5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book. It is a work of art.

What a wonderful book. The writer somehow recreates the ambience of 17th century paintings, but with a twist of in the story that places the action in a skewed modern setting. Then the fables come to life. The characters are beautifully developed, and though the story rushes to the inevitable conclusion the journey is wonderful. I can only recommend it highly.

A taunt beautifully written story mainly told from the eyes of a young teenaged girl growing up somewhere in strict after war eastern European country next to the seas. If it didn't have such heavy Slavic over tones & a darker clime I would have though the Netherlands but assume more some country like Romania. It is set after a war, perhaps ww1 & the rebuilding & restructuring of the city after occupation. With two older brothers & an older sister all is well until the oldest boy Pieter "disappears". Whatever happened, she heard some of it & knows her parents know & are not forthcoming on what. Her best friend is a narrcistic, sociopathic beauty that uses Margarit as a prop in place of a real friend. Her treatment of the boys is the same. Naturally , to add to the mix, Ruth, Margarits friend is also wealthy & her family resides next door. The swans, both beautiful & fierce are considered bad luck. As a child Margarits goodness led her to save a young swam being beaten badly by boys with long heavy sticks. It's wing was badly broken but thanks to her it lived to swim away to safety. The difference in her humanity versus her friends careless callousness is extreme. Ruth's vanity & pettiness is brought front & center over a lavish gift of clothes for Margarits birthday & what happens after she dons them. There is a prominent archetype in this type of relationship that screams out the reality & psychology of it not unlike the final girl concept in slash & hacks though depending on reality or prose not always in such a satisfactory manner in reality or writing. There's 4 new foreign boys in school that all are watching the boys jealousy & the girls in budding to full blown lust disguised as love, especially for the leader. Pieter returns home a bit after school has started & intrigue over the new boys has become the mainstay of Margarit. She has also had unusual interactions with Zande while also thinking of another f the boys Jaan. Her second to oldest brother Hans had been taken in his steed to apprentice for his fathers mirror company. A volatile jealous, bombastic figure he is not happy with his brothers return usurping him in his mind especially when it comes to Ruth whom Pieter loves & Ruth claims she has feeling for him. It does not change her victimization of boys at school & she has now gotten involved with Tristan one of the mystery boys while actually wanting Zande which knows the game better than she can ever attempt. I leave this here as an engrossing read withh a bright & wild ribbon of old folklore of eastern Europe.

I'm not sure what I can say about this book without giving away any spoilers, except that it is beautifully written, the descriptions powerful, tender, evocative, the characters rounded - some that you will love, some that you will pity, some that you may despise or be irritated by, but all imprinting themselves on your mind and staying with you long after the end of the book - as will the ending, which is very well crafted, and although it fits with all that went before I was still taken be surprise by the details. All I will say is that it had me scurrying off to look up legends about swans and I would totally recommend it as a wonderful read.

Heart wrenching novel of epic scope! I picked this book for the title-I love swans-but this far exceeded my hopes. Ms Spenser has woven a tale of magic and myth that will live in my heart and head forever! Two teenage girls from a land torn by war and occupation come of age together-one gorgeous and selfish, the other insightful and reserved-learning I’d love, loss, family and the frailty of outward appearances. This book seemed slow and steady at the beginning and a little too full of secrets that happened prior to the opening pages but once it got going it just flew fast and furious like a summer storm and the secrets were revealed one after another. I loved it! Thanks to #netgalley for #theyeartheswanscame in exchange for an honest review.

I like the plot in this book, I also liked the characters. The pacing fell flat at times and it can be a little slow sometimes, but overall I enjoyed reading this book. The writing style was beautiful and enhanced the reading experience.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting post World War telling of a myth/fairytale taking place in what I think was The Netherlands. Without revealing too much and as you can assume from the title, this novel is about swans, curses, family, love and friendship. The story was beautiful though a bit long in places. The author did a wonderful job with the characters; I adored Margrit and at the same time I wanted to slap Ruth and shake some sense into Margrit's mother and all of the boys in general. Zande's character was deliciously complicated and I think that an entire novel could be written about him (both his back story and the aftermath from this story).

