4.5 stars⭐️

Thank you so much to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the e-arc for this book! This was such an amazing first book of a new series. I love a ya fantasy book. However, I do feel like it was a bit slow and a bit of political drama that made the story quite confusing at times.

First, I’d like to thank NetGalley and Elizabeth Creith for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

The title, cover and description are what really pulled me to read this book. It gave me “The Swan Princess” vibes.

That being said, while I was reading I constantly found myself struggling to figure out the plot, it didn’t seem like there was one. Not until 70% through the book at least.

This book has good bones and had the potential to be way better, but it took too long to get there and it seemed a bit abrupt. I loved the swan folk and human alliance and the dueling kingdoms aspect with courtships and betrothals. The book itself just didn’t do it for me and focused too much on daily life that didn’t have much of a connection to the plot.

Unfortunately, I likely will not be continuing with this series.

If you’d like to see my full review, then head over to GoodReads!

Thanks to NetGalley for sharing the pre-release ARC of this book.

The Swan Harp held me in its spell till 1:30 AM this morning. The story drew me in and held from its beautiful cover through to the end. The settings were wonderfully drawn and the freedom of flying like a bird (or at least a swan) that we earthbound humans long to experience, dream about or envy - come through very clearly. The writing was very lyrical.

The book was very plot-driven and the characters largely stayed in their assigned good-bad roles. Character was probably the weakest area of the book - the main character, the princess-to-be-queen Keir, and other characters changed over the course of the tale, but it felt flat somehow. The maturing felt superficial even though the situation appeared serious or even deadly at times. The place of the swan people - where they came from, how they fit into the life of the kingdom, how they interacted with humans, how their society differed from the human one - was much glossed over even tho they were important characters in the book.

There were some places where I thought the tale jumped over some critical spots to get to the turn at the end. Not an inconsistency so much as incompletion (yeah - is that even a word?).

The overall feeling of this book was that of a fairy tale, although as far as I know it did not call directly on any specific one. The theme of action > consequences, especially poorly motivated or ill-considered actions and their consequences, and personal responsibility for the consequences was pushed heavily and explicitly - that was probably where it got the "fairy tale" feeling.

So - rating of 3 or 3.5 - would recommend the book, but will probably not re-read it. A good story and well written.

“The Swan Harp,” by Elizabeth Creith

Kiar is the heir of the human kingdom. She somehow did not get the ability to turn into a swan when she should have. The neighboring kingdom of Noermark is also causing trouble and hunting the swan people. But the son of the Noermark king is asking for her hand in marriage that could potentially help keep the human kingdom safe.

I loved this book so much. It made the girl in me that loved The Swan Princess movies so happy. The swan people aspect is unique type of shifters. I loved the main character and her development in the story. This is a book I’m definitely going to be rereading. 5 out of 5 stars.

-Swan Shifters
-Magic
-Coming-of-age
-Royalty

Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley.

This book is a whimsical YA fantasy filled with shapeshifting magic, detailed world building of clashing cultures, and a fierce and determined female protagonist. I liked the coming of age elements and the direction of the world building, but personally the writing style did not really gel with me. The pace was inconsistent, especially ant the beginning where it was quite slow. I found the main character Kiar’s development slightly forced and convenient, as opposed to the more natural development in similar series.

I would recommend this book for those who want a lighthearted adventure and love a good sword fighting lesson. This book has a really gorgeous cover and the author shows real potential for detailed and interesting world building. This book and series isn’t really for me, but I will be interested in seeing more from this author in the future. I really hope this book finds its audience, I’m sure the following series instalments will be eagerly anticipated.

Thank you to Elizabeth Creith and NetGalley for an advance reader copy.

This debut installment in a new series presents a solid foundation for the world of the Swanfolk, offering readers a uniquely imaginative and fantastical setting. The intricate political dynamics between Valenia and Noermark, coupled with insights into the Swanfolk's culture, added depth to the narrative. However, the initial half of the book felt somewhat disjointed, lacking a clear central plot and instead presenting a series of smaller storylines to keep the momentum going until the latter half, where the main action unfolds.

