A Treachery of Swans

I saw A. B. Poranek's new book, A Treachery of Swans, at the library and of course had to get it. I enjoyed Where the Dark Stands Still a lot and wanted to see what she came up with next. I have to admit, I was not expecting a France-inspired story, but I was still along for the ride. I did have a bit of a hard time getting into it (I'd say it took around 50 pages), but once I got hooked I didn't want to put A Treachery of Swans down!

This time around, Poranek wrote a sapphic romance based on Swan Lake. In this world, a king's sorcière advisor drove the Three Mothers, goddesses who control life, death, and change/magic from their country. Morgane, the Mother of magic, cursed the land as she fled so that nothing beautiful would grow. She left behind a single magical crown that allowed the king to keep the crops growing. But the magic comes at a price, for every time he uses it he falls more steadily into madness. Due to the sorcière's actions, anyone who can use magic, who happens to have gold in their veins instead of the regular red, is shunned, blamed for the blight on the land.

Into this world is born Odile, a girl with golden blood who was taken in, along with her non-sorcière brother, by a sorcière named Regnault. He has been sending Odile on missions to steal Goddess gold, the only thing that can still allow sorcières to summon magic. After many, many years, they have enough for one final heist: Odile will take the place of Marie d'Odette, convince the Dauphin to marry her, and, on their wedding when the magical crown is brought out, they will steal it to summon Morgane back and heal the land! Except....things start to go sideways when the Dauphin's father, King Honoré, is murdered, and Odile's estranged brother is accused of the murder. Odile starts to investigate, wanting to clear her brother's name. She starts to get closer to the Dauphin, as well as to Marie, who witnessed the murder, all the while trying to convince herself that these people are her enemies, and she must stay to her task of stealing the crown.

I honestly quite liked the story (once I got into it). I liked the characters, especially the Dauphin. He is a kind-hearted gentleman, someone who many of the other nobles, his father included, think is too weak, but who has a quiet strength in genuinely caring about the people around him. I also quite liked Odile and how she grew through the story, slowly coming to realize what her father, Regnault, had been doing to her over the years (and what she had lost as a result). I also liked how the other characters, especially Marie, saw the good in Odile, no matter how much Odile insisted she was the villain of the tale.

I will admit that I was able to predict some of the twists and turns of the plot, like who the beast was and the truth of Regnault. But I still enjoyed how the story unfolded and how the characters discovered these things on their own. Though it did feel like there should be a part two to this story (which probably won't happen based on the epilogue), I quite enjoyed A Treachery of Swans as a standalone tale. 

Where the Dark Stands Still

I saw Where the Dark Stands Still by A. B. Poranek at the library and knew that I had to read it. The premise is a fairy tale that reminded me of Naomi Novik's Uprooted, and the whole book is inspired by of Polish/Slavic mythology; all things that I quite enjoy. 

In Where the Dark Stands Still, Liska was born with magic, but taught by everyone in her village that magic is evil, and so she does her best to hide it. Unfortunately she cannot always control it. So in desperation, she braves the Driada, the demon woods near her village, in an attempt to find the legendary fern flower. If she can find it on midsummer's eve, the flower can grant her a wish. And the only thing that she wants is to be free of her magic once and for all. Unfortunately she is discovered by the Leszy, the demon guardian of the Driada. He makes her a deal: serve him for a year, then he will let her have the flower. But she never dreamed that part of the deal involved Liska actually learning to control her sinful magic!

So yes, at this point, the story is very similar to Uprooted: a magical girl having to serve a magical being on her own, and a malevolent wood overshadowing everything. I admit that I was a bit annoyed at how similar they were; I also didn't think Where the Dark Stands Still was going to be very good because it was falling into some of the YA paranormal romance tropes (obviously they ended up falling in love - that you could see coming from a mile away). But as the book progressed, and Liska unravels more and more of the mysteries surrounding the Leszy, I was hooked.

I also really liked the characters. Liska is an interesting heroine, struggling with some very real trauma from her past. But through it all she keeps trying to find a way forward, trying to right the wrongs around her, even when that means needing to use the very powers she wants nothing to do with. The house spirit, Jaga, is awesome. She's basically a cat who you can bribe with jam. The house itself is a fun character; while it doesn't talk, some of the ways it makes itself known (I particularly liked when it unfurled a scroll to "stick its tongue out" at the Leszy). Maksio is another character who doesn't really speak, but can convey his thoughts so well through body language especially when he first comes to live with Liska and the Leszy. 

The book also takes some very unexpected turns. Finding out just what Maksio is was unexpected. Finding out how the Leszy got his power, and what he has to do to maintain it was pretty shocking. And everything that Liska and the Leszy do in an attempt to get the Leszy out of the bargain he made long ago was quite the ride. The ending, while not expected from a YA book, was also really fitting; after everything the Leszy had done, both good and evil, it made sense that he didn't live. I'm not going to lie, I cried at the end.

All in all, I really enjoyed Where the Dark Stands Still. I hope to see more from Poranek one day!