Dragon Swan Princess is the second book in the Twisted Ever After trilogy by Tamara Grantham, the award-winning author of more than a dozen books and novellas.
Odette Von Alarissa is a prisoner, her captivity the result of a decades-old war between the dragon shifters and the witches. But there has been a recent change in her ownership. Xaldain Von Rothbart, the traitor responsible for starting the war, is her captor now. A dragon-shifter just like Odette, Xaldain has plans for her that are unimaginable — but with a magical mark on her shoulder that prevents her escape, and the survival of her people hanging in the balance — she has no real choice but to comply.
Drekken Von Fiddlestrum has returned to his homeland to find himself in an unhappy quandary. To save his kingdom, he must marry a noble – yet he has no desire to do so. When he crosses paths with Odette, he agrees to help her. But as their feelings for each other grow, it can only lead to destruction for them both. Drekken must marry for duty, and Odette must consent to Xaldain if she wants her people to survive.
True love and obligation collide in this compelling retelling of the classic Swan Princess story.
Tamara Grantham is the award-winning author of more than half a dozen books and novellas, including the Olive Kennedy: Fairy World MD series, the Twisted Ever After trilogy, and the Shine novellas. Dreamthief, the first book of her Fairy World MD series, won first place for fantasy in INDIEFAB’S Book of the Year Awards, a RONE award for best New Adult Romance, and is a #1 bestseller on Amazon with over 200 reviews. Tamara holds a Bachelor’s degree in English. She has been a featured speaker at the Rose State Writing Conference and has been a panelist at Comic Con Wizard World speaking on the topic of female leads. For her first published project, she collaborated with New York-Times bestselling author, William Bernhardt, in writing the Shine series. Born and raised in Texas, Tamara now lives with her husband and five children in Wichita, Kansas. She rarely has any free time, but when the stars align and she gets a moment to relax, she enjoys reading fantasy novels, taking nature walks, and watching every Star Wars or Star Trek movie ever made. You can find her online at www.TamaraGrantham.com.
Yet another fun twisted tale. This one is an interesting version of Swan Lake, the duality of two different halves in one person. There is also a touch of star crossed lovers. Love the mash-up and twisting-up of fairy tales.
While this is a fun adventure tale, with a totally original take on the classic fairy tale, I did not enjoy this volume in the new "Twisted Ever After" series nearly as much as I did the first one. Perhaps just because I am not as familiar with the story of Swan Lake as I am with that of Rapunzel. Or maybe because most of this tale was so dready and depressing, with the individual condemned fates of both main players seeing so overwhelmingly unavoidable. Or perchance it could have been the fact that I didn't find Odette and Drekken as compeling of characters as Gothel and Raj had been in their story. I certainly did not like the latter two nearly as much in this tale as I did in their own. In fact, none of the characters really appealled to me that much, with the exception of Kardiya. It seems only fitting that she will be one of the protagonists of the next book in the series. And I am quite looking forward to the tale of her and Rumpel!
I received a free eBook copy of "The Dragon Swan Princess" from the Author, and have willingly provided an honest review.
This review originally appeared on the So Few Books blog here.
Dragon Swan Princess is Tamara Grantham’s second entry in the Twisted Ever After Series.
Odette has been a prisoner of the witches for decades, due to a war between her people and the witches. Temporarily paroled to assist the witches niece, Gothel, she returns to find her captivity has been sold off to Xaldain, the very creature responsible for the war — and ultimately her captivity. His plans for her do not bare repeating.
Drekken must marry royalty to save his people, but when he comes across Odette and learns her fate, he agrees to help her all he can while working on his own plight. But the longer they’re together the closer they get. Both have critical missions to save their people. How can the accomplish this and save each other as well?
I really enjoyed the second book in Tamara Grantham’s Fairytale retelling series. How perfect that Drekken’s “stupid lute” saved the day in the end!! Ha!! Though there were times the romance between the 2 main characters drove me crazy, this is typical of YA, so I ignored the cheesier aspects. I really enjoyed the story and would recommend to fans if YA and fairytale retelling!!
The first book in the series, lacked the motivation behind the plot. This book on the other hand didn’t. You felt more of what was going on between the characters, and the altering between the two of them as the chapters progressed moved the story along that much better. Yet this book still lacked the overall wow factor, and compelled me to really take it and remember it, it was still a fun spin on and old story.