From New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Katy Regnery comes a beloved collection of breathtaking romances based on the world’s most well-known fairytales!

 

 

Swan Song
~a modern fairytale~

by Katy Regnery

 

Released – 22 April 2025

 

Available Now
Amazon  |  Paperback

 

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Blurb

Once upon a time, a swan egg rolled into a duck nest…

While visiting Washington, D.C., with his billionaire parents, four-year-old Ivan Stepanov is kidnapped from the National Zoo, vanishing without a trace.

Sold, abandoned, neglected and abused, “Vaughn” matures out of the American foster care system with little-to-no memory of who he is or where he came from. Eventually finding work as a janitor at the Kennedy Center, he starts to question if a life void of love, family and friendship is even worth living.

Ballerina Sasha Collins worked hard her entire life to earn a position in the esteemed corps of the Washington D.C. Ballet, which rehearses and performs at the Kennedy Center. Intrigued by the scruffy janitor who’s often reading Russian poetry, she offers him kindness on one of the darkest days of his life, giving him a reason to live.

As they fall desperately in love with one another, Vaughn and Sasha have no idea that their days together are finite. His birth family is growing closer and closer to finding him, a circumstance that will eventually tear them apart.

From the cherry blossomed avenues of Washington, D.C., to the snowy streets of Moscow, to the breathtaking beauty of London in the fall, these separated, star-crossed lovers will have to crisscross the globe to find each other again.

Find Swan Song on GOODREADS

 

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Review

4.5 stars!

I have really enjoyed reading modern retellings of childhood fairytales though the Modern Fairytale collection and Swan Song was a wonderful addition to the collection.  A unique take on The Ugly Duckling, we get Sasha and Vaughn’s love story that is sure to pull at your heartstrings as a lost boys tries to find his place in the world with the help of a ballerina.

Ivan was just four years old when he was kidnapped from the Washington National Zoo while visiting from Russia with his family. Though his family desperately searched for him, they never found him, and he ended up in foster care after eventually being abandoned. That boy, who goes by Vaughn, ends up working at the Kennedy Center as a janitor, alone and invisible. During one of his darkest moments, a light shines through when the ballerina he’s always noticed notices him back. Sharing Russian poetry and Challah bread picnics they form a beautiful friendship and then an unforgettable love. Just when they thought they could finally fully be together, life circumstances pull them apart, shattering their hearts. It’s not until years later that they meet again and, though, nothing is the same, there is still a spark. But is that spark enough to bring them back together and find the love they lost?

Vaughn and Sasha meet at the Kennedy Center, and and until that moment, Vaughn was just about done with life. When Sasha notices him and shows his kindness that few have shown him before, something changes in him.  He has a reason to live. I loved getting to experience Sasha and Vaughns friendship forming. She was a beautiful soul that helps Vaughn find his way from being the lost boy missing parts of his past to a man who has a home in her heart. I was giddy as they became more and I was rooting for them hard.  And then his real family comes back into his live and whisks him off to Russia, leaving Sasha back in the States. They try to stay in contact but neither of them could have known what challenges where waiting for them after they said goodbye.

Swan Song gives us a beautiful second chance romance. When Vaughn and Sasha, who share this gorgeous love, are pulled apart, I was so angry. My heart hurt for Sasha and though I was mad with Vaughn, I could understand how he got to the place he did that was so opposite of how he truly was. It’s not pretty and it hurts, but I love that Sasha and Vaughn don’t just fall back into a relationship when they meet again. They have to face reality that things are different, that they are different, and they will have to work on things if they want to get together.

Even though there were times that I was frustrated with these characters, Vaughn in particular, I still I adored them. I loved that Sasha had a backbone.  She stood up for herself and knew what she deserved. She wasn’t going to just give in when it came to her heart and Vaughn had to prove his love for her and work on himself. I loved that there were challenges and revelations that actually helped bring these two together. Vaughn knew what he had to do to win Sasha over and I loved how everything came together.

*ARC generously provided by the author and NetGalley*

 

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 ~a modern fairytale~ collection

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About the Author

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Katy Regnery started her writing career by enrolling in a short story class in January 2012. One year later, she signed her first contract and Katy’s first novel was published in September 2013.

Twenty-five books later, Katy claims authorship of the multi-titled, New York Times and USA Today Blueberry Lane Series, which follows the English, Winslow, Rousseau, Story, and Ambler families of Philadelphia; the six-book, bestselling ~a modern fairytale~ series; and several other standalone novels and novellas.

Katy’s first modern fairytale romance, The Vixen and the Vet, was nominated for a RITA® in 2015 and won the 2015 Kindle Book Award for romance. Katy’s boxed set, The English Brothers Boxed Set, Books #1–4, hit the USA Today bestseller list in 2015, and her Christmas story, Marrying Mr. English, appeared on the list a week later. In May 2016, Katy’s Blueberry Lane collection, The Winslow Brothers Boxed Set, Books #1-4, became a New York Times E-book bestseller.

In 2016, Katy signed a print-only agreement with Spencerhill Press. As a result, her Blueberry Lane paperback books will now be distributed to brick and mortar bookstores all over the United States.

Katy lives in the relative wilds of northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, where her writing room looks out at the woods, and her husband, two young children, two dogs, and one Blue Tonkinese kitten create just enough cheerful chaos to remind her that the very best love stories begin at home.

 

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