Switched

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Title: Switched
Series: Trylle series
Author: Amanda Hocking
Publisher: Tor
ISB N: 978-1-4472-0569-2
Price: 7.99 $
Source: bought
Pages: 293 (335 with special content)
Previous Book: /
Following Books: 2. Torn / 3.Ascend

Switched is about a girl namend Wendy Everly, 17 years old, who lives with her brother Matt and her aunt Maggie because her mother tried to kill her when she was six, accusing her of being a changling, a child switched at birth for another one. They move around a lot because Wendy gets expelled from schools often. She figured out that she can somehow persuade people into doing what she wants them to do, but she doesn't want to believe it. In her latest school, she notices a kid called Finn Holmes always staring at her in a creepy way and one night he's even standing in front of her bedroom window, trying to talk to her. Reluctantly, she lets him in and he tries to convince her to go with him. He explains that Wendy is a troll, of the Trylle clan to be exact, that she really is a changeling (as her 'mother' had suspected), that he is a tracker who usually takes the changelings home of the Trylle when they are 20 but because Wendy's power of persuation already being so strong she is supposed to go with Finn right away.
She says no and wants to stay with her brother and aunt because it would be unfair to them - leaving them after all they're doing for them. Finn reluctantly accepts that and leaves her.
One night, she wakes up and thinks that she saw Finn again outside her window and goes after him but she sees nobody on the streets. She suddenly is attacked by two members of the enemy clan 'Vittra'who want to kidnap her and make her live in their own clan territory instead of the Trylle's. Luckily, Finn comes to the rescue and he convinces her to go with him right away because she's not safe in her family's home anymore. When they enter the Trylle territory (that's just how I call it) which is actually just a gated community, Wendy meets Rhys, who is her changeling, and her proper mother Elora. She finds out that Elora is the queen of the Trylle and therefore, Wendy is the Princess. She has to endure a lot of formalities, but because of Wendy being the future queen and having such great powers (persuation + others that nobody knows yet), the Vittra try everything, to get Wendy for themselves...

My Opinion
At the beginning I really didn't like Wendy. The first chapter describes the day where Wendy's mum tried to kill her and Wendy acted really obnoxious there; when the storyline is talking about the present, she is a little more acceptable and you start rooting for her. I think that the first negative feelings that you have towards Wendy are intended by the author, as the book's written in first person and it even says "I was acting my usual bratty self".
Now I really enjoy the storyline of this book and I can't wait to read the other books of this series. Though I was kind of appaled at first because of the "turn monsters in good creatures that you can fall in love with" theme - trolls, that reminded me of the fact that after Twilight many other creatures were turned into something like-able, I've even heard about a book where Zombies were like Twilight's vampires. But I am positively surprised by the fact that trolls are pretty much just humans, only that they have a deeper connection with the earth if that makes sense.
I soaked up this book like a sponge and read it, just like The Next Thing On My List, in two days and everywhere that I'd have time to read: in bed, in the living room, in the car, during breaks from hiking etc. I really liked Finn and I've kinda pictured him like Adam Gregory, but I totally fell in love with Matt right away and even though he's described totally different (maybe they both are, I don't really care about descriptions of people, just make up my own mind) I pictured him looking like Cameron Mitchell or Patrick Baehr. :D
I can recommend this book to all you fantasy-lovers out there, the read is really worthwhile!

by Cécile

The Next Thing On My List

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Title: The Next Thing On My List
Author: Jill Smolinski
Publisher: Crown
ISB N: 0307351246 / 978-0307351241
Price: 10 $
Source: my dad bought it for me
Pages: 304

"The Next Thing On My List" is about June who wants to drop of Marissa at her home from a Weight Watchers-meeting. They endure a car accident and Marissa is hurled out of the car because she's not belted on in the moment of impact, resulting in her death. June takes the blame for Marissa's death on herself even though the accident was somebody else's fault. Marissa's bag is accidentally given to June and she finds a list inside of it with 20 things that Marissa wanted to do before her 25th birthday; June keeps this list to herself without telling anyone, but forwards everything else to Marissa's parents.
Half a year after the accident June decides to visit Marissa's grave, where she meets the dead girl's brother Troy. She accidentally tells him about the list and regrets it immediately because he gets angry at her for keeping this piece of information to herself. June then tells him the lie that she wanted to do the things on the list for Marissa until the day that would have been her 25th birthday.
Troy seems okay with that and promises her to help her with anything she needs to complete that goal, resulting in June actually having to do the things that are written on the list. She jumps into the adventure and tries to tick off the bullet points as fast as possible as there are 18 she still needs to complete but only less than half a year of time. And is it possible that she falls in love with a certain guy called Troy along the way?

My Opinion
I thought that this book was fantastic! To be honest: I did not expect this. When I picked the book out of an advertising folder, I only saw the cover, no summary given, so I was really happy when my old method of "jugding the book by its cover" went well once again (but I only apply that method on books, just so we're clear). I got through it in about two days, that's how much I was into that book! When I got to the last third of the book, I had kinda already guessed how a strand of the story would end but that didn't make my reading experience bad, it made it even better as I anticipated how the author would manage to get there. I also think that I only randomly got the right idea of the end (or I'm just super smart) so it's not like you know how it'll all end from the first page on. And of course I left out a part in the summary that gets rather important in the plot but it has something to do with a point on the list and I don't want to spoil anything for y'all.
Form your own opinion on the book. 'The Next Thing On Your List' is great for romantic people and those who love lying in bed for hours and read books. But it's also a great read while driving (though please don't be the driver, ok? Be the front-seat passenger or stuff).

by Cécile

The Hunger Games

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Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic Press
ISB N: 0439023483 / 978-0439023481
Price: 17.99 $
Source: borrowed from a friend
Pages: 384
Previous Book: /
Following Books: 2. Catching Fire / 3. Mockingjay


Katniss lives in District 12, the poorest District in the country Panem and she has to go hunting illegally to support her mother and her sister Prim. Every year, the so called Hunger Games are organized where 24 tributes - a boy and a girl from each district - have to fight to death, until one of them survives. The tributes are aged 12 to 18 years old and are chosen by random. This year, Prim's name is in the lottery wheel for the first time, but is picked. This means the certain death for her because she is badly nurtured and can do only few things. To safe her sister, Katniss volunteers to fight instead of her sister and therefore she and Peeta go into the fight for District 12. During the preparation phase, Peeta suggests to pretend to be in love with each other to get many sponsors (they could raise their survival chances). But when they get into the arena, everyone is for themselves. But it seems, as if Peeta didn't only pretend his love to Katniss... or did he? Will Katniss survive?


Own Opinion
I really liked the book and it was easy to read. The Hunger Games is the first book since a long time where the protagonist always did exactly what I wanted her to do in every situation. Also, the introduction to the story was very well-done; the surrondings of the new country Panem was described without sounding boring. But there are obviously many people dying in this story which is why the series is not to recommend to sensitive people. A few friends have read the books before I started and said that the violence in this trilogy is pretty extreme, but I actually didn't think of it that way; maybe it's just because I was already prepared for it and already know violence from many books and movies. To put it in a nutshell, I wanna give a huge thumbs up to Suzanne Collins. I already have the second book borrowed from my friend and am gonna read it during Christmas break; be sure to look forward to a review on this blog!


by Cécile