The Wild Swans (Love Spell romance: A faerie tale romance) [Mass Market Paperback]

THE WILD SWANS is not laugh-out-loud funny, but it is light-hearted and a nice read if one needs a diversion. However, the story drags in a lot of places, the author so caught up in the details of a scene or situation that the plot grinds to screeching halt, and it takes a while for it to start back up again. The book could have stood to loose a hundred pages or so. Also, there are very few surprises in the book, mainly because one already knows the course of events from the fairy tale, and Holmes never veers off that path. The climax was much too short, especially in comparison with some other scenes in the story, and not particularly intense or suspenseful.

That being said, Holmes is a good writer, and her strong point in THE WILD SWANS is her characterizations. King Richard is the most well-drawn character, and even the minor characters, such as Richard's best friend, Harry, and his valet, Thurgood, are strong on the page.

All in all, THE WILD SWANS was a nice read and one that I would recommend to fans of Cinderella, Snow White, etc.; but it wasn't a "keeper," and I wouldn't read it more than once.

The story is a twisted fairy tale of a princess who is being punished for her twelve younger brothers mischievious trouble-making. In order to set her brothers free, she needs to make shirts of nettles for them in complete silence. She was minding her own business and along comes a handsome king to sweep her off her feet and takes her back to his castle, where he promtply marries her.

The tone is wickedly cute, the pace, just right, and the supporting characters lend enough humor to make me laugh out loud. King Richard has a definite sense of humor, and Goldie has the patience of a saint to put up with all the men in her life that insist on causing her trouble. Namely her twelve brothers that got her in this mess in the first place.

Goldie shows that a woman's spirit isn't always trampled by a strong man, in fact hers continues to grow as she allows herself to love him. King Richard, although reverting every now and then back to the "typical" male, realizes that it makes him happier to really 'listen' to what Goldie has to say. The king learns the art of how to understand a woman, well as much as he can anyway with her not being able to speak!