**I read this book as an ARC provided in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and the author.

The cover is beautiful and the description of the book in intriguing, however I found myself struggling to connect to the characters and the story. I believe that I am just not the intended audience for this book. I struggled with having certain things described in great detail in the book that didn’t feel significant to the story.

The story has so much potential, yet I felt as if I was reading a history book - there just was not any connection to the characters or the world for me. I wanted desperately to like this book, but it just wasn’t for me in the end. I must say, I have read books by authors that I have loved, however struggle to connect to their characters from their others books, so I would love to give this author another try in the future.

From a slow burn to a compelling read. I really enjoyed this tale of swanfolk and humans, kings and queens, sisters and rivalries. It was a slow start as the narrator (Kiar) built the story and background, leading us to our surprising and (heartbreaking) main antagonist, of which a few could have been the main one. I enjoyed the family dynamics and the subtlety of the magic interwoven, but not overriding the story. It felt normal that humnas could become swans. I enjoyed the friendship between Kiar, Willow and Tuan as it evolved as Kiar came more into her role of Valenias heir.

I would be intriqued to know more of the other kingdoms beyond Noermark - Valenias main enemy - and also to know what became of Othar who I felt had more to give in the story.

Overall a lovely, well crafted story and I would be keen to see more of what happens.

Before I start, I'd like to apologize to the author for the 1-star review. I'm sure they have put in copious amounts of love and energy to write this book and I believe that every author deserves much much better than a 1-star review.

I tried so hard to like this book. I saw the blurb and I was so excited to start. The prospect of exploring a book with swans, swan shifters/swan folk, and their culture was truly anticipatory.

I'll list the positive points first:

- the starting was good. It was captivating and interesting.
- the cover is really really pretty. I love the aquamarine blue and the gold combination and it would certainly look very nice on a bookshelf.
-great storytelling. The author has a knack for spinning a pretty tale.
- The geography was easy to understand. Simple descriptions and simple histories of the kingdoms and their locations made it very easy to understand. I do wish there was a map attached for reference.
-liked the different folklore and the culture.

But that is where the good points end.

To put this review in one line: "This is the most boring book I've ever read." And I tried to read War and Peace once.

Here's where my problem with this book is:

- bad editing. There are lots and lots of spelling and grammatical mistakes. Even the chapter numbers are written with miscapitalsed spellings. Poor editing.

- my question: are swan folk people of Valenia or are they different kingdom people? This was very very confusing. I wish we'd gotten more details. Also, why would they bring in random swanlings to foster? I never understood who or what the swanfolk are. Where do they live? How do they live? Etc.

- need more show. Not tell. One of the major problems with this book is that the emotions and actions are not described or expressed enough.

All the characters feel extremely wooden.

-Lack of personality- all the characters feel the same. They do not have different personalities. You could interchange the diplomat, the king, the princes, the sword trainer and it wouldn't make the slightest difference.

What is the point of Willow? Or Tuan? They added nothing to the story! Willow is the most boring character I've ever read! Why is she even there? She's so needy and clingy.

- Repeating words. Again a sign of very bad editing.

For example:

>> He rode a bay pony and carried Hollam’s harp behind his saddle, in a tooled leather case so dark it was nearly black. The cover of the case had an intricate knot worked on it in tooled leather.

Tooled leather is used twice in the same paragraph.

>> Our lands are better— richer farmland and wider pastures. Farming is easier here and grazing better.

Better used twice in the same sentence.

>> “Or their king could just fight your father for it. When a younger swan can beat the king, he can become the king.”
“That doesn’t happen often,” Tuan said. “Mostly the king has a son, or a daughter’s mate, who can beat any other swan who attacks the king. So anyone who tried would beat the old king, and then would get beaten right away himself.”

Beat is used 4 times in one paragragh!

This makes the writing feel very juvenile. I would expect this from an unpolished fanfiction on wattpad. Not a seasoned author with previously published books.

- the Royalty. They don't feel like royals at all. More like minor Lords and ladies living in a rundown castle. Where are the palace staff, the guards, the maids, the servants, the butlers, the ladies-in-waiting, the ministers, the soldiers?? The entire castle seems so empty and gloomy. Everything is so..informal. They entertain enemy princes in their bedchambers for God's sake. The Queen cuts the King's hair! Do they not have royal hairdressers or something? There's no jewelry, no extravagant balls, expensive food, embroidered gowns. Nothing that you would expect from a medieval-based novel with kings and queens and princesses. You could replace the castle with a scraggly cottage and it would be absolutely the same.

- Irrelevant details and plots- there is no need to explain what the sheep game is for 8 pages. *yawn*. I understand it's part of the culture but show us how important it is, not telling us that it's a tradition. I don't want to read 8 pages of the main character explaining a game to me when I can understand it if she played it. There's so much irrelevant information.

- Discrepancies in the story. Othar is the oldest or the youngest?

“Prince Othar is the elder, twenty-two years."

“Prince Hafor is closer in age to your daughter, eighteen last spring."

"Prince Othar, the king’s third son.”

In the beginning, we're told that the enemy king has 3 sons. Then later in the story, he has 4-5? And one was banished but no one knew about it??

