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Title: The Secret Swan
ISBN: 0553582003
Author:
Shana Abe
Publicate Date: 2001-04-03
Publish: 2001-04-03
List Price: $6.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Mass Market Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $2.95
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.01
Amazon Merchant Price: $6.99
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| Customer Review: |
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1: BEST romance ever!!
I read "The Secret Swan" for the first time in 2002 and it instantly became one of my favorite novels and most definitely my favorite Romance novel of all time. Over the years I've read this book so many times and each time I've fallen in love with it even more. Tristan and Amiranth are two wonderfully REAL characters with REAL problems. Everything from the dialogue to Abe's wonderful imagery is such a pleasure to read. The chemistry between her characters is amazing and the plot is very believable for its time and setting.
Overall, a highly recommended read!
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2: 4.5 Stars
Very Enjoyable, and original! This book is an intense, emotional and powerful story, you've got to read. I am giving the book a solid 4.5, it's getting a .5 deduction for a little slowness at the beginning of the story, as the writer is taking you from eight years ago, to the current time of the story. However, it is an extremely important part of the story; she sets up Amiranth's love at first sight with Tristan and the loss she feels when he leaves for the war. Fast forward eight years and he comes home with secrets and his wife, with just as many. Combine that, with a desperate need to reclaim his title and life and love, and ladies, you have yourself this fine fine story!
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3: Eh... Just So-So
I've read Shana Abe before. My mom accidentally picked up a borrowed copy of "Smoke Thief" before I got to read it. She was bored at first, but then I noticed she couldn't put it down. :) The funny thing was that I asked her about it later and she said it was the most sexually explicit or risque thing she'd ever read. So I had to read it after that shining endorsement. I had to know if my mom's sensibilities were more sheltered than mine. (Of course)
A friend wanted to know -- was this book as risque as those Drakon books? My answer: Yep.
I think a lot of it just has to do with the author's preferences. Yes, some of it is gratuitous but other parts are used to make a point. Since sexuality happens to be a rather large part of life anyway...
The plot of this one is fairly medieval (I must be on an unconscious kick). The main character (whose name escapes me because it was hard for me to say so I always glossed over it: Amalgarin?) a plain girl infatuated with the Tristan (easy enough to remember) is arranged to be married to him. Tristan didn't really want to get married and so leaves immediately after the wedding for France to fight in a war after doing the whole consumation thing.
Eight years later he returns to the castle where he left his young wife to find only one woman remaining - a beautiful girl named Lily (also easy to remember) who claims to be the cousin of his late wife. 'Late' because she died of the plague. Yes, that plague.
They both get sick and there is a lot of personal history backtracking for them. Which is a bit annoying really. Also Tristan seems to be bipolar. A lot. He's all melancholy about his lost wife but is all hyped up about Lily.
It's readable and even enjoyable in parts, but I definitely liked the Drakon series much better. I'll have to try the Mermaid one to see if the pattern holds or if this was a fluke...
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4: More realism would have made it better
I disliked that the main characters' relationship is based on a deception, which is perpetuated for the majority of the book. This book also contained numerous anachronisms, making it seem more like a medieval costume party. And, I just can't buy that Amarinth would have changed so much that Tristan would not have recognized her at all, even after spending time with her. Also, the ending was a bit of a let-down, too neatly and quickly wrapped up.
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5: Fantasy Mystery Romance!
There were some parts of this book that was hard to believe. Initially, the love of Amiranth for Tristan and later vice versa. Hers was love at first sight and his was close to that by merely just holding on to a memory of her. Also, Amiranth is a strong, smart female character and to have her willingly stay in the godforsaken, stronghold Safere for 8+ years is another hard to believe aspect. I'm not quite sure about the ending and how she set up the mystery of the two brothers... who was suspect and all.. a little cliche. That could have been worked on more. Usually, if someone is truly innocent but their innocence is questionable, their actions can speak for them. I know the author didn't want readers to know who really did it until the end, but I didn't agree with her making both look questionable by their actions/looks (i.e. Tristan sometimes looking evil). I would have preferred more of the situational confusion that may make them look suspect (such as the part where Tristan threatens Hugh). I guess I like it more because it's a more thought out device, rather than an easy slap-on-a-evil-look trick to make one look guilty. Additionally, although I did love the book, I wished the ending could have gone on longer. Shana Abe does a great job with suspense and surprising twists, but I felt that by doing that, readers are on the edge of their seat a lot and that the ending should somehow make up for that by resolving it in a longer feel-good chapter or 2! :) That being said, I did give the book 4 stars for a reason. I still truly loved the way the author did not fall into most cliches and though there were some cheesiness to it, it was far and few between. I loved that the female protagonist had more involvement in the end instead of just having the hero save her. The trials of her life definitely taught her to be smarter and it showed. I loved the romance, sexual tension between the two, and how the tension was relieved occasionally throughout the book (unlike some other romance books) but the emotional tension (which I think counts more, too) was resolved in the end. I think I truly appreciated that Abe pulled us through the book on emotional strings and not physical ones. I think that's why I would call her book a romance book and not a trashy romance one. In the future, I hope Abe will put more believability into some of the storylines, but aside from that I definitely will be reading more of her books!
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