In this book a young woman is faced with life threatening challenges as she tries to save her country and loved ones from Zella.
Lady Alexandra senses that something has gone wrong when she returns from another realm and something fast and eerie surrounds her and her mother. When Alexandra turns to face her mother, slight fear becomes overwhelming panic. Her insides turn and as she returns to the castle shame overcomes her. She has mixed feelings about the creature's possible return until her father returns from hunting, a beautiful maiden with him. All so suddenly her brothers are hidden from view, banned from the kingdom and Alexandra is being whisked away, her father under a strong spell. The Ancestors offer answers for this young woman though she didn't realize that the answers were her answers, she just needed to believe.

Lady Alexandra is a young woman. In comparison to her family she thinks of herself as ugly. She really is gorgeous inside. Her mother taught her the Old Ways where women connected with energy, enaid, and the earth. She never expects to have to use this gift on her own until that cold and bitter night when her father returns from hunting and all Alexandra knows is gone, her mother, her brothers and her father though he is not dead but under a spell of dark magic. She loved her mother's lessons about the old ways and she admired her talent. Alexandra is the daughter of Lady Brawen, the queen, and obliviously her father is the king. Alexandra's three brothers are all superior in their own ways but the king, Alexandra's father doesn't value her at all. She doesn't have her mother's stunning looks or extraordinary brains, she's just average and average isn't how a king's daughter should be.

This book is set before all of our modern technology and bombs. Some of the characters fight with magic, others with daggers and swords. Alexandra's father rules a fertile country north of a saddened country from unbearable years of war. Alexandra is forced to come to this sad land, Midland, where Zella has ordered her to go to get well. Alexandra has never seen the ocean and when she does the tides of enaid fill her. All she can think about is the ocean. Her aunt's house is grey and gloomy as are her dresses. One night on the beach she meets a young man who is her only comfort in her years away from home.

I think that this book deserves a 4 ½ star rating. It is a fairy tale based on a Hans Christian Anderson story, The Wild Swans. The Author of this book is Zoe Marriott. The story line is fairly believable in a sense that the reader could accept most of the events as possible though unlikely. There is something for everyone in this book, battles and other realms, magic and blood, love and hatred, sorrow and joy.