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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
2.5
With this gif, my feelings for Torn are completely described:
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The first book was alright. The second went downhill from there.
It got very slow in the middle, and the MC Wendy annoyed me because she never knew what to say. Someone would say something to her, and half the time all she could come up with was, like, "yeah," or, "thank you," and the other half of the time, she couldn't think of anything to say.
Then there's this crazy love... square? One of which happened in one or two weeks in the first book, the second of which developed through about four, short conversations.
And finally, the book ended way too weakly. I turned the page, expecting another chapter, but there was nothing, and I was like, "Oh. That's it?"
I did buy this trilogy as a set, so I'll probably read the third book, but I really wouldn't recommend the series to anyone.
With this gif, my feelings for Torn are completely described:
The first book was alright. The second went downhill from there.
It got very slow in the middle, and the MC Wendy annoyed me because she never knew what to say. Someone would say something to her, and half the time all she could come up with was, like, "yeah," or, "thank you," and the other half of the time, she couldn't think of anything to say.
Then there's this crazy love... square? One of which happened in one or two weeks in the first book, the second of which developed through about four, short conversations.
And finally, the book ended way too weakly. I turned the page, expecting another chapter, but there was nothing, and I was like, "Oh. That's it?"
I did buy this trilogy as a set, so I'll probably read the third book, but I really wouldn't recommend the series to anyone.
Review:
I enjoyed the first of these books, and decided to immediately move to the second, as it was such a bargain price. I’m going to admit, I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I did Switched, but it was still a pretty good read, especially for the price.
The book more or less jumps straight in where Switched finishes, and I enjoyed that. Admittedly, it does explain things, so if you hadn’t read Switched first, I don’t think you’d be too lost.
Admittedly, Wendy was, for the most part, better than she was in the previous. She was less selfish, and finally more aware of what it meant to be a Princess, and what the Trylle expected of her. She actually starts performing her duties properly in this one, and taking things seriously, even if she’s still fighting her own strong feelings for Finn, the tracker who brought her home, but whom she can never be with because of their vastly different social classes. I have to admit here, I’m a sucker for forbidden love.
However, I didn’t really understand the Finn thing so much in this, given he spends most of the book being a complete arse so far as Wendy is concerned. I mean, I get that he does it to save both of their feelings – but surely she’d get the message? Or am I just being unromantic?
Beware of Spoilers here on in!
Also, there’s the developing love… quadrilateral. It bothered me. I get why Wendy likes Finn – they have history, and he’s hot. However, she becomes somewhat involves with Loki – the Vittra (warring faction trolls) Markis (Like Lord) even though that’s equally forbidden. Then of course there’s Tove, who she ends up getting engaged to. This all bothered me ridiculously, possibly more than it should.
That, and the fact that actually, there’s very little action throughout the book. Honestly, not a lot seemed to happen, and that bothered me as well.
That said, I did enjoy this, and will be jumping straight into the third and final book, because really, this series has potential.
Overall rating: 3/5
Writing: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Characters: 2/5
My Enjoyment: 3/5
I enjoyed the first of these books, and decided to immediately move to the second, as it was such a bargain price. I’m going to admit, I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I did Switched, but it was still a pretty good read, especially for the price.
The book more or less jumps straight in where Switched finishes, and I enjoyed that. Admittedly, it does explain things, so if you hadn’t read Switched first, I don’t think you’d be too lost.
Admittedly, Wendy was, for the most part, better than she was in the previous. She was less selfish, and finally more aware of what it meant to be a Princess, and what the Trylle expected of her. She actually starts performing her duties properly in this one, and taking things seriously, even if she’s still fighting her own strong feelings for Finn, the tracker who brought her home, but whom she can never be with because of their vastly different social classes. I have to admit here, I’m a sucker for forbidden love.
However, I didn’t really understand the Finn thing so much in this, given he spends most of the book being a complete arse so far as Wendy is concerned. I mean, I get that he does it to save both of their feelings – but surely she’d get the message? Or am I just being unromantic?
Beware of Spoilers here on in!
Also, there’s the developing love… quadrilateral. It bothered me. I get why Wendy likes Finn – they have history, and he’s hot. However, she becomes somewhat involves with Loki – the Vittra (warring faction trolls) Markis (Like Lord) even though that’s equally forbidden. Then of course there’s Tove, who she ends up getting engaged to. This all bothered me ridiculously, possibly more than it should.
That, and the fact that actually, there’s very little action throughout the book. Honestly, not a lot seemed to happen, and that bothered me as well.
That said, I did enjoy this, and will be jumping straight into the third and final book, because really, this series has potential.
