The Prince on the Lake

by Kit Barrie

Can true love set them free?

Prince Owen and Prince Ethan are destined to unite their fair kingdoms in peace and harmony through marriage. But the evil sorcerer, Raric, has other ideas. After mistaking Prince Owen for his mother, resulting in a botched bid for the throne, Raric kidnaps the prince and curses him to be a swan by day and human only by night until Owen agrees to wed him.

Heartbroken over the loss of his love, Prince Ethan will stop at nothing to find Owen and break the curse. But is true love enough to defeat the dangerous magician and restore peace to the two kingdoms?

The Prince on the Lake is an M/M retelling inspired by Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky and The Swan Princess. It is a young adult fairy tale romance with a HEA ending and no cliffhangers. It is part of the Queerly Classic Collection, which are all unrelated standalone stories. PLEASE NOTE that The Prince on the Lake is a Young Adult novel, containing only minor swearing and no on-page spice. The previously published Queerly Classic Collection books contain adult content and are intended for ages 18 and up.

Genres: Audiobook, Fiction

159 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 1, 2024

About the author

Kit Barrie (she/her) was raised by pirates in a traveling carnival where she learned how to fly and to weave fantasy into reality. She identifies as chaotic bisexual, with good intentions and questionable methods. She lives in an utterly unfantastical state in the Midwestern United States with some food goblins who might just be cats gobblin’ food.

Please visit www.kitbarrie.com for more information on Kit’s writing or to sign up for her fantastical newsletter!

Reviews

[mtrics · Rating 3 out of 5]

What threw me off is that it's a retelling of The Swan Princess animated film (1994), rather than the original Swan Lake piece; with a few scenes lifted as-is from the movie. Maybe there were a few things coming from the ballet that I didn't clock because I'm an uncultured swine, but I kept hoping for something different, especially considering how many possible endings the ballet has (I was truly hoping for something I hadn't seen before, not the dragon metamorphosis from the movie...)

So that's all a me-problem, and I was going to give it a 4/5, but the kiss by a princess to break a curse was changed to a kiss by a virgin and that felt icky. How was that relevant to the story in any way? Why not just making the curse gender-neutral, but the royal offering the kiss has to be unattached? (so that Owen's kiss could have worked too, but wouldn't, since he's in love with Ethan.) Why not keep the curse as is, since Sonia is the one breaking it anyway, and use that as an opportunity to make a comment on gender norms?.
It struck a chord with me, because on top of being an old, disgusting trope that has no place in a book published in 2024, what even classify as virginity? There are no rules that can clearly define what "being a virgin is", especially in same-sex relationships. I'm not going to write an essay on the subject, but considering there are strict rules regulating spells and their parameters in this universe (eg. the moon has to touch the lake), using a social construct so vague was just frustrating to me. On top of my general dislike for the trope, of course.

It was otherwise an enjoyable read, that I'd have certainly appreciated more if I had expected a gender-bent retelling of The Swan Princess, rather than wanting an original story-line inspired by the Swan Lake ballet.

[thatchickuh8 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad, but very surface-level interactions and motivations. They met a few times over a long period of time, and suddenly they're supposedly in love? And the measure of that is some drama about not knowing one's favourite colour? Now that I understand it's a retelling of another story, perhaps that explains it, but it doesn't excuse it IMO. I love a good fanfic (I know the old source material is probably public domain, so technically it doesn't count as fanfic), but the best of those build upon their inspiration to create something original. It seems like this is just a gender bender, especially since there isn't so much as a token objection about two princes (who would be unable to bear an heir for the respective kingdoms they are uniting) marrying from either family, the public, or even the villain who decides to "switch team" to achieve his goal. Since the MC's relationship was so weak, I was hoping they would fall for their captor and give us a triangle tbh. Without something extra like that to provide more depth, I just couldn't enjoy this story as much as I would have liked to. I've read other books by this author that I liked, so I was disappointed with this one. The narrator has a good voice but didn't vary it enough for the different characters' POVs.

[Lacie N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! A very sweet retelling of Swan Lake that had me hooked from beginning to end! Lots of humor, magic, and the power of True Love. Any fans of the cartoon The Swan Princess, this book is absolutely for you!

[Amy Engelhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very enjoyable read for both young people and adults. Even with a familiar story, I was excited throughout to discover what happens next.

[Kennedy Sutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A feel good, sweet love story with a bit of nostalgic flair. I really enjoyed this book. It’s a strong step into queer YA romance for Kit Barrie.

[Alaana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very cute, which is exactly what I expected. Narration was excellent.

[FernOfAivery · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can’t tell what was weaker, the relationship between the princes, the evil sorcerer or the story.

[PaperMoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this reworked fairy-tale a little too lite ... too much time was spent in the first half establishing the relation/connections between the MCs. Apart from one rousing fight sequence where the antagonist manages to get hold of MC Owen ... the second half kinda drifts along before things become rather too quickly resolved. I should have been better prepared for all this when the advertising pitches this as a YA M-M romance. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.