Black Swan Rising by Lee Carroll

Review of Black Swan Rising by Lee Carroll. An urban fantasy about a young jewelry designer that discovers a hidden world in New York.

My review from 2014 of Black Swan Rising by author

Title: Black Swan Rising
Author: Lee Carroll aka Carol Goodman
Series: Black Swan Rising
Genre: Urban fantasy

This is one of the most poetic urban fantasy books I have read. It sucked me in and I really enjoyed it. I think it is pretty undiscovered which is a shame.

“I hadn’t gone over the edge – the World had.”

The first part of the book sucked me in with in just a few pages. It is really wonderful to read an urban fantasy with an adult main character. Her emotions seem very real especially in the first half of the novel. Carroll creates the most amazing images both of NY and of the more magical sites in the book. During the reading I constantly turned to google to see images of the places mentioned.

The first part of this book is definitely the strongest. The more fantasy part of the book does feel a bit weaker. Not bad just less compelling. In the last half of the book our protagonist is kind of passive much of the time and there are a lot of description, which make it less interesting when the first part. Gareth just get sweeper along in part of the book which is a shame.

The ending was surprisingly long and melancholic – reminding me of the ending of lords of the rings. I really enjoyed the book.

Definitely worth reading! And the included first chapter of the next book makes me want to pick it up as well.

The stats: Black Swan Rising

Published: 2010 by Bantam Press
Length: 400 pages
Read: August 12 to 31, 2011

Author: Female, white, USA
The protagonists: Garet James, female, white, in her 20’s, jewelry designer

This review was originally posted: January 11, 2014. Updated and edited July 1, 2023