Overall rating: 3/5
Writing: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Characters: 2/5
My Enjoyment: 3/5
Review first published on my blog The Fictional Reader
For my last birthday, I received a gift card for a chain of bookstores we have in Belgium. With said giftcard, I bought a bindup of the Trylle trilogy by Amanda Hocking. I’d read her Kanin Chronicles earlier, and really enjoyed them. So I decided I wanted to read her earlier trilogy – even though I already knew the fate of one person from reading the Kanin Chronicles. Because I read all of these books immediately following one another, it’s hard for me to distinguish the events per book. So I decided to just make a general review on the entire trilogy. Don’t worry, there will be no spoilers.
This YA fantasy would just be described as fun, and quick reads. The story revolves around Wendy, who discovers that she is a changeling. She was placed with a human family after her birth, but in fact she’s a Trylle. The Trylle are a tribe of trolls. However, her human mother has always felt like she was not her child, and tried to kill her. Then Wendy finds out that she was right. She’s taken to the Trylle capital to join her “real” family. However, having grown up with a family and brother, she considers them as her real family, of course. Things happen, trolls get attacked, and so forth.
Like I said, these were really quick reads. It’s the kind of addictive writing that keeps you reading. It’s the kind of series you can easily binge-read. That’s saying something coming from me, because I don’t often do that. I find that fantasy series are hard to binge-read as they tend to be very heavy read. This doesn’t feel like that at all. It’s a series that you can breeze through.
I love the fact that we got to see the life of a whole different tribe. Like I said, I read the Kanin Chronicles before this trilogy so I’d gotten a fair glimpse into the life of the Kanin. Their society is very different than that of the Trylle, so it was fun to see the differences between the tribes. The caste systems are quite different. In this trilogy, we follow Wendy who is a changeling. But in the Kanin trilogy, we follow a tracker. I also liked learning about the magic skills the Trylle possess.
I liked how Wendy grew from a teenager into a strong and responsible woman. Yes, in the beginning she made stupid decisions which were quite selfish. But show me one teenager who doesn’t… I feel like she really grew, accepting responsibilities she’s far from happy with. I have to be honest and say that in the beginning of the love interest-romances, I wasn’t really feeling them. After a while, I started to ship it, but at first I wasn’t that into it.
Overall, I’d highly recommend this YA fantasy trilogy. They are fun and quick reads, and I think the main character grew a lot. If you want to start reading YA fantasy, I think this is a nice place to start. Yes, it does have quite a lot of romance, so if you don’t like that this book won’t be for you.
For my last birthday, I received a gift card for a chain of bookstores we have in Belgium. With said giftcard, I bought a bindup of the Trylle trilogy by Amanda Hocking. I’d read her Kanin Chronicles earlier, and really enjoyed them. So I decided I wanted to read her earlier trilogy – even though I already knew the fate of one person from reading the Kanin Chronicles. Because I read all of these books immediately following one another, it’s hard for me to distinguish the events per book. So I decided to just make a general review on the entire trilogy. Don’t worry, there will be no spoilers.
This YA fantasy would just be described as fun, and quick reads. The story revolves around Wendy, who discovers that she is a changeling. She was placed with a human family after her birth, but in fact she’s a Trylle. The Trylle are a tribe of trolls. However, her human mother has always felt like she was not her child, and tried to kill her. Then Wendy finds out that she was right. She’s taken to the Trylle capital to join her “real” family. However, having grown up with a family and brother, she considers them as her real family, of course. Things happen, trolls get attacked, and so forth.
Like I said, these were really quick reads. It’s the kind of addictive writing that keeps you reading. It’s the kind of series you can easily binge-read. That’s saying something coming from me, because I don’t often do that. I find that fantasy series are hard to binge-read as they tend to be very heavy read. This doesn’t feel like that at all. It’s a series that you can breeze through.
I love the fact that we got to see the life of a whole different tribe. Like I said, I read the Kanin Chronicles before this trilogy so I’d gotten a fair glimpse into the life of the Kanin. Their society is very different than that of the Trylle, so it was fun to see the differences between the tribes. The caste systems are quite different. In this trilogy, we follow Wendy who is a changeling. But in the Kanin trilogy, we follow a tracker. I also liked learning about the magic skills the Trylle possess.
I liked how Wendy grew from a teenager into a strong and responsible woman. Yes, in the beginning she made stupid decisions which were quite selfish. But show me one teenager who doesn’t… I feel like she really grew, accepting responsibilities she’s far from happy with. I have to be honest and say that in the beginning of the love interest-romances, I wasn’t really feeling them. After a while, I started to ship it, but at first I wasn’t that into it.
Overall, I’d highly recommend this YA fantasy trilogy. They are fun and quick reads, and I think the main character grew a lot. If you want to start reading YA fantasy, I think this is a nice place to start. Yes, it does have quite a lot of romance, so if you don’t like that this book won’t be for you.
I loved it. It was a really easy and fast read. I can't believe how it ended. I need to read the last book.
Not as exciting as the first one, but left a nice set-up for the third book.
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes