Elise is the foster-daughter of the King of Arcainia, a mathematician, and the country’s treasurer. She is not a hero. But when her step-mother, a wicked witch, curses Elise’s seven foster-brothers—the princes of Arcainia—and turns them into swans, Elise is the only one who can save them.To break the curse, she must knit seven shirts made of stinging nettles, but there’s a catch. She has to … has to complete the shirts without uttering a word, and if she doesn’t finish the task, Arcainia and her foster-brothers will be lost.
THE WILD SWANS is a retelling of the German Six Swans fairytale and the Dutch Wild Swans fairytale. It is a story of humor, love, adventure, and magic, and it is part of the top selling Timeless Fairy Tales series—a series comprised of loosely related adaptations of your favorite fairytales. All Timeless Fairy Tales take place in the same world and can be read all together, or as individual, stand-alone books.
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This one was just as good as the first book. Elise was just wanting to be included in the family. Her foster brothers expected her to be perfect and to do her duty as a royal. She even has the nickname of “perfect Princess”. When the king brings in her stepmother no one was expecting or very welcoming to her. Clotilde was a greedy and hateful character.
Clotilde didn’t like that her newfound stepchildren didn’t like her and that they made the king fight against her. Everyone was supposed to be cursed but somehow Elise managed to avoid the curse. Angelique, the enchantress that helped Prince Servin in the first book, helps Elise in finding a way to break the curse. All seven brothers are cursed to be swans throughout the day. When the sun sets they have an hour to be human then they turn back to Swans again.
Elise must sacrifice a lot to break it. She must not make one sound while knitting seven shirts out of stinging nettle. When her brothers are human for an hour Elise can talk during that time. I don’t know if I could stay quiet. I am normally a chatterbox or I talk to myself. The obstacles that Elise faces along the way would have also made me break down and cry. Not silent tears either. Oh no, it’s the big fat ugly cry that we normally hid in the bathroom to do.
The Wild Swans is a wonderful retelling, I think. I don’t know much about the original fairy tale but I liked this story. Plus can we talk about the cover? This is just GORGEOUS! Really, truly it is. There are little hints at the beginning of the story that shows this is set a little bit after the first book. Plus if you are like me and having a hard time on which foster brother to pick, Shea has two alternate endings. One for Falk and one for Rune. It made me so happy.
Bring on the next book. Oh, crud it’s Cinderella’s retelling. The fairy tale I don’t like the most.
Very interesting premise and so realistic! After all, supernaturals are as apt to get hurt as vanilla humans, right? Of course, they would need medical assistance! Who you gonna call – Station X! Great characters along with the interesting premise and this is a series I plan to keep following!
The only thing I didn’t like was that there was no true ending but a pick your own. I wish that was different.
This book has lovers and comedians all over. It is fun and entertaining and was one of the best books I’ve ever read. ( I’ve read many ).
I have to announce that this book is going to kill me. The writer has a choose your own ending to pick which guy Elise ends up with, and I like them BOTH. To prevent spoilers, I’m team first ending because I personally would pick that guy. This retelling of The Wild Swans had some great twists while honoring the weird bones of the original. The author has a knack for taking stories that everyone loves and fleshing them out enough to throw in some surprises. I’m making my way through this series, and I haven’t had any disappointments yet!
OK, I was raving about K.M. Shea, an author I discovered through the Entwined Fairy Tale series. I started her Timeless Fairy Tales series and loved the first book. I really enjoyed this book right up until the end. Of all things, she wrote it as a “choose your own ending”. ARGGHHH! Write a darn ending already. The story was very good up until that point. I read both endings, both are rushed and unsatisfactory. Have some faith in your own writing and give us one ending! I’m going to try the next book in this series, as they’re on Kindle Unlimited. If we get a “choose your own” ending again – that’s it. I won’t read anymore of this series. I just don’t care for endings like this but I guess other people like it due to the good reviews. I gave it three stars, the average of 5 for the story and 1 for the ending.