Name: A Lake of Feathers and Moonbeams
ISBN: 9780692142431

Dax Murray

Katya lives a life of magic and charms with her partner Ivan. But a threat looms over their forest, a danger that Ivan swears to protect her from. Katya finds herself caught up in a web of grudges and deception, but most dangerous of all is the princess who stumbled into their woods and who sets Katya's heart fluttering with both desire and fear.

A Lake of Feathers and Moonbeams

Jamieson

it's the year 2018 and u still haven't quite been able to fill the hole in your heart from your childhood where rewatching Barbie's The Swan Lake everyday used to be or is that just me ??



  "I do not have a type! I am a type. I am the mysterious maiden who will not let anyone get close, who tempts people yet holds them at bay. I'm a siren who leads people toward their doom, the swan song of a love that never could be. I am the beautiful Fairy Queen, the entrancing witch in the forest who is lethally beautiful and forever out of reach."


I have been so looking forward to reading this book ever since it was pitched to me on twitter. It's a queer retelling of Swan Lake with a polyamorous ship. I love Swan Lake a lot, it's one of my favourite stories, and adding more fantasy elements + queer relationships to it sounded ideal. Overall I liked reading this, I just didn't LOVE it. 

I am only going to make this a quick review of pros and cons because I do not have a LOT to say so lets get into it


  Pros


- Swan Lake Elements: I really liked how this adapted and interpreted Swan Lake. It was both original and also had so many hallmarks of the story I loved. I also really liked some of the influences that the story had on the worldbuilding. 

- Queerness: so this follows three main characters: Katya who is bisexual, Alexis who is non-binary and Zhen who is Asian and bisexual. The main ships are f/f and f/nb. There is also other polyam characters mentioned, lesbian and asexual side characters and more. I loved the queer focus in this world and how natural and embedded queerness was here. It's nice to have fantasy worlds that aren't focussed on reinforcing the gender binary and heterosexuality. 

- Good set up: I loved the first 50% of this book. The set up with the characters and world was great. I also really liked how the dynamic was set up between Katya and Ivan and how the warring factions within the kingdom were set up. I flew through the first 50%. The pacing was also great throughout and there was lots of things happening. 


  Cons


- Characters: I personally didn't feel very attached to many of the characters. I liked all of them but I wasn't particularly invested and it made it kind of hard to root for them. I don't feel like I got to know much about these characters, even though this book was nearly 300 pages which is not EXTREMELY short

- Romance: While I loved the ship set ups, the romance was a little rushed for my preference. I really like slow burn and if this was on a scale this is more on the insta-love side (it's not insta-love, but the romance happens pretty quickly). Without super setting up the romance I never feel that engaged or invested

- Didn't stick the landing: While I loved the first 50%, the next 50% didn't work as well for me. I felt this book set up the beginning so well and created all this intrigue and then the last 50% was kind of rushed. The ending was pretty unsatisfying to me, although I do love that it had a happy ending where all the ships work out. 

Overall this was fun and definitely unique! I don't think I've read any fantasies that incorporate queerness to this length so it was really nice to see. While it wasn't my favourite book by any means, I liked reading it and would recommend if you're looking for a Swan Lake retelling or a book that delivers f/f and f/nb romances in a fantasy setting!

A Lake of Feathers and Moonbeams

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