I have always been a huge Jude Devereaux fan. This book is not her usual book. It's her first book into the romantasy genre. It starts a little slow, but picks up. Its setting is a different planet and centers around fairytales. I loved the concept of the story. However, there's no spice in this one, but there is romance. I will definitely be reading the next book.

I used to read Jude way back in the day with her historical romance, so when I saw this on netgalley I immediately grabbed it. The beginning of the book kind of reminded me of Guardians of the Galaxy. Intergalactic travels and adventures that's what Kaley, a student and expert in folklore and fairy stories, finds in this book. Be forewarned this one ends in a cliffhanger.

Enjoyable romantasy story! I grew up as a young adult reading Jude Devereax’s historical romances. I haven’t read her books for a while, but was super intrigued and excited to read the author’s branching out into the fantasy realm! And Order of Swans did not disappoint!
The book tells about the journey of Kaley Arens, a PhD student and fairy tale expert. When her life circumstances unexpectedly shift, Kaley decides to join her lifelong friend Jobi on a visit to his home. She thinks she’s traveling to an island in another country- but eventually comes to understand she has traveled to another planet. There, Kaley puts her fairy tale knowledge to good use and steps in to stop further tragedies as they unfold. She journeys through the planet with Taney, her romantic interest and who is from the mysterious Order of Swans- and Sojee her bodyguard. Along the way, Kaley is challenged to survive, to help the people they encounter and faces some big decisions, such as whether to stay or try to return home. Heads up- this is book 1 of 2- and definitely left me wanting to know what happens next! Highly recommend!

If you wanted a retelling of every fairytale combined into one, this one is for you. Not to mention it’s set on another planet with our FMC being the center of it all. It was giving Once Upon a Time vibes mixed with the enemies to lover trope. I binged it in one workday so the narrator definitely held my interest. It was a cute slow burn romance.

Unfortunately, I did not get to reading this as an ARC due to the holidays and flu and work. But I do look forward to reading this as a finished book.

Jude Deveraux truly has a way with words. Order of Swans is a retelling of the fairytales we grew up with. The chemistry between the characters is everything you'd expect from a Deveraux novel, and leaves you wanting more. The first of a series, so there's definitely more to come!

1.75 Stars

Thank you to Netgalley for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Initially the title, cover, and plot intrigued me. I love a good transmigration plot point where a character gets transported into another world. No where in the synopsis did it hint that this was going to be a book about aliens which I was surprised about. Going into the book I expected it to be a fantasy, so reading about the sci-fi elements caught me off guard.

Kaleys character was a bit unrealistic at times. I know that the whole point was that she didn’t know she was on an alien planet but how could she be so chill with the blue light chip in her arm and seeing a literal dragon. She was too nonchalant about everything strange going on that I didn’t find her character all that believable. I get that she’s a folklorist and an expert on fairytales but she seems way to accepting of the newfound magic when she supposedly believes they’re just on an island on earth. It’s just so unbelievable that she didn’t notice beforehand. Her biggest motivator was to document new fairytales and find a new topic to write her dissertation on for grad school, but the author spends little to no time fleshing out what specifically Kaley wants to research. It makes me feel detached from her motivations and ultimately her character.

The writing focuses a lot on telling us the characters thoughts and feelings instead of showing us. Particularly when Kaley finds out she’s been lied to we’re told that she goes through the stages of grief but we don’t see that in any of her actions, we’re just told she does and then the story moves right along.

When Kaley does eventually find out she was lied to, she takes it surprisingly well. She doesn’t have a big angry blowup like all the characters assumed she would, so the eventual reveal felt a bit lackluster. There was so much tension built up over how she would react, then she just remained calm and didn’t get mad and accepted everything so easily.

I also don’t like how it’s repeatedly brought up that everyone is trying to set Kaley and Tanek up together. So many characters point of that they would be so good together but we don’t actually see them develop their relationship with deeper one on one conversations that make their eventual confession of feelings seem unbelievable. On Kaley’s side it was mostly lust at the beginning as well. When Tanek first offered Kaley to stay and live with him instead of returning to Earth it just felt out of left-field and more out of convenience bc she gets along with his swans, not so much because he actually loves her. There’s too much telling and dialogue instead of actually showing us and building the relationships between the characters.

