Tagged: trolls
Hidden Huntress by Danielle L. Jensen
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Sometimes, one must accomplish the impossible.
Beneath the mountain, the king’s reign of tyranny is absolute; the one troll with the capacity to challenge him is imprisoned for treason. Cécile has escaped the darkness of Trollus, but she learns all too quickly that she is not beyond the reach of the king’s power. Or his manipulation.
Recovered from her injuries, she now lives with her mother in Trianon and graces the opera stage every night. But by day she searches for the witch who has eluded the trolls for five hundred years. Whether she succeeds or fails, the costs to those she cares about will be high.
To find Anushka, she must delve into magic that is both dark and deadly. But the witch is a clever creature. And Cécile might not just be the hunter. She might also be the hunted…
I had serious doubts about how Hidden Huntress would turn out, given the fact that Cécile and Tristan are now separated and their relationship was the absolute highlight of the first book. Their banter also provided quite a bit of comedy relief given the relatively dark atmosphere of the story. However, I didn’t really need to worry because although there are some places where this book suffers from Book 2 Syndrome, it is a solid book on the whole.
We meet Cécile as she’s trying to find her place in society: she’s on stage almost every night singing opera, just like she dreamed. Except now she’s really not happy because she’s separated from Tristan, has to deal with her overbearing perfectionist mother and is missing Tristan terribly. Yet she manages to function like a relatively normal human being, going about her daily routine while secretly involving her friends in the search for Anushka. Things are frustrating for her but they’re going well considering Tristan’s predicament: he’s been disinherited and thrown in jail, tortured regularly with iron to suppress his magic. It’s pretty horrific and it’s understandable that when Cécile meets with his father, the king, she makes a promise she might not be able to keep. And troll promises work on humans in strange ways, ways that the human in question might not have anticipated. It’s Cécile‘s hasty (but understandably so) promise that really kickstarts the main events and action in the novel.
Once again, the characters are incredibly well developed. Cécile is still very much her own woman but has to learn to rely on her friends and her brother in order to help her hunt Anushka. She also has to come to terms with her mother and her mother’s expectations of her as a budding opera singer (which includes the entertaining of men). Tristan also really has to confront his past arrogance in his schemes and learn to think in about four dimensions in order to anticipate his scheming father’s every move. He does a few incredibly rash things but since it’s in the name of restoring a semblance of equality to Trollus I think some of them are understandable, if not entirely justified. One of the characters that really stood out for me was Anushka. We don’t really learn much about her until the end of the novel but wow, her backstory makes her cursing of the trolls entirely understandable. Trust me, whatever you’re thinking her backstory was, it’s actually much worse. You really do feel quite a bit of sympathy for her…temporarily.
The plot is not the most fast-paced, unfortunately. Sometimes Danielle Jensen gets caught up with the Cécile angle of the story and neglects Tristan’s very important scheming, which really needs more page time in order to be fully understood and appreciated. She could have cut some of the opera scenes with Cécile in the name of trimming down the plot and that’s coming from me, an opera lover. I think Hidden Huntress is definitely a solid sequel to Stolen Songbird but the plot just lacked something that the first book had. I can’t quite pinpoint what it is, but it seemed like there was something missing in this second book that was definitely there in the first. That’s not very helpful, I know, but it’s true. Although, to be fair, the cliffhanger at the ending was massive and makes me want to read the next book immediately. I also loved the fact that the origins of the trolls are explained a little more even if we’re still lacking in a full backstory.
Basically, Hidden Huntress was a decent sequel but it definitely suffered from Book 2 Syndrome in some spots. I’m absolutely still going to read the third and final book in the Malediction Trilogy but I do feel this one could have been better.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
My Interview with Amanda Hocking
Amanda Hocking is the best-selling author of the Trylle trilogy, the Watersong series and now the Trylle spin-off the Kanin Chronicles. She’s one of the most famous examples of self-published authors making it to the big time after selling over a million ebook copies of her books. Read on for our discussion of the difficulties of writing a spin-off series, why her trolls are losing their powers over the generations and possible future character deaths in her latest series.
1. What made you decide to do another series in the Trylle world?
Because Wendy was a newcomer who didn’t know much about the society, the Trylle series had such a narrow focus. There is so much more to the world of the trolls that I was only able to touch on in the Trylle series, and I wanted to be explore it deeper. I also got a lot readers asking me, “What’s it like to be a tracker?” So with this series, I wanted to show the troll world as on a larger scale, and to see the world through the eyes of a tracker.
Frostfire by Amanda Hocking
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Bryn Aven is an outcast among the Kanin, the most powerful of the troll tribes.
Set apart by her heritage and her past, Bryn is a tracker who’s determined to become a respected part of her world. She has just one goal: become a member of the elite King’s Guard to protect the royal family. She’s not going to let anything stand in her way, not even a forbidden romance with her boss Ridley Dresden.
But all her plans for the future are put on hold when Konstantin– a fallen hero she once loved – begins kidnapping changelings. Bryn is sent in to help stop him, but will she lose her heart in the process?
