Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Swan Song for My Era

Author: Elsie Swain

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 3/5

Diversity: Malaysian/Asian characters, SE Asian queer vitiligo MC, SE Asian queer MC, Sapphic f/f romance

Recommended For...: young adult readers, contemporary, ownvoice, romance, SE Asian

Publication Date: April 19, 2021

Genre: YA Contemporary

Recommended Age: 16+ (Body shaming, Bullying, Divorce, Childhood trauma, Homophobia, Grief, Romance, Slight gore, Slight Language)

Explanation of CWs: There is body shaming, homophobia, and bullying in this book. The book touches on divorce and childhood trauma. There is slight gore and some cursing. There is romance in this book and it’s Sapphic friends to lovers. The book shows grief as well.

Publisher: Ukiyoto Publishing

Pages: 415

Synopsis: What happens when Hope Vale, an aspiring Vitiligo make-up artist who wants to eradicate the market of whitening products meets Spes Zrey, an arrogant Hugo-Boss awardee struggling to shape her Designer dream, as they envision reshaping Asia into the next Fashion empire together?

'Set in Malaysia, this Contemporary Fiction is all about the gruelling ambition against all hurdles of reality to break the confinements of Gender and the stereotypes of preferred white beauty in Asia.

Review: For the most part this was an okay book. The book did well to talk about Asian beauty standards and it takes them down. The book is ownvoice and is honestly written. The book has well developed characters and beautifully detailed world building. I also loved the romance and the platonic interactions in this book.

However, this book takes forever to get into. The book is so slow paced and the beginning feels like a crawl instead of a walk. The book finally picked up at 40% but there were a lot of times I wanted to DNF it. The book is also very flowery in its writing and that took a bit for me to work out.

Verdict: It’s great, just hard to get into.