Reviews

"Guinevere was not made to sit in a castle, to ride to and from celebrations in comfort, to be protected. Perhaps this was a bad idea, but it felt right, like reclaiming missing parts of herself. if she could not remember more than a glimpse of her past, she could fill in her present with whoever, whatever she chose to be."

*sigh* This was so much more boring and hard to get through than book one. I think I'm just over the Arthurian legend, and need to leave these kinds of retellings for those who enjoy them more.

Guinevere has embraced her life as queen of Camelot - she just wishes Arthur would embrace her, too. Mordred has been banished, and Guinevere has put that part of her life behind her; she has found sisterhood with her maid and her knight, and she is determined to be better than Merlin in every way she can. But when her sister - or rather, the real Guinevere's sister - shows up in Camelot, a quest goes awry, and things begin to get complicated, Guinevere realizes that she still doesn't know who she is, and the journey towards that knowing is going to be harder than she anticipates.

I really, really loved The Guinevere Deception. It was one of those perfect blend kind of books, with fantasy combined with some hard truths about being a woman and finding yourself and friendship that made me swoon. I really wanted to love this one, but the entire time I was reading, I was just...bored.

Guinevere is still a character I root for. She doesn't know who she is, but she desperately wants to find out and make herself her own, and I empathize with her. I actually liked the decisions she made here, but the ways she reacted to the repercussions frustrated me and made me like her less, even if I still felt for her. And her supporting cast were great once again - Brangien and Isolde are wonderful, and even Arthur, too good though he may be, didn't annoy me too much.

But I feel like Lancelot got the shit end of the stick with this one. She has SO much potential, even as a romantic interest for Guinevere, but more importantly just as an interesting character that I want to care about - but she just doesn't get enough page time or focus for me. Guinevach is perhaps the most interesting part of this book, and she doesn't really factor in until at least 2/3rds of the way through.

And that's the issue with this one as a whole for me. At least 2/3rds of the book feels like filler. There are side quests that make the overall plot move slower, and then when things get accomplished there, another quest pops up. It feels like this is just filler to what should have been a duology. I typically love Kiersten White's writing, and this still felt like her, but it just didn't have the same heart or character work that usually draws me to her.

There isn't enough character development on Guinevere's part for this to be worthy of a whole book. I feel like so much of this book could've been cut. I enjoyed the addition of Isolde and Guinevach, but it wasn't enough to keep me emotionally invested in this story. I think this is it for me, for this series.

lennatheunicorncat's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

Oh man, what to even say about this book?
Well, at least it was a library book and I didn't buy it, I guess. This was such a disappointment. Like complete disappointment. I honestly DNF-ed it around 65% of the way in because nothing freaking happens! It's made me reanalyze why I gave the first book such a high rating, so much so that I lowered the rating on that one to 3 stars and this one sits at a big fat one star.
Normally I'm more clear and concise in my thoughts about books, but this one frustrated me to no end that I did the unthinkable, which was read the ending of this book and the ending of the third book because I didn't want to waste anymore time if the ending was terrible. And it was.
I do not understand why the author made Guinevere choose Arthur time and time again, when Arthur is shown to be a generally terrible guy. Like he has his head in the right direction, but doesn't treat people correctly. Guinevere constantly complained about having to be forced to fit in a mold that Arthur made and expected of her, that he did not trust her fully or even believe in the things she could do. He was a constant negative nelly who, as Guinevere put it in the first book "would pay more attention to me if I was wearing armor and fighting in the ring with the other knights." Adding in that the rest of his personality was as soggy as bland wet bread and I was done and confused over why she kept choosing him. Apparently she kinda chooses Lancelot, but also Arthur. However, even then, things were iffy. Lancelot, our female knight, is treated like garbage by the rest of the knights and has to constantly prove time and time again that she is just as worthy as them to fight and actually was in a draw in battle with Arthur, so she knows her shit. But Arthur and the rest of the knights view her as not as worthy, like they view Guinevere. The one person that Guinevere felt the most freedom with was Mordred, and even then, he was treated like a horrible character who had backstabbed her and betrayed her at the end of the first book. I didn't see any betrayal. He didn't force her to wake the trees, in turn waking the Dark Queen, he just believed and cheered her on when she embraced her magic to save them. In this book, Mordred was treated constantly like he was the worst kind of human to walk the earth when all he did was state that he was done dealing with Arthur's ruling where magic was banned, done with the way Guinevere was being treated, and wanted to live his life back in the forests where magic ruled the world. Throughout it all, Guinevere just had this melancholic attitude towards the choices made for her and where her life was going, but even though the ending was supposed to pick back up in pace, I was done. I can't care enough to continue, and I did not like that this really wasn't even a reimagining of the legends surrounding Arthur. If it was, there were so many ways things could have been tweaked to play out differently. The biggest gripe I had was the fact that the actions the characters took did not reflect the crap they were all claiming and saying. Overall, this wasn't worth the amount of time spent and now I'm hesitant to read anymore series for a while from this author.

disabledbookdragon's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

robyndansereau's review against another edition

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4.0

"The Camelot Betrayal" explores the nature of self, paired with epic magic and compelling romance. It’s a spectacular continuation of the story of the most famous queen who never lived. Full review: https://robyntocker.weebly.com/the-camelot-betrayal.html

oddact's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

The main character is kind of an idiot… but it’s kind of fun.

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