A retelling of Swan Lake with sapphic rep and dark gothic writing.

I’m a sucker for anything gothic so even though I don’t know much about Swan Lake (except my favourite film as a kid the Swan princess) I was immediately intrigued.

At the beginning I was quite confused as to what was was going on, but once I got past that, I found this to be an intriguing read and even though it wasn’t exactly what I expected, or what I would usually reach for, I did overall enjoy the book and can see this being very popular for YA readers

Where The Dark Stands Still was one of my favorite reads of 2025 and I often find a second book never quite matches it first but thankfully that wasn't the case with A Treachery of Swans! Atmospheric, gothic and brutally tender, A Treachery of Swans is the novel my teenage self longed for and I'm happy to have finally got it as an adult.

This was a very enjoyable read, a twist on the Swan Lake story. Our MFC could be annoying at times - she was so convinced she was the villain of her story, so eager to fall into bad habits and lash out at others before they could do the same to her. It didn't matter if it was her love interest, her brother, she was so scared of letting them in, that she pushed them away. Which, after it happened for what felt like the 50th time, did start to grate, but it was worth it to carry on reading.

Yes, some of it was predictable, but that didn't take away from the enjoyment of the story, following along the twists and turns. Almost every side character was well fleshed out and a delight to behold - aside from perhaps the King and the Regent. I really liked the Step-Queen and the subversion she offered the story.

One little touch I particularly liked was the naming of the chapters. They were all 'scenes' and settings. It added to the theatrical, otherworldly nature of the tale.

I'm in two minds about the ending. On one hand I really appreciate this is a stand alone and that it actually *has* an ending - so many books in a series feel as though they've just been split for length rather than a book in their own right. And yet. And yet, the last few chapters set up a world of adventure, of a story that rivalled everything that came before, and we just skipped over it.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc
This has been a book that I’ve been excited for all year.
I loved how this was a retelling of the classic Swan Lake but the mystery aspect of this was also enjoyable.
The family dynamic, the past relationships were all written amazingly and I can’t wait to find out if this story continues

A Treachery of Swans is a retelling of the classic Swan Lake fairytale. It has a setting inspired by 17th century France, which I loved, and it worked so well with the magic and betrayals. It was beautifully written and I fell into the world and into the characters. For a moment there, at the end, I thought there might have been a sequel coming, and I didn't hate that idea at all!

Going into this book, I absolutely loved the blurb but was a bit worried about the fact it was in the YA category, only because I've been burned recently by a lot of YA that only had surface level characters and predictable plot, which I think is doing a disservice to YA readers. So I was very relieved that A Treachery of Swans didn't suffer from that at all. The FMC, Odile, and her love interest, Marie, may be young, but it's not a shallow book. The characters and the plot both have depth and complexity. There isn't open door romance (just one scene that alludes to what happened between Odile and Marie in a non-graphic way), which makes it appropriate for YA, but it also didn't "feel too young" to me as a 37 year old reader who just wanted to enjoy a slow-burn sapphic, gothic fantasy romance.

In this case, this book was even better than the blurb suggested. I laughed out loud, I smiled, I teared up and I crossed my fingers for a HEA for Odile and Marie.

Disclaimer: I received an Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley, but this is my voluntary and honest review.