I was excited to get a copy of Black Swan Rising by Lee Carroll – the husband and wife writing team of Carol Goodman and Lee Slonimsky. I enjoyed the Carol Goodman’s The Demon Lover and The Water Witch and as I settled down to read Black Swan Rising, I knew I was in for a treat.Black Swan Rising is a beautifully written gothic style tale. The world is richly described, a modern day New York City layered with the magical world of the fae and an assortment of many different paranormal creatures. I loved how the authors were able to weave all sorts of fae lore with Jewish folklore and even Shakespearean references. Even the characters’ names become a play on words. Genius!Garit James accepts an innocuous silver box. She is tasked with finding a way of opening the box to retrieve the papers from within. This sets up a series of events that change Garit’s life. The gallery where she lives and works with her father is robbed, her father is injured and hospitalized, and the gallery is losing money rapidly. Soon we find that Garit is not an ordinary woman. She sees things and is able to access some hidden abilities. Meanwhile, the city is slipping into chaos. Monsters appear. The people around her are not human. Her father’s dread-locked nurse is Oberon, King of the Fairies. I enjoyed this book. Everything in it was so unexpected. Each little detail had meaning and I fell in love with the characters. I loved how the story was layered with a criminal investigation in the human world and a hunt for a demon in the fae realm. The combination of the fae lore and the paranormal felt fresh and new. I can’t wait to read more books by this writing team. Series Reading Order:1. Black Swan Rising2. The Watchtower3. The Shape StealerThank you to NetGalley and Transworld for a review copy of this book. Review posted on Badass Book Reviews.