I really enjoyed it but I felt cheated by the ending. I kept swiping to make sure that I had in fact, just finished the last page. Where's the rest of it? Is there going to be another book? It left so many things up in the air and there are questions I need answered!

***Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review***

I’m going to make this clear from the beginning. This is not a fantasy book. It is a surrealistic story at best and a jumbled mess at worst. I say this as someone who remained hopeful until the bitter end. Despite the characters just being down right horrible and the “fantasy” elements coming so late in the book that I completely forgot that was supposed to be a thing, I somehow managed to continue with a small shred of hope that I would get the answers I was so desperately seeking from this book. However, The Year the Swans Came by Barbara Spencer left me feeling upset and unfulfilled.

Our MC is Maidy, but you may as well call her Mary Sue. She comes from a line of mirror makers which is pushed at a lot in this book but proves to be non-essential. Her best friend is her next door neighbor Ruth who makes Regina George from Mean Girls look like a saint. They both are sixteen (though Ruth is slightly the older) and attend a college that is in a town next to the one they live in.

Maidy wants to be a writer and it is briefly mentioned that she has this favorite bridge, but that all gets jumbled in with the more important fact that Ruth is a floozy and hits on any human that looks male. This inherently isn’t an issue until you start watching on as she fucks with the heads and hearts of these guys. We are led to believe that Ruth may not have always been this way because way back when, she was in love and basically betrothed to Maidy’s older brother Pieter.

Now Pieter disappeared six years ago with no explanation and was basically assumed dead by – everyone. He then pops up randomly along with four other staggeringly handsome men who attend the college. The immediate issue is clear in that Ruth is an awful person and is stringing along the new boys at college while trying to rekindle her old spark with Pieter. Maidy is upset by all of it (as she should be!), but instead of standing up to her slut friend or even explaining what is happening to her brother (whom she claims to love more than anything) she lets this play out to the absolute worst conclusion.

GOOD POINT: I can’t deny that Spencer knows how to describe a scene. I fell in love with the scenery of the world she was creating, but a beautifully crafted scene cant disguise awful characters. I weep for the story this could have been.

There are some heavy handed religious views that sit under the surface of this story. Such as the idea that women should stay in the home, be pious, and only wear dresses or skirts…you know…like a lady. Ugh!

GOOD POINT: This isn’t so much a good point as it is more something I found frustratingly interesting. So Ruth who has money and arguably drop dead gorgeous looks; she can essentially get away with anything like wanting to travel, wear pants, and more importantly sleep around, but is considered this perfect lady. On the other hand we have Maidy who is actually devote to her family and their way of life, has her head on straight (for the most part), but simply wants to walk her own path. Of the two of them it is presumed that Maidy is the sinner and would be the one to fall pregnant. WTF?

I groaned a lot while reading this book, meaning I wasn’t happy reading it. I would have not finished it had I not promised to right this review. I feel like Spencer saw a production of Swan Lake and decided that she could throw her own twist on the story. Honestly, had she just focused on the swan/”fantasy” part of the story it probably would have come out better. As it was, it was too little way to late to redeem anything, especially the characters.

I’ve read in other reviews that this is supposedly the first book in a series. I don’t think I have the fortitude to try and finish a series involving these characters. Unless I am promised that Ruth gets what is coming to her in the most awful way imaginable, I’m not interested.

BAD POINT: Swan Man.

2.5 Out of 5 Stars

Thanks to Netgalley for the chance to read this book for an honest review. Maidy Daber thinks her life is dull until her sixteenth birthday when her older brother Pieter returns (after vanishes one night 6 years ago) This was an ok read for me. I struggled to continue reading it in parts, and was not what I was expecting.

I'm not quite sure how to describe this book - part fantasy/fairy tale. It seems to be more of a young adult novel which didn't particularly appeal to me but the story is good and the book is well written.

