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leasey23's review
3.0
Thanks to Netgalley and Bonnier Zaffre for the advance copy.
This book was well crafted and interesting. I could tell the author had taken great pains to make sure everything was perfectly in tune with each other, and that is definitely an achievement. I like the story, the mechanics, and the settings. I'm listing all these great things because it truly is a good book, but I don't think it was for me. I didn't get sucked in like I usually would, and it wasn't particulary 'unputdownable'. I didn't feel very connected to the main character, possibly because we don’t tend to spend much time with her on her own, but really I couldn't really tell you why. I hope someone else will enjoy this book!
This book was well crafted and interesting. I could tell the author had taken great pains to make sure everything was perfectly in tune with each other, and that is definitely an achievement. I like the story, the mechanics, and the settings. I'm listing all these great things because it truly is a good book, but I don't think it was for me. I didn't get sucked in like I usually would, and it wasn't particulary 'unputdownable'. I didn't feel very connected to the main character, possibly because we don’t tend to spend much time with her on her own, but really I couldn't really tell you why. I hope someone else will enjoy this book!
abi_grace_5002's review
2.0
3.5 starts - However, it could have been a 4.5 to 5 star book (and that is what I rated it until just over half way)!
Don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed the book and it truly helped me to get out of my reading slump. However, there were some major aspects of the storyline that I feel pure hatred towards. And these unfortunately outweighed nearly all of the positives that this book offered.
SPOILERS AHEAD...
Why oh why did the characters have sex, straight after confessing their love!!??!?!?!??! Is it just me who thinks that this is ridiculously unrealistic and toxic? I personally like a love story to be well developed and not rushed. I love it when it takes the characters time to reach certain milestones in their relationships and the fact that the authors had this come straight after the main characters confessions was just a major turn off for me. I feel like it presented the main characters as immature through the excuses of being "unable to control their feelings for one another". I feel like this just paints the completely wrong picture for any person reading this. Also, I feel like the love interest was also quite really rude and belittling towards Aderyn at points and they never showed any love/feelings towards each other until BOOM they confessed their love kinda out of nowhere (bar the few times the female protagonist said she missed the dude).
Okay, now onto the other aspect of the book that I purely hated. So I understand that this "trope" (why this is even a trope I don't know) is popular with some people, but I think it is very strange and almost unhealthy. MAJOR SPOILER COMING.........
The bad guy is engaged to one person, confesses his love to another, but having an affair with his half-sister! Why did this even need to be included??? They could've had some other sort of "forbidden romance" trope, why did these characters have to be RELATED??!?!?!?!!! They did have to add the half-sibling aspect. One of the characters was already married, so why add this? Also, why does the main character have to marry her cousin? This is incest. Oh and the main characters (who became each others love interest) were distant relatives. So, that was another part of their relationship that I really did not love.
However, all that being said...
I liked most of the characters.
The book did have hooked me from the beginning.
I liked the world/world building that was shown.
And I thought that the writing style was good.
Despite those major aspects of the book that I hated, I wouldn't say don't read it as I did enjoy it overall and will be reading the second. I have a feeling I am going to enjoy the second one more. fingers crossed.
Don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed the book and it truly helped me to get out of my reading slump. However, there were some major aspects of the storyline that I feel pure hatred towards. And these unfortunately outweighed nearly all of the positives that this book offered.
SPOILERS AHEAD...
Why oh why did the characters have sex, straight after confessing their love!!??!?!?!??! Is it just me who thinks that this is ridiculously unrealistic and toxic? I personally like a love story to be well developed and not rushed. I love it when it takes the characters time to reach certain milestones in their relationships and the fact that the authors had this come straight after the main characters confessions was just a major turn off for me. I feel like it presented the main characters as immature through the excuses of being "unable to control their feelings for one another". I feel like this just paints the completely wrong picture for any person reading this. Also, I feel like the love interest was also quite really rude and belittling towards Aderyn at points and they never showed any love/feelings towards each other until BOOM they confessed their love kinda out of nowhere (bar the few times the female protagonist said she missed the dude).
Okay, now onto the other aspect of the book that I purely hated. So I understand that this "trope" (why this is even a trope I don't know) is popular with some people, but I think it is very strange and almost unhealthy. MAJOR SPOILER COMING.........
The bad guy is engaged to one person, confesses his love to another, but having an affair with his half-sister! Why did this even need to be included??? They could've had some other sort of "forbidden romance" trope, why did these characters have to be RELATED??!?!?!?!!! They did have to add the half-sibling aspect. One of the characters was already married, so why add this? Also, why does the main character have to marry her cousin? This is incest. Oh and the main characters (who became each others love interest) were distant relatives. So, that was another part of their relationship that I really did not love.
However, all that being said...
I liked most of the characters.
The book did have hooked me from the beginning.
I liked the world/world building that was shown.
And I thought that the writing style was good.
Despite those major aspects of the book that I hated, I wouldn't say don't read it as I did enjoy it overall and will be reading the second. I have a feeling I am going to enjoy the second one more. fingers crossed.
stamatina27's review
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
daniella84's review
2.0
*spoilers*
sis........
