Review: The Changelings by Elle Casey

Title: The Changelings

Author: Elle Casey

Series: War of the Fae #1
Pages: 275
Publisher:
Date Published: February 5, 2012
Format: ebook
Genre: Paranormal (Faries)
Source: Tour copy

Synopsis:
Jayne Sparks, a potty-mouthed, rebellious seventeen-year-old and her best friend, shy and bookish Tony Green, have a pretty typical high school existence, until several seemingly unrelated incidents converge, causing a cascade of events that change their lives forever. Jayne and Tony, together with a group of runaway teens, are hijacked and sent into a forest, where nothing and no one are as they seem. Who will emerge triumphant? And what will they be when they do? 

My Review:
I was actually quite surprised by how much I liked this book. When offered the chance to participate in the tour I admit that I was a little leery...I tend to view books that are relatively unknown with a bit of caution. I know this is prejudiced, but I have had several bad experiences that has led me to be a little wary of books that haven't been reviewed by anyone that I know...When there isn't a lot of info on a book you really have no feel for what it is beforehand and that can kind of be scary.Fortunately I'm glad to say that reading Changelings was a bet that paid off. I was really surprised at how quickly I was sucked into the story and that I liked the characters despite a few flaws. Changelings was truly an engaging and enthralling adventure that is sure to please anyone who loves fantasy or paranormal books, especially about the fey.

The plot is a combination of Hunger Games meets Alice in Wonderland meets some kind of Fairy Tale that I just can't put my finger on it. I admit that I had no clue where the plot was going at the beginning. It was a little jarring when in the first few pages Tony draws a gun on a classmate and then the next thing you know Tony and Jayne are running away and the entire time you are wondering when the fairies would turn up... The story is fast paced and moves from one scene to the next flawlessly and with beautiful transitions that make reading the book seem easier than breathing. There were twists and turns like crazy. A lot of them were complete shockers while some of them were pretty easy to guess but for some reason I just couldn't stop thinking about the book when I put it down, even just to go eat or go to the bathroom. The ending was not at all what I expected, especially that one final twist! You can tell that there is a lot of room to explore in this series and I think that book two will be quite different from book one, but hopefully just as much fun to read!

I admit I had my doubts about the MC Jayne. I liked her in the beginning and absolutely loved her dialogue and the way she met her best friend Tony...but she kind of tended to ask obvious questions, and then not ask the right kinds of questions when it really mattered. She was also kind of irrationally drawn to some of the guys in "the game"  and that is one of my big pet peeves...I HATE that "fated insatible force that draws us together" blehhh...lol...but Jayne really grew up as the book went on. She started to really think for herself instead of just being a trash-talking quick wit. It was cool to see how she took on surprises and challenges with her wits instead of just bumbling around blindly...thought there was some hilarious bumbling as well...She also discovered a lot of cool powers that I've never seen before that were pretty fantastic, and using those powers really helped shape her into a kick-ass heroine that you can really stand behind. Plus she didn't let her thing for the boys affect more than a little bit of the overall story. I loved that.

I will admit that there wasn't enough development for a lot of the aspects of the story. The most noticeable is the descriptions of the challenges in the woods and the mystical creatures that the gang encounters. You could kind of tell that Casey was banking on the reader being a fan of paranormal already. For me this obviously wasn't a problem, but for those who just pick up books randomly and might not have read a lot of paranormal it might get confusing to be experiencing a world that lacks fundamental descriptions of the monsters in it. That being said there were a ton of non-traditional monsters in the book and I really got a kick out of seeing things like Gnomes and Orcs tackling vampires, werewolves and water nymphs.

I give Changelings 4 Keys! It was a really great book and super easy to get into. It is definitely one of those ones that you pick up expecting to read a chapter or two then all of the sudden you are closing the last page and wondering where time went.  I have to say that there was a few flaws in the writing style and flow but you get over that because of how appealing the story and the characters are. I read it in one sitting and actually made myself late for work because I just couldn't stop reading the last chapter. I can't wait for book 2 to come out because there is so many places that this series could go. I can't wait!