Guinevere Deception Review

Book 1 of trilogy by Kirsten White

4/5 stars

Synopsis- (sourced from Goodreads)

There was nothing in the world as magical and terrifying as a girl.

Princess Guinevere has come to Camelot to wed a stranger: the charismatic King Arthur. With magic clawing at the kingdom's borders, the great wizard Merlin conjured a solution--send in Guinevere to be Arthur's wife . . . and his protector from those who want to see the young king's idyllic city fail. The catch? Guinevere's real name--and her true identity--is a secret. She is a changeling, a girl who has given up everything to protect Camelot.

To keep Arthur safe, Guinevere must navigate a court in which the old--including Arthur's own family--demand things continue as they have been, and the new--those drawn by the dream of Camelot--fight for a better way to live. And always, in the green hearts of forests and the black depths of lakes, magic lies in wait to reclaim the land. Arthur's knights believe they are strong enough to face any threat, but Guinevere knows it will take more than swords to keep Camelot free.

Deadly jousts, duplicitous knights, and forbidden romances are nothing compared to the greatest threat of all: the girl with the long black hair, riding on horseback through the dark woods toward Arthur. Because when your whole existence is a lie, how can you trust even yourself?

Review

Plot - I came into this book excited to see another rendition of the Arthurian myths. I’ve watched a lot of low budget movies and read a few spin off books but I’ve never read the original legends, despite my best laid plans. When I started this book I was drawn into the world right away but somewhere around a third of the way in I was a bit lost, what was the plot? Why were we here? I trusted the myths to have enough material that the book wouldn’t lag for long, but with so many things to pull from I don’t think it should have lagged at all.

Characters - This was the best part of the book by far. Seeing Arthur as a boy, and a legend at the same time because of Guinevere’s way of looking at him was a nice touch. Also getting to know the queen that is usually left out of the story since everyone wants to focus on the mighty Merlin.

Style - The choice of adding italic pages from some strange third party was such a great idea. It kept the fact that there was indeed a threat alive, especially when Guinevere wasn’t finding anything to do.

Overall I don’t know. It had some really cool details for someone who liked Arthurian legends but the story itself had trouble keeping itself going, especially towards the beginning once all the groundwork is done. This is something I wouldn’t recommend but I also wouldn’t argue against you if you wanted to pick it up out of curiosity.

Hope that was helpful,

JC Scraba