3.5 Stars

Melanie Dickerson is well known for her fairy tale retellings, and Court of Swans takes a stab at The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen as well as the first book in a new series.
Delia is a character I both appreciated (especially her determination to save her brother) and disliked (she’s a worrier and doesn’t always make the best choices), but her love for her brothers is obvious throughout the story.

Sir Geoffrey fares better. He’s struggling with his own injustices but does everything he can to help Delia and her family.

I didn’t connect with the characters in this story as much as I have in others, and the climax of the story was a bit of a letdown, but overall, Court of Swans was an entertaining read and a good introduction to the rest of the Dericott family (at least some of whom will get their own stories told).


Disclosure statement: I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book and was not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.

I've read all of Melanie Dickerson's books, and each time there are aspects that I really enjoy. I always try to keep in mind what the audience is for each book, as most of hers are written for young adults. This is the first book in a new series, but still follows along the line of several of her previous novels, which are fairy tale retellings. I have personally never read the fairy tale this novel is based on, but it didn't really take away from the experience of it.

One of the parts of this novel I really enjoyed was the love Delia and her brothers had for one another. Delia never stopped trying to do whatever she could to help her brothers, whether it was taking a menial job as an embroiderer, knitting sweaters for them to be warm, and much more. Her sacrificial love was the heart of this book. I also enjoyed the build up of tension as the plot intensified. There was also a light amount of romantic tension that was appropriate for a clean read/YA novel. The only thing I wished for in the storyline was more explanation of the events leading up to the accusation and arrest of Delia's brothers. I struggled to connect with the actions of Delia's stepmother and how that would lead to such a severe punishment for knights and nobles in service to the king.

I'm looking forward to sharing this with my teenage daughter, as she thoroughly enjoys Melanie Dickerson's books. I am interested to see how the rest of this series will continue.

**I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in order to share my honest opinions, which I did.**

I always love Melanie’s books and this one was amazing and didn’t let me down!! She has a way of making me feel like I was there and the characters are so relatable. A perfect amount of heart stopping romance too!!

this was a really good fantasty novel. i really liked it a lot and i thinak you netgalley for giving me this sweet and precious gift in a book!!

Court of Swans is presented as the first volume in The Dericott Tales, and the publisher talks about a tender retelling of the fairytale The Wild Swans. There are indeed some nods to the fairytale – just like in it the heroine knits sweaters to her brothers, she sees swans on the Thames, her aunt tells her not to talk, the evil stepmother is at the origin of their troubles, and at the end one of the brothers has a problem at one arm – but I’m not sure we’d make the connection without the publisher’s foreword. So here we follow Delia as she tries to have her wrongly imprisoned brothers freed.

If I had seen the note Young Adult on Netgalley, I hadn’t seen the tag Christian Fiction on Goodreads, and it took me some time to understand why the characters were talking about God a lot more than in usual historical romances. That didn’t really disturb me, as the (short) passages where the characters pray, mention God’s will or passages from the Bible are the only one put in italics, I just skipped them.

Delia is a naïve and gullible heroine, who bases her trust on details like smile or the feeling of kindness she gets from the person. At first she doesn’t like Geoffrey because he arrested her brothers, but he says he’s sorry and hop, forgiven. One of the guards shows a little compassion, and she directly refuses to hear that he’s a seducer with bad intentions, even if some of his gestures should put an idea in her head. That’s only after a quite brutal act that she finally understands. The feelings between her and Geoffrey are as lukewarm as possible, and full of doubts about the possibility of them being together.

The brothers have no real distinguishing features except their names and their ages, and the bad guys are not present enough to raise the bar. The rhythm is slow, not a lot happens during too long apart from discussions about how to prove the brothers are innocent or how to help them escape. The resolution seems too easy and is done in a few pages. And finally I’ve read reviews that said the historical side wasn’t well respected, but I don’t know enough to judge.

All in all if it can be read easily, I must say I wasn’t thriller by this book, even after telling myself to take it like a bit too long fairytale instead of like a novel. Too bad.

Court of Swans, by Melanie Dickson, is a tale that takes place in the Middle Ages. The year is 1381 and Delah fears her world is about to change in a very negative way. Her father just died and her seven brothers have been accused of another murder and given a death sentence!

This is an interesting tale to follow as Delah attempts to find a way to save her brothers lives. She teams up with Sir Geoffrey. Geoffrey is an unlikely partner, as he was one of the King's soldiers who initially came to arrest her brothers!

It is interesting to see all of the dangerous situations in which Geoffrey and Delia find themselves. Delia just does not know who she can trust to help fulfill her plan. Hang on until the final page to see what Geoffrey and Delia are able to accomplish!

