Member Reviews
I love Amanda Hocking so I was thrilled to read this for a review! I thought the book was really good. Characters were good, story flowed well and the writing was really good. It was a great addition to an already great series. I would definitely recommend!
I received this ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
I did not realize that this book was part of a larger ongoing series/world, so I had to put it down. However, what I did read was pretty good and if you already love this series and author I definitely recommend it!
Wasn't my cup of tea. I enjoyed other books by this author but the whole trolls story line just wasn't for me, Was a bit slow throughout the whole book as well; couldn't keep my attention.
An ARC of this novel was sent to me by NetGalley for reviewing purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Amanda Hocking is one of my favorite authors and I am elated that I get to review this. It's extremely enjoyable, and I read through it all in an afternoon. This book was paced extremely well, and the plot is very good.
I really love this author so I was excited to get the chance to read this book. It was really enjoyable and I could not put this down. The plot was very interesting and it easy to read. Highly recommend!!
I just finished reading the Trylle series for the first time and went on to read this. I think I enjoyed this book more because I had a fresh view of the trolls and their world. While this focuses on a whole new set of characters and stories it still felt like the same world and interconnected very nicely.
I haven't read the previous books of this series but after reading this I must go back and see what I missed. I was quickly overcome with the beauty of the world building and character structure. Fantasy has always been my favorite. Who doesn't want to escape to different worlds as they read? Be sure to check this book out. You won't be disappointed. Thanks Netgalley.
Unusual story line - not familiar with any other books about trolls. I liked the fantasy of it. But the dialogue was rough and honestly a little bit of a struggle. I got through to the end and what a cliff hanger! Gonna need the next book, ASAP.
Thank you to net galley for sending me a copy of this book. I was so excited to be back in the Tryelle world. I loved the new cast of characters and getting to see some old friends. Amanda hocking is one of the best authors and I’m so excited to read the rest of this series!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I have a confession to make. I haven’t had the opportunity or time to check out Hocking’s <i>Trylle Trilogy</i> or <i>Kanin Chronicles</i> and I think that led to some confusion when I read this book, <i>The Lost City</i>.
I felt very out of place and could tell that I was missing the bigger picture of this story. Nonetheless, I will give my honest review of Hocking’s newest book.
Let’s start with the characters. They were all very well developed and had a lot of depth. I appreciate the author’s dedication to creating characters that weren’t just mere stock personalities like one can find in so many other fantasy stories. You know what I’m talking about; you have the pretty one, the one with the attitude, the naïve one, the handsome guy etc.
All these character were present in this story, but there was more to them than just their one-word description, which had me constantly wonder, if I could really trust this character, was there more than meets the eye and do they have some sort of personal agenda? They kept it interesting.
I sometimes liked the protagonist and I sometimes didn’t. I have seen in recent new publications the move away from the pretty, special snowflake type female protagonist, who is just physically so perfect it made the reader sometimes sick, to the more relatable female protagonist, who is a bit more curvy and does not sport perfectly symmetrical features. I loved it.
I wasn’t quite sure about the plot. The title of the book said one thing, but the actual story seemed more focused on something else. It confused me and had me wondering when the action would really kick in.
It never really did. It was a very in-depth, info-overload, explain everything in detail and let the reader wait for the action type story. It felt like a book-long introduction to the actual story. A sort of set-up of what is to come in later installments.
For someone, who is notoriously impatient for the action to start, this was a bit of a test of patience for me.
I really liked the writing style, though. It was easy to follow. It had a nice flow and it was able to let me picture all the settings in a lot of detail.
Overall, as I said before, I wish I had been more familiar with this world before plunging head-first into this new series. It was entertaining enough, but it didn’t have me obsessing over it. I would suggest it to anyone familiar with Hocking’s <i>Trylle Trilogy</i> or <i>Kanin Chronicles</i>.
I’ve always been a fan of this author. Her writing is great. The Lost City sucked me in and led me to a captivating world. I enjoyed it.
I read the Trylle trilogy a long time ago and was happy to go back to that world.
Ulla is an orphan and is now ready to know who abandoned her and why. She goes to Mimirin, where she think the answer of her identity might be found because scholars there are dedicating to chronicling troll history. When she got an internship to translate old documents she can start to look for her heritage help by a collegue call Pan.
But she meets Eliana, a young woman who as lost her memory and as strange and rare abilities. She is also saying being followed by a dragon and a shadow. When Eliana is captured by bounty hunters, Ulla and her friend Pan will be dragged in a really dangerous game that could also lead to Ulla finding answers to her questions.
I have really loved this book and looking foward to read the sequel. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher to allowed my to read an early copy.
All she wanted was to find her parents and focus on her job, but Ulla Turin, abandoned as a baby, mixed blood troll, would find so much more, love, friendships and the possibility she is royalty.
Amanda Hocking’s THE LOST CITY has all the promise of her Trylle trilogy, and readers of that series will find much to like about this spinoff. Details that are deep and vivid, main characters that grow throughout and a plethora of plots to unravel. It was almost too busy for me. There were times I wanted depth and didn’t get it, times I wanted this to move along. There is a huge info dump to absorb, and at times, it almost covered what was really important in my opinion.
A good read, but for me, not a great read. That said, Amanda Hocking DEFINITELY has a fertile imagination!
I received a complimentary ARC edition from Wednesday Books! This is my honest and voluntary review.