While the author's emphasis on world-building was commendable, it often overshadowed the development of the characters, making it challenging to establish a strong connection or witness substantial growth. Despite the potential of the love interest, Tuan, his character ultimately felt underdeveloped, with minimal interaction and peculiarly depicted scenes with the protagonist, Kiar. As a result, their supposed feelings for each other lacked believability due to the limited depth of their relationship.

Overall, this debut offers a promising start to the series, laying the groundwork for future developments. While it may have faltered in certain aspects, particularly character development and pacing, I eagerly anticipate how the story will unfold in subsequent installments.

This has a fairytale feel to it with more action and heart break moments than a typical Disney princess movie but within similar scope
And as an adult Disney fan I ate it up.
The writing was easy to follow and read.

This story falls flat. It's kind of repetitive and doesn't have much action. The ending is very out there and doesn't have a good set up. The characters are very flat and the interactions are okay it's very surface level with not much to the story. The blurb of the story is very good but it doesn't live up to the being for SJM or Holly Black fans. It was a cute story but I wouldnt go out of my way to read the rest of the series. It ends pretty good to be a standalone.
I recieved an e-arc of this book through NetGalley and this is my honest opinion of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley, the Publisher, and the Author for an amazing read.

Oh to be a Swan!!

This book I feel is for those who have, and are still growing up with The Warriors series by Erin Hunter. This book has in comparison a very whimsical atmosphere, yet delightfully dubious world.

The book itself has a wonderful cover, and I think the chapters were spaced just right, and gave something to the story every chapter.

Creith has made character’s one cannot help to fall in love with and even more so with their names! I thought every character’s name had great imagination and there were names I haven’t seen before. I think Creith should be in the fantasy character naming business more often! Every few chapters I kept reminding myself that I loved the character names!

The plot moved well in my opinion. This is young adult, and I found it to be on the younger side of the category. Plot wise it is a book that needs little explanation. There is a good amount in there for a Young Adult category book without it being overwhelming. I would recommend this to someone who is transitioning from the middle grade category into YA fantasy.

A bump in the road for me include the writing style in the sense that it felt doubtful, as if the direction of adding characters and plot were in a tug-of-war competition and neither side came out on top. That only happened for me in the first half of the book, due to the dismissal of character feelings, like Orla’s to her wanted love. Tension with that could have been more towards the character development side.

Overall… this is a great read! It kept me entertained the entire time, and I could see new to YA readers enjoy this wonderful adventure!

When you are the middle daughter of a human king and his swan-shifting Queen, you'd think things would be easier, but Kiar has it tough: while her older sister shifts easily into swan form, and her younger sister shifts AND has off-the-charts magic, Kiar is stuck on the ground. But she's royal and her father tasks her with becoming the next ruler: she has to learn to fight with sword and arrows, and she has to learn about governance and the responsibilities of the role.

In this first volume of a proposed trilogy, Kiar faces, threats of invasion, friendship, a budding love, and betrayal. It's hard work, but Creith makes the struggle believable and the characters cheer-worthy. The vaguely middle-agey setting is given depth for being scaled down and given specificity: this is a small kingdom, and this is hands-on ruling. The novel will be a good fit for fans of fantasy who aren't looking for gratuitous adult content, but want characters who develop along a reasonable arc up or down.

Thanks to NetGalley and Type Eighteen Books for the chance to share my unfettered opinion in exchange for a free eARC.

Starts out quite slow, but some really beautiful world building 😍
Love how relatable our main character is, defo recommend!!
Also, the cover is just 👌

4/5 Stars!
This was a really good read! The family dynamic + the romance and even the writing style reminded me of Little Women in a magical setting (almost like Practical Magic).

The story follows Kiar and her royal family of a land called Valenia, where her and her two sisters, Adana and Orla, are half human-half swan(folk). At first, only Kiar's sisters had the ability to shift into their swan shape, which made her extremely jealous/angry/sad, but eventually she had gotten her powers as well (I would have liked the moment that Kiar got her shifting abilities to be more of a event, it felt like not much of a big deal when it did happen, or least I thought it would happen later into the story).

Kiar is meant to be the heir to the throne and has to make some very difficult and sometimes heartbreaking decisions, from beginning to end, because of it.

