Stephanie Cage - Writer

Ascend by Amanda Hocking My rating: 4 of 5 stars 'Ascend' is a fantastic conclusion to the Trylle trilogy, and brings together all the threads that were tangling messily at the end of 'Torn'. Wendy's planned wedding, her lingering feelings for Finn and growing attraction to Loki, the looming death of her mother Elora, Queen of the Trylle, and the ongoing quest of her father, King of the Vittra, to take over the Trylle kingdom. Of you've read and enjoyed the rest of the trilogy you won't be able to resist this exciting, dramatic and fast-paced finale. View all my reviews

Torn by Amanda Hocking My rating: 4 of 5 stars It's some time since I read ' Switched ' but it was easy to slip back into the believable world of the Trylle.  The book certainly opens with a bang, as Wendy is kidnapped by the Vittra in an exciting sequence. She escapes surprisingly easily, although the reason for this later becomes apparent. Perhaps the rest of the story doesn't quite live up to the excitement of the opening, but there are twists and turns aplenty and I was kept reading on to see how Wendy will manage to balance love and duty in what rapidly becomes more than a love triangle: there's Finn, the handsome tracker to whom she's always been attracted; Tove, the kindly Markis she's supposed to marry to save her kingdom; and finally, Loki, the dangerously attractive Vittra who was instrumental in her escape. I loved the magical world of the Trylle, and the Princess-diary-ish strand of Wendy learning to adapt from being an ordinary teenag...

There are certain moments in the life of a book that stick in your memory.  Getting a first sentence you love.  Writing 'The End' and meaning it.  Seeing the cover for the first time.  And of course, the first review. 'The Santa Next Door' has its first review, and thanks to book blogger Katie L Thompson, it was an absolute delight for me to read.  You have to love a reviewer who says about your book: 'I’d give it 6/5 if I could'!  She praises the book's writing style, characters and plot - click here if you want to find out why.  I'm hugely excited about this review, because although my friends, family and editors have all said good things about Santa, that's not the same as hearing a positive opinion from someone whose only connection with me is the book. Amanda Hocking, bestselling author of Switched , says that book bloggers can make a huge difference to the success of a book, and with Santa's first review being a 5-star one, I'm exci...

Switched by Amanda Hocking My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was all ready to hate 'Switched' on the grounds that I'd heard so much about it, I was bored before I started reading it. By the end of the first chapter, I'd changed my mind. 'Switched' is a thoroughly modern take on a classic idea that's fascinated me ever since childhood, the idea of changelings - human children taken by fairies, or, in this case, trolls (Trylle). It's easy to identify with Wendy, the child who just doesn't belong. Even though few of us can have been rejected quite so extremely, we've surely all had moments when we were certain we belonged anywhere but here. Hocking plays brilliantly on this familiar feeling to make the extraordinary events of 'Switched' seem not only possible but almost normal. IPads, music collections, dresses and nail polish help to ground the story, as does the location of the Trylle kingdom in a backwater of rural America. Wendy...