Ascend by Amanda Hocking (Trylle #3)

Original title: Ascend

Year published: 2012

Published by: Tor/ St Martin’s press

Number of pages: 326 pages

First sentence: “I had my back to the room as I stared out the window”

Plot: Wendy is once again faced with one hard decision after another. In the choice between her own life and the lives of her people, can she find a way to save herself and the rest of the Trylle? And what about love? Wendy is starting to realize that maybe life with Tove isn’t going to be enough for her.

My thoughts: Oh my god. For those who thought there wasn’t enough action in the last book. Here you go! This book has got action, friendship, family and some love scenes that are to die for. Even though I got this book spoiled for me earlier I enjoyed reading it and I’m very happy with how it all turned out. Wendy evolves more during this book and she finally comes to terms with the fact that just because Finn was her first “love” it doesn’t mean that he has to be her only love. We also get to see Wendy’s mother Elora finally letting go of her regal ways, she finally lets her guard down and she and Wendy start some kind of mother/daughter relationship.

The only bad thing I have to say about this book is that I hate that every single book ends with marriage and babies. Why is that necessary? Fifty Shades, Twilight and now this. I mean I love happy endings but it just feels so ”been there done that”. Other than that I loved the book and the entire series. I’m looking forward to reading some more of Amanda’s books. I think the next one will be “Wake” but before that I have a lot of other books that needs reading.

Torn by Amanda Hocking (Trylle #2)

Original title: Torn

Year published: 2012

Published by: St Martin’s Press

Number of pages: 291 plus a collection of one shots named “One Day: Three Ways”

First sentence: “When Rhys and I showed up at my “brother” Matt’s house at eight in the morning, he was happy…in the sense that he was glad I was alive and hadn’t disappeared forever.”

Plot: After the events in “Switched” Wendy doesn’t think her life could get any more complicated. She was wrong. She’s kidnapped by Vittra trackers and while in captivity she learns more things about her past. Things that maybe would have been best kept hidden. In the middle of all of this there are her feelings, feelings she’s not sure she should have.

My thoughts: I don’t understand people who complain about Amanda’s writing. I totally love it, it’s real. And sure this book may not have been packed with as much action as the first one but it was still enough. I don’t think that an action filled book was her goal here. You get to learn a lot more about the history of Wendy’s people, both Trylle and Vittra. You also get to see Wendy working really hard to get her powers in order so that she can help her people. Wendy matures a lot in this book, she realizes that she has to consider what’s best for her people and not just what’s best for her and so she makes some decisions, decisions that might not be in her best interest but ones that she can live with nonetheless. I love this series and I love all the pop culture references and how the author used Swedish words such as “Förening, Ondarike, Mänsklig” and so on. It made it a whole lot more relatable, at least for me, being Swedish and all.

I went on goodreads because I wanted to leave a review and I stumbled upon a review. Someone decided it would be fun to spoil the next book. Let’s just say I’m not happy. At first I thought I wasn’t going to read the last book but I quickly decided against that. I love the series too much to give up on it just because someone spoiled it for me.

Anyway, great book. I do recommend it!