The whole reason I picked this book up was because I was interested in how she would interact and influence the actual fairytales and stories, but the story didn’t really focus on that at all. When an earthen story was mentioned, save for the Hansel and Gretel tie in, it felt like we don’t really spend that much time with it. Or rather we didn’t spend much time in Kaley’s mind as she didn’t really think or analyze why the fairytales she knows are real in this new world. She just acknowledges they’re similar, solves the problem, and then we move on without her ever doing any critical thinking or tying it back to her research goals. She lets all the crazy plot points happen to her without any protest, which is so unrealistic. I get that she’s processing being lied to and it’s a strange new world she’s in, but we don’t spend nearly enough time in her character’s POV to go with her on this journey.

Everything happens so quickly there is no tension or stakes. There isn’t a lot of world building and the plot moves too quickly. For example when they were on the mountain at the end of the book, there’s no explanation for why some characters appear when they do. And Kaley moves on from these strange occurrences without batting an eye and just accepting everything. It feels like I as the reader am thinking more critically about whats happening while the characters she just accepts everything, making me feel frustrated. The other MMC’s we follow know a lot more about the world, but there is little to no world building from their POVs either so we’re left in the dark. We don’t know anything about the world so I don’t feel a sense of fear or urgency for the characters. Without tension, the mystery falls flat and I feel removed from the characters, the twists, and the story.

Overall the premise was interesting, but it ultimately fell flat for me.

I so wanted to love this book, having been a fan of Jude Devereaux for quite some time. But it did not grab me and I felt the story was disjointed, a bit too fantasy for me. I do love her historical fiction stories though, so not the writing style, simply the genre here. I couldn’t finish it. Sorry. Thanks to #netgalley for allowing me a glimpse at this book to read and review.

I love fractured fairytales. Adn this continued that tradition and provided a fun and very unique take on the mythology of fairy tales.

Order of Swans
Jude Deveraux
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Kaley Arens is a PhD student and quite the expert in folklore. She has always felt that fairy stories are more than mere entertainment.

It's only when Kaley decides to accompany her lifelong friend Jobi on a visit to his home that she realizes she still has so much more to learn. Bellis is not the remote island she thought it was. It's another world altogether and takes three years to get there by ship. It is not only stunningly beautiful it has its own royalty and its own rules.

Kaley has special abilities and a special connection with Jobi. Tasked with locating a run away prince, Kaley and her new companions-Tanek, who is a member of the order of the Swans, and Sojee, Kaley's special body guard end up journeying through a land that is both thrilling and terrifying at the same time.

Here on Bellis nothing is quite what it seems. And Kaley is discovering that she herself can change the outcome of the fairy tales that she knows oh so well. While her own story is unfolding in ways that she never could have predicted, so is her destiny which is one she never could have predicted.

Jude Deveraux knows how to take any genre and turn it into a great story, but this I didn't see coming. From the moment I started reading I was mesmerized and when the book finally ended all I could think was I need book two now. What a phenomenal story. The characters were so different yet I learned to love almost every one of them. The animals were incredibly perfect. The way they protected Kaley and fought tooth and nail for her was amazing. All in all I honestly thought that after all of these years of reading Ms. Deveraux's books that I could not get so involved, but I was wrong. If you are a fan of Jude Deveraux or fantasy you need to read this book.Order of Swans
Jude Deveraux
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Kaley Arens is a PhD student and quite the expert in folklore. She has always felt that fairy stories are more than mere entertainment.

It's only when Kaley decides to accompany her lifelong friend Jobi on a visit to his home that she realizes she still has so much more to learn. Bellis is not the remote island she thought it was. It's another world altogether and takes three years to get there by ship. It is not only stunningly beautiful it has its own royalty and its own rules.

Kaley has special abilities and a special connection with Jobi. Tasked with locating a run away prince, Kaley and her new companions-Tanek, who is a member of the order of the Swans, and Sojee, Kaley's special body guard end up journeying through a land that is both thrilling and terrifying at the same time.

Here on Bellis nothing is quite what it seems. And Kaley is discovering that she herself can change the outcome of the fairy tales that she knows oh so well. While her own story is unfolding in ways that she never could have predicted, so is her destiny which is one she never could have predicted.

Jude Deveraux knows how to take any genre and turn it into a great story, but this I didn't see coming. From the moment I started reading I was mesmerized and when the book finally ended all I could think was I need book two now. What a phenomenal story. The characters were so different yet I learned to love almost every one of them. The animals were incredibly perfect. The way they protected Kaley and fought tooth and nail for her was amazing. All in all I honestly thought that after all of these years of reading Ms. Deveraux's books that I could not get so involved, but I was wrong. If you are a fan of Jude Deveraux or fantasy you need to read this book.

