The Prince on the Lake

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.