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  • Borderland Brides Fairytale Retellings
  • The Swan Bride

The Swan Bride: A Swan Lake Retelling

Borderland Brides Fairytale Retellings #1 / 2
by Jacque Stevens
The Swan Bride: A Swan Lake Retelling (Borderland Brides Fairytale Retellings #1) by Jacque Stevens
★ 10.00 / 1
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A royal Selection Ball. A doomed romance. He’s not exactly a prince, but then, she’s not entirely human . . .

Leda happily shifts between two different forms and two different worlds, living as a magical fae creature called a swan maiden. But when a sorcerer steals her feather cloak, she is stuck as a human until it is returned. Cut off from her former magic, her only hope is to persuade a reluctant prince to declare his love and battle the sorcerer on her behalf.

Navigating the human world is hard. Navigating the prince’s Selection Ball is even harder. The prince’s enigmatic half-brother promises to help her gain the prince’s favor, but soon, Leda finds herself torn between them.

Will Leda find her true home at last? Or will her fractured magic release an even greater horror?

 

The Swan Bride is a clean romantic and comedic fantasy inspired by Swan Lake and other Fairytales.

This book one of a series of interconnected standalone novels. Each new story takes inspiration from a different fairytale couple as the human kingdoms become more entangled with the Fae Courts just outside their borders.

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FantasyRomanceYoung AdultRomantasyRetellingsFairy Tale RetellingsShapeshiftersFae
Release date: January 24, 2025
Reviews and Comments (1)

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Join the Discussion
Booksprout ARC (Review by Feb 18, 2025) Available for The Swan Bride: A Swan Lake Retelling
Started by: Chelsea K on 01/26/2025
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Jacque Stevens

Jacque Stevens has always been drawn to stories where shadows hold secrets and love has to fight to survive. Long before she became a USA Today bestselling author, she was a nursing student scribbling chapters between shifts, escaping into worlds filled with fae bargains, broken crowns, and the kind of magic that comes at a cost. What began as a quiet act of relief soon grew into a passion that shaped her life and an entire library of fantasy retellings that breathe new life into old legends.

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Raised under the open skies of Arizona and now settled in Utah, Jacque grew up surrounded by tales that never quite ended the way she hoped. She found herself rewriting them in her mind, wondering what happened after the glass slipper fit or the curse was broken. Those early musings became the foundation of her signature style: emotionally grounded fairy-tale retellings that blur the line between hope and heartbreak.

Her acclaimed HighTower Fairytales series reimagines classics like Cinderella, Swan Lake, and Beauty and the Beast through characters who are imperfect, resilient, and deeply human. In stories such as Letters by Cinderlight and The Swan Bride, magic becomes both a gift and a test, forcing her heroes and heroines to confront the very things they wish to escape. Readers often describe her writing as "noblebright," a world where darkness exists, but light always finds a way through.

When she is not building new kingdoms or untangling ancient curses, Jacque works as an editor, helping other writers find their voice. She still carries that same quiet wonder she had when she wrote her first novel by lamplight, the belief that even the most familiar stories can surprise you if told from the right heart.

Jacque Stevens continues to craft tales that blend myth and emotion, reminding readers that courage often hides in the softest moments and that sometimes, the greatest magic is choosing to hope.

Borderland Brides Fairytale Retellings

Step across the boundary where human kingdoms brush against the hidden realms of the fae, and you enter a world where familiar fairy tales are rewritten in shadows and starlight. In Borderland Brides Fairytale Retellings, magic is both beautiful and dangerous, love is tangled with duty, and every choice carries weight beyond what the eye can see.

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Each story reimagines a classic tale, from swan maidens and dancing princesses to enchanted slippers, but never in ways you expect. Heroes wrestle with secrets and curses, heroines confront their own strength and desires, and the fae courts hover at the edge of wonder and menace. The landscapes shimmer with moonlit lakes, echoing ballrooms, and forest paths that lead to both danger and discovery, creating a world that feels alive and perilous, yet irresistibly enchanting.

In The Swan Bride, a maiden’s stolen magic gives her a second chance at life, but it comes at a cost. The Storybook Bride twirls through obsession and ambition, showing how even the smallest wishes can carry profound consequences. In The Shadow Bride, cursed dances and missing sisters pull characters into a web of intrigue and sacrifice, where bravery and love are tested at every turn.

Though still a young series, it has already captivated readers who crave lyrical fantasy, romantic tension, and the dark whimsy of fae-infused storytelling. With every tale, the series lingers in the mind like a half-remembered dream, exploring the costs of magic, the strength of the heart, and the blurred line between myth and reality.

For readers of fairy tale retellings who appreciate magic that bites as well as charms, Borderland Brides Fairytale Retellings offers an atmospheric escape into worlds both familiar and strange, where every twist of a story brings wonder, peril, and the subtle ache of longing.


Borderland Brides Fairytale Retellings consists of one primary book, and includes one additional book that complement the series but is not considered mandatory reads and series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.

The Swan Bride: A Swan Lake Retelling (Borderland Brides Fairytale Retellings #1)
★ 10.00 / 1
The Storybook Bride: A Red Shoes Retelling (Borderland Brides Fairytale Retellings #1.5)
★ 10.00 / 2
The Shadow Bride: A Twelve Dancing Princesses Retelling (Borderland Brides Fairytale Retellings #2)
⧗ 9.26 / 4

Reviews and Comments

02/05/2025
Chelsea K avatar
Chelsea K
688 books, 513 reviews, 224 posts
★★★★★★★★★★ 10 / 10

This was a really fun Retelling of A Swan Lake and did a great job of tying it in with the authors other Fairy tale retellings while still working as a standalone story. It was fun getting peaks of The Shoeless Prince: A Puss in Boots Retelling as well as the upcoming book The Soulless Prince: A Tam'lin Retelling. I loved getting to know both Leda and Freddie in this story as well as Freddie's brother Theo and friend Prince Briar who I hope to read more about in future stories. I am also looking forward to reading more about Nora from the Selection Ball in her story The Storybook Bride: A Red Shoes Retelling.

I received a free advanced reader copy of this book from the author and am voluntarily leaving a review.

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