Another beautiful story by Melanie Dickerson! Another great book to share with your daughters! Based on a story I was unfamiliar with, The Wild Swan.

I spend my nights reading by back-lit tablet light and most recently my hours before sleep have been immersed in the medieval tale from the pen of Melanie Dickerson in her newest saga starting with Court of Swans. We have ladies, knights, men-at-arms, and more. There is, of course, romance, but also subterfuge, chaos, evil, and action. I had many an ample opportunity for entertainment and dream fodder and enjoyed just about every minute even while on edge with fury and hope. I consistently enjoy Melanie's books and while my life of motherhood and homeschooling does not let me read as many as fast, I definitely enjoy my stolen moments to dive into such an adventure. I am eager to read the next in the series soon.

I read this book as an advanced reader copy in the Netgalley app on my new Galaxy Tab A 2019. I will definitely look to add this to my Kindle library.

Original thought: need to write a full review in the morning, not in the night when I picked up my review copy at 24% to read a bit and find myself at 2 AM finishing the story... thanks Melanie 😊. #courtofswans #netgalley @melanieauthor

Melanie Dickerson may be the authority on writing medieval romances. Like her other works, she steeps the story in details, making the distant time period come to life without overwhelming the reader. Similar to the Cinderella story, Delia is orphaned and left under the authority of her stepmother. With no feelings of love for her stepdaughter and hoping only to ensure her infant son's future, her stepmother falsely accuses Delia's brothers of treason and leaves Delia to largely fend for herself. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Delia is determined to save her brothers from an undeserved punishment, even though she finds herself at a loss for how to do so.
The harsh realities of everyday life during this time period are mixed in with political intrigue and eventually a sweet romance. The start of a new series, this first installment was satisfying and a quick read with a fast paced plot. There were times when Delia came across as too naive and I felt frustrated with her, but I could excuse this since she was so focused on doing all she could to save her brothers, possibly blinding her to unwelcome situations.
3.5 stars
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced complimentary copy. This did not impact my review.

This has been my favorite Melanie Dickerson that I’ve read in a long time. I love the medieval England setting and the retelling of the seven swans. Which is a fairy tale that I’m not familiar with. Though reading this confirmed that I am out of the target range. I would have loved these books as a teen because of my love of fairy tales. But I feel like teens who love history and fairy tales and retelling will love this one.

I'm so excited for Melanie Dickerson's new series! I really wanted to like this book as I'm such a fan of hers and I love the wild Swans story but I found it just wasn't as good as her other books. I found the storyline kept taking sharp turns which I felt interrupted the flow of the story. I did love the Dericott family, how they were all so different but worked so well as a family unit. And I love love love the cover! Overall it was an enjoyable read, I just found it a little lacking when I compare it with her other work. Can't wait to read Delia's brothers' stories!

Title: Court of Swans
Author: Melanie Dickerson
Pub date: 05 Jan 2021
Review date: 24 Feb 2021

Delia's idyllic life as daughter of an earl is shattered when her father dies and his wife accuses Delia's seven brothers of treason and murder. Sir Geoffrey did not expect his first assignment as captain of the guard to be the arrest of boys so young. Determined to rescue her brothers, Delia secures a position as a seamstress for the queen. Her quest is all but impossible as the executions continue. Sir Geoffrey offers to be her ally, but should she trust him in a court where everyone has an agenda?

I have been reading Melanie Dickerson's books for years and they are very quick reads. I do feel like all her books are basically the same story again and again with slight variations on characters and of course the fairy tale, I can pretty much tell everything that is gonna happen. That being said I do still enjoy myself while I read them but they are a little forgettable afterwards. I am interested in continuing the series with the brothers of this one though.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It is all kinds of awkward that I'm just now diving into Court of Swans Trust me, it really truly is. Mostly because I got this back in October and I'm just reading it now. It's February. So, yeah, I definitely suck when it comes to reading eARCs sometimes but there are rare occasions that I can just sit and focus on them as well.

Exhibit A - today. For some reason it is definitely eARC day and I'm not ashamed one bit.

Back to the book though. In this, you will meet Delia. We are also getting to see the beautiful England in 1381. I've never been to England but I would be pretty excited to visit nowadays. I've only ever been out of the country twice - Canada and Paris.

Sooooooo I definitely need to travel once it's a-okay in the world again.