[Full disclosure: I asked for and received a free ebook copy from Amanda Hocking’s publicist after I realized I had been approved for the second book on NetGalley without reading the first. This is, as always, an honest review.]
One of the things that really intrigued me in the Trylle series was the trackers. More specifically, why the lowborn trolls with few talents would ever want to protect the rich and ungrateful nobles of their world and bring back their changeling offspring. What drives them to become trackers when they could probably quite easily assimilate into the human world? And what about the inner workings of tracking? How does one go about it? What’s a good success rate? What is the training like? These weren’t questions that made the ending of the Trylle series unsatisfying but they did leave Amanda Hocking a lot more room for expansion, which is how this spin-off series came about.
If you’re expecting to see lots of the characters from the original trilogy, you’ll probably be disappointed. We meet Flinn briefly and there are mentions of the reforms of Loki and Wendy in their tribe but they don’t feature at all. Instead, we focus on the Kanin tribe of trolls which are of course the same species but have a very different culture while keeping the same essential troll traits: changeling children and a ridiculously rigid societal hierarchy. Trackers are employed to find changeling children once they come of age and yet they’re still looked down upon. The only real difference in Kanin society is that there’s an elite group of trackers called the Hogdragen that guard the royal family specifically. It’s a great honour to become one and that’s really where our story begins.
Bryn wants nothing more than to become a member of the Hogdragen. She always has to work extra hard to prove she’s worthy not only because she’s a female tracker (and that’s exceptionally rare) but also because she’s half Skojare, a more water-loving breed of troll. Even amongst the lowly trackers there’s a hierarchy and half-breeds are definitely at the low end of it, even if her parents were both high-ranking members of society who gave up the titles of Markis and Marksinna out of love. When the tracker she admires, Konstantin, tries to kill her father the Chancellor quite randomly and then disappears. Several years later, Bryn meets Konstantin while out to bring back another changeling. He’s not quite the villain she always thought he was but she’s still hungry for vengeance. And that’s really what I love about her character: even when she is attracted to someone she doesn’t let it get in the way of her mission. Yes, she does start to doubt whether or not Konstantin is the awful traitor that everyone (including her) thinks he is, but that’s because she’s never blind to reason and she’s very good at reading people. Konstantin is ambiguous, not evil and it’s really that mystery about him that sets the events of the story in motion.
What I really loved about Bryn as a female lead is that she’s capable of lying and of actually keeping her mouth shut. Sometimes her emotions overrule her but in general she actually keeps her mouth in check when it’s necessary. No popping off state secrets willy-nilly or anything like that, as some YA heroines seem to do with alarming regularity. She’s so focused on being professional that even when she’s attracted to her boss Ridley she tries her best to keep things platonic. Of course it doesn’t always work but she recognizes that any relationship between them would be stupid and improper and so she really does struggle to keep her feelings in check. What a novel, mature idea! She actually acts like she’s a 19 year old, not a 13 year old.
The pacing isn’t always the most fast-paced but in general the intrigue within the different courts and between different people is more than enough to make you keep turning the pages. And when there’s not intrigue, there’s plenty of action. Although Frostfire isn’t constantly exciting in an action movie way, it is always interesting. So much so that this “I’ll just read a couple of chapters” book became a one-sitting book. At just over 300 pages it’s not a particularly long book but it suits Amanda Hocking’s relatively fast pace quite well. When you think about it, she does pack a lot into this little book and the cliffhanger at the ending is satisfying but definitely leaves you wanting the next book, Ice Kissed.
Even if you haven’t read the Trylle trilogy, you will enjoy Frostfire if you’re intrigued by the blurb or this review. I’m not a big fan of some of Amanda Hocking’s other series, but when it comes to trolls she’s definitely a master. She’s clearly put quite a bit of effort into world-building and that really shows in the Kanin Chronicles even more so than it does in the Trylle series. I really can’t wait to see what happens when Bryn encounters some of the other tribes of trolls in the second book.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Accession by Terah Edun
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Sixteen-year-old Katherine Thompson wasn’t trained to rule a coven. That was her sister – perfect, beautiful Rose. But when a mysterious plane crash kills off the heir presumptive of the Sandersville coven she has no choice.
After stepping in to fill her sister’s shoes, Katherine realizes she didn’t have a clue – faery wars, depressed trolls and angry unicorns are just the beginning.
For centuries, her family has served the high Queens on both sides of the Atlantic but it is a well-known rule that mid-level witches stay away from high-level Queens.
But when Katherine’s youngest cousin vanishes without a trace in the Atlanta court and no one wants to investigate, Katherine decides to step into the darkness on her own. She will soon discover that nothing, especially in a queen’s court, is as it seems.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
First off, as with all of Terah Edun’s work (especially her Courtlight series), I was really impressed with the world-building here. There are fairies, unicorns and trolls but they’re not really your typical fairies, unicorns and trolls. Not only that, there are new creatures like Gestap that we encounter that are totally unique to Accession. The politics between witches in different cities and towns was also interesting, even though we didn’t really see much of the inner workings of the courts in this first installment. Still, what we did see was interesting and I’m definitely interested in finding out more.
