Switched by Amanda Hocking
Published: 12th July 2010
Publisher: Tor
Series: Trylle Trilogy #1
Page Count: 335
Synopsis: What if your entire world was built on a lie? Wendy Everly knew she was different the day her mother tried to kill her and accused her of having been switched at birth. Although certain she’s not the monster her mother claims she is – she does feel that she doesn't quite fit in... She’s bored and frustrated by her small town life – and then there’s the secret that she can’t tell anyone. Her mysterious ability – she can influence people’s decisions, without knowing how, or why... When the intense and darkly handsome newcomer Finn suddenly turns up at her bedroom window one night – her world is turned upside down. He holds the key to her past, the answers to her strange powers and is the doorway to a place she never imagined could exist. Förening, the home of the Trylle. Finally everything makes sense. Among the Trylle, Wendy is not just different, but special. But what marks her out as chosen for greatness in this world also places her in grave danger. With everything around her changing, Finn is the only person she can trust. But dark forces are conspiring – not only to separate them, but to see the downfall everything that Wendy cares about. The fate of Förening rests in Wendy’s hands, and the decisions she and Finn make could change all their lives forever...
Review: So I started reading this straight after finished another book about Trolls which made me a little worried that due to similarities I wouldn't be able to enjoy it, however where he similarity started is also where it ended. Whilst this is about trolls, it isn't your average big green and ugly kind of trolls, nor is it any form of troll-like that you might imagine, these trolls are in fact so very human looking they're actually swapped out with human babies to help them survive with privilege human "parents" - its a tradition that dates back a while and a little complicated but I guess it works, most of the time. Unfortunately for Wendy it didn't work, her human "mother" knew that Wendy wasn't her flesh and blood and eventually decided she wasn't even human flesh and blood to the extent that she deemed it worthy to take a knife to Wendy's belly in an attempt of murder. Flash forward a few years and Wendy is bored at school and what we assume a-ok other than a scar across her mid-drif (its a good job tank tops aren't ever nice looking I guess?) and her ability to well push people to do or not do what she wants, its a little spectacular really that she isn't more worried about the fact when looking at someone and thinking something hard enough they do just whatever she thought but I guess being brought up being called a monster makes you have a little tougher shell than usual people. Anyhow this boy, Finn, gets a little creepy close with the staring and almost but not quiet flirting but he turns out to be from the Troll world too and its his job to get Wendy where she belongs, back with her Troll mother, only here is the catch not only does Wendy not want to leave her human family behind her real mother isn't just any Troll, she happens to be the Queen of the Trolls! Don't worry though, Wendy does end up following Finn back "home" but it takes an attack from the Vittra (bad Trolls) to get her to run away, here is the point in the story where things get interesting but at the same time not, its why the books has left me with very mixed feelings, whilst I adored reading and learning about the Trolls lifestyle and customs and seeing Wendy adapt to attempting to become the next Queen I just constantly felt like nothing was ever happening. I think if you've read the book too, you'll know what I'm going on about, whilst we're pounded with all these details nothing actually happens and it just leaves you wanting more that is until a big attack at the end from the Vittra which isn't all that big because we're seeing it from Wendy's point of view and she spends most of it worrying and running. I think if I hadn't found the whole initiation process of Wendy into her new life and the development between her character, Finn and her fake brothers real brother Rhys and the lack of relationship between herself and her real mother, I'd have given the book a lower rating, I'm definitely open to reading the next in the series to see how it progresses as I think things could potentially be rather interesting.
The Purple Emperor - GR: When Henry Atherton returned to his own life in the suburbs of London, he thought all was well in the Faerie Ream. His new friend Pyrgus, the crown prince of Faerie, was about to be coronated as Purple Emperor. But then Princess Holly Blue arrived on Earth, seeking Henry’s help once more. A plot to assassinate Pyrgus is afoot, but that’s not the worst of their problems. Pyrgus’s father, the murdered Purple Emperor, has been raised from the dead by means of foul necromantic sorcery. Now Lord Hairstreak and the sinister Faeries of the Night have seized control of the Realm . . . and driven Pyrgus and his allies into hiding. Henry has no choice to return to the world of Faerie to aid his friends. But that proves easier said than done when the mystical portal linking their realms goes awry. Now Henry will have to scramble just to stay alive in a fantastic world that’s constantly full of surprises . . . and danger.
Phoenix Rising - GR: Evil is most assuredly afoot—and Britain’s fate rests in the hands of an alluring renegade . . . and a librarian. These are dark days indeed in Victoria’s England. Londoners are vanishing, then reappearing, washing up as corpses on the banks of the Thames, drained of blood and bone. Yet the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences—the Crown’s clandestine organization whose bailiwick is the strange and unsettling—will not allow its agents to investigate. Fearless and exceedingly lovely Eliza D. Braun, however, with her bulletproof corset and a disturbing fondness for dynamite, refuses to let the matter rest . . . and she’s prepared to drag her timorous new partner, Wellington Books, along with her into the perilous fray. For a malevolent brotherhood is operating in the deepening London shadows, intent upon the enslavement of all Britons. And Books and Braun—he with his encyclopedic brain and she with her remarkable devices—must get to the twisted roots of a most nefarious plot . . . or see England fall to the Phoenix!
GR: Everything is made of steel, even the flowers. How can you love anything in a place like this? 