I have bought and read numerous Amanda Hocking books in the past, including the Tyrlle series. This is a spin-off from that series. I wanted to love this book but didn't. It is a little on the slow side and not a stand alone book. The series may end up being wonderful and enjoyable, but I advise waiting for the rest of the series prior to starting this one.
I received an early version of this story from NetGalley. While I generally enjoy work by Amanda Hocking, this was a bit of a slog in part because there were a lot of typos and editorial errors that were very distracting. Hopefully those were corrected before it went to press. The story also seemed to rely heavily on the reader being familiar with other novels and storylines by the author, and I'm concerned that if a reader isn't familiar with those storylines, they will quickly become lost and lose interest in the story. The tale ends quite abruptly. So abruptly in fact, that I wasn't sure if that was the actual ending or if a few pages were missing from the manuscript.
Portions of the story were quite captivating, and I wish I could give a better review. For now, I'll just assume it was still at a "work in progress" stage, and that the final text was as wonderful as I've come to expect from Ms. Hocking.
Let me tell you, I was so excited to see Amanda Hocking was coming out with another series in the Trylle World. I've read both of the other trilogies and enjoyed them immensely. Also, I probably need to go back for a re-read, just for fun.
The Lost City did not disappoint me in anyway, unless you count the fact that I must wait for the other two books to come out.
I enjoyed seeing and hearing about a few characters from the previous books; it's always good to reminisce. I also loved the start of Ulla's journey. New characters, new places, new mysteries. Keep it coming!
***I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advance Reader Copy generously provided by the publisher via NetGalley.***
Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
I felt that Hanna had more dynamic and personality than the main character Ulla. Honestly, many of the side characters stood out more than the main character.
The info dumps were a lot and overwhelmed and dragged the story. I read the first trilogy years ago and I reread them before picking this up and I still felt buried under remembering all the tribes and their histories. It was already a slow sleepy story because there isn’t much in the way of action in this book.
The whole point of this is for Ulla to find out who her parents are and find where she fits in this world of Trolls. And a small portion of this book does that but when other characters show up they stole the stage. We aren’t given any answers to out questions and this ends with way more questions than before. This makes since being a trilogy but this book felt boring. The best was the end when there was action and twists happening.
I did enjoy seeing old characters in their new roles and getting to see more of the world of the trolls. I highly recommend for fans of these series to continue on. It’s clear that this will be an interesting and fun read.
Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read and review this.
Having likes the rest of Amanda Hocking's Trylle and Kanin series, I was excited to see one last one being put out this time about the Omte (vulture tribe).
We meet Ulla, who was taken in by an old Kanin couple when she was left in their inn as a baby.
Nothing connecting her to her family except the name and description of her presumed mother had given them that night.
Ulla knows she is half-Omte. She her hair and physicality matches that of what's know about the secretive warrior tribe of trolls.
She gets an internship at one of the big institutions, which runs a program studying trolls lineage and genetics. Since trolls have a major infertility problem and have been going slowly extinct. By putting in the hours, it's her one and only chance to try to find traces of who her family is in the archives.
Turns out there's a fine life in the histories between fantasy and reality, even with trolls. Some things may be realer than you'd think.
This one felt a little more clunky than some of her other series, her heroines always go on an adventure, which looks like we will really get a look at in the next book. I like Ulla as a character, she's kind, but doesn't take well to being pushed around. Everything really went sideways at the end.
I felt like it should have been a little bit longer, for some reason it felt abruptly short.
But I still enjoyed it, and look forward to seeing where this takes us next.
I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review from Netgalley.
Ulla is an outcast, sort of. She’s known since she could remember that she was left in the care of others in a storm, with no information. She was not left with her tribe, and was always different, but grew amongst others, such as characters from the first Trylle novels we knew and enjoyed, as well as some from the second set. She’s on a search for answers- who she is, and why she was left.
This author is always really great about linking the stories together, past and present, so that long term readers find little surprises. She’s also amazingly conscious of sexuality and orientation without actually making it interfere with the flow of the storyline.
All that being said, I really liked how most of this book was handled. There were parts that threw me, but they’re spoilery so we’ll leave those for now and hope they clear up for me in the next book. Just be aware, the cliffhanger on this was frustrating for me, so if you aren’t a fan of flipping the page and going, “wait, ....what?” Then I recommend reading this right before the second book comes out.
Ulla, a troll, was abandoned as a baby. She was raised by an older couple who were childless. When she was able to take care of herself, she set off on her own. For a while, she was a live in nanny. Then she decided to search for information on her parents.
She left for Merellä taking Hannah, one of the children she nannied, with her. The plan was to drop Hannah off at her grandparents on the road trip. Hannah had different ideas and snuck back into the car.
Ulla and Hannah arrived in Merellä and ran into trouble when someone fell on their Jeep. They later found out that a girl, Eliana, was the one who fell on their Jeep but she had some memory issues. Hannah befriended her. Ulla continued working and searching for information on her parents.
Ulla also continues to help Eliana try to figure out who she is and to keep Hannah safe.
I love Amanda Hocking. Her Trille series is an awesome read. This book is a sister series to it. Both are set in a fictitious world that intertwines with our world. By Ms. Hockings description of this world, it is easy to see it being just around the corner.
I am in love with this new series. I love the way the characters are portrayed. I am intrigued about how that message got written into Ulla’s book when it never leaves her side. Her love interest with Pan is so endearing. Ulla’s sense of family, when she didn’t really have one, makes her a strong, gentle character.
I cannot wait for the next book to come out. I certainly hope it will be soon.