Eleanor 's Swan

Inspired by Cinderella, Eleanor’s Swan is a story about the search for home and your chosen family. 

 

Thirteen-year-old Eleanor is a modern Cinderella in a 19th century village. When her mother died, she and her father did their best to carry on without her. But with her father's death after an ill-advised marriage, Eleanor is trapped, a servant in her own home. The estate is falling to ruins and the money is gone. Or is it?

 

What is so special about the swan in the gilded frame, and why did her mother treasure it? The basement is full of dusty furniture and ancient trunks—is this what remains of her family’s once vast inheritance? Eleanor is determined to unravel the mystery of the family she never knew whose stories are all around her.

 

When an unexpected invitation arrives, Eleanor seizes the opportunity to change her fate. She has a plan, of course, but she must rely on an unlikely pair of friends—rather than magic— to help reclaim what is rightfully hers before the Ball changes all of their lives. There’s Bruno, the stable boy who longs to travel the world, and Duncan, the prince who is not nearly ready to settle down, much less take a bride. Good thing, too! Eleanor is not relying on a marriage to reverse her fortune, or one silly dance to determine her fate.

 

Eleanor’s Swan, complete at 56,000 words, will appeal to fans of fairy tales and mashups, as well as The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise,  Louisiana’s Way Home and Crenshaw.

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Painting shown is the Trumpeter Swan from "The Birds of America" (Amsterdam Edition)

by John James Audubon