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A review by caitybell
The Savage and the Swan by Ella Fields
5.0
The first thing that caught my eye with this book was the gorgeous cover. The second was the fact it was a Swan Lake / Rumplestiltskin retelling. The Hades and Persephone inspiration was an added bonus. But I was sold. I get so swept up in romances sometimes that it's weeks and weeks before I read another Fantasy book. Sometimes I start to think Fantasy isn't my thing anymore, then I fall upon a book like The Savage and the Swan that reminds me why Fantasy will always be my OG genre. Ella Fields has written a bloody, sensual, ethereal tale and I was obsessed from the first chapter.
The Savage and the Swan is a dual POV, standalone High Fantasy, with an Enemies-to-Lovers romance. It has literally everything I love in a book; it's action-packed, brutal, unforgiving, raw, and wholly unique in its storytelling. Our two MCs, Princess Opal of the sun fae, and King Dade of the blood fae are enemies through and through. Dade has sworn to kill her kind and especially her bloodline ... and he's winning. Opal is forced into a marriage/alliance with the humans in a neighboring kingdom as a last-ditch effort to stave off Dade's ruthless assault on her people. But when their paths cross nothing is as it seems, lines are crossed, hearts are broken, and secrets are revealed, leaving Opal and Dade questioning what they've always believed they were destined for, even as fate demands the impossible from them.
Opal is a strong but bruised individual that is torn this way and that by all the people attempting to use her as a pawn in the ongoing war between the two factions of the fae. She's loyal to a fault and believes the best of most people, and that sometimes leads her wrong. Her whole life is thrown into chaos, a chaos that has been creeping closer and closer over the years as Dade continued to slaughter her people. Once she's in the thick of it she does everything she can to help her kingdom while remaining true to herself. Dade is a flawed individual drowning in grief and a need for vengeance of crimes he wasn't even old enough to remember--but his people call for blood and so he gives it to them under the guise of his own inner turmoil. Together, Opal and Dade fall into one another and finally face the grief neither of them had ever truly healed from.
This book has jumped to my favorite read of the year and I expect it to stay that way. I devoured the book in one day and immediately began a reread the following day. It's spicy, violent, and so very decadent. There were times I thought the pacing was a bit choppy, but the world is so immersive and the characters so engaging I didn't even care. The only reason it's taken me so long to write this review is that I couldn't sit down and put the words down without itching to pick the book up again. Fields has said it was a standalone, and it is that. But there is so much potential for more books set in this world, books that could feature other characters I would love to learn and read more of. Here's hoping one day she does write some sequels!
The Savage and the Swan is a dual POV, standalone High Fantasy, with an Enemies-to-Lovers romance. It has literally everything I love in a book; it's action-packed, brutal, unforgiving, raw, and wholly unique in its storytelling. Our two MCs, Princess Opal of the sun fae, and King Dade of the blood fae are enemies through and through. Dade has sworn to kill her kind and especially her bloodline ... and he's winning. Opal is forced into a marriage/alliance with the humans in a neighboring kingdom as a last-ditch effort to stave off Dade's ruthless assault on her people. But when their paths cross nothing is as it seems, lines are crossed, hearts are broken, and secrets are revealed, leaving Opal and Dade questioning what they've always believed they were destined for, even as fate demands the impossible from them.
Opal is a strong but bruised individual that is torn this way and that by all the people attempting to use her as a pawn in the ongoing war between the two factions of the fae. She's loyal to a fault and believes the best of most people, and that sometimes leads her wrong. Her whole life is thrown into chaos, a chaos that has been creeping closer and closer over the years as Dade continued to slaughter her people. Once she's in the thick of it she does everything she can to help her kingdom while remaining true to herself. Dade is a flawed individual drowning in grief and a need for vengeance of crimes he wasn't even old enough to remember--but his people call for blood and so he gives it to them under the guise of his own inner turmoil. Together, Opal and Dade fall into one another and finally face the grief neither of them had ever truly healed from.
This book has jumped to my favorite read of the year and I expect it to stay that way. I devoured the book in one day and immediately began a reread the following day. It's spicy, violent, and so very decadent. There were times I thought the pacing was a bit choppy, but the world is so immersive and the characters so engaging I didn't even care. The only reason it's taken me so long to write this review is that I couldn't sit down and put the words down without itching to pick the book up again. Fields has said it was a standalone, and it is that. But there is so much potential for more books set in this world, books that could feature other characters I would love to learn and read more of. Here's hoping one day she does write some sequels!