Book Review: Switched by Amanda Hocking

Switched by Amanda Hocking

Series: Book #1 in the Trylle Trilogy

Published: January 3rd, 2012 (originally self-published July 12th, 2010)

Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin

293 pages (paperback)

Genre: Young adult urban fantasy

Acquired this book: From the library

Warning: May contain spoilers

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Synopsis: 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…

I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for a really long time. Like many other indie authors, Amanda Hocking’s success was a huge deciding factor in my very long and difficult decision to self-publish. I knew the chances of reaching her success were slim, but knowing it was possible was a huge motivator for me. I’m happy that I can now say I’ve read a book by Amanda Hocking, although I really do wish I’d been able to read one before she was traditionally published.

I thought the concept of Switched was really cool. I’ve always been interested in the idea of changelings, because I’ve always been obsessed with faeries, and I liked that this was a different species of creatures switching out human babies for trylle (troll) babies, and the reasons behind the switch. I thought it was quite original.

Wendy is a very likeable character. She almost shouldn’t be because she’s got such a difficult, contrary personality, but she tries so hard to redeem herself, and she’s not a bad person. She had a horrific, traumatic childhood, and eventually she realizes how lucky she was to have her brother and aunt in her life, because they loved and accepted her unconditionally. There was this innocence about her that I found really endearing.

I enjoyed the secondary characters, too, especially Matt, Finn, and Rhys. Willa ended up being a good character too, despite how she seemed at first. I have to admit, I definitely did develop a crush on Finn, and I loved how protective he was of Wendy, and how he wanted to keep her safe, no matter what - even if it meant hurting them both emotionally. Elora was very believable as the cold, calculating, disapproving mother, and I found myself wanting to punch her a number of times - but I always enjoy characters that you love to hate!

I can’t really say that there was anything I didn’t like about this book. So why only 3.5 stars? It was good, but it didn’t really grab me. The pacing was decent, the characters were good, the world-building was pretty good. It definitely had its moments, but it wasn’t incredible. That being said, I’m anxious to find out what happens in the next book. I’m hoping it’s a little more past-paced and exciting now that the main characters have been introduced and the reader understands what’s going on.

Have you read Switched? What did you think? Have you read anything else of Amanda Hocking's? What do you think of her going from an indie author to a traditionally published author?

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Book Review: Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Series: Morganville Vampires Book #1

Published: October 3rd, 2006

Publisher: NAL Jam

239 pages (paperback)

Genre: Young adult paranormal

Acquired this book: From the library

Warning: May contain spoilers

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GoodReads Synopsis: College freshman Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation. When Claire heads off-campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her new roommates don't show many signs of life, but they'll have Claire's back when the town's deepest secrets come crawling out, hungry for fresh blood.

 

I have really mixed feelings about Glass Houses. I’ve heard great things about the Morganville Vampire series, so I was eager to see what all the excitement was about. While I thought the concept was great and quite original, there were several things that bothered me.

I’ll start with the concept and why I loved it. Morganville is full of vampires, but only the people in town know it. People are either Protected or they’re not, and if they’re not Protected they’re basically fair game to the vampires. Interesting, right? Different from anything else I’ve read. I also really liked the mystery surrounding Michael, and thought that was fantastically original too.

However, I found Claire kind of annoying, and at times downright stupid. When she first started being attacked by the girls at school, I could see her wanting to ride it out, but when it turned potentially deadly and she stuck around, I thought she was a complete moron. I don’t think you could be considered a failure or a coward for leaving school when someone pushes you down the stairs with the intent to kill you or throws acid on you with the intent to burn and horribly disfigure you. Get out of there! Go home! And all the times Shane warned her to stay home and then she got in trouble or got hurt, I just wanted to wring her neck. There’s independence and then there’s stupidity and foolishness.

