The first part of the book sucked me in with in just a few pages. It is really wonderful to read an urban fantasy with an adult main character. Her emotions seems very real especially in the first half of the novel. Carroll creates the most amazing images both of NY and of the more magical sights in the book. During the reading I constantly turned to google to see images of the places Gareth takes you.
The first part of this book is definatly the strongest. The more fantasy part of the book does feel a bit weaker. Not bad just less compelling. In the last half of the book our main character is kind of passive much of the time and there are a lot of description, which make it less interesting when the first part. Gareth just get sweeper along in part of the book which is a shame.
The ending was suprisingly long and melancolic - reminding me of the ending of lords of the rings. I really enjoyed the book.
Defiantly worth reading! And the included first chapter of the next book makes me want to pick it up as well. ( )

A unique read, found myself unable to put it down. Find yourself whisked away to a world hidden within our own and magic and mystery are surrounding it. ( )

I have had this book on my TBR read pile for some time and was excited to read it. This is the first book in the Black Swan Rising trilogy. This book started out as an engaging urban fantasy mystery with a gloomy vibe to it. Initially I really liked the down to earth heroine and was fascinated as she tried to unravel the mysteries about her past.

Things went downhill in the second half of the book when our heroine meets Oberon. Oberon starts dragging Garet around the city to meet other fae who are supposed to train her. Garet is supposed to use her newfound powers to stop an old sorcerer from summoning demons to destroy the city. It sounds pretty neat but it just got really boring and convoluted.

I would say the first third of this book is 4 stars and the last two thirds are 3 stars. I struggled to finish it and ended up skimming the last few chapters.

Overall this is an okay urban fantasy book but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it. It starts out with a unique and atmospheric mystery and then ends up very disjointed and flatout boring. I won’t be continuing with the series. ( )

this did not live up to potential. just another retelling of faerie in the mortal world. very disappointing. ( )

I have abandoned this one. I made it 100 pages in & it wasn't really holding my interest. The writing is well done but I was able to figure things out sooner than Garet on a few too many occasions & I grew tired of her having to catch up. I don't know if it's me or the book but this one is going back to the library unfinished & maybe I'll come back to it again.