Review: Switched by Amanda Hocking

Title: Switched
Author: Amanda Hocking
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: 3rd January 2012
Find on: Amazon, Goodreads

Quick Review: 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…

Detailed Review: Wendy is not ordinary, no matter how much she tries. After the day that her mother tried to kill her, that truth has been haunting her. She doesn't like most processed foods. She doesn't seem to fit in with her life- her school and her family. Her mother's action has convinced her the same of what her mother had thought about her: a monster.

Ok, this was actually quite entertaining. But then it started moving on, everything changes.

A boy in school has been continuously staring at her and she doesn't like it. But then when he appears outside her bedroom window, she knows there's something different about him. Or maybe he was just insane. Besides, he'd just rejected her at the school's dance. So why was he there?

He then springs a story of how she was a changeling and why she was different from other people. He's a tracker come to retrieve her back to her real home, Forening. She's a troll but not the one that fairytales depict with green skin and short statures. She's a Trylle. Finn leaves her with two choices; to follow him back to Forening or stay with his beloved aunt and brother, Maggie and Matt.

In the end she chooses to stay and Finn promises not to bother with her anymore.

But then the odds change. The Vittra intervene. It happens one night, when she thought Finn was watching her from outside her house but instead is captured by two Vittra trackers. But... enter Finn. He chases them off with his martial arts and strength.

There's no choice but to follow Finn now, since her life is at stake and so she goes to Forening and meets her mother Elora there. But then she doesn't know what she was yet to know. A very important fact.

She's the PRINCESS. Her mother's the queen, who seems cold and uncaring for how Wendy was treated during her childhood. She criticizes her on the way she acts, the clothes she wears.

Finn has repeatedly saved her from many scoldings by training her. He is patient and guides her through everything before her welcome party. Though not without any consequences.

Finn falls in love with her. But he leaves her before her party has even started. 

Then the inevitable happens. On the day of the party, the palace is attacked by the Vittra. They swarm everywhere, causing severe damage. All they want though is one person in return for this bloodshed: Wendy. 

In the end though Finn appears and saves her but he almost dies as he tries to stop the tracker who tried to catch Wendy before, if not for Tove, Aurora Kroner's son, otherwise known as the highest-ranking Marksinna in Forening, and next in line to the throne, if Wendy doesn't claim her rightful place. 

But what Wendy chooses in the end is the normalcy which she always dreamed of having, and this time she's going back with the person who's switched with her at birth, Rhys, Matt's true brother.

Brief Review: I think this book was really worth the talk and there's a sense of originality which I really like. Now I really know why so many people are fussing over this book!

Final Rating: 4/5 'Really Liked It'

Your Reviewer: