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A Lake of Feathers and Moonbeams

Name: A Lake of Feathers and Moonbeams
Rating: 3.15 (5 reviews)
ISBN: x7CnRzfXWR

By Dax Murray

Publisher Description

How many half-truths can loyalty shoulder before it breaks from the weight of deception on its back?

A sweeping LGBTQ and polyamorous retelling of "Swan Lake"!

Strange things can be said of the forest that spans the border of two kingdoms long at war. An evil sorcerer has made it his dominion, or an elegant enchantress has claimed it as her domain and grants wishes to those who chance upon her, or maybe the forest is guarded by an ancient and wrathful spirit.

But Katya calls the forest home, living a life of magic and charms with her partner Ivan. But a threat looms over their forest, some darkness and danger that Ivan swears to protect her from. Katya finds herself caught up in a web of grudges and deception spanning generations, but most dangerous of all is the beautiful princess who stumbled into their woods. A princess who sets Katya's heart fluttering with both desire and fear.

As forces rally to rescue the princess or go to war, Katya must take measure of her own powers and decide what she is willing to sacrifice. Will she retreat to the safety of what's familiar or give up everything she knows to spread her wings and fly?

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A Lake of Feathers and Moonbeams Reviews

3.0

laurrreads

Created over 1 year ago

Frida

Created over 1 year ago

Lumi

Created over 2 years ago

“A queer retelling of Swan Lake should be my jam. And a lot of the necessary ingredients were there, a polygamorous relationship with a f/f and a f/nb couple, magic, evil sorcerer... Sadly the characters were really unengaging, I didn't feel any of the couples and the story was a strange mix of "trying to do so world building" and yet not exploring anything really. It felt like a first draft that, with some reworks and more character work, might be an amazing story. The way it was it left me wanting and rather detached. At least it was short.”

Unengaging Unsatisfying ending Magical Easy to read

Marissa Mendelson

Created over 3 years ago

jamieson

Created over 7 years ago

“it's the year 2018 and u still haven't quite been able to fill the hole in your heart from your childhood where rewatching Barbie's The Swan Lake everyday used to be or is that just me ?? "I do not have a type! I am a type. I am the mysterious maiden who will not let anyone get close, who tempts people yet holds them at bay. I'm a siren who leads people toward their doom, the swan song of a love that never could be. I am the beautiful Fairy Queen, the entrancing witch in the forest who is lethally beautiful and forever out of reach." I have been so looking forward to reading this book ever since it was pitched to me on twitter. It's a queer retelling of Swan Lake with a polyamorous ship. I love Swan Lake a lot, it's one of my favourite stories, and adding more fantasy elements + queer relationships to it sounded ideal. Overall I liked reading this, I just didn't LOVE it. I am only going to make this a quick review of pros and cons because I do not have a LOT to say so lets get into it Pros - Swan Lake Elements: I really liked how this adapted and interpreted Swan Lake. It was both original and also had so many hallmarks of the story I loved. I also really liked some of the influences that the story had on the worldbuilding. - Queerness: so this follows three main characters: Katya who is bisexual, Alexis who is non-binary and Zhen who is Asian and bisexual. The main ships are f/f and f/nb. There is also other polyam characters mentioned, lesbian and asexual side characters and more. I loved the queer focus in this world and how natural and embedded queerness was here. It's nice to have fantasy worlds that aren't focussed on reinforcing the gender binary and heterosexuality. - Good set up: I loved the first 50% of this book. The set up with the characters and world was great. I also really liked how the dynamic was set up between Katya and Ivan and how the warring factions within the kingdom were set up. I flew through the first 50%. The pacing was also great throughout and there was lots of things happening. Cons - Characters: I personally didn't feel very attached to many of the characters. I liked all of them but I wasn't particularly invested and it made it kind of hard to root for them. I don't feel like I got to know much about these characters, even though this book was nearly 300 pages which is not EXTREMELY short - Romance: While I loved the ship set ups, the romance was a little rushed for my preference. I really like slow burn and if this was on a scale this is more on the insta-love side (it's not insta-love, but the romance happens pretty quickly). Without super setting up the romance I never feel that engaged or invested - Didn't stick the landing: While I loved the first 50%, the next 50% didn't work as well for me. I felt this book set up the beginning so well and created all this intrigue and then the last 50% was kind of rushed. The ending was pretty unsatisfying to me, although I do love that it had a happy ending where all the ships work out. Overall this was fun and definitely unique! I don't think I've read any fantasies that incorporate queerness to this length so it was really nice to see. While it wasn't my favourite book by any means, I liked reading it and would recommend if you're looking for a Swan Lake retelling or a book that delivers f/f and f/nb romances in a fantasy setting!”

About Dax Murray

After realizing their dream of being a curmudgeonly hedgewitch in the woods of Western Pennsylvania was not possible due to the construction of an outlet mall, Dax took up a new form of sorcery, where they whispered to rocks in arcane languages and taught them how to spy on you, colloquially known as software engineering.

After an epic battle between the forces of Ethics and Student Loan Payments, Dax left that behind to join the magical order of word-placing. Today, they can be found waiting on the two gods (ie: cats) who have allowed them to live in their abode and use their word-magic to make others cry.

Dax studied political science and creative writing at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania and is a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association. When not writing, they can be found at the Crystarium in Norvrandt.