- Zero Chemistry- you know when you're reading a book and the main love interest is introduced and you can immediately feel the flutters? It's completely absent in this book. I almost missed his introduction. This MC has 3 love interests and none of them have any chemistry with her. I don't even have any idea who she ended up with. First, it's one guy, then it's his brother, then it's the first guy again, then it's the guy she grew up with (for maybe 2 years). I have no idea what she saw in them or what they saw in her. She meets with guy #1 once and then starts crying when she has to break it off a few hours later because she's already in love?? What the heck!

- the story drags waaay tooooo muuuuucccccchhhh. There's so much information about them. I don't need to know what they ate for every meal (apple and cheese btw) or how much wine they drank or every single feasts and festivals. I don't need to know about every single season or harvest and what crops they grow or what berries and cereals and legumes they pick or how they dry the meat and how they season the meat for storage in winter. This is a fantasy novel. Not a manual for Medieval Wilderness Living 101 !!

- not enough emphasis on the scenes. If there's 10 pages in a chapter, 8 of them are spent describing the type of meat they ate or the snow on the ground. And only 2 pages of stale dialogues and maybe half a page of the actual scene and setting. You could cut off 80% of the book and it would not make ANY difference.

Less tell. More show please. I need more than 5 points telling me what happened and less of 10 paragraphs of snow falling.

- Kiar is one of the worst MC I've ever read. She has zero personality. Zero decision-making skills, zero character. She's just Dry with a capital D. In fact none of the characters have any personalities. The story would've been much more interesting if Kiar wasn't a swanling and had to navigate the troubles of her life as a human amongst a swanfolk family.

- Redundancy- ironic since this point is quite redundant as it's the same as above. But there is so much unnecessary writing and purple prose. Why do we need 6 pages of who put their lit candles where or 6 pages of a swordfish (the only action scene in the entire boon btw). Also, why can't they just fly off if they're being hunted by the enemy people? That makes no sense!

- wtf is wrong with the queen? She pours coal and burning ashes on herself, strips naked, and runs off into the wilderness then comes back after she's disowned by her family for being crazy??

- MAJOR PROBLEM:

LACK OF PLOT DIRECTION:

So here's the plot in very simple words.

3 sisters/princesses. King's a human. Queen's a swan shifter/swanfolk.

Older and younger sister unlock swan powers. MC mad she hasn't. Learns swordfight.

Queen brings 3 random swan children to castle. Swan Boy 1 and 2, Swan Girl 1.

Older sister falls in love with Swan Boy 1.

Diplomat of enemy kingdom proposes marriage of enemy prince #1 to MC.

MC meets EP #1, falls in love. Breaks up after 5 min cause he hunts swans. Friendzones him.

Younger sister is a once-in-millenia all powerful black swan. Leaves with Witch Lady to learn power control. Comes for vacation every chapter. Has a crush on Swan Boy #1 (older sisters betrothed).

MC meets EP #2. Fights him for a strip of land. Wins. He runs away.

Swan Boy#1 falls sick. Younger sister gives him love potion to steal him.

MC meets EP#1 and EP#2. Rejects both cause they're jealous.

Younger sister to marry EP#2.

Younger sister does black magic to get Swan Boy#1 to fall for her.

MC and Swan Boy #2 (her new lover) and Swan Girl 1 catch Younger sister and Swan Boy 1 kissing.

MC tells older sister. Older sister kills Younger sister by pushing her into water.

MC and Older sister cover up the murder.

Mc and Older sister confess to parents.

Mother goes mad. Pours burning coals and akses on herself, strips and runs naked and flies away. Dad runs after her. Mother gets kicked out of swan family and now stuck in two forms halfway.

MC goes to find younger sisters witchy teacher. Witchy teacher tells her to her younger sisters ribs, fingers and hair to make a harp.

MC finds poet guy who had dreams of younger sister telling him to make the harp. They team up. Eat drink and sleep for a few days. Bury sister in random grave.

Accidently bind younger sisters soul to harp.

Poet guy brings harp to court to help younger sister reveal the truth of who murdered her. (EVERYONE ALREADY KNOWS CAUSE OLDER SISTER AND MC CONFESSED).

Everyone exorcises younger sister from harp.

Poet guy writes a song.

The End

Now....

How tf did a fantasy book turn into 2 sisters fighting over a guy and covering up the murder of their own sister??

There is absolutely no plot direction. No idea what the point of the story was. No moral of the day. No lesson to be learnt.

This story makes no sense.

WHAT IS THE ULTIMATE POINT OF THIS BOOK??!!

I'm sorry for the extremely harsh harsh review. But this book is NOWHERE NEAR ready to be published. If I was the author, I'd go back to my writing board and rethink the plot of the book. There needs to be multiple edits. Multiple rereads.

I would not recommend this to anybody. If I bought this book, I'd be demanding a refund. If somebody gifted me this book, I'd be blocking them.

I'm genuinely sorry for the bad/negative review. This book has so so much potential. The swanfolk and their lore seem to be amazing. It's just not explored enough. There needs to be a LOT of refining and polishing before it's ready to be out there.

I wish the author best of luck. They have great potential as a wonderful storyteller..it's just that this book is not there..yet.

(This book was an ARC provided to me in exchange for a review. Thankyou to the publisher and Netgalley. My reviews are my own.)


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