My full review is available on my blog Wine Cellar Library and Reedsy Discovery

Tropes:
fairy tale retelling, contemporary romance, second-chance romance, billionaire romance

Beautifully damaging, a romantic fairy tale retelling of the beauty within, second chances, and healing

When I started reading Swan Song, I never expected to find such a beautiful and emotional story in a retelling of The Ugly Duckling. Sasha can see beyond Vaughn’s coarse exterior to the beauty within long before he becomes conventionally attractive. However, his inner beauty diminishes the higher his star power grows, and he begins to push her away. Unable to reconcile “Ivan” with the man she loves, Sasha cuts contact. Their chance reunion many years later is heartbreaking. So much broken trust and mutual feelings of abandonment prove to be almost insurmountable. In my opinion, the best love stories are those that threaten to break the reader’s heart, and Swan Song held me on the precipice.

Anyone who loves emotional romance novels and creative reimaginings of fairy tales will love Katy Regnery’s writing. As the standalone ninth installment in her A Modern Fairytale series, I am eager to start at the beginning to discover what magic she has woven into the other retellings.

With some explicit scenes and triggering topics, Swan Song is best-suited for new adult and adult audiences. Through excellent storytelling and a wealth of feeling in her prose, I cannot recommend Katy Regnery’s Swan Song highly enough.