The Black Swan

Daughters of England #16

by Philippa Carr

"Mysterious and romantic sequel to 'The Changeling', continuing the Cornwall saga. When Lucie Landson's father is assassinated in front of his London home, young Lucie is the only witness. Her testimony leads to the arrest, conviction and hanging of an Irish terrorist. But the trauma follows her throughout her life when another disaster - the death of her fiance occurs. She then marries a kind man and they set up house together with his sister. But strange things begin to happen and she begins to believe her life is in danger."

Genres: Historical Fiction, Romance, Fiction, Historical Romance, Historical, Gothic, British Literature

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Eleanor Alice Burford, Mrs. George Percival Hibbert was a British author of about 200 historical novels, most of them under the pen name Jean Plaidy which had sold 14 million copies by the time of her death. She chose to use various names because of the differences in subject matter between her books; the best-known, apart from Plaidy, are Victoria Holt (56 million) and Philippa Carr (3 million). Lesser known were the novels Hibbert published under her maiden name Eleanor Burford, or the pseudonyms of Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow, Anna Percival and Ellalice Tate. Many of her readers under one penname never suspected her other identities.
-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Jane Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story, but it didn’t excite me. I needed something more special or different about the characters.

Lucie was bland, passive, trusting, naive. Her friend said Lucie had a mind like a lawyer. But lawyers are smarter about analyzing things and people, not trusting as easily as Lucie did. Her lawyer-like-ness was speaking calmly with reason.

If you look at an outline of the plot with events, twists, and the roles of characters, it’s very good. But the filling in of words for 300 pages was plodding. I felt like it was assigned reading, instead of wanting to read it. Some parts were repetitive with Lucie pondering and speaking the same things over and over again.

Another negative is that it is written in 1st person Lucie. A story has to be super good to overcome that.

I liked the idea of the black swan, a person who looks good, or wonderful, but is menacing with hatred underneath.

This is more like fiction than romance. There is not much relationship development. There is a happy ending.

DATA:
Narrative mode: 1st person Lucie. Story length: 338 pages. Swearing language: none. Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: one was referred to with one sentence. Setting: around 1890 England and France. Copyright: 1990. Genre: mystery suspense with a romantic element.

[MV · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is sixteenth in the Daughters of England (aka Cornwall Saga) series, although it can pretty much stand alone in its own right, as anything important you missed will be recapped (at length). I also see this book as the third in a little trilogy about the Cador estate and area around the mysterious St. Branok's Pool. The series deviates a bit here as Lucie is not the daughter of the previous narrator, but her much younger half-sister (repeating the flow of Voices in a Haunted Room and The Return of the Gypsy.) At this point, the series is clearly starting to wind down. The last few heroines have all been naive good girls, and Lucie is much of the same. The theme of the Black Swan plays out well, and the mystery and intrigue are exciting and not as easy to figure out as previous ones, causing me to eagerly turn pages at the end. I've enjoyed the series so far and am looking forward to seeing how it all ends with the last few daughters.

[Marie Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the better of the Carr books, and I beseech the reader to be invested in the Carr style and a reader of the Daughters of England Series. Those modern readers who are looking for a quaint vintage historical experience will be disappointed. This is a world of crazy characters, foreshadowing frenzies, and creepy relationships. Perfect for reading with a buddy.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love! Love! Love!!!!

[Ender · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this was very interesting. I picked out because I was in a mood for romance but, its not so romancey. Its different from anything I would usual read, but it puts me in a thoughtful mood. But it did kept my interest and I will forever be paranoid of black swans. ^_^

[Hayley · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like clean, cheesy, romance novels then you will like anything by Victoria Holt or her pseudonyms.

[Nikita Italia · Rating 5 out of 5]

what can i say.., fabulous

[Emily Kestrel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not Victoria Holt's best (even if she is writing as Phillippa Carr). This is a rambling and somewhat ridiculous story. Apparently it is #16 in an extended family saga, and from the bits of backstory mentioned at the beginning, the previous volumes also sound rather ridiculous.

But in this one (WARNING: UNMARKED SPOILERS TO FOLLOW):

Lucie, our heroine, who is mild-mannered to the point of being about as exciting as dish water, suffers a double loss at the beginning of the novel, when both her father and her fiance die suddenly. Her father is murdered by an Irish terrorist, and her fiance is killed on a trip to Africa. To console herself, she hangs out with Belinda, a narcissistic childhood friend who loves to give Lucie all sorts of insults and back-handed compliments.

Belinda is invited to visit her dad's chateau in France, and insists Lucie come along (apparently Belinda is illegitimate and this is all part of the rambling backstory alluded to earlier). Her dad, Luc, immediately starts behaving inappropriately towards Lucie, so that she avoids him and Belinda by wandering around the grounds, where she is almost attacked by a vicious black swan. Luc beats the swan off with a stick and warns Lucie that some people are like black swans, beautiful on the outside but vicious on the inside.

She escapes his lustful designs by running off with a brother and sister from England who are hanging out in the area. The brother, Roland, almost immediately proposes and his sister tags along to their new home...cause that wouldn't be awkward at all...and then of course the sister starts plying Lucie with mysterious herbal remedies and gaslighting her and there are some weird accidents. Remember how some people are like black swans, Lucie??

