ARC Review: A Treachery of Swans by AM Poranek

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an ARC of A Treachery Of Swans. These thoughts are my own.

My thoughts:

A.B. Poranek has a way with words. After loving Where the Dark Stands Still, I knew I wanted to get my hands on whatever this author wrote next, and I was thrilled to see that A Treachery of Swans was a sapphic Swan Lake retelling. I will admit that Swan Lake is a tale that I am not very familiar with, I remember watching The Swan Princess animated movie as a kid and I know that it stems from a ballet but the actual details of it are fuzzy so my opinion on this novel as a retelling should not hold much weight - I will say that even with my limited knowledge, parts of this were still familiar and I could tell which parts pull from it being a retelling. A.B. Poranek creates such an intriguing gothic atmosphere in this book, and it was so fun to be seeing things through Odile's morally grey eyes. 

I really liked Odile, she's a mess of a girl but she's relatable and even though she's practically the villain - I was rooting for her. I wanted her to come out on top of those that had wronged her. It was such a roller coaster of emotions as Odile began to see how astray her dad had lead her whole life. I didn't like Odette in the beginning as we only know how Odile views her and due to their past, she's viewed as a bit of a spoiled brat but as Odile got to know who she really was - I started to love her as well. 

I didn't love the pacing throughout - there were parts where it felt like nothing was happening or what was happening, didn't feel like it was important. I also was not a fan of the epilogue/ the end which is not something I feel often. With Where the Dark Stands Still, I loved the ending, it left me feeling sad but it was really impactful for the story in my opinion, and I feel like this book wanted to have an ending like that and then added a little bit more to fix it and it just didn't hit the same - I feel like the author was just trying to please readers who were upset about the ending of Where The Dark Stands Still.

Synopsis:

Magic has long been outlawed in Auréal . Odile has always known she’d be the one to restore it.

Raised by a sorcerer, Odile has spent years preparing for the heist of a lifetime. It’s perfectly simple. Impersonate a princess, infiltrate the palace, steal the king's enchanted crown and restore magic to the kingdom.

But when the King is unexpectedly murdered, she’s forced to recruit the help of Marie d'Odette, the real princess, and the two begin to unravel a web of lies and deceit that leaves Odile uncertain of who to trust.

Soon though Odile must decide – her mission or the girl she’s falling for?

The fate of the Kingdom depends on her making the right choice. . .

Goodreads | Amazon







Comments

  1. Jen TwimomJune 24, 2025 at 2:39 PM

    I don't recall anything about the storyline of the ballet either.

    ReplyDelete

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