A Throne of Swans was a very unique book, I hadn't heard of a book where people could turn into various birds before so this grabbed my attention immediately!
Seventeen year old Aderyn has already been through so much at the beginning of the book - with her mother dying in an attack that injured her and left her not able to turn into her family's bird, a swan - and then her father also dies and leaves her the sole protector of Atratys. She has to hide her lack of shifting ability or it could cost her more than Atratys, it could cost her her life.
Then we get into my favourite trope in books: court intrigue and drama!
Aderyn travels to the capital and has to use her wits to survive in a world where everyone is hiding something or out to get her. I especially enjoyed her naivety mixing with this world because it made for even more drama but also allowed us to understand more about it through her learning everything.
Only one thing bothered me to make it less than five stars and that was the character depth didn't start till a little way in, so I kept forgetting people's names at the start and didn't know much about them. But then I also really like slow growth in a book and less info-dumping, hence it not bothering me too much.
I finished this book really wishing I could turn into a bird... maybe a gyrfalcon. And am incredibly excited for the sequel, bring it on!
Seventeen year old Aderyn has already been through so much at the beginning of the book - with her mother dying in an attack that injured her and left her not able to turn into her family's bird, a swan - and then her father also dies and leaves her the sole protector of Atratys. She has to hide her lack of shifting ability or it could cost her more than Atratys, it could cost her her life.
Then we get into my favourite trope in books: court intrigue and drama!
Aderyn travels to the capital and has to use her wits to survive in a world where everyone is hiding something or out to get her. I especially enjoyed her naivety mixing with this world because it made for even more drama but also allowed us to understand more about it through her learning everything.
Only one thing bothered me to make it less than five stars and that was the character depth didn't start till a little way in, so I kept forgetting people's names at the start and didn't know much about them. But then I also really like slow growth in a book and less info-dumping, hence it not bothering me too much.
I finished this book really wishing I could turn into a bird... maybe a gyrfalcon. And am incredibly excited for the sequel, bring it on!