I also found it really hard to connect with Claire, or with any of the characters. I think the book might have been better off told in the first person - I might have been able to connect better with Claire that way. The writing style was a bit strange - I can’t really explain it, but I found myself thinking several times that the style itself was part of the reason I wasn’t connecting with the story or characters. That being said, I did like Michael and Shane for the most part, and I liked that they took Claire in and cared for her even though she was a stranger and could have caused problems for them for different reasons.

Overall, I think Glass Houses was a decent starting point for what I’m hoping will be a good series. The cliffhanger ending had me wishing I had the second book so I could start it right away (which is saying a lot since I didn’t love this book). If you’re looking for something different, or hoping to get into a new vampire series, I’d say this one is worth a shot.

Have you read Glass Houses or any of the other Morganville Vampires books? What did you think? Does the series get better? 

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Update Thursday #6

I got this idea from the amazingly wonderful Jessica from Thoughts at One in the Morning. Every Thursday, I’ll be posting an update on my reading, writing, what’s going on at the blog, and anything else I think should be mentioned.

Hi guys! I hope you're all having a great first week of September. Mine's been really good so far. On Sunday I went with my mum, sister-in-law, and 2-year-old nephew Logan to the local rose garden and we spent about two hours wandering around, taking pictures, and enjoying the beautiful day. The roses were gorgeous, and I took...wait for it...368 pics lol. I'm obsessed with macro shots of flowers, so as you can imagine, I was in heaven! I haven't uploaded any of those pics anywhere yet because I want to add my photography watermark to them, but I have a little sample for you below. ;-) Yesterday I went out for lunch with my mum and two family friends who I've known forever. We went to the Chinese buffet (YUM), and then to the native reserve for a little drive and to check out a store there. It was a lot of fun. Also, this week I started Susannah Conway's Unravelling e-course. I wanted to take the course the minute I read about it on Susannah's blog, so I'm absolutely thrilled to be part of it. I can't talk about the assignments or anything, but I'll be talking a bit about the things I'm learning on my other blog, as well as posting more photos.

Ok, onto bookish and bloggish things!

READING:

Since last week, I finished So Damn Lucky by Deborah Coonts, and I also started and finished My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick. You guys. MLND was freaking amazing. I've read so many amazing YA contemps lately, and each one becomes my new favourite. If you haven't read it, you need to.

 

I started reading Once by Anna Carey, and Cicada by Belle Whittington.I have a ton of library books out right now, so I'm trying to get through these quickly but I haven't had a whole lot of reading time lately.

ON THE BLOG:

I reviewed Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock, and gave it four stars for it's terrific character and world building.

I shared the top ten books on my fall TBR list. What are you reading this fall?

I started a new feature this week called Music Monday. I came up with it last Thursday when I decided to add a section in my Update Thursday for music, but I felt the post was cluttered with one extra thing. I'd love for more people to participate, so please check it out and mark it down for Mondays!

I begged and pleaded for votes in the Top 25 Indie Authors list. Please consider voting for me (Marie Landry, Blue Sky Days)!

I posted the sign-ups for the second annual Spooktacular Paranormal Reading Challenge! If you're looking for something fun to do in October and you love paranormal books (or fantasy or urban fantasy or sci-fi), check it out and consider signing up. It was a lot of fun last year, and there's a chance to win a prize at the end!

I participated in the Labor Day Read-a-thon and read 545 pages (my goal was 500).

WRITING

 I haven't done any actual writing, but I did send out book #2 to my beta readers - eep! I'm excited and nervous, and felt totally sick to my stomach after I sent it. My alpha reader read it in three days and loved it, so that was a good sign, but now I'm really anxious to see what my betas think. I really miss writing, and I think I might start on revisions for book #3 soon because I know it's going to involve quite a bit of writing. 

In other writing-related news, I think I might have found the image for the cover of book #2 last night! I searched a different stock photo site than I usually search, and found the image within five minutes (after spending hours searching the other site - gah). I played around with it and I'm actually kind of in love with the possibilities...I'm going to make a mock cover in the next couple of days, send it to a few friends to get their opinion, and then plan a cover reveal. If you're interested in helping me out with a cover reveal, please let me know so I can mark you down.

