The Swan and Sentinel Book Review

Title: The Swan and the Sentinel

Author: Bill Keenan

Genre: Fiction

Published: June 2026

Format: Ebook

I received an ARC of this book from the author via The Author Agency. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Book cover image provided by The Author Agency

My Thoughts about the Book:

One of the things that I really enjoyed about The Swan and the Sentinel by Bill Keenan was the way that it was so detailed about the ballet practices. Going into this story, I was afraid the focus would be more on the hockey aspects of the story. As a ballet fan, I really enjoyed seeing a lot of the backstage parts of working as a dancer. It was really cool to find out that the author has a hockey background and is married to a ballet dancer.

The characters were also a highlight of the story. Liam wasn’t one of those hockey characters that was cocky. He had a genuine love for both the game and his teammates. Some of my favorite scenes in this story were the ones where the hockey team was teasing Liam about his new ballet moves. It felt like something a real team would do and I like how it was a sign of support for their teammate. Petra was such a sweet character and I really enjoyed seeing her relationship with her sister. In my opinion, Liam and Petra worked well as a couple because they both had similar drives for the passions in their lives and they were similar in the way that they would do anything for the people that they love, even in tough situations. The relationship between Liam and Petra’s sister was also sweet to see, because there was so much trust between the two of them, even after just meeting.

I love how all the different relationships were just so full of love, sometimes it’s nice to read a fun sweet romance book. There was a part in this book towards the end that reminded me of one of the scenes in the first High School Musical movie where everything was happening at the same time on the same day and the characters had to figure out how to make everything work. That made me giggle because I was obsessed with the High School Musical movies when I was younger.

One of things that I hoped for while reading this book was getting to see more of the New York setting. I really liked the scene where Petra takes Liam out to a restaurant that was important to her. I wish that we had gotten more scenes of the characters exploring the city, instead of having so many scenes set inside apartments and workplaces. I think having more scenes with different locations would’ve added more to the main relationship as well. While I enjoyed how the story started out in the present and went back to the past to tell the story, I wish the author had made some of the POVs clearer. Sometimes it was hard to tell which chapters were Liam’s and which were Petra’s, which made it hard to read at times.

Would I recommend this book?

Yes! I thought this was a very sweet story and I loved the relationship between the two main characters. This book reminded me of Hallmark movies, so I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys watching those types of movies. This book is also great for those who have an interest in ballet or like romances with ballet dancers. I would also recommend this to anyone that enjoys sports romances as well. For a super niche comparison, this story reminded me of the TV show Backstage, so if you enjoyed that show, I have a recommendation for you!