Nancy Butler: Keeper of the Swans

Keeper of the Swans is the only book by Nancy Butler that was illustrated by Allan Kass. She did write others for the Signet line. This book was published in September 1998 and may be the last book illustrated by Allan.

It is the story of Diana, who runs away from her betrothal ball and is rescued from a boating accident by Romulus Perrin, a mysterious man who tends to the river swans.

This is a very pretty cover and an amazing work for a man in his 80's! Our couple are clad in comfortable, outdoors clothes with our heroine's hair casually tied with a bow. The colors of the river are pretty with the swans swimming around and the pretty weeds and flowers surrounding them. Too bad that Signet felt that they had to take up so much room on the cover with the title, etc.

Signet continued to produce Regency Romances until 2005. The trend changed towards paranormal romances and the regency sales were down, besides, in my humble opinion, the quality of the stories was not as good either. Allan Kass retired in 1998 from illustrating book covers. For 20 years, he illustrated some of the prettiest regency and gothic books!