The Guinevere Deception Review

                       

 

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?

My Review

This started off strong, and you know, I do enjoy a good Arthurian tale. I really enjoyed Kiersten White’s descriptions of Camelot, they were gorgeous, but more than that I enjoyed the voice she gave to Guinevere.

It’s so raw and innocent and it made me love our little changeling immediately.

BUT.

I have the strong desire to know her real name, WHAT IS IT?! Curiosity kills me!

Immediately I was drawn to the Patchwork Knight, I’m happy to say that my inklings about them were correct but I’ll avoid the spoilers for you all.

While Guinevere has been planted by Merlin, she finds herself thrust into a world she knows nothing about, holes in her memory, and a deep fear of water because there’s the knowledge that it could undo her.

She’s assumed to be Merlin’s child but I truly wonder who she is, she doesn’t seem to be human at all but is that just because of the holes in her memory?

While Guinevere has a first hand lesson in all things about Camelot with her trusted maid Brangien and Mordred as her only friends, she learns how to be a Queen above all else. In order to protect Arthur as Merlin sent her to, she is also to be Arthur and Camelot’s queen. That comes with a lot of responsibilities that all seem to get in the way of her true purpose.

I enjoyed seeing Guinevere overcome and work around her obstacles and loved the bits of magic.

As fun as this was I did feel parts were repetitive and don’t think they really helped the plot so that did feel tedious once I got nearly halfway through, but having the plot pick up in the last third did bring back my enjoyment of it.

A lot of things were quite easy to spot, and I’m super oblivious while reading so this isn’t me being like Sherlock Holmes, if I can see it coming, you all will, I promise lol.

One thing I did enjoy the most though was Guinevere’s back story and I am hoping to see more development in her in book 2 (which I already started) and I’m hoping to see this plot really culminate some more, I think it was a solid first book in a trilogy.

Pacing was off kilter for me, and there’s not a lot of character development yet but I think it showed a lot of promise and was overall a fun read! What really made this a ‘solid’ read for me was White’s writing style and descriptions/world-building.

3.5 Cups of coffee from me and that’s another off my backlist!