{Book Review}: Switched by Amanda Hocking

Title: Switched
Author: Amanda Hocking Website | Twitter
Stand Alone or Series: Series  (Trylle, #1)
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: St Martin's Griffin (Jan 3, 2012)
Paperback: 293 pages
ISBN:  9781250006318 
Source: Publisher for honest review*
Available on: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | TheBookDepository | Kindle | Nook

Description from GoodReads:

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. With the help of Finn Holmes, Wendy finds herself in a world she never knew existed - a world both beautiful and frightening, and Wendy's not sure she wants to be a part of it.

My Review

First Impression: I love the cover of this book. The girl in white sitting there with a castle in the background is just amazing. After reading the blurb on the back I was intrigued and had to start reading right away.


Plot & Characters:
With our bookshelves full of werewolves, vampires and fairies, Amanda Hocking brings us something refreshing with her story about trolls. Not the ugly under a bridge troll but a beautiful, wealthy, and magical Trylle, as they like to be called. 


In Switched, we follow the story of Wendy Everly. Her mother tried to kill her when she was six because she was convinced that Wendy was a monster. Now seventeen Wendy is trying to not get into any trouble at her new school because she wants to avoid problems for her brother Matt and her aunt Maggie. Even though she tries to live her life normally and ignore her past Wendy is still unable to forget and has a hard time fitting in. Her trying to be normal comes to a halt when she meets Finn and he introduces her to a world he claims she belongs.


In Förening, Wendy is confronted with trying to fulfill the role that is expected of her as well as deal with her own  problems such as love problems, attempting to learn her abilities, eagerness to fill her emotional gap that only a mother can fill, missing Matt and Maggie and also fight enemies that want to use her abilities. As you can see, Wendy does not have an easy life but it is a joy to read.


Amanda Hocking did a great job with the characters. I enjoyed reading about Wendy and her journey and discovery of Förening. I found Wendy to be a relate-able character in her struggle between what she wanted to do and her duty. The romance was great because it was not instant and the characters got to know each other and it allowed the reader to fall in love a long with Wendy. 


Final Thought:
If you enjoy reading YA Paranormal Romance and are a bit tired of the usual werewolves and vampires you should definitely check this book out and who knows maybe trolls will become your favorite paranormal creature. 


The best part is that Torn and Ascend, book #2 and #3 will be published February 28th and April 24th respectively, so we don't have to wait that long to see what happens in the Trylle series.


My Rating: 

Book Trailer:


*Thank you to St. Martin's Griffin for allowing me to read this book.

Best books of 2011

2011 Best Books 

(In no particular order)

1. Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

2. Die for me by Amy Plum

3. Fateful by Claudia Gray

4. Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

5. Across the Universe by Beth Revis

6. City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

7. Passion by Lauren Kate

8. The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

9. Delirium by Lauren Oliver

10. Lengend by Marie Lu

11. Divergent by Veronia Roth

12. Wither by Lauren DeStefano

{Review}: Demon Lover by Juliet Dark

Title: Demon Lover (Fairwick Chronicles, #1)
Author: Juliet Dark Website
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher:  Random House Publishing Group  (Dec 26, 2011)
Paperback: 416 pages
ISBN:   9780345510082 
Source: NetGalley*
Available on: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | TheBookDepository

Description from GoodReads:

I gasped . . . or tried to. My mouth opened, but I couldn’t draw breath. . . . His lips, pearly wet, parted and he blew into my mouth. My lungs expanded beneath his weight. When I exhaled he sucked in my breath and his weight turned from cold marble into warm living flesh. Since accepting a teaching position at remote Fairwick College in upstate New York, Callie McFay has experienced the same disturbingly erotic dream every night: A mist enters her bedroom, then takes the shape of a virile, seductive stranger who proceeds to ravish her in the most toe-curling, wholly satisfying ways possible. Perhaps these dreams are the result of writing her bestselling book, The Sex Lives of Demon Lovers. After all, Callie’s lifelong passion is the intersection of lurid fairy tales and Gothic literature—which is why she finds herself at Fairwick’s renowned folklore department, living in a once-stately Victorian house that, at first sight, seemed to call her name.
But Callie soon realizes that her dreams are alarmingly real. She has a demon lover—an incubus—and he will seduce her, pleasure her, and eventually suck the very life from her. Then Callie makes another startling discovery: He’s not the only mythical creature in Fairwick. As the tenured witches of the college and the resident fairies in the surrounding woods prepare to cast out the incubus, Callie must accomplish something infinitely more difficult—banishing this demon lover from her heart.

My Review:
I have no idea why but when i started reading this book i thought it was a YA paranormal romance. Maybe it was the beautiful cover or me just totally ignoring the word erotic in the blurb. Either way it is not a young adult book but a romance novel with Gothic undertones. 


Demon lover began magically, I felt like I was reading one of my favorite Gothic novel. The mood, the amazing Honeysuckle house in the woods, the town and all its secrets, created the perfect environment for this story. The world Juliet Dark created captured your attention from the beginning.


My problem was with the characters and mostly just Callie. I understand that it might be difficult for a rational person to accept that a shadow man really does appear and make love to her but it just takes her too long to figure things out. Then when it comes to making decisions on how to act she does them too quickly with out too much thinking. I guess me being bothered by the action of one character means that the author did a good job at getting me engulfed in the story where I care about the outcome but I might have enjoyed it more if I was not yelling at her in mind constantly.


The ending was not my favorite and it got a bit annoying because of her actions but I will definitely give this series another chance and hopefully Callie learns from her mistakes and makes better decisions in the next book of this magical series.


The folklore of Fairwick was one of the elements that make this a great story. Yes, the whole incubus trying to suck the life out of Callie was interesting but there is more mystery surrounding the characters that I cannot wait to discover.


Demon Lover is a great read if you enjoy paranormal romance and references to other great books.


*Thanks Random House Publishing Group (Ballantine Books) and Netgalley for giving me the chance to read The Demon Lover prior to its release in exchange for an honest review.

Cover Reveal: Chosen Ones by Tiffany Truitt

Will you look at this beautiful cover! 

They say not to judge a book by its cover but I can't help and get excited about this one.

Title: Chosen Ones (The Lost Souls,#1)

Author: Tiffany Truitt Website | Twitter

Expected Publication: April 2012

Description from Publisher:

What if you were mankind’s last chance at survival?            

Sixteen-year-old Tess lives in a compound in what was once the Western United States, now decimated after a devastating fourth World War. But long before that, life as we knew it had been irrevocably changed, as women mysteriously lost the ability to bring forth life. Faced with the extinction of the human race, the government began the Council of Creators, meant to search out alternative methods of creating life. The resulting artificial human beings, or Chosen Ones, were extraordinarily beautiful, unbelievably strong, and unabashedly deadly.
             Life is bleak, but uncomplicated for Tess as she follows the rigid rules of her dystopian society, until the day she begins work at Templeton, the training facility for newly created Chosen Ones. There, she meets James, a Chosen One whose odd love of music and reading rivals only her own. The attraction between the two is immediate in its intensity—and overwhelming in its danger.
             But there is more to the goings-on at Templeton than Tess ever knew, and as the veil is lifted from her eyes, she uncovers a dark underground movement bent not on taking down the Chosen Ones, but the Council itself. Will Tess be able to stand up to those who would oppress her, even if it means giving up the only happiness in her life?

What do you think?