Katherine is not a bad character but she’s not exactly my favourite narrator ever. She’s more reactive than proactive as she comes into her new role as heir apparent to her mother, who rules the town as a Queen witch. I’ll admit that it would be hard to find your feet in such a crazy place when you’ve never cared to learn the subtleties of area politics, but I was a little disappointed that Katherine didn’t really come into her own in the story. She does grow stronger (I’ll admit) and grows as a character, but she really does have a long way to go.
The only thing I felt was actually lacking in Accession was the plot itself. It doesn’t seem to be having that greater, over-arching goal that gives the character a sort of purpose. Instead, we get bogged down in little subplots through the entire book before at the end we finally, finally get to the meat of the story before the cliffhanger ending. Sure, Katherine’s goal of finding her sister’s killer is always in the back of her mind, but she doesn’t really seem to care as much as you’d think she would. Katherine may have had her disagreements with her sister, but she really did love her and that’s why her lack of drive to find her killer struck me as odd. It made it feel like the story was lacking a coherent plot.
Still, I have faith in Terah Edun that this series will only improve as it continues, just like the Courtlight series. With that cliffhanger ending, I really can’t wait for the next installment to see whether Katherine truly matures or not.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
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Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen
(Cover picture courtesy of Strange Chemistry Books.)
For five centuries, a witch’s curse has bound the trolls to their city beneath the ruins of Forsaken Mountain. Time enough for their dark and nefarious magic to fade from human memory and into myth. But a prophesy has been spoken of a union with the power to set the trolls free, and when Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and taken beneath the mountain, she learns there is far more to the myth of the trolls than she could have imagined.
Cécile has only one thing on her mind after she is brought to Trollus: escape. Only the trolls are clever, fast, and inhumanly strong. She will have to bide her time, wait for the perfect opportunity.
But something unexpected happens while she’s waiting – she begins to fall for the enigmatic troll prince to whom she has been bonded and married. She begins to make friends. And she begins to see that she may be the only hope for the half-bloods – part troll, part human creatures who are slaves to the full-blooded trolls. There is a rebellion brewing. And her prince, Tristan, the future king, is its secret leader.
As Cécile becomes involved in the intricate political games of Trollus, she becomes more than a farmer’s daughter. She becomes a princess, the hope of a people, and a witch with magic powerful enough to change Trollus forever.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
If you’re a regular reader of my reviews here you’re probably wondering why I picked up a book like Stolen Songbird not so long after picking up Captivate by Vanessa Garden, a book with a very similar premise. Well, the truth is that I’m kind of a sucker for these types of stories and saw that Danielle L. Jensen’s book had a lot of potential to be good. If it was done right, that is. The question is: was it done right?
Of course! I got so much more than I bargained for when I took a chance on Stolen Songbird. First off, the main character Cécile is an opera singer, so I’m automatically predisposed to like her as I love opera. But what makes her stand out so much from other protagonists is that even though she’s the ‘Chosen One’ figure in Trollus, she doesn’t succeed in meeting their expectations. She’s imperfect
Unlike a lot of protagonists in her situation, she makes an honest attempt at an escape; she doesn’t fall for Tristan right away. She feels conflicted when she does start growing feelings for him and her choice at the end is shocking and more than a little satisfying. As for Tristan himself I love how he developed as he let his guard down around Cécile. We got to see things from his point of view and it was interesting seeing how they each perceived the other as well as the events and politics going on in Trollus at the time.
She may not be the saviour they’re waiting for. It might not even be a good thing if Trollus was freed from the witches’ curse! It’s all so wonderfully ambiguous; absolutely nothing is clear-cut in this book and that’s one of the main reasons I love it. Danielle L. Jensen doesn’t deal in the black and white, good and evil that is the hallmark of your typical YA fantasy novel. No, there’s good trolls, bad trolls and trolls in-between, just like how she portrays the humans in the novel.
One of the many amazing things about this book is the world-building, which is only enhanced by the beautiful writing style. We slowly learn the backstory of Trollus and how it came to be under a mountain and why the trolls can’t leave. Just when you think you know the whole story, you learn something new about the origins of the city and its inhabitants. There are two sides to the history of trolls and Cécile must decide which one is right or if the truth is somewhere in between the two extremes. The world of Trollus would be fascinating even with mediocre writing, but it is the vivid imagery Danielle L. Jensen uses that puts Stolen Songbird into the ‘great book’ category. Her descriptions of the tunnels, the sluags, the city itself, the palace gardens, the countryside, etc. all make Cécile’s world come alive. The little details are important and I always had a good picture of what the setting looked like in my head, unlike in a lot of other books that sacrifice description for pacing.
In short, Stolen Songbird is a must-read. It doesn’t come out until April 1, but you had better pre-order a copy right now if you find this book even remotely interesting. Just like me you’ll also want the rest of The Malediction Trilogy to come out this instant as well. I can’t wait for book two!
I give this book 5/5 stars.