Although I suppose Lucie has reason to be distracted, between having to intervene in Belinda's bigamy dilemma and finding out that you can't always believe reports of your true love being dead.... Sorry, by this point I was only still reading to find out how ridiculous the story would become. And the book looked so nice when I found it at the library book sale, practically for free (a dollar for a bag of books is a pretty good deal). But like a black swan, the alluring exterior was hiding a real stinker of a story. Whelp, back to the library it goes, to reappear at a future date on the book sale shelves, like the circle of life, I suppose.

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucie has a lot of bad luck.....her mother dies and she was switched at birth, her father dies, her fiance dies, she's offered marriage by a creepy guy, marries a lunatic and his sister who plan to kill her, and then she learns her former fiance is still alive. I dislike Belinda too - she was so shelfish. I'm glad in the end that she had a little luck!

[Viv Eliot · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a slow burn; an ok read. Not gothic enough, though the trappings were there. An easy mystery to solve. I enjoyed it more than I thought, but not enough to recommend it.

[Phil Syphe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I didn’t enjoy “Black Swan” as much as the previous novel in the Daughters of England series, I liked it much more than Books 10–14. I like the fast-pace narrative, which is heavy on dialogue.

Unlike some of the earlier books, this one is far less predictable. The final showdown, however, is typical Carr/Holt style in that it’s over too soon. We get the build-up, which the author’s good at, but then the climax is over before you know it. The author isn’t/wasn’t one for milking something for all it’s worth, which is a shame.

Whilst Lucie isn’t the most charismatic lead character, she is likable and I was always on her side. Her friend Belinda is the charismatic one, though she’s not so likable! Belinda is a great character, though. She’s three-dimensional and believable.

[April Hochstrasser · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this undemanding book about good and bad characters in the 1700's in England. Although it did seem to go on a bit, I was never tempted to skip to the end to get it over with. I really got into the sedate main character and her opposite in every way, the secondary character. I didn't see the ending coming and it was a surprise, although I knew something was up with the brother and sister team, but I just didn't know what.

[Dvorah Ophir · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love to read and reread victoria holt and philippa carr books(the same author but sea writes as victoria holt gothic romance and historical gothic romance as philippa carr of that the first story is set in the time of henry the 8 and the last is second world war)
this one is set in the 19 century and is one i read now twice and liked it even better the second time.
victria holt is my tea and chocolates.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read it for the nth time - love this series. This book has an especially frightening twist - even knowing it is coming. Great Gothic atmosphere and even though you can kind of guess that there's something odd about the siblings . . . until the very end, you just don't know what it is. Another well done book in the Daughters of England series.

[Marlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't care what it is, or what penname she writes under, I love anything by Victoria Holt aka Phillipa Carr.

[Kavita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps I have read too many of Carr's books, but I was able to guess whodunit by the middle of the book. Still, it was a fun read, and enjoyable.

[Tammie Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

book 16 in the series

[S.j. Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Black Swan / Phillipa Carr 1990.

Part of a long series, this is #16, but still worked as a stand alone story. A bit slow and repetitive, and not very exciting, this story focuses on Lucie Lansdon, who has a lot of bad things happen to her in a very short time. The plot dragged on and the characters were mostly unlikeable. The predictable plot wraps up pretty much as expected with a very anticlimactic ending. 2/5 stars.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I echo other's reviews where I say "I liked it more than I thought, but not enough to recommend it."
This is another book that took me to almost halfway before I enjoyed it, but once there I finished it within a matter of a few days. It was easy to spot the setup for the ending, but not quite every detail would I guess. There were plenty of smaller plot points and character moments that I did quite enjoy it.

[Ines]

I read this book when I was like 10. I borrowed it from an old lady in my town and ever since her death a few years ago I’ve been wanting to read this again but I couldn’t remember the title or the author. Maybe I’ll read it again this year but I remember it scaring the shit out of me :)

[Daniela Sánchez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Puedo decir que no fue una historia atrapante, sentí mucho relleno y personajes que no aportaron en la historia, si alguno de ellos no aparecían no alterarían la historia central.
El final me gustó, pero tuve que aguantar más de 100 páginas, para llegar al final.

[Linda S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one - no spoilers - but the plot twist had me very surprised at the end. Now on to the next in the series....

[Charlotte Lintz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meehh

Couldn’t get into this character, she seemed one dementional. I have read & enjoyed other Phillipa Carr books, and will read others, but this one did nothing for me.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book was only really ruin by my guessing the twist in the tail very shortly into book so everything that then happened was predictable.

[Dominik Golob · Rating 4 out of 5]

135

[Destiny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Age: 14+

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

(1990) Intriguing! The ending is not what was expected.

[Candace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went through a biiiigggg Victoria Holt stage in high school. It wasn't necessarily the romance (even though that was okay most of the time), but it was the mystery interwoven into the story as well. They are easy, simple, cozy reads. Sure, a little dated in the "feministic" sense, but I still like them a lot. Quick reads.

[Mojca · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 ½ - 3 stars

[Judi Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful as Always! Phillipa Carr Is Victoria Holt!

Like the books before it, this continues the saga of girls growing up in England, and the history they live.