I’ve read Jude Deveraux before and have good memories of getting lost in her storytelling. So, I was excited to read "Order of Swans" (the first book in her "The Blue Swan" series). The premise intrigued me—an alien secret society, romance, a touch of magic? Sign me up. But unfortunately, this one just wasn’t for me.

Maybe it’s Deveraux’s first foray into romantasy, and look, I love a well-crafted or fun take on the genre. But this just didn’t grab me. The characters felt distant, and despite my best efforts, I couldn’t latch onto their storylines. I found myself disengaging, my mind wandering, until I eventually realized I just wasn’t invested in the outcome. I finished for the sake of finishing.

That said, if you’re a die-hard fan of the fantasy-romance hybrid genre and have a higher tolerance for trope-heavy, slightly meandering plots, this might work better for you. But for me, "Order of Swans "was a miss.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the advanced reader's copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and MIRA Books for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Order of Swans is the first in a fantasy-rich romance duology that is utterly unique and strangely addictive.

It’s hard to put my thoughts into words about this book. It’s…weird. But good? But also, still very much weird. It took me a hot minute to get into the writing style and it’s still not my ultimate favourite but the characters drew me in. The alien characters in particular were very…alien, and I could never quite wrap my head around them but I really wanted to and I loved them all the same. Similarly, I could never predict where the plot was headed, but once I made my peace with the clunky bits that bogged down the book at first, I was hooked!

I think every romantasy fan needs to give this odd duckling of a book a try, and then DM me so we can share notes.

I want to badly to say this book was fantastic, the premise of another planet where fairytale are a real thing and the inhabitants don't know it is great. Sadly the story telling for #OrderofSwans by #JudeDeveraux.
The whole story felt off kilter and jumped about all over the place. It really is too bad because what I did read if it was better written would have been one hell of a book.

Thank you to #Netgalley for the chance to read an eArc of #OrderofSwans by #JudeDeveraux in return for a fair and honest review.

I loved this one so much. I knew I’d like it, but I got swept away in the writing and the mix of fairy tales strewn throughout the world. Kaley is a fantastic character that is able to utilize her knowledge of fairy tales to solve many problems in the world. This is like a portal fantasy, but instead of a portal it's a 3 year spaceship ride, which is a wild twist on the genre. There is a lot of suspension of disbelief in this one, but I found myself lost in the world so much that it wasn’t heard to suspend that disbelief.

I received an advanced copy of Order of Swans from Netgalley and the publisher and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Some books you start reading and immediately know are not for you. Order of Swans is one such book. I honestly thought I would love this, as fairy tale retellings are my bread and butter. The main character is going to a place where the residents are living the fairy tales? Sign me up. The sci-fi parts initially threw me for a loop as I wasn't expecting that, but I put my surprise and confusion aside and continued. No matter how much I tried, though, I couldn't bring myself to finish this book and DNF'd around the 10% mark, which is far earlier than usual. But again, when you know, you know.

My reasoning boils mostly down to the writing. If I didn't know that this was supposed to be an adult book, I would've said it was a middle-grade. The writing was overly simple yet somehow convoluted. It was nearly impossible for me to tell who was talking in half the scenes with dialogue because there were minimal dialogue tags. Well, shouldn't I have been able to tell because there were at least two people in the scene, and they'd be saying different things with their distinct personalities? You'd think so. I had to go back and reread whole pages multiple times to figure out what was going on because nothing stood out. Nothing captured my attention enough for me to take note. Simple words described the sci-fi aspects, yet I still had no idea what they meant. Absolutely nothing was explained.

In the spirit of keeping it short, I'll end the review here because I didn't read enough of the book to make too many comments. Order of Swans was not the right book for me.

Kaley accompanies her lifelong friend Jobi on a visit to his home in hopes of learning more about the isolated land that he lives in. She hopes to learn more about their folklore and fairy tales so that she can complete her dissertation. However, after being knocked out on the flight, Kaley doesn't realize that when she wakes up, she's not just in another country, but she has traveled to another planet. Upon this planet, there are many mysteries to uncover, and seeing some of the fairy tales that she grew up with on Earth coming to life is astounding.

I didn't realize that this story that sounded like fantasy would actually have such a strong sci-fi component. I did enjoy learning about Kaley's mysterious connections with Jobi and when she is sent off on a mission to retrieve a prince for his wedding, she begins to learn more about Tanek and Sojee, her travling companions.

The book was good and the story was interesting, however, it felt very complicated. A lot of the time, there were so many unusual names and backstories that it took a bit for me to follow it and determine who we were talking about. This is clearly the first part of a series, and it cuts off at the end with a lot of the mysteries still yet to learn about. I think I will want to read the second book as well, despite the intricacies of the stories.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advanced Reader Copy. All opinions are my own.