Again, back to the book. After meeting Delia, I came to the conclusion that she was a pretty sweet and cute girl. Not sure how she manages to like all seven of her brothers when I can't even get along with my two older siblings.. but the world is filled with mysterious people. I will say that the evil step-monster, I mean step-mother, was horrible. I absolutely hated her in the beginning and after her brothers were under arrest - well, I immediately thought of her.

Evil wench.

Luckily for them, Delia knows that they are being wrongly accused of whatever stupid blasphemy the king's men stated to her. I mean.. yeah it's totally and completely believable that the a 10 year old was plotting against the king or whatever.

TOTALLY. BELIEVABLE.

Then there's King Richard. For some reason, which seems pretty odd to me now, he was making me think of the movie 'Robin Hood'. The one with Russel Crowe. Yet, this character reminded me of Prince John from the movie who becomes King after his brother dies at battle. The reason why my brain went down this route.. well, they both ended up annoying me. Plus, they were both on this war path of killing people on a whim. Especially if they posed a threat.

Like Delia's 10 year old brother. Such a threat.

Honestly, so much happens in this book and I enjoyed every second of it. I enjoyed all the twists and turns throughout it because they kept me on my toes. Even the ending was surprisingly good and I wasn't expecting it to go that way at all.

In the end, I'm definitely intrigued to dive into the second book to see what is going to happen to Audrey.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was not the book for me. In theory, it should have been- I'm an historian who spent most of her historical career studying the medieval period, and spends more time reading about royals than I should admit. However, this fell flat for me. I found it rushed and it didn't feel it had been fully fleshed out. The pacing was slow for my taste and the characters felt 2D. (It could be due to a lack of knowledge of the specific fairytale behind this one, though- I'm not overly familiar with the Wild Swans story.)

Honestly, this book was not great. I did find myself reading it fairly quickly, though, so for that, it gets two stars. I didn't feel connected to any of the characters, and it was definitely geared toward a younger audience than I thought going into it, which made for a bit of an unpleasant surprise. I also read in other reviews that the book is a fairytale retelling, and even though I'm not familiar with the original story, it does make me wary of the author's creativity in terms of plot. I won't be reading the sequel, and though I'm always down for a historical romance, this one didn't hit the mark.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an early copy!

This author has gotten better and better at weaving key truths into a story that is a rewritten fairy tale that adults or young people would benefit from. While I am keenly aware that it is a book written for the YA market, as an adult, I really enjoyed not only the Court of Swans with the sister and seven brothers, but nuggets of hidden wisdom throughout. I am so excited for this new series and hope to see more of the brothers in further books.

This tale of brothers framed for a crime they didn't commit had me worried for sure. What would happen? Who would survive? Would justice prevail for some, all, none?

The theme that Delia is struggling with and learning is how, yes, God is good and just, but that does not always translate into goodness and justice here on this earth. It's a hard lesson to swallow but oh so important, especially these days and I appreciated reading it to shore it up in my own mind and heart.

I did not understand the swans. Why they were mentioned, what their point was, any of it. But overall, my favorite thing was how much Delia and her brothers loved and supported each other. It was so sweet. My brothers are not quite as affectionate as hers, but they are just as protective and it is a nice feeling to which I could relate.

But now I realize that even though God is good and just and He will eventually make all things right, sometimes wrongs are not made right in this life.

Everything is politically motivated here. The truth rarely has any bearing in these matters.

We as for thorns to be taken from us, trials to end, but sometimes God does not take them away. He walks us through them. So stay hopeful and believe for the best, but don't lose faith if the worst happens.

Many thanks to NetGalley for a copy of the book. All opinions are my own and a favorable review was not required.

An exciting adventure from start to finish! I really enjoyed reading this book. The story was fast paced and exciting, the characters interesting and well developed. I enjoyed reading a book in this time period as well, which isn't a time period I find many historical fiction books set in.

I enjoyed this sweet and clean fairy tale novel! It was quite similar to other Dickerson books that I have read. I love the historical fairy tale aspect with the feel good Christian messages in it. I did feel like the characters were a bit too cliched and unrealistic for my taste. Also, the writing itself was quite simple, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I prefer a bit wittier and flowery prose. I really appreciate that it is appropriate for all ages without bad language or mature content, which is increasingly difficult to find, even in YA.

Court of Swans by Melanie Dickerson.

I have read other books by Melanie Dickerson so when I got approved to read this book by the publisher through NetGalley, I was so delighted.

This book is a first in the series.

I learnt so many lessons from the plot.

Truly, in everything, we need to trust God either in the good times or bad times.

I enjoyed the characters in the ploy. I highly recommend this book for everyone seeking for an adventure with a resilient but sweet heroine.

The title of this book perfectly fits the storyline.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are mine.