Title: A Throne of Swans
Author: Katharine Corr & Elizabeth Corr
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Genres: Young adult, Fantasy
Format: Paperback
Expected Publication Date: January 9th 2020
Pages: 352

Synopsis (Goodreads): When her father dies just before her birthday, seventeen-year-old Aderyn inherits the role of Protector of Atratys, a dominion in a kingdom where nobles are able to transform at will into the bird that represents their family bloodline. Aderyn's ancestral bird is a swan. But she has not transformed for years, not since witnessing the death of her mother - ripped apart by hawks that have supposedly been extinct since the long-ago War of the Raptors.

With the benevolent shelter of her mother and her father now lost, Aderyn is at the mercy of her brutal uncle, the King, and his royal court. Driven by revenge and love, she must venture into the malevolent heart of the Citadel in order to seek the truth about the attack that so nearly destroyed her, to fight for the only home she has ever known and for the land she has vowed to protect.

Written in rich detail and evocative language, this is the start of an irresistible, soaring duology about courage, broken loyalties and fighting for your place in the world.

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My rating: 4.8 / 5 ★

Don't get me wrong with the title of this post, but seriously, can it just be 2020 already? I can swear by my heart that A Throne of Swans is one of the reasons that 2020 will be a wonderful year. I need this book to be released already!

It took me a single day to finish reading this book, and after being in a reading-slump for a few months, that really says something. I'm glad I went into the story without making any notes from the blurb (honestly, I've already forgotten why I chose to review this book when Pansing contacted me) because the moment it was revealed that the nobles in this kingdom are able to transform into birds that represent their bloodline (not a spoiler, it's obviously in the synopsis), I was immediately hooked. Unfortunately for our main character Aderyn, she had a reason for being unable to transform into a bird like she's supposed to.

I would say that Aderyn is one of the best main characters that I've encountered in books. I believe that the authors successfully made her personality realistic, despite the fact that this book is set in a high fantasy world. I rarely ever hate main characters, but I've stumbled upon a few that are just too fictional to be true: either too ambitiously nice or too cold due to past incidents. But Aderyn is a beautiful character; she might have been left in ignorance over royalty matters because of her father, but she was smart enough to fend for herself. She's independent, loving, selfless yet also selfish when neededand she's definitely a badass lady as well. She might not fit to lead at first, but her character development is so good that I can't wait to know more about her in the sequel (how do I survive until then?).

Even though I consider Aderyn to be independent, realistically, she definitely needs good support around her, no matter how small they might be. She has a good friend, Letya, who is not a noble and flightless, but is truly loyal to Aderyn and I appreciated her so much for that. Letya may just be a side character, but I believe that her role in the story is big enough for Aderyn's character to grow more. I appreciated Aderyn's cousins, Odette and Aron as well. Their characters are complex enough despite not being main characters, and I don't find it hard to put my faith in them from the start till the end.

Then there's Lucien, Lord Rookwood. His title may just be Aderyn's clerk, but his role is much larger than that. I believe that his first appearance in the story was one of the best parts of the book. He would appear to be patronising at first (oh I truly enjoyed the bickers and snarky comments made between Aderyn and Lucien) but his prideful personality does have a good reasoning behind it. Of course, love would be inevitable when they kept working (and arguing) with each other, but I love the fact that the story was not focused too much on the romance. Certain stories focused too much on building the romance that they somehow overshadowed the important elements that should be the main part of the story.

When I read a fantasy, I want those fights between the royals or kingdoms, the rebellions, the revenges and the ruled rising up against the rulerswith a touch of romance, and that is exactly what A Throne of Swans is about. Or at least it feels that way in my opinion. The slow burn romance was what made the ending of the first part of this duology more impactful (I don't want to spoil anything but Lucien's condition at the end broke me to pieces).

Although it was quite hard for me to grasp where the story is leading towards to in the first few chapters, I would gladly say that the whole plot and world-building are definitely well built. I admit that I do enjoy more on fantasy plots where the ones that were ruled rise against their rulers, and even though Aderyn is fighting with the kingdom for her dominion and people, the inequality is still obvious. There seemed to be nothing for the flightless to do to fight back, but I'm putting high hopes that somehow this point would be focused in the sequel.

A bonus: I find that the true villains of this story reminded me of an element from Crimson Peak. If you've watched the movie, you'll find out what I meant once you read A Throne of Swans. It definitely blew my mind.

Overall, I'm very much in love with A Throne of Swans. It is a wonderfully written book, and I cannot wait for it to be released for the whole world to read!

A thousand thank yous to Pansing for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review. A Throne of Swans will be released on January 2020, so mark your calendars today!

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Now my father is dead, I am the only swan here.

And I do not fly.



Till next time ♡ Love, Aishah Humaira'



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