Torn (Trylle Trilogy 2)
Review
Brief synopsis (Spoilers if you have not read Switched)
Torn picks up exactly where Switched left off. Wendy has found her way home and is accompanied by Rhys. She explains to Matt (her host brother) basically all that happened to her after she left in bk.1.
But then she is kidnapped by the Trylle enemy, the Vittra, and after being held hostage in their dungeon, she is taken to the king who it turns out has a closer connection to her than she could ever think possible. She also meets and befriends a Vittra boy, and is surprised by his kindness toward her when he helps her escape the castle.
On arriving back at the Trylle palace, Wendy confronts Queen Elora and demands answers to everything she was told by the Vittra King. But what she hears is not expected and now she is presented with the revelation that she will be Queen in months and she has to prepare for the inevitable attack by the Vittra, while struggling to figure out what's going on with the boy she loves and also the possibility of a forbidden attraction to the enemy.
Review (Some Spoilers included)
This book definitely had more depth than the first. A lot was revealed by the queen and shockingly it was not overstated. All the information was relevant to the plot and I was engaged and interested in all that she had to say.
Even though it's a story based around trolls (fantastical creatures) a lot of what happened was very realistic. The dialogue improved (with certain characters), but not all.
Wendy definitely developed a little, although her narrative was still immature and annoyed the crap out of me.
I guess I can tolerate her character now.
Her telekinetic training however, never resolved to much, yet when an upcoming fight was talked about she was always ready. Everyone told her she's strong and could fight, but the progress was still not shown. And what she could do seems minimal to what she's supposedly capable of doing.
I thInk Tove could have pushed a little harder by mixing things up a bit. The whole training process was just a space filler, I thought it could have been a little more challenging and exciting.
The marriage proposal was a bit weird but sweet in a way. I found myself smiling at Tove's anxiety and the uneasy way he expressed himself in that scene. It was so unlike him that it was funny but still real and I think it was the best piece of writing in the whole book.
Finn VS Loki
I still found Finn to be a ghostly character as he barely held any presence. And the relationship between him and Wendy felt so rushed in the first book that it just befuddled me further in this book.
Loki on the other hand, even though he is a new character and is only in a few scenes, he stole all of them and made me very very interested in what he had to say. He being a Vittra and the enemy of the Trylle, made his bad boy persona even more enticing. He's sly and sarcastic and his wit was peppered with charisma and charm. I liked his character a lot.
The Ending
A lot happened in the last 75 or so pages that actually surprised me and bumped my rating up to 3 stars!
A certain character was revealed as gay and I was not expecting that at all! And Loki came out of nowhere with a fairy tale revelation of his own that I wouldn't have thought twice about accepting! But whatever Wendy... Yes yes I get it...Capulet and Montague blah blah blah...
Overall I didn't love it but I liked certain parts of it. The introduction of Loki definitely was a relevant factor in my rating.
I really liked the chapter titles too. They were cute and they fit well within the story.
I am actually curious to see what happens next! So onto Ascend (book 3) I go! Let's hope three is a charm this one brings in at least 4 stars!
Torn picks up exactly where Switched left off. Wendy has found her way home and is accompanied by Rhys. She explains to Matt (her host brother) basically all that happened to her after she left in bk.1.
But then she is kidnapped by the Trylle enemy, the Vittra, and after being held hostage in their dungeon, she is taken to the king who it turns out has a closer connection to her than she could ever think possible. She also meets and befriends a Vittra boy, and is surprised by his kindness toward her when he helps her escape the castle.
On arriving back at the Trylle palace, Wendy confronts Queen Elora and demands answers to everything she was told by the Vittra King. But what she hears is not expected and now she is presented with the revelation that she will be Queen in months and she has to prepare for the inevitable attack by the Vittra, while struggling to figure out what's going on with the boy she loves and also the possibility of a forbidden attraction to the enemy.
Review (Some Spoilers included)
This book definitely had more depth than the first. A lot was revealed by the queen and shockingly it was not overstated. All the information was relevant to the plot and I was engaged and interested in all that she had to say.
Even though it's a story based around trolls (fantastical creatures) a lot of what happened was very realistic. The dialogue improved (with certain characters), but not all.
Wendy definitely developed a little, although her narrative was still immature and annoyed the crap out of me.
I guess I can tolerate her character now.
Her telekinetic training however, never resolved to much, yet when an upcoming fight was talked about she was always ready. Everyone told her she's strong and could fight, but the progress was still not shown. And what she could do seems minimal to what she's supposedly capable of doing.
I thInk Tove could have pushed a little harder by mixing things up a bit. The whole training process was just a space filler, I thought it could have been a little more challenging and exciting.
The marriage proposal was a bit weird but sweet in a way. I found myself smiling at Tove's anxiety and the uneasy way he expressed himself in that scene. It was so unlike him that it was funny but still real and I think it was the best piece of writing in the whole book.
Finn VS Loki
I still found Finn to be a ghostly character as he barely held any presence. And the relationship between him and Wendy felt so rushed in the first book that it just befuddled me further in this book.
Loki on the other hand, even though he is a new character and is only in a few scenes, he stole all of them and made me very very interested in what he had to say. He being a Vittra and the enemy of the Trylle, made his bad boy persona even more enticing. He's sly and sarcastic and his wit was peppered with charisma and charm. I liked his character a lot.
The Ending
A lot happened in the last 75 or so pages that actually surprised me and bumped my rating up to 3 stars!
A certain character was revealed as gay and I was not expecting that at all! And Loki came out of nowhere with a fairy tale revelation of his own that I wouldn't have thought twice about accepting! But whatever Wendy... Yes yes I get it...Capulet and Montague blah blah blah...
Overall I didn't love it but I liked certain parts of it. The introduction of Loki definitely was a relevant factor in my rating.
I really liked the chapter titles too. They were cute and they fit well within the story.
I am actually curious to see what happens next! So onto Ascend (book 3) I go! Let's hope three is a charm this one brings in at least 4 stars!