Reviewed by Kimberley
TITLE: Swann’s Revenge
SERIES: Dreamspun Desires # 51
AUTHOR: Shira Anthony
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 185 pages
RELEASE DATE: February 6, 2018
BLURB:
Can a swan make peace with his ugly duckling past?
Chubby geek Jimmy Zebulon’s heart broke the day his high school crush, Danny Parker, looked on as his teammates tormented Jimmy. Fifteen years later, Jimmy is long gone, and from his ashes has risen Graham Swann, a movie-star-handsome law firm owner. Graham thinks Jimmy and his past are long forgotten—until attorney Dan Parker shows up for his first day of work.
Getting injured playing college ball was the best thing that ever happened to Dan. It turned his future in a better direction and allowed him to emerge from the closet that trapped him.
Graham wants to believe his childhood dream can come true, but he can’t bring himself to tell Dan who he really is—and their pasts might ruin any chance for a happily ever after.
REVIEW:
This is book #51 in this franchise and it was okay. It wasn’t poorly written at all; quite the opposite in fact. The characters and dialog were nicely done so no problems there. It was just…this is an old trope has been done quite a few times and it leaves you wondering if maybe it’s been done too much?
I can definitely see where the author tried to put a fresh spin on it that would make it stand out but I think this is one trope where that is simply not possible. This book makes me wonder if maybe the authors are given a particular formula to follow or trope to write? If that’s the case, I think that perhaps Dreamspinner should really not do that because the stories feel stifled, like maybe the natural creativity the author has to be reined in or scaled back as to not stray too far away from the formula or trope given. And that’s a pity because I feel like there could’ve been so much more done to make this really stand out. The ‘ugly duckling turn into a beautiful swan’ trope really needed something to give it a little boost because there’s only so much you can do with it as is.
The author did a nice job with the characters and the dialogue but there’s there’s not enough range that this particular trope could be written, though. And that’s not the fault of the author.
With that in mind, I would say that this book is okay. It was nice. Just not terribly exciting to read and I feel like that it’s not the author’s fault.
RATING: 
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