Honestly, if this was a stand-alone novel, I would not be mad at howe this ended at all. But, because I know that this series is going to be a trilogy, I am excited for what is in store for Kiar and the land of Valenia!

3.5./5

This was a solid first book in a new series. The concept of the Swanfolk and the fairytale-like world the author creates is so unique and imaginative. I really enjoyed the interesting political dynamics between Valenia and Noermark and learning about the Swan folk's culture.

The first half of this book was confusing and seemed to lack direction. There was no MAIN plot that was being followed, but instead, a series of MINI plots that were JUST interesting enough to keep the story moving until the second half of the book, where the main action happens.

To compare this book to books by Sarah J. Mass and Holly Black is a bit of a stretch. If anything, I think this book MAY lean more towards Holly Black's unique world-building and politics. But if you pick up this book expecting the Romantasy that SJM is known for, or Holly Black's Cruel Prince, you might be disappointed.

The author's focus on world-building overshadowed character development, making it hard to connect with or see any growth within the characters. The love interest, Tuan, had such potential but unfortunately fell flat. There was very little interaction between him and Kiar, and the scenes between the two felt bizarre. It was hard to believe their " feelings " for one another since they didn't interact outside a handful of quiet moments.

Overall, this was a unique story that definitely read like it was setting the foundation for what is to come later in the series, and for that, I excitedly await.

I read this as an ARC from Netgalley. I loved the story, it was not what I normally read, but it looked interesting and I decided to give it a shot. I’m glad I did, I really liked it!

This is the first book in a series called Wings of Valenia by Elizabeth Creith and is published by Type Eighteen Books and it comes out April 2.

This young adult book is about Kiar, who is heir to the throne of Valenia. She’s the middle of three daughters, her father a human and her mother a “swanfolk”, which means she can go from human form to swan form and back again.

Kiar is put in a bind when three young swanfolk arrive to be fostered in the royal family, and because she can’t take swan form like her sisters, she feels left out and different. Plus, the king of a neighboring country called Noermark is determined to join Valenia and his country by marrying Kiar off to one of his sons.

Then dark magic comes into play, and Kiar is suddenly taking it from all sides. She has to defend humans, swanfolk and her own life all at once. Can she save everyone?

I’m highly recommending this book and looking forward to book two already! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

What I liked: Sword fighting lessons, captivating cover design, intriguing fae-ish characters transforming into swans, and a refreshing focus on a female protagonist being groomed for queenship rather than marriage.

What I didn't like: Writing style, lack of conflict, meandering plot.

The current marketing is highly misleading. The publisher is marketing to fans of Holly Black, Robin McKinley, and Sarah J Maas, which led me to anticipate a YA to adult type book with character exploration, a fae world, and a heavy dose of romantasy. In all honesty, identifying a specific audience for this book proves challenging. Perhaps it might appeal to those who appreciate intricate day-to-day details and are less concerned with a compelling story conflict.

The prose itself is clumsy, and we immediately dive into the slow and incoherent plot. A chapter buffer with a little more tone-setting would be appropriate. The narrative itself was boring and stumbling. It lacked any coherent plot arc and didn't make significant progress until approximately two-thirds into the book. Events and descriptions of places have no point and are never resolved; tons of copy editing needs to be done there. It feels like a collection of vignettes that all lack a conclusion, which, in some ways, is how a fairy tale book should work, but those conclusions should be found. Character arcs lack any substance because half of them are resolved within a chapter.

While I recognize this is an unreleased book, the lack of resolution on some arcs is concerning. I feel that I was not the intended audience for this, suggesting a pivot in marketing might be needed.

2.5 stars
I really wanted to like this book a lot more than I did…I felt that there wasn’t enough detail or world building. Everything seemed to move too fast for my liking. Because of this, I didn’t feel a connection to any of the characters. Also, I felt that the plot of this book was very underwhelming. It didn’t have me on my toes.

However, I really enjoyed the slow burn romance between Kiar and Tuan.

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own.

