Switched by Amanda Hocking

TL;DR changeling troll princess

(finished 7/19/15)

Oh, man. I have to disagree with all the reviewers I follow -- I did not enjoy any of the aspects that they raved about. If paranormal romance isn't your thing, stay well away from Switched. It's very typical YA paranormal romance. And I didn't like that. (To be fair, their reviews are late 2011 / early 2012, which was a different YA climate than now.)

I'm gonna start out with mentioning the Trylle. They were a pretty interesting concept, considering writing about trolls doesn't scream "swoon-worthy romance", but it was unique. I wish they passed as a little less human, but then again, I guess that kind of ruins the whole changeling scheme they have going. That part was interesting to read about. I like the setup of it.

On to everything else. I did not like any of the characters. The only ones I appreciated were Tove, Rhys, and Willa. And, unfortunately, they're only side characters. I did not find Wendy endearing, Finn was creepy at the beginning and inconsistently characterized, and Matt's behavior was borderline creepy. I did not like Finn as a romantic interest and Matt's possessiveness over Wendy came off less as "protective older brother" and more as "toeing the line of sibling abuse". He was unrealistically possessive of Wendy and it honestly creeped me out. I guess part of it could be explained by the fact that their mother tried to kill her, but most of the Matt-Wendy interactions (if not all) showed no sibling dynamic and more "father overprotective of his young daughter". Ew.

Wendy, from about page 11 onwards, decided that she liked Finn. Despite the fact that she's only known him for a week and their only interaction at that point was him staring at her in class or maybe the weird conversation they had. That is a very poor foundation to base a crush off of. There was no build-up to their romance. It just kind of was. It sprang into existence out of nowhere. Very insta-love. There was nothing that made me support their romance. Honestly, the fact that Trylle society said they couldn't be together almost made me hopeful that Wendy would wise up and move on, but nope. That doesn't happen.

The plot's pretty meh. I liked the concept of Wendy becoming acclimated to the Trylle culture, but there wasn't so much "acclimating" as there was "Wendy digging in her heels and refusing to cooperate." Most of it was to be expected, especially because she wasn't exactly there of her own free will, but I wanted to see more of her sucking it up and accepting what was going on.

Part of that problem is also that Finn and Elora do a god-awful job in trying to get her acclimated. The few questions that Wendy does actually pose on her own get pushed off until they're completely unavoidable; Finn's kind of patronizing in teaching her; Elora just flat-out ignores Wendy's opinions and dictates all the choices regarding her while explaining nothing. Elora's an even worse parent than Wendy's foster-mother who tried to kill her. (Who maybe should've just finished the job. Kimberly was at least an interesting character. Nobody else really was.)

The whole thing with the Vittra wasn't explained, either. The little short story that was included in the back of my library copy just raised more questions than it answered, and I probably would've been better off without it. I don't understand what their need for Wendy is. Just kill her and be done with it. (Or maybe I just feel that way because of how unsympathetic Wendy is as a character.)

I initially rated the book three stars, but in writing this review, I have no idea what I based that off of. I went back and changed it. The preview for the next book looks even more uninteresting and infinitely more frustrating than where Switched left off, so I have no desire to continue reading the story.

I typed up my sticky notes into a spreadsheet like I've been doing recently. There's a big gap in the middle of the book and I'm not sure if it was out of laziness or disinterest.

TL;DR the only thing that sets Switched apart from any other YA paranormal romance is that it has trolls. I'm not interested in reading the subsequent books (though I probably will anyway.) If you do like paranormal romance, this is probably a book for you.

Sweet by Emmy Laybourne

TL;DR weight loss supplement promotion goes horribly wrong

(finished 7/18/15)

Sweet was addicting. Almost as much as Solu, believe it or not. I read it in 24 hours after I finished Monstrous Beauty. I totally had a book hangover immediately after finishing and that's probably gonna influence a lot of this review. I apologize for that in advance if I don't go back and edit some of it out. 

Let me also preface this by saying that Sweet is not contemporary or realistic. That's kind of the reason I liked it. It wouldn't have been nearly as interesting without the turn of evens that transpired in the book. 

