The Guinevere Deception (Camelot Rising, #1)
Kiersten White
A new fantasy series set in the world of Camelot that bestselling author Christina Lauren calls brilliant, reimagining the Arthurian legend . . . where nothing is 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. 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? *THE FIRST BOOK IN THE CAMELOT RISING TRILOGY*
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0 0I should really stop reading retellings that fall into the YA category, it always feels like the writers do very little research on the stories they are retelling.
The story pacing was slow but so bland. I have nothing against slow pacing stories but when you write 300 pages worth of just nothing brought about slowly you end up with nothing.
Like most YA books there was the same tired old story telling going on, Guinevere was constantly stating that she was there to “protect” Arthur, I don’t need this constantly brought up, after the 5th time I started rolling my eyes at it, i don’t understand why YA books feel the need to constantly remind the reader what the main characters objective is, I get it, can we move on.
This also hits the good old, “tell her not to do something and give a reasonable explanation as to why she shouldn’t, and said lead female does it anyways, because “I’m girl I strong” then proceed to be shocked by the outcome” yah Guinevere was throwing her magic about even after being told “hey you shouldn’t do that it jeopardizes everything”.
There was also the love story portion were Guinevere was basically in love with everyone who walked in front of her, or touched her, expect Arthur of course because clearly this story isn’t going to go down that road, considering the change that was made to Lancelot, and frankly Lancelot has always been my LEAST favorite Knight but this version just really irked me, it was unnecessary frankly.
The book spent so much time constantly reminding you of what Guinevere was doing, or who she was mad at, or what she worrying over that it made it so boring.
Very little of this story made me feel like I was reading an Arthurian story, it’s pretty much names and places at this point.
Also I wasn’t bothered by the lack of Arthur (even though I love him dearly lol) it made sense for him to not be the center of the story since it’s literally following “Guinevere”.
The book did have a lot of feminism pushed into which frankly wasn’t necessary and annoyed me, but eh that seems to be the way to go in these retellings anymore :/
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