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kdgreen's review
4.0
To be honest, this book took me a while to get into, but that ending, that ending kept me wanting more talk about a twist! If you’re a fan of Arthurian retellings, adventures, morally gray characters and fae this is the story for you. In the Queen of Roses, we follow Morgan Pendragon who is half fae/half human who has been tasked with retrieving Excalibur for her brother King Arthur. She is accompanied on this journey by Kairos Draven who is sarcastic, mysterious, and on a mission of his own devices. Throughout the book we have a slooooow burn and development and it makes me that much more invested and thankful that the next book of the series is already available!
This isn’t your run of the mill King Arthur and Camelot retailing. You have fae and spice and I promise you it is worth the read! Thank you, Net Galley and Briar, for the ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.
This isn’t your run of the mill King Arthur and Camelot retailing. You have fae and spice and I promise you it is worth the read! Thank you, Net Galley and Briar, for the ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.
tara_whitaker's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
jessiikuhh's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
chloetaida's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-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
4.5
hviareadsbooks's review
3.0
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Overall Review (spoilers)
I am a sucker for Arthurian retellings. I plan BBC Merlin, but give me Camelot and it’s history and I melt faster than sugar in water.
Queen of Roses is the first book in a Arthurian retelling, except Arthur is a bad guy, there’s hot fae, and Morgana is powerful…except she doesn’t realize it.
After witnessing her mother’s death, Morgan grows up in the court of her father then Arthur. Having be usurped for the throne from her father, Morgan was suppose to simply be a priestess and hidden away from the world due to her fae blood. However, Arthur decides to send her on a deadly quest with a really hot assassins. If she fails, Arthur has made it clear that she will meet a worse fate than having to serve the gods.
I really like Boleyn’s inclusion of tropes while still managing to tell a new story. The magic system does need a little work, and sometime I feel like Boleyn was explaining things that should have been shown instead of explained via words, but overall this is a pretty great book. I can’t wait to read the second!
Plot Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice Rating:
Overall Review (spoilers)
I am a sucker for Arthurian retellings. I plan BBC Merlin, but give me Camelot and it’s history and I melt faster than sugar in water.
Queen of Roses is the first book in a Arthurian retelling, except Arthur is a bad guy, there’s hot fae, and Morgana is powerful…except she doesn’t realize it.
After witnessing her mother’s death, Morgan grows up in the court of her father then Arthur. Having be usurped for the throne from her father, Morgan was suppose to simply be a priestess and hidden away from the world due to her fae blood. However, Arthur decides to send her on a deadly quest with a really hot assassins. If she fails, Arthur has made it clear that she will meet a worse fate than having to serve the gods.
I really like Boleyn’s inclusion of tropes while still managing to tell a new story. The magic system does need a little work, and sometime I feel like Boleyn was explaining things that should have been shown instead of explained via words, but overall this is a pretty great book. I can’t wait to read the second!
Plot Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice Rating:
deepat's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
An excellent book. I read it in one go, almost. It was easy to read, fast-paced and kept me interested throughout. The story runs along the lines of King Arthur’s and the Sword of Excalibur tale - but a very different story still. Also the explicit passages were minimal, that was a tolerable amount for me. I would like to continue this series, very much. Glad I snagged this nice book for free from Kindle.
lemontreereads's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-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
this didn’t take me four months to read… not at all. look, guys, i was in a slump okay don’t come for me 🫣
ANYWHO
WOW
THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD. i feel like every time i read a book like this, i always say i regret taking so long to read it. well, guess what? imma say it again because i. regret. waiting. so. long. to. read. it. and it kills me that i’ve said this so many times but it’s TRUE.
one of my favorite things to point out is the banter because, of course. it’s one of my favorite parts of any book and it’s so well-written in this one. i’ll be honest, i probably highlighted at least half of the lines between morgan and draven just on pure banter points alone. it was that good.
i’m going to be super upfront when i say i’m not super familiar with arthurian legend. the extent of my knowledge is, like, knights of the roundtable, disney’s sword in the stone, and legendborn, so, safe to say there’s not a lot to work with. HOWEVER, it might be better this way because it’s essentially a clean slate. safe to say, because of that lack of knowledge, i really, really enjoyed finding the meager connections i could. and, man, it was so fun. i felt like that one meme of leonardo dicaprio whistling and snapping at the tv every time i was able to recall something from the source material and pair it with something from here. i also loved the original aspects of this story, though. the way briar took what was part of the story and blended it with new bits that expanded on it. i think, personally, that it made it better.
i can already tell this is going to be a super slow burn, and if it’s anything like the artifacts of ouranos series by nisha j. tuli, i’m going to be dying by the time something happens between morgan and draven. and i’m going to eat it and leave no crumbs, believe that.
ANYWHO
WOW
THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD. i feel like every time i read a book like this, i always say i regret taking so long to read it. well, guess what? imma say it again because i. regret. waiting. so. long. to. read. it. and it kills me that i’ve said this so many times but it’s TRUE.
one of my favorite things to point out is the banter because, of course. it’s one of my favorite parts of any book and it’s so well-written in this one. i’ll be honest, i probably highlighted at least half of the lines between morgan and draven just on pure banter points alone. it was that good.
i’m going to be super upfront when i say i’m not super familiar with arthurian legend. the extent of my knowledge is, like, knights of the roundtable, disney’s sword in the stone, and legendborn, so, safe to say there’s not a lot to work with. HOWEVER, it might be better this way because it’s essentially a clean slate. safe to say, because of that lack of knowledge, i really, really enjoyed finding the meager connections i could. and, man, it was so fun. i felt like that one meme of leonardo dicaprio whistling and snapping at the tv every time i was able to recall something from the source material and pair it with something from here. i also loved the original aspects of this story, though. the way briar took what was part of the story and blended it with new bits that expanded on it. i think, personally, that it made it better.
i can already tell this is going to be a super slow burn, and if it’s anything like the artifacts of ouranos series by nisha j. tuli, i’m going to be dying by the time something happens between morgan and draven. and i’m going to eat it and leave no crumbs, believe that.
clarefythat's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0