That's it for me! What's new with you? What have you been reading and blogging about lately? What's going on in your life?

2nd Annual Spooktacular Paranormal Reading Challenge

Welcome to the sign-ups for the second annual Spooktacular Paranormal Reading Challenge! It’s so exciting to say ‘second annual’, and I cannot believe it’s been a year since the last challenge. Last year we had around 300 reviews submitted through the month of October. Isn’t that amazing? Think we can beat that this year?

Here’s the deal: since Halloween is my favourite holiday, last year I decided the entire month of October should be dedicated to all things paranormal, and I also decided I wanted to include the blogosphere by challenging you guys to read and review a minimum of three paranormal books between October 1st and 31st. 

Challenge Details:

*Read and review a minimum of three (3) paranormal** books. Reviews must be posted for the first time between October 1st and 31st, 2012. You don’t have to have a blog to participate, as long as you can post your reviews somewhere (GoodReads, Amazon, etc) and share them.

*For every paranormal book you read, review, and link up in the month of October, you’ll be entered in a giveaway to win one of the paranormal books below. To be eligible for the giveaway, you must complete the minimum of three books.

*The link-up in this post is just for sign ups. I’ll be posting a separate link-up for reviews on the 1st of October.

*Ebooks and audiobooks count. Adult and young adult books count. If this challenge crosses over into other challenges you're doing, that’s fine with me.

**PARANORMAL: Same as last year, I’m using a very loose interpretation of ‘paranormal’. It can be paranormal, fantasy, urban fantasy - basically any ‘creature’ or ‘otherworldly’ book counts - vampires, werewolves, faeries, shape shifters, zombies, angels, demons, mermaids, dragons, witches/wizards/sorcerers, trolls, sirens, banshees, etc. 

So you want to participate? Here's what you need to do:

*Follow Ramblings of a Daydreamer through GFC (right sidebar).

*Grab the button and place it on your blog. This way, not only will people know you’re participating in the challenge, but they can come back to my blog and find out how to join in on the fun.

<br /> <a href="http://sweetmarie-83.blogspot.ca/2012/08/2nd-annual-spooktacular-paranormal.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g167/irishstar83/Blog%20Buttons/Events/2012-Spooktacular-Paranormal-Reading-Challenge-SweetMarie83-Ramblings-of-a-Daydreamer-Button.png" alt="Ramblings of a Daydreamer " alt="Ramblings of a Daydreamer" /></a>

*Optional, but recommended: create a post or a page on your blog with the challenge graphic to help spread the word, and keep track of your progress once the challenge starts. If you decide to do that, make sure to either post a link back here, or have the linked graphic on your post so that, again, people can come join the fun. You need to have at least one or the other to be eligible – the button in your sidebar and/or a post about the challenge. You don't have to decide beforehand what books you're reading.

*On October 1st, I will start a new post with a new link-up where you can add links to your reviews. Don’t forget to add your reviews to be included in the giveaway, and don't forget you need at least three during the month. The more reviews you post, the more entries you have to win.

*To sign up, leave your name and blog URL in the linky below (for example, Marie @ Ramblings of a Daydreamer).

*The giveaway at the end is open internationally as long as Book Depository ships to your country. For a full list of countries, check here.

*If you're on Twitter, you can connect with other participants, share updates, etc, using the hashtag #SPRC. 

Now, the part you're probably most interested in: the prizes to choose from. I've tried to collect a wide variety of both adult and YA paranormal, and include a range of 'creatures' to appeal to all tastes. I've read over half of these books, and the rest are on my tbr. One winner will be chosen, and will get to choose one book from this selection:

*Cover images may vary, depending on availability*

That's it! If I've missed anything, you can leave questions and comments below. Let’s make October a month of spooktacular fun, and get some great paranormal books read and reviewed!

UPDATE: October 1st: Link up your reviews HERE.