Torn

When Wendy Everly first discovers the truth about herself—that she’s a changeling switched at birth—she knows her life will never be the same. Now she’s about to learn that there’s more to the story…
She shares a closer connection to her Vittra rivals than she ever imagined—and they’ll stop at nothing to lure her to their side. With the threat of war looming, her only hope of saving the Trylle is to marry a powerful royal. But that means walking away from Finn, her handsome bodyguard who’s strictly off limits…and Loki, a Vittra prince with whom she shares a growing attraction.
Torn between her heart and her people, between love and duty, Wendy must decide her fate. If she makes the wrong choice, she could lose everything, and everybody, she’s ever wanted…in both worlds.

Torn by Amanda Hocking

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


My main issue with Amanda Hocking is that she has no sense of rise and fall. She doesn't know how to bring the story to a high point and then leave you heaving with suspense in the conclusion. She made an improvement from the first book by giving you reason to believe that the series will continue. She left Wendy's relationship with her father, the Vittra King, open for us to find out later. We still don't have much of a handle on who Wendy is and what she wants. We know she thinks that she's pretty, she is very powerful, and she wants to marry for love. We don't know who she loves because she adds male candidates up in her mind at random. She is constantly admiring the good looks of the men around her and then deciding that they aren't for her. She won't even settle on liking Loki for sure. And now she's noncommittal about her feelings for Finn. We know she doesn't love Tove and now she's doing everything for the kingdom's sake with no consideration to herself. She starts putting her own thoughts aside, which were few to begin with, to work hard on harnessing the power that we hear about over and over again. Wendy did develop as a strong female character who is kind and cares about people. But that's about it. She has no complexity. She is forgettable and not worthy of being the main character. Even supporting female, Willa, had a stronger personality. She is very clear about what she wants and when she wants it. You know what her definite interests are and you know how she thinks her life should be. That kind of characterization should be applied to our heroine. It would make her significantly more interesting.

I also don't like that Hocking followed along the love triangle route. I understand that it's really "in" right now, but that is exactly why she should have done something different. The idea that a lot of men would be attracted to royalty isn't a stretch, but Finn doesn't want her because she's royalty and Loki couldn't care less. Tove is forced to be with her because of their bloodline and he isn't interested in slightest. I like the way that Hocking makes it so you aren't sure what side Loki is on. She might have given away too much vulnerability in Loki, but you still have to wonder what his motivation is. It is hard to believe that he's fallen in love with her already (because let's face it, none of the readers are really in love with her and we know a lot more about her) but he seems to really hate the Vittra King. So I have high hopes for Loki. Finn is too honor-bound to love Wendy the way she loves him. Everytime he slips and reveals his feelings to her, he gets horribly angry and then makes her feel bad about herself. He has abusive relationship written all over him. His rounds of jealousy are kind of sweet but also very childish. So I'm team Loki on this one. He can go on my list with Jacob and Gale. I don't have good luck on picking the team that actually wins...so she'll probably end up with Finn. Sigh.

This novel had improvements from the first novel but also so glaring problems. She is very repetitive and makes most of her characters one-dimensional. Elora is the most complex character in the whole book and that isn't saying a whole lot. I've developed attachments to a lot of characters but unfortunately not the main ones. It is a sad day in literature when I'm continuing to read more to find out what happens to Tove and Loki. But that's good enough for me. I'll be looking for the third installment and hoping the Hocking continues to takes steps forward in her writing style. Great story teller, just needs polish.



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