Switched, by Amanda Hocking (Trylle #1)

One of the most amazing things about this book in my opinion is its author who, as it says on the "about the author" page, became a success through self-publishing. This woman wanted to be an author so she went and got herself published. And now she's a best-selling author.

Another admirable quality in Trylle is the fact that Hocking strayed from the norm and instead of making a fantasy series about vampires, wizards, fairies, gods, zombies, werewolves, mermaids, or any of the other things I'm sure I've missed, she wrote about trolls. And not only did she write about trolls, this was one of the most original twists to the generic "girl finds out she's special then goes off to live new life and meets hot guy." The story follows Wendy whose mom tried to murder her with a butcher knife at age 6 claiming that Wendy is not her child. Then, when Wendy is 17 she finds out that her mom was right. Wendy is a changeling and is, as I said before, a troll. No-not the giant ugly green ones who won't let the three billy goats gruff cross the bridge (if you don't know what I'm talking about look it up), nor are they like the troll that Harry and Ron knocked out in Sorcerer's Stone. These trolls keep to themselves, look like humans (except for the slightly green undertone to some of their skin), and have magical powers. Wendy has persuasion-the ability to use mind control. I got really annoyed at her when she was in the middle of a fight scene and didn't use her persuasion to get the bad guy to leave. Seriously, I don't care how guilty it makes you feel, a girl should use any weapon she has in her arsenal when she's being kidnapped.

Of course, she has a crush on the guy who comes to get her and that turns out to be totally off-limits, but what wasn't typical was her personality. Usually the main character in these books is a girl who thinks she's nothing special, that she's entirely average except for one quality-except really she's also beautiful, smart, talented, amazing, and everyone is in love with her ([cough]Bella Swan[cough]). Not so with Wendy. Mostly. Wendy knows she's pretty. She knows that she's different. She will tell you about herself without denying her faults or being shy about her talents. Let me tell you, after reading from the point of view of a million insecure girls, Wendy is a breath of fresh air.

Of all the many many many guys in Trylle, my favorite is Tove. He's good-lucking (though slightly green-gives a new meaning to olive complexion), smart, powerful, nice, and completely and brutally honest. And, unless my ability of predicting the endings has failed me, Wendy's mom will try to marry her off to him.

5 stars. There were some pretty awesome one-liners. My favorite was a line about Finn, her crush, who should have creeped her out:"Most likely he was a damn sociopath, and for whatever reason, I found that endearing."