I requested this book because in all honestly I really liked the cover. I tend to generally judge a book by the cover first... and this one was really exceptional. However, I started reading this book this morning and realized the plot just fell flat. The characters are one dimensional and there's no intrigue. The story itself felt really boring and alot of times felt monotonous. My second critique is that there were alot of instances of bad editing. I do apologize to the author for the bad rating as my preference in writing style is not a third person point of view.
The book held promise- good idea However poor execution.

Thank you to the author & publisher via NetGalley for the ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

A YA fantasy that has shapeshifting magic, medieval settings, and a super pretty cover.

The story starts off a bit slow, with a large majority of the book in a calming and relaxed pace. It developed both the mc and her allies. However, I felt all the characters didn’t feel unique, and some I wondered what point they were providing to the story. Perhaps a bit more showing and not telling regarding emotions & actions could help bring them to life more.

Some of the words repeated quite often, and there were still some very apparent grammatical mistakes that made the read a bit hard to get through. It also worsened the pacing which felt off.

The story also felt a bit jumbled and honestly a mess. There were some discrepancies, others made no sense, and the direction was just all over the place.

Overall, the premise was something I really wanted to enjoy, but the execution just wasn’t quite right.

2/5 stars

What I liked: FMC who is being raised to be queen, sword fighting lessons included, beautiful cover, magical fae folk who can turn into swans.

What I didn't like: just about everything else.

So I want to start off with the caveat that I think the marketing on this book is misleading, which I feel like certainly plays a role in my view of this book. It is pitched as being perfect for fans of Holly Black, Robin McKinley and Sarah J Maas. To me, that promised like amazing faerie folktale inspired world, romantic tension, and well written characters. This book gave me none of those things.

Overall, this book was just boring. I basically spent the whole book waiting for anything significant to happen, and when it finally did, it didn't really make much sense in its own story. Minor spoiler, but we don't even get to anything that remotely hints at why this book is titled The Swan Harp until around page 200 (of a 300 page book), which is way too. While I think part of the goal was to give the book that sort of fairy tale feel, but instead it just gives a lot of unnecessary background and zero story tension. Very few of the things that happen or are described seem to lead anywhere by the end. It almost feels like the author didn't have a real plan for how she wanted the story to go, and instead just pulled random scenes or ideas from stories she liked. The arcs for the individual characters either felt very forced (especially towards the end) and it takes until like the last third of the book for any sort of real villain or conflict to occur. And for all the time we spend learning about the day to day activities of the characters, there is very little real world building. There is no details on the general geography of the world, how kingdoms interact, how magic really fits into this world etc.

I'm honestly not sure who I would recommend this to, perhaps someone who wants a story with all those day-to-day details and doesn't care as much about story conflict?

Thanks to NetGalley for a ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

"The Swan Harp" by Elizabeth Creith is a YA fantasy book filled with fantasy and intrigue, offering you a glimpse into a world where human and swan folk cultures collide. This book reminded me of Tamora Pierce’s writing as well as the Six Swan story.

The book introduces you to Princess Kiar who grapples with the weight of her kingdom's future as she navigates the complexities of her dual heritage. Creith's worldbuilding is very strong at the beginning of the book with the rich and detailed setting, exploring the customs and traditions of both human and swan folk societies. The dynamics between the characters, particularly Kiar and her sisters, are well-developed as well, adding depth to the narrative and drawing readers into the story. I was definitely very invested in the beginning of this book as I fell in love with learning more about the swan people.

However, despite its promising start, the plot of "The Swan Harp" became a bit confusing with many different plot points going on that didn’t seem that incredibly important and were wrapped up very quickly. Some of these points made the story seem more like an episodic kind of narrative rather than a story with an overarching plot. Due to this, there wasn’t a clear sense of direction and they story fails to establish a central conflict to drive the plot forward. While the setting was very beautifully described, the writing style also had some repetitive use of certain phrases and descriptors, which created a sense of disjointedness in the storytelling.

Despite these issues, I still enjoyed the world that Creitch created. The overall idea of this story was very imaginative, and I loved the fantasy aspect. Maybe with some more work on the plot of the book and developing the characters more in the sequel, this will be able to appeal to a wider audience. I would give this book 3.5 stars out of 5 (rounded down to 3) at this current period in time.