Crystal Kingdom The Kanin Chronicles (From the World of the Trylle)

** spoiler alert ** 3rd in the series, this book is a symbol of love, friendship and trust. In this book, Bryn becomes friends with Konstontin who was supposed to be her enemy. With his help, the two of them find out the evil secret of the Kanin queen and alert other tribes. Some tribes send help and together they win the war. Bryn finds love makes people stronger not weaker when she falls in love with Ridley and when her best friend, Ember dies. this book is a great choice four young adults interested in reading romantic action type books and it is recommended that they read the first two books in the series.

"I told you that you couldn't come in riding on a horse like a white knight, and so you had to go and prove me wrong." This one sentence explains Bryn Aven better than anything else probably could. Tell her not to do something, she's doing it. Tell her she CAN'T, she's doing it . . . twice. I love Bryn's character so much. Most YA Fantasy novels introduce you to the world by making it new to the main character but not Bryn. Bryn's been living this life since birth and yet, every day is something new. A new discovery for Bryn about her world and about herself. There's a death in this one I wasn't ready for. But that's common. There was a lot of death but there's an epic battle so it's necessary. The battle itself, the action, read well on the page. It was more of a quick and dirty style of fight scene, which I enjoy. The love triangle ended in probably the only way it could. I won't say I'm happy about how it ended, but I'm happy with who Bryn ends up with. There were other relationships that didn't fair quite so well. The royalty, the secrets, there was so much going on here! Also, when Konstantin talked in book two about how he was in love and he got stuck in his position I had a guess at who it was. When he finally said it in this book I was like "crap, I was wrong, but it's still good." THEN they do a 180 and turn everything you thought you knew on its head and it turns out, I was right all along but I still can't even wrap my head around how Hocking pulled that twist off. I hope Hocking keeps writing for years and years because she's got a faithful reader out of me. Here's the thing, I love Richelle Mead and Cassie Clare for their ability to make you feel emotionally attached to the characters and you feel like they're your friends and honestly the story could be about how the hero overthrows a used car salesman and you'd read it because you love the characters. Hocking is different. I can count the characters I honestly care about on my hands with both the Trylle and the Kanin trilogies, but the stories? Hocking's ability to tell a tale is what I love about her writing. Even when I'm right about how something is going to turn out, the way we get there is so far from anything I'd have ever thought of. It's just brilliant. Everything about it I love. I know she has another series (Watersong) and I'll be reading that one as soon as my TBR shelf dwindles some. But I do hope she has more of the Trylle/Kanin world in her because I would be absolutely thrilled to read it. So bottom line, start with the Trylle series and learn about Wendy and how she began to change the Troll world. Then read the Kanin chronicles and read about Bryn who manages to be the most loyal and brave warrior the Kanin kingdom could have ever asked for.