Torn

Torn by Amanda Hocking

Damn it. Damn it damn it damn it.

So I didn't like the first book in the series, Switched. Note, this will inevitably contain spoilers about Switched as Torn is the sequel.

Then suddenly, I really liked Torn.

I'm still stuck wondering if I like it so much because I pretty much loathed ANGST, I mean Wendy in the first one and in the second book she's actually truly grown and developed as a character?

However, there are some faults I still found with the book. In Torn, it's explained to us FINALLY about why the opposing trolls to the Tyrelle (the Vittra, not to be confused with the Volturi (see what I did there? LOLOL...anyways)) were after Wendy so much. It turns out that Wendy is the King's daughter. Now we were completely thrown off the trail of this inevitable outcome because in the first book, Wendy's mother Elora was hell bent on being a very frigid queen. She didn't tell Wendy 'anything' but she had told Wendy that her father was dead and Wendy believed she saw remorse in her mother's eyes; so Wendy didn't question her.

A-ha! Wendy is still foolish! Well, when she did question things, no one really gave her a straight answer for a long time. So maybe that's a little unfair.

So the book starts out where Switched left off; Rhys and Wendy escape back to Wendy's old home where they meet up with Matt who's all super angry because you know, he's Matt and that's what he does. He goes into over-protective mode extreme since Wendy was gone for two months without a real explanation. So there's a bunch of talking, Finn and Duncan tailed her to her house (we just meet Duncan in book two) and they leave after Wendy's all "I DON'T WANT TO BE A PRINCESS, WAH!" Then Wendy, Matt, and Rhys all get kidnapped by the Volturi, I MEAN VITTRA (LOL), and Wendy finds out that she's the daughter of the King of Vittra. The King of Vittra also happens to be a really brutal guy and often goes for violence before conversation. He's just not a nice dude. So Wendy, Rhys, and Matt escape when Tove, Duncan, and Finn come to rescue them. However, Loki (Vittra dude that helped in the initial kidnapping) was there and didn't try to stop them. Questionable. I would like to point out that Wendy had an opportunity to escape on her own, kind of, but wouldn't leave Matt and Rhys behind. So score some points for Wendy.

Also, all this happens in like the first three chapters. Maybe four. I know, it's a little intense.

Hmm...how about this, ALL OF THE SPOILER ALERTS.

I got really disappointed with Wendy in the end because she blew up at Finn (her love interest from book one), made out with Loki (a Vittra dude who helped her escape, oh yeah she was kidnapped), and agreed to marry Tove (other Tyrelle royalty who Finn outed as gay. Wait what?). Also, it seems like Tove is gay only to thwart Wendy's attempts at happiness. There was no indication of this anywhere in book one or book two really. It also seems to give Wendy some sort of an excuse to seek a lover and also have the support of a husband. Could it be a gateway to her and Finn doing something? Or is Loki going to win her over with his very weird charm? Very weird charm. Not so much as charm but more of a, "Hey, what are you doing? Hehe, no really what are you doing? OMG WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" He just escalates quickly.

I'm a little tempted to stay up and read the third book. Damn it.