First of all cover? Beautiful amazing talented! Barbie Swan Lake vibes? Hell yeah! But I--
This book was enjoyable enough but I think it was just a bit too predictable/tropey to really do it for me, I agree with some of the other reviews that Aderyn isn't really super involved in the tea she's just telling people to do things or like having things happen to her a lot of the time. Like when she went down into the town and a bunch of flightless people died and then nothing really happened about that ever again? And there was background noise of how other kingdoms were treating the flightless like trash and even her servant-friend mentions it but it's kind of just acknowledged and then done away with until it can be used again to prove Aderyn is Good. Her overcoming her past to be a swan again was nice and how she's sacrificing herself for her kingdom etc. but so much could have been solved if she just wasn't so dumb? Like by the time she had met Siegfried she had been at court for a few weeks, knew how people already were not vibing her and were just trying to get her kingdom but suddenly this Chad shows up and she just is like yeah sure entrust him with my greatest secret he already knows about?? Sure! Why not my dude!! Especially because this would be a massive power he has over her, and she obviously recognises that because she doesn't tell people about her condition lightly. Also a few of the political things that were happening were never mentioned really again (like members of the Convocation were accused of treason and things just continued on) - maybe in future books this will be relevant? But it seemed things were happening just to happen rather than being like a clear chain. The tension with Lucien was so strange to me too.
Some of the writing also felt clunky at times (I think it was cause everyone talked in that real formal way) and I found myself having to go back over things a couple of times to work out what was happening. I did like Aron and Odette - their relationship as siblings seemed nice and they were good companions: Aron understood her being flightless, Odette vibed with the whole "you're a girl and you gotta marry for the kingdom" thing.
Oh also everyone in this book is related??? And it's openly acknowledged and people hook up etc??? And the only time it's weird is when it's the two evil characters but for everyone else it's chill? I get court life etc it happens but their relationships were just made clear so often (family tree in the front!!) that I couldn't even pretend to overlook what was happening. I also don't know if I missed like a crucial sentence but I was very confused about why the shapeshifters burned non shapeshifters, and why when she was saving Lucien she was like a swan Transformer like attacking ppl I just kind of thought they were swans and Assorted Birds I didn't realise it like gave them warrior stats
big birds? um child anyway so...I just feel this could have been so cool and like fairytale vibes but it just didn't quite get there for me :(
sis........
First of all cover? Beautiful amazing talented! Barbie Swan Lake vibes? Hell yeah! But I--
This book was enjoyable enough but I think it was just a bit too predictable/tropey to really do it for me, I agree with some of the other reviews that Aderyn isn't really super involved in the tea she's just telling people to do things or like having things happen to her a lot of the time. Like when she went down into the town and a bunch of flightless people died and then nothing really happened about that ever again? And there was background noise of how other kingdoms were treating the flightless like trash and even her servant-friend mentions it but it's kind of just acknowledged and then done away with until it can be used again to prove Aderyn is Good. Her overcoming her past to be a swan again was nice and how she's sacrificing herself for her kingdom etc. but so much could have been solved if she just wasn't so dumb? Like by the time she had met Siegfried she had been at court for a few weeks, knew how people already were not vibing her and were just trying to get her kingdom but suddenly this Chad shows up and she just is like yeah sure entrust him with my greatest secret he already knows about?? Sure! Why not my dude!! Especially because this would be a massive power he has over her, and she obviously recognises that because she doesn't tell people about her condition lightly. Also a few of the political things that were happening were never mentioned really again (like members of the Convocation were accused of treason and things just continued on) - maybe in future books this will be relevant? But it seemed things were happening just to happen rather than being like a clear chain. The tension with Lucien was so strange to me too.
Some of the writing also felt clunky at times (I think it was cause everyone talked in that real formal way) and I found myself having to go back over things a couple of times to work out what was happening. I did like Aron and Odette - their relationship as siblings seemed nice and they were good companions: Aron understood her being flightless, Odette vibed with the whole "you're a girl and you gotta marry for the kingdom" thing.
Oh also everyone in this book is related??? And it's openly acknowledged and people hook up etc??? And the only time it's weird is when it's the two evil characters but for everyone else it's chill? I get court life etc it happens but their relationships were just made clear so often (family tree in the front!!) that I couldn't even pretend to overlook what was happening. I also don't know if I missed like a crucial sentence but I was very confused about why the shapeshifters burned non shapeshifters, and why when she was saving Lucien she was like a swan Transformer like attacking ppl I just kind of thought they were swans and Assorted Birds I didn't realise it like gave them warrior stats
big birds? um child anyway so...I just feel this could have been so cool and like fairytale vibes but it just didn't quite get there for me :(
alzena28's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
georgilvsbooks's review against another edition
5.0
‘Fly swift. Fly straight. And may the Creator guide you.’
A fantastic fantasy!!!
From page 1 was intrigued. I loved how the story played out and all of the characters that were introduced in the story. I adored every second of it.
Filled with plenty of twists and revelations.
I need more!
Congratulations Katharine and Elizabeth. What a brilliant fantasy/YA.
A fantastic fantasy!!!
