The Changeling Covenant: Complete Trilogy

By: Molly Lavenza

Narrated by: Carolyn Kashner

Perfect for fans of Frewin Jones' The Faerie Path and Aprilynne Pike's Wings series!

Have you ever learned a secret about yourself that could change your life forever?

When a mysterious and handsome boy showed up at my high school, all the girls wanted his attention. But who did he approach? Plain, less-than-ordinary me!

Words like changeling and dreamseer made my head spin as Declan, who claims to be my protector, tried to convince me that I’m actually a creature from the faerie realm, switched at birth with a human infant who is the true child of my parents.

Should I follow Declan's lead to discover the truth? How can I not?

*This edition includes all three books in The Changeling Covenant trilogy.

©2021 Molly Lavenza (P)2021 Molly Lavenza

Not quite up to concept

I wanted to like this book more than I did. Such an interesting story. But the mc, Hope, is extremely naive, and even when it seems like she might move away from that at all, she just doesn’t. She never seems to question the things that are happening, mostly dumbstruck or just accepting of them and moving on with the events occurring. The naïveté is understandable, and I don’t hold it against her - she has lived her life unable to touch anyone, because she sees images of their deaths, and it’s usually not pleasant. But as the books progress, even though she is called a “Dream Seer” multiple times, this aspect just isn’t fleshed out at all, and almost seems to drop off the story completely once she crosses into Faery. And then we have the dueling princes, each vying for her attention and it really gets confusing because they both seem to want to help her do the same thing, but for different reasons. The story overall is a bit muddled, and could have used more time and depth. It wasn’t bad, per se, but it didn’t feel like it was as much as it could have been, given the concept.

Free Read for Honest Review - Overused 1-Day Trope

When beginning The Changeling Covenant trilogy, I was very excited, as ugly duckling to beautiful swan is, personally, one of my favorite tropes. I really enjoy following the protagonists as they discover who they truly are and what they can be capable of while maybe defeating an evil dragon along the way. "The Shadow of a Dream" starts out fine, as our protagonist is attending boring, normal human school when a beautiful male transfer student appears to change her life forever!

I was disappointed. It only got worse from that point on.

Book 1 follows our two main characters as they get through the school day; overexaggerated, but regular high school bullying and a little backstory for Hope is fleshed out. I didn't mind the setup or the MASSIVE internal monologue until book 1 ended with them entering Faerie, little having been explained aside from Hope's confusion about this whole situation. The audience obviously knows that Hope is a changeling, but it becomes frustrating to endure listening to Hope asking paragraphs upon paragraphs of questions in her head, each linking to a specific flashback, and then getting no answers for all the thinking she's doing.

*My review will get a little more spoiler-y from here on out to be able to accurately describe my intense frustration with how the story was executed.

The whole of "The Weight of Dreams" felt incredibly unnecessary as nothing major happens in there except for meeting the antagonist, her human counterpart, and a complication in her love story with Declan, taking the form of curly, brown haired, and white-eyed Lantis (did I mention Lantis has white eyes? Well, the rest of this serious will make a mention of it practically every time Lantis is brought up. If Hope is so perturbed by them, it's simple enough to say, "My eyes met his for a brief moment before I quickly averted my gaze, a shiver running down my spine. Would I ever get used to the way they looked?", without over-mentioning the color). I can only imagine hope has been in Faerie for 2 hours by the time Book 2 ends, as it is mentioned to be dinner time before it shifts to book 3.

I do have to admit, the story-telling got significantly better in "What Dreams May Come" if only SOLELY because we got a little magic action happening, and Hope finally gets her answers. What keeps me disgruntled about book 3, is that this happens in what I'm guessing is the last five chapters.

**This will be the most spoiler-y section, for those that still want to protect their eyes. Skip ahead to the next double asterisks for mostly spoiler-free reviewing.**

In the beginning of book three, it's mentioned that it's been less than 12 hours (or so Hope assumes) since she met Declan. Which I must mention is FAR too soon to be deeply in love with a boy.

"But Declan's loved Hope for a long time!" - someone might say. And that person would be right. Declan HAS had 17 years to develop feelings for Hope. But the "adult falls in love with a child and stalks them because they love them so much" trope needs to end, and it needs to end NOW. Fantasy or no, there is no good reason on this earth that a boy old enough for a diplomatic mission needs to fall in love with a baby he's watched over for 17 years. These age gaps are only okay when both parties meet and fall in love as consenting adults. I'll just be out with it. There's nothing romantic about pedophilia.

**
The Changeling Covenant could have been great. I can see that as someone who's very fond of this genre and has read many works inside this genre, however it comes across as an unedited rough draft due to its execution. Concerning the audio itself, the transition between book 3, chapters 4 & 5 is messed up, cutting off some narrative. One more interjection to the story as a whole - Each book was filled with Hope's introspection, and I found it increasingly annoying when the story couldn't decide if her rambling mind took up precious real-world minutes or not. There were several moments where characters told Hope she was thinking too much or not paying attention, and then several more where her monologue is overlooked as if no time passed at all.

All in all, I found the Changeling Covenant to be highly rushed, in both storytelling and publishing, dull, and lacking the ability to capitalize on its potential. And for a series hinging so much on the "dream" and "dream seer" theme, Hope's abilities as a dream seer is not expanded upon past her eerie visions in book 1. It's like books 2 & 3 completely dropped the idea and used it solely as flashback/trauma material that would never blossom into a fully applicable power in Faerie.

I found myself wishing the story had been written about the human girl stuck in Faerie, because there seemed to be more action happening in her life. We readers would probably have gotten to see why the antagonist acted the way she did through Brielle's eyes that way.

To end, I am glad that this was the combined reading of the trilogy, as I would have stopped reading at book 1.

Regarding Kashner's performance, I think she did a wonderful job, she just had a bad script. Hope didn't have much emotion to display, but Kashner did do a lovely rendition of all the characters. Her voice was really pleasant to listen to, and was the reason I was able to get through all the way to the end.

so sad, but I really tried

I tried to get past the horrible narration, but I just couldn't do it. I think the story itself is a good one, but the way in which it is told ruins everything.

Wow such a sweet and touching fairytale!

I love fairytales and teen fantasy. The story is well developed and the characters interesting and captivating. I don’t want to forget to mention the cover, which I thought was beautiful.

Narration was good and brought the story life.

This fairytale with the changeling idea was excellent and the story moved at a slow but good pace where we get to know the characters well.

I absolutely loved how it was concluded. There is no fighting/action but it fit the sweet story perfectly. We also get a little bit of information about how everyone is doing before the story wraps up.