Sweet seemed nice enough starting out, but I should've known better than that from Emmy Laybourne. From what I remember of Monument 14, it was hella depressing. Good, but one of those books that I have to read a fluffy book afterwards to recover. For some reason I wasn't expecting Sweet to take a Monument 14 turn and I was completely wrong. I didn't have a craving for a fluffy book, though, so it's not as dark as Monument 14. 

I can't say that the science behind Solu is realistic at all, but the whole thing is intriguing. I'm definitely interested more in how the logistics of it work. The latter half of the book is downright creepy and the blurb does the bare minimum in hinting what actually happens. (I don't know if I was able to guess from reading it or if I'd read what actually happened somewhere before sitting down with the book in my hands, but I'm not gonna mention it. You're gonna have to read it.) 

I really love Laurel and Tom as characters. Laurel is very body-positive and I was really glad to see that she was comfortable with herself and didn't feel the need to take Solu. There's been a really unfortunate trend in YA where the main characters talk themselves / their appearances down, so it was really nice to find a character who doesn't sell herself short. She's also not a pushover. Tom's cool in the fact that he's not some spoiled famous kid -- he's actually pretty level-headed. He's not a pushover, either. 

I think the romance was kind of fast, but I actually really enjoyed it. I don't think it quite counts as insta-love (but I can see that point being argued). They get together really quickly but it's not like they fawn over each other all the time. Not like they really had any chances to. They care for each other but it's not reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet like a lot of other YA couples unfortunately are. 

The execution of Sweet's plot was amazing. The pacing was great and for a while I wondered if I'd been wrong about what actually was the deal with Solu -- I was kind of afraid there'd be a sudden "oh no, everyone suddenly turns insane" kind of scene, but the lead-up into that worked perfectly. 

A lot of the negative reviews I'm seeing have to deal with the fact that they were expecting something contemporary or somewhat realistic. Sweet is neither of those. At all. Well, I guess it's contemporary time period-wise, but it's definitely nowhere realistic. I'm pretty sure Laybourne mentioned B-roll films in her acknowledgements. It's essentially like one of those, from what I understand of them. A really amusing B-roll movie. (I'm pretty sure B-roll isn't exactly a compliment, so I'm sorry if it comes off as mean.) 

Another thing I really love is that Tom and Laurel's chapters are clearly distinct. Their typefaces are a little too identical, both serif fonts with only slight width differences, but it helped. (Along this line, if you've ever read Legend, let it be known that I love how the split narration was done. Especially design-wise.) Tom and Laurel have different voices, too, which I really appreciated after reading Echo and Mystic back-to-back. Even without the typeface differences, their grammar usage and thought patterns are unique. 

I've actually been in the same room as Emmy Laybourne! I actually happened across the LA stop of a Fierce Reads tour she was on. I walked into The Last Bookstore about ten minutes late, though, so all the seats were taken. I just stood at the back for a couple minutes and listened before carrying on to explore. I'm also surprised that our library got a copy of the book so soon after its release. 

I'm really hoping there's a sequel, because the cliffhanger Laybourne left off on is killing me. I cannot deal with the stress of imagining what the backlash of said cliffhanger will wreak in book-world. I'm gonna be upset if I hear nothing more from the Sweet universe. I need to know what happens!! 

TL;DR I really enjoyed Sweet but it takes a good amount of trusting that Laybourne knows what she's doing, and also an enjoyment of the not-quite-realistic. If you like your stories to be grounded in real-world logistics, then Sweet's probably not your thing. 

Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama

TL;DR a slightly convoluted mermaid mystery

(finished 7/17/15)

I just realized that Elizabeth Fama also wrote Plus One. The entire time I was reading I was trying to figure out why her name sounded familiar. It's because she wrote a book I read less than half a year ago. Oops. This is why the internet helps. 

Monstrous Beauty is a really intriguing mystery book. I'm not really one for mysteries, but I've been on a mermaid YA kick recently. I'm not quite sure how to comment on the mystery aspect of the book considering I rarely hunt those kinds of books out, but there's enough information given that you'll figure everything out before Hester does. Take that as you will. (I guess it's normal to know more than the character? Maybe? I'm not sure.)

