Gaining her swan skin gives her the freedom to do what she will - within certain class-based parameters - sexually, the loss of the skin forces her back within her old bounds, and the rassemblement gives Doucette innate power that is no longer tied to a physical object. Doucette does have contact with many men at the beginning of the novel but they are servants for the most part as she has interacted little with the court. Many cultures have devised ways of keeping girls and women “pure” and only sexually available to specific men in specific situations which often includes physical separation of the sexes as well as psychological conditioning. I was particularly interested in how the swan skin represents - both metaphorically and in many ways physically - sexual freedom in particular since sexual/reproductive freedom is so deeply tied into women’s agency and freedom within society. What does freedom mean? What tools does an oppressed person need to become free? I liked that there were comparisons provided showing both Doucette’s privileges as a noblewoman with the particular problems posed by her position and just good ole misogyny. I liked the exploration of freedom, specifically freedom for women in a strongly patriarchal society. I was often frustrated with Doucette due to her gentleness but that’s because of a difference in personality. Ages 12-up.*some spoilers!* I enjoy retellings of lesser-known tales and this was a pretty good one. Fans of Shannon Hale's Goose Girl and Juliet Marillier's Daughter of the Forest form the likeliest audience. Tomlinson presents Doucette's subsequent adventures as a series of forks in the road: Stay with her mother or fly to Tante Mahalt? Marry her true love, the shepherd Jaume, or be made queen? Sacrifice her swan self, and her magic, in exchange for love? The prose rarely rises above the serviceable ('Soft as milk, as clouds, as snow, the dappled swan skin enveloped her in a luscious warmth') rather, it's the fast-moving plot that will engage readers. Doucette, the 16-year-old daughter of a count, longs to be a swan maiden like her two older sisters, Azelais and Cecilia, who can perform sorcery, but for the past six years her parents have led her to believe that she was born without a 'swan skin.' While her sisters spend each summer with Tante Mahalt perfecting their magic, Doucette undergoes year-round tutelage from their domineering mother in running a noble household until she discovers the swan skin her mother has hidden from her since birth.

Inspired by French fairy tales, Tomlinson's first novel takes the motif of the 'swan maiden' a beautiful young woman who can assume the form of a swan and embroiders it into an elaborate romantic fantasy.

The Swan Maiden by Heather Tomlinson