she "truly belonged" was nicely done. I read some reviews where people thought that this part was rushed and that not enough time was given to really show Wendy's struggles over leaving her aunt and brother, but I didn't feel that way. I was really able to feel Wendy's sadness about having to leave her family, presumably forever.

The world of Trylle was really well done and I loved learning about all of the different powers that the trolls had. This was a completely new concept for me and I was very fascinated by it. I'm excited to learn what powers Wendy may develop other than her power of persuasion, if in fact she does have another power. It seems to me she may have a power similar to the Queen's-there were a couple of scenes that hinted at that-but I won't say anymore about that in fear of spoiling it for others.

I thought the budding attraction between Wendy and Finn was a little disappointing and I wished that more had happened between them. Their relationship really didn't grow much and I don't think there were all that many scenes with just the two of them, but I thought the ending was amazing as well heartbreaking at the same time. I will definitely be buying the other two books in this trilogy. This book was a favorite of the year.

Teaser Tuesday (1)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB @ Should Be Reading.

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share 2 teaser sentences from somewhere on that page
• Try to avoid spoilers!

Switched by Amanda Hocking

"We normally do same-sex exchanges, a girl for a girl, a boy for a boy, but Elora had her mind set on the Everlys."


"I thought she had been terrible and cruel like so many of my classmates, but she had known that I wasn't her child."

~p. 167

Review: In the Forests of the Night

Title: In the Forests of the Night (Den of Shadows #1)
Author: Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Publisher: Laurel Leaf
Pages: 147
Where I Got This Book: Library
Rating: 4 Stars

Goodreads Summary: By day, Risika sleeps in a shaded room in Concord, Massachuseets. By night, she hunts the streets of New York City. She is used to being alone. But someone is following Risika. He has left her a black rose, the same sort of rose that sealed her fate three hundred years ago. Three hundred years ago Risika had a family-a brother and a father who loved her. Three hundred years ago she was human.


Now she was a vampire, a powerful one. And her past has come back to torment her.


My Thoughts: I was extremely impressed to learn that the author wrote this book when she was only thirteen. It is very well-written and not just for her age. Despite the novel's short length and the fact that the story only spans a few days, the main character, Risika, was nicely fleshed out. We got to know her story about how she was changed into a vampire when the book would flash back to 1701-the last year Risika was human-and then we get her revenge story in the present time.

What I thought was great about this book was that Risika came across as a very sympathetic and likeable character despite the fact that she was a true vampire. No animal blood for her. She hunted humans at night in NYC. She still had a conscience, though, possibly from her religious upbringing when she was human, and she seems to hunt people that she deems evil (such as murderers, criminals, ect). At least, she did in the beginning. I'm not positive how discriminatory she was about her food after 300 years.

Given how short this novel is, I can't really say much more about it without giving away the whole thing. I will say that I will definitely be reading more books by Atwater-Rhodes. I think she's a very gifted writer. There are four more books in this series (though I think they're more like companion novels and not a continuation of Risika's story), one other series called Kiesha' ra plus a standalone book. Luckily, my campus library carries many of her books. I'll probably have a little Atwater-Rhodes read-a-thon sometime next year.

I have to say, I'm jealous of her. She's only six years older than me and she already has a bookshelf full of her own published novels.