Hester was an okay character. A little slow, maybe, but that might also just be from an outsider's opinion. Syrenka was pretty interesting but she only comes into play in the flashbacks. Out of everyone, I think I liked the Scottish pastor guy the most (but not enough to remember his name OTL).

It was really fun watching the whole mystery unfold. The chapters generally alternated between what Hester was doing and what Syrenka had done in the past, so it was kind of like getting both ends of a story and working your way to the middle. (A little. Or starting at two different points on intersecting lines.) Everything worked out a little too well, but I think that's to be expected as a standalone.

I would actually be really interested in a story simply about Syrenka and her sisters (friends? Are they actually all related?). The most interesting part to me was the climax, but of course that didn't last very long. I want to know more about the mermaids and their culture and that really old one that rules over everything and sounds kind of like an Ursula.

TL;DR I liked it. I don't have all that much to say about it, tbh, but it was good.

Mystic by Alyson Noel

TL;DR everything's a mess in the aftermath of Echo

(finished 7/16/15)

I managed to find Mystic in the library trip after reading Echo, so I figured "why not?" and checked it out. It was actually the first book I read out of that haul. (It was also the only one I had any real interest in since I wanted to read it before I forgot details from Echo. The rest are standalones or the first in their series.) 

Honestly, for the first half of the book, essentially nothing happens. All hell breaks loose at about the 70% mark, but at the 50% mark I sat back and tried to figure out how to put what happened into words. And essentially it came down to "not much". It never got boring, per se, and it did take me up until 50% to realize that nothing had really happened, but the reality is that it's just laying the groundwork for the climax without doing anything exciting.

(My World History teacher used to say "but the reality is, is that" and it used to drive me crazy. I honestly tried to avoid using that phrase right there but that was the best I could come up with. Please forgive me.)

So yeah, once Daire manages to find Dace again, all the action in the book starts. A lot happens in the span of about a day in the book. (I think Mystic only takes place over about a week, anyway.) People on Goodreads mention that they feel like Mystic is really only a set-up book for Horizon, and I can definitely see that. The setup to the climax isn't too bad but it all felt a little too convenient. I'm not even sure why I feel that way, other than the fact that (again) Daire and Dace don't really communicate and their narrations sometimes betrayed what was going on or held back key information until they were talking about what happened a couple chapters later. There was stuff that they mentioned later that would've been cool to know about during the scene, but I guess maybe that would've ruined the mood of what was going on. I don't know. 

I have very little to say about Daire and Dace, but that's mainly because they spent most of the book separated from each other. The sex scene is definitely a lot later in the book, and I feel like the lead-up into it is better. They also do trust each other more (at least, Daire trusts Dace with what he's doing), which is definitely an improvement. They still drive me crazy and rank very low on my current "YA couples I've read" list, but hey, at least they got better slightly. I still wish they'd quit acting like Romeo and Juliet, though. It's a little sickening. 

Xotichl got a pretty big chunk of the narration since essentially nothing was happening with Dace for the first half, and I actually appreciate her chapters. Xotichl's definitely my favorite character. She's a strong female character who doesn't need to kick butt to stand on her own. I want a book just about her. Not Daire. Xotichl is more interesting. 

I made another spreadsheet with all the sticky notes from the book if you're curious. (There are spoilers. Like always. Keep that in mind.) I didn't use as many sticky notes as Echo, but jeez, Dace and Daire can be so ignorant sometimes. 

TL;DR I kinda read Mystic because of the whole "watching a trainwreck" thing regarding Dace and Daire, but it was better than Echo. If you read up to Echo, you may as well continue reading. You're already halfway through the series. 

My Old Town Alexandria Day Trips

This post was initially gonna be about Otakon, but then I decided I didn't feel inspired enough to write an entire blog post about it. TL;DR the con was really fun and super chill.

I've actually taken two day trips down to Alexandria this summer: the first one was with my mom's cousin when she was in town, and the second one was as a birthday celebration since I wanted to go back to Old Town. I didn't expect to enjoy it so much!

I'm not sure I'm happy with how this looks, but I made this entire post the night before it went up, and I'm tired enough from walking up and down King Street that I kind of don't care it looks amateur-ish. Forgive me? 

This post is really image-heavy.