This book is about Magrit "Maidy' Daber and her mirror constructing family, after the war times. Upon the reaching of her sixteenth birthday, her life as she describes it was rather dull, until the return of her oldest brother, Pieter and the bringing of four other older boys. Ruth, Maidy's next door neighbor and best friend, has the effect to have any boy she meets, and she always cared for Pieter, but a mysterious Zande, also has the same effect, enthralling even Maidy. They've come for something, these boys, and Ruth and Maidy get swept up in their charms.

Maidy calls herself shy and somewhat introverted, and while I related to her, she was a bit too sympathetic and never really fought for what she wanted to know. While there were hints to what the boys were, it was until more than half way before she finds out and really goes out of her way to help them. When it comes to her family she loves them to death and never want to really disobey her parents. I disliked how she fell for one of the boys and keeps at it until the end of the book, although she wasn't really playing along one of the other boys, she never made her feelings clear that she wasn't interested. Her romance isn't played heavily which I liked just fine, since I disliked how she was not part of his manipulation but always had him in her thoughts.

Ruth is probably the biggest problem I had with the book, she is such a player of her own and really tries to get every guys attention, and when it wasn't on her, she wanted to play her own games. Besides the fact that they grew up together, I hated how she sometimes used Maidy to bring herself up and flaunt herself, just to make herself better. There wasn't any remorse, and when Maidy got praise, she had to bring her down as well.

While I liked how Maidy's romance wasn't really that much part of it, the parts with Ruth was rather annoying. I liked Maidy's family, including Hans, another of her brothers. He seemed misunderstood and was jealousy of Pieter and Ruth's relationship as well. Alot of this book had to do with lying, and jealousy. I'm usually not that harsh about such books, Ruth was a bit unrealistic in terms that she literally had guys watching her every move, and after awhile there wasn't much to her. I do give big points to the author's writing style, very descriptive and enjoyable, while can go on sometimes. The fantasy part of the book doesn't come to play until nearly the end and while I think I was rather content with the ending, as everyone kind of got their just desserts, the book didn't do much for me as I wanted it to.

This book I can consider as love/hate rating ratio. I loved the plot. I did not like the predictability. Overall 3 stars for me, but YA fans might love it more!

I honestly just wasn’t into this book no matter how much I kept reading it just wasn’t my cup of tea

A different and unique twist on the usual fantasy novel, really imaginative. I loved the characters these were well written and relatable, so much I happily disliked other characters on their behalf. A well crafted tale, good pacing and interesting plot.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I could read this book over and over and never tire of it. A brilliantly crafted and beautiful story, with magic flowing through every page. Although the truth is not revealed until close to the end, there is a definite sense of it in the undercurrents running through the plot from the start, which immediately drew me in and kept me captivated throughout.
The descriptive writing transported me to a whole new world. Seen through the eyes of the main character the ordinary becomes extraordinary and anything seems possible.
The characters themselves are drawn with great imagination and flair.
This is a grown-up fairytale without the expected ending. Regarding the ending, I find myself hoping that this is not a stand alone book, but rather just the beginning. I would love to re-enter this world and see more from the characters within. I loved it.

Rating: 2.4 / 5

I have concluded that there can be one of two things wrong with YA fiction today:

1. Either it's completely predictable, in that it follows a generic plot line in which you know the "undesirable, unfortunate, secretly special" protagonist finds romance in unexpected places and gets her Cinderella ending via her special talents,

OR

2. It tries so hard to be different, but stalls the actual plot by giving us useless detail after useless detail for world-building that we don't really care about, but that the author puts in just because they're trying to write up something that's not something we've seen before.

In either case, the flaw of the books is that it lacks anything to make it interesting, and it consequently boring, resulting in a "why should I give a damn" attitude on my behalf.

All I want is a good idea to be connected to an attractive cover like the one of this book.

That's it, seriously.

And while I do want to say that this is the last time I'll be fooled by a cover into reading something that I know has only a 50-50 chance of me liking it, I make no guarantees. We are all weak, when it comes to something aesthetically pleasing.

Partial points for decent writing, but not much else.

In short, I didn't care a whit about what the hell happens to prissy-perfect Ruth and unfortunate-Mary-Sue Magrit. Just...ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.