Garet is a jewellery designer in New York who lost her mother in a tragic car crash. She never got to hear her mother's last words over the noise of the jaws of life but the moment is scarred onto her memory. When her father's gallery experiences financial difficulties, a pair of Pissarios are stolen in suspicious circumstances leaving him in hospital. That same day, Garet had accepted an odd request to open a silver box that bared the same crest that was on her mother's signet ring.

From the moment she opens the box, nothing is the same. Garet slowly learns more about her mother's past and discovers that she's not just a normal woman but has hidden powers and great responsibility.

There were parts of this book that I loved, I thought Garet was a well-rounded, realistic character for the main. Many of the supernatural characters were based on those in myth and it was fun seeing them adapted to a modern setting however their speech sometimes came across and clichéd and cheesy. It was as if the authors had decided they should speak in an old-fashioned manner but didn't research what that would be. As the characters had assimilated themselves into the modern world and passed as normal, it doesn't make any sense that they wouldn't speak like everyone else.

The book is co-written by husband and wife team, Lee Slonimsky and Carol Goodman, and I wonder if that explains my mixed feelings. There are certainly two different styles, one I much prefer.

I was disappointed that the imagery of the swan didn't pan out into anything more meaningful. It felt a little like it had got forgotten or someone was just trying to be clever with the signet ring/cygnet connection.

There is a sequel out now, The Watchtower and I liked Black Swan Rising enough to consider reading more.

This and my other reviews can be found at http://amethystbookwyrm.blogspot.co.uk/

Thanks to Netgalley and Bantam for giving me this book to review.

After the bad day of finding out that she is neck deep in debt, jewellery designer Garet James stumbles into an unusual antiques store. The shop keeper commissions her to use her jewellery making skills to open a silver box which has the same swan symbol that is on the deceased mother’s ring. After managing to open the silver box Garet discovers that the world is full of Fey, Vampires and fairy-tale creatures and that she is a Watchtower, a person whose job it is to keep the balance between the humans and magical creatures. Now with the help of a vampire called Will and Oberon, King of the Faeries, Garet must stop the alchemist John Dee from summoning the demons of Despair and Discord, and destroying New York and the world.

Black Swan Rising is an ok urban fantasy book with faeries and vampires, but I found it really to get into, even though there seemed to be lot of elements in it that I should have liked. That pacing of this book is really slow especially the middle as it seemed not much was happening.

I could not get on with any of the characters, even Garet, and I could not really care what happened to them or what happened next. Black Swan Rising is an ok paranormal novel but I wouldn’t recommend it as it was not as good as it could have been.

There was a completely unnecessary (inappropriate) part in the book, but the rest was ok.

Fantastic start to a new trilogy.
Kick arse young woman with some amazing abilities meets HOT vampire...

I happen to be one of those people that cannot go into a bookshop without buying a book, and who is compelled to buy books with nice front covers. And Black Swan Rising was the result of one of those trips to Waterstones.

Lee Carroll is a husband and wife writing team; Carol Goodman and Lee Slonimsky. Lee is a poet, I believe, and Carol has written many books before, though until I picked up this book I hadn't heard of either of them.

This is the story of Garet James. Garet is short for Margaret, because of course nobody can have a normal name any more, it has to be shortened into something different. Garet lives with her father in New York, helps him run a struggling gallery, and makes jewellery in her spare time. Then, on one particularly foggy day in New York, she is drawn to an elderly man's antiques shop, where she is asked to open a silver box.

And then things start to change, and Garet is drawn into a world she didn't even know existed; a world of vampires, fairies, demons and other impossible things.

This should be a really great book. On paper it ticks all the boxes: urban fantasy set in New York? Check! Vampire? Check! Fairies are involved? Check! Strong female lead? Check! So I'm not quite sure why it took me so long to get through this, or why I have no real desire to get the next book when it is out in a smaller size paperback. It could be because I've read this type of story many times before. I've read books with John Dee in them, both as a good guy and a bad guy. I've read books with a vampire love interest in them. I've read books with fairies in them. Maybe I'm tired of it?

This book is well-researched and a lot of thought has gone into each part. The descriptions are detailed, and the characters are interesting in their own way, but parts of it didn't quite make sense. I didn't get the part towards the end where two characters dissolve into atoms or something to that effect. And I didn't understand the part before that where Garet and another character become water. It's explained, but it's so ridiculous and unbelievable a talent that you just kind of skim through it and think, okay then. It's a bit similar to the air talent, too. All a bit silly, and in the end I don't think much of it was used. Maybe it will be in the next one?

