Dark Breaks the Dawn by Sara B. Larson (audiobook)

genre: young adult fantasy

Princess Evelayn has come of age in a time of war.  With the plotting King Bain of the Dark kingdom pushing ever closer, now that she has turned 18 and has access to her full power, she knows that her ability to wield the power of light could mean life or death for both her and her people.  With the help of the handsome Lord Tanvir and, hopefully soon (if she can just make it happen!), her ability to shapeshift into a swan, Evelayn can't help but hope that peace in her lifetime could be a real reality.

I got a bit frustrated from the start because some of the details in this story are so like those in my beloved Girl of Fire and Thorn series, that I felt a little frustrated at the beginning.  There's also very little world building - we get a tiny bit of backstory but where does the idea of "Draiolon" come from?  That's the name for the race of Evelayn's people but I never figured out if there are people in that land that AREN'T Drailon?  Does everyone have either light or dark powers?  I like the idea of having different kinds of magic but it wasn't explained particularly well.  Also, sometimes there was just too much sharing about how people looked. To tell me once, maybe three times that someone has lavender-streaked hair or dark eyes or copper skin is fine. But to mention it every time they look at your or walk in the room?  It started feeling repetitive to me.  Ugg.  I also sorted hated that the "dark" powered people had dark skin and the "light" people had light skin.  Wouldn't it have been intriguing if it had been swapped?  

It sounds like I hated it and I actually didn't.  There are enough elements to the "Swan Lake" story that are different that I didn't always know what was going to happen, and I liked that.  While we jump around from point of view to view a lot, I also liked being able to see the story from the various characters.  I just had to suspend my disbelief more than I like to and while I care enough to listen to the sequel, three stars feels like as much I can can give it.