From page 1 was intrigued. I loved how the story played out and all of the characters that were introduced in the story. I adored every second of it.
Filled with plenty of twists and revelations.
I need more!
Congratulations Katharine and Elizabeth. What a brilliant fantasy/YA.
siavahda's review against another edition
4.0
I’m honestly not sure what made me pick this up – I’m a lot more wary of YA than I used to be, and the blurb made Throne of Swans sound very predictable. I guessed this was going to be some kind of Swan Princess retelling. The cover is fairly dull (for my tastes). All things that should have made me pass this book by.
But the blurb also mentioned ‘rich detail and evocative language’, for which I’m an absolute sucker. So it may have been that.
Whatever the reason, I’m so glad I started reading it, because I really loved this book!
Even though it ticks quite a few boxes of my nope-list – first-person present-tense narration, which I normally despise. A romance that doesn’t seem to be based on anything but looks; the emotional aspect kind of comes out of nowhere. And I knocked a whole star off my rating for a completely unnecessary, lazy ‘twist’ that was meant to be an oh-so-shocking reveal about the villains.
I don’t like including spoilers in reviews, so I won’t spell it out for you, but seriously. That ‘twist’ makes me so damn angry.
Deep breath.
But if you can let those things go – and it’s surprisingly easy to do, to be fair – this is a book with surprisingly well thought out worldbuilding, and seriously gorgeous prose.
Throne of Swans is set in a kingdom – actually, a world, which is one of the things that made me perk up and pay attention – where humanity is split in two; the Flightless, who are what we’d think of as normal humans, and the Flighted, who can transform into birds, and who also rule as the noble class. Their bird-forms are not random; they seem to be genetic, since the same forms run in families, and their human forms bear signs of the birds they turn into – those who turn into owls have pointed ears, swans are pale with silvery-blond hair, peacocks have greenish skin and blue hair. ! That’s just so cool. It’s also apparent that the bird-forms of the local Flighted match up with their land’s native birds; although a Flighted’s bird-form is much bigger than the normal version of the same bird (which, frankly, makes the swans terrifying, since a normal one is capable of breaking human bones!) nobody turns into exotic birds. Solanum, the setting of Throne of Swans, is reminiscent of western Europe, and so we have Flighted who transform into swans (the royal family), ravens, pigeons, magpies – birds that belong in that environment. But we get a glimpse of foreign ambassadors who turn into peacocks and ibis, implying the existence of other lands based on India/Sri Lanka (where peacocks are native birds) and…well, Wikipedia tells me there are a lot of ibis species, ranging from various parts of Africa all the way to Japan, and since I have no idea which ibis the Corrs had in mind, it’s impossible to say what kind of kingdom that particular ambassador comes from.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
But the blurb also mentioned ‘rich detail and evocative language’, for which I’m an absolute sucker. So it may have been that.
Whatever the reason, I’m so glad I started reading it, because I really loved this book!
Even though it ticks quite a few boxes of my nope-list – first-person present-tense narration, which I normally despise. A romance that doesn’t seem to be based on anything but looks; the emotional aspect kind of comes out of nowhere. And I knocked a whole star off my rating for a completely unnecessary, lazy ‘twist’ that was meant to be an oh-so-shocking reveal about the villains.
I don’t like including spoilers in reviews, so I won’t spell it out for you, but seriously. That ‘twist’ makes me so damn angry.
Deep breath.
But if you can let those things go – and it’s surprisingly easy to do, to be fair – this is a book with surprisingly well thought out worldbuilding, and seriously gorgeous prose.
Throne of Swans is set in a kingdom – actually, a world, which is one of the things that made me perk up and pay attention – where humanity is split in two; the Flightless, who are what we’d think of as normal humans, and the Flighted, who can transform into birds, and who also rule as the noble class. Their bird-forms are not random; they seem to be genetic, since the same forms run in families, and their human forms bear signs of the birds they turn into – those who turn into owls have pointed ears, swans are pale with silvery-blond hair, peacocks have greenish skin and blue hair. ! That’s just so cool. It’s also apparent that the bird-forms of the local Flighted match up with their land’s native birds; although a Flighted’s bird-form is much bigger than the normal version of the same bird (which, frankly, makes the swans terrifying, since a normal one is capable of breaking human bones!) nobody turns into exotic birds. Solanum, the setting of Throne of Swans, is reminiscent of western Europe, and so we have Flighted who transform into swans (the royal family), ravens, pigeons, magpies – birds that belong in that environment. But we get a glimpse of foreign ambassadors who turn into peacocks and ibis, implying the existence of other lands based on India/Sri Lanka (where peacocks are native birds) and…well, Wikipedia tells me there are a lot of ibis species, ranging from various parts of Africa all the way to Japan, and since I have no idea which ibis the Corrs had in mind, it’s impossible to say what kind of kingdom that particular ambassador comes from.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
lieshareads's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
I found it a bit lacklustre at times but overall enjoyed it
caitlinjoyful's review
4.0
4.5 stars
Very enjoyable, didn't end how I thought it would. Can't wait for the next one.
Very enjoyable, didn't end how I thought it would. Can't wait for the next one.