Not what I expected.

I think I’m disappointed because when I read the blurb I thought the FMC is going to be a part of the fairy tales herself and not just a sidekick of them. I love fairy tale retellings so she being the savior of the tales as an onlooker rather than being a part of it took me off.

I drifted off in some places too so as a whole I was bored at some places.

I also wish that authors stop forcing academic elements into stories when they aren’t actually doing anything to the plot. The second reason I wanted to read this was because the FMC was an academic. That part was so minimal.

Some people might love this though but for me this is all over the place.

Thank you to HTP and Hive for the ALC and E-ARC. All thoughts are my own.

I was drawn to this book by its promise of intertwining fairytale and fantasy elements. I grew up reading this author and was excited to see her step out of her genre.

The prologue was confusing, and the first few chapters were slow to engage. The pacing of the book was fast, but it felt like important details, such as world-building, were sacrificed as a result.

While the book had some fantasy elements, it didn't feel like a true fantasy novel. I wouldn't recommend it to my fellow fantasy enthusiasts. Overall, this was a frustrating read, and I wish I had more positive aspects to highlight.

Thank you NetGalley!!

“What if I told you that my country is on another planet and it takes three years of Earth time to get there?”

Order of Swans starts us in a prologue from Jobi's point-of-view, he's an alien from the planet Bellis who's currently on Earth. As the third most powerful being from the Order of Sight, he can see parts of the future and he knows that Kaley, a half-light, a baby born of a Bellisian and Earthling, is going to end up being vastly important to his world, if not knowing exactly why. As he manipulates circumstances that has Kaley's Bellisian mom sent back to their planet and growing up with her father and grandparents on their farm with himself guiding her and teaching her things he foresees she'll have to know, he plans for her future. After the prologue, we're jumped twenty-six years into the future and Jobi has once again manipulated things so that Kaley, unknowingly, is traveling with him back to Bellis.

Those fairy tales had been written decades ago. But here, on these isolated islands, they were happening now.

The majority of this was told from Kaley's pov, and she's one of those female main characters that takes everything in stride, a little too well. She thinks she's just in a different country and does not know that she was knocked out for the three years it took to travel from Earth to Bellis. However, she has some kind of chip in her arm that at different points, helps her instantly understand languages and heal her when activated by others and, oh yeah, there's a dragon and events and people that curiously seem to follow the fairy tales and folklore stories she has spent studying for her PhD, the reason she agreed to go to Jobi's home “island”, to learn new stories to study. Kaley's had an unnatural ability to bond with animals all her life, so every few pages, she's making some kind of new animal friend, too. This had a curious mix of fantasy and scifi that didn't quite gel right for me. Kaley gets to Bellis early on and then the story became a road adventure pretty quickly as she and her two companions, Sojee, a tree of a man sent as body guard, and Tanek, who communes with swans and who Kaley has the physical hots for while emotionally dipping into growly with each other to lovers (no bedroom scenes here, only a kiss), are sent to bring back the King's son, so he can be married.

“Flush toilets but no computers,” she said to herself. “Crossbows but no guns. Spaceships but no cars.” She didn’t think she would live long enough to understand the planet.

The road adventure had Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, and other fairy tales popping up for our little crew to encounter. Around halfway, Kaley learns that she's not on a wild island adventure but in fact on a different planet, she, in character, handles it with little fuss other than some brief anger over being lied to. The world building was a little weak but we do know that the kingdom does seem to be a little in disarray and there are hierarchies of Orders: Sight, Swans, Royals, Kings, and Peacekeepers. This is the first in a Duology, so while the setting and characters are introduced, not a whole lot is explained, except that Jobi knows Kaley is important to their world. Tenak's son, Mekos, at one point gets kidnapped and the latter second half has them working to rescue him, which brings in a couple new characters and more reveals that leave you nothing but more questions.

“This isn’t how fairy tales are supposed to end.”

The ending delivers a kiss between Kaley and Tanek, they were together the majority of the time but there still, to me, wasn't a strong build up to their romantic relationship and while we get declarations of love, I didn't feel the depth. We're also left with a cliffhanger, remember, duology, and the future of our couple is in question, along with Kaley's foreseen purpose by Jobi and, honestly, what is actually happening on this fantasy scifi planet. While this had some interesting mashups of concepts and ideas, this kind of read more like a roughly filled in outline and I wanted more of a filled in and shored up story.

I didn't quite make it to this book on my endless TBR, but I'm giving it five stars for the cover alone!