And the love story seemed a bit silly, too. Wouldn't it be creepy to think of yourself as having sex with someone your ANCESTOR had sex with possibly? There doesn't seem to be much of a reason given as to why Garet falls for Will anyway, other than he saves her life a couple of times. I thought that Jay would probably be a much better love interest for Garet than Will.

As for the big scene at the end with Dee, it's hard to figure out why it should be called such a thing at all. There was a fire, and most characters did stupid things that didn't make much sense. One character told Garet something that should have been interesting and lead somewhere, but didn't. And then everything just went back to normal. It was a bit of a let-down. It seemed like the first half of the book lead to something very interesting and wow, but the second half just left you thinking...what the hell just happened?

All in all, I'm thinking the bad points outweigh the good: a good attempt, but not enough to hold my interest.

Could have been a four-star book, but in the end it was good, not great. It's a series and it kind of has a cliffhanger--but reading the synopsis for book two doesn't make me want to jump straight to it. I really enjoyed about half of this book and was bored by the other half. I do like how the story is unique. Yes, there are vampires and fairies, but in a different way than you've seen them before. That said, there's so little back story on some of them you don't really feel like *any* loose ends are tied up at the end of the book--you're just...more confused.

I had the misfortune of only discovering this was the first of a series when I was near the end of this first book, when I looked it up on Goodreads. So when many plotlines were left hanging at the end, I was all the more frustrated and unforgiving, as I'd started the book anticipating a complete and satisfying story experience. (I think it's ethical for cover information to convey when it's part of a series, but clearly many in the publishing industry don't agree, or don't care.)

If I were to put aside the etiquette breach of having been tricked into reading it, and base my opinion only on the merit of a Part Oner, I'd say it's a good book for the patient of you. It's an intriguing gothic fantasy for those who are committed enough to push on though the inundation of mysteries and questions with no answers or explanations (that would be most of the first half), and are determined enough to source following books to complete the questions they'll be left hanging with. (Oh yes, there are many.)

While I'm curious to know how some plotlines turned out beyond the narration of this book, I don't feel sufficient loyalty to immediately seek out the following book. Not after the underhanded tactics employed to get me to read this one in the first place. If it had said 'Book One' somewhere on the cover, spine, or even the back, I imagine I would have enjoyed it much more. I wouldn't have felt betrayed and disappointed at being left with only the limb of a story. I may read Book Two later, but probably only when nothing else is in my lineup.

If you have a rainy weekend, time and inclination, by all means give this one a go. Probably better enjoyed if you have the next book to go straight onto.

Beautiful book - it actually felt pretty to read, if that makes any sense. Am totally enchanted by the whole idea, and will follow Garet into book 2 - The Watchtower.

This is Urban Fantasy, and I totally see why people might compare it to Harkness' "Discovery of Witches", but really it isn't quite like that at all.

Garet James is in severe financial trouble, her father is in the hospital and is suspected of insurance fraud, and their recent acquisition of Pissaro winter snowscapes have been stolen.

Then she walks into a mysterious jeweler's store she's never seen before and agrees to open a mysterious silver box with the same swan seal as a ring her dead mother gave her.

Only opening the box will also open her eyes to the fae that live in New York. Garet must travel around New York physically and fae-wise in order to gain the information necessary from stopping the nefarious John Dee from his ultimate plan of chaos.

So this was fine. It was readable, the version of fae here, tied in with the elements with names like Obie Smith, Noam Erdmann, and Melusine were cool. The backstory of how Garet's mom ties in with John Dee and the darkly handsome Will Hughes was also fine.

But...goodness I'm not sure what my problem was. I never got into Garet. I never got into her luuuurrve for Will, and never felt the excitement or urgency of her encounters with John Dee.

Maybe its because everyone seems so matter-of-fact about everything? Maybe its because I felt so emotionally removed from Garet, she was just too...plainly Mary Sue in some ways. Or maybe the romance never took off with me because how little face time Will and Garet spend before being drawn to eachother.

I probably won't go out and seek the sequel, but I'd read it if I came across it accidentally at the library. As I said, the backstory and world building (and endless details of New York. If you live in New York you probably would love this book, it's very focused there) were cool. I just didn't connect with Garet at all.

This Book's Snack Rating: Sour Cream and Chive Lay's for the somewhat cheesy romance on a fae-dwelling New York love affair of a story with a slightly distant heroine

This book started out very strong, but it fell flat for me in the last 50 pages, and I was disappointed with the ending!