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.