Thank you to @netgalley for the ARC of@The Guinevere Deception. What a beautiful world Kiersten White built! I never knew about Camelot or it’s famous heroes and foes but I really enjoyed this retelling of King Arthur’s wife, Queen Guinevere, and her entry into Camelot. This book was beautiful, adventurous and gave life to many characters who were overshadowed in Arthurian legends. I definitely will be picking up the sequel to this series when it comes out!

I absolutely loved this book. I loved it so much I went out and bought a physical copy as well as the e-ARC. The story line sucked me in and held my attention the entire time. I loved all the characters and the inclusion of all the King Arthur characters. 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

I've always loved King Arthur, it's mythologies, and all of the various takes on the lore, but Kiersten White's The Guinevere Deception blew me away. It had been so long since I've read anything King Arthur, and I was really excited when I got approved for this ARC from Netgalley.

The story opens with Guinevere arriving to Camelot before her marriage, unsure of herself and her future position in King Arthur's court, and it's soon revealed that Guinevere is not who she seems, not even to herself. She has been sent to protect King Arthur rather than merely be a bride sent from a royal family. Throughout the course of the story, Guinevere balances learning about her past and her realities while also getting to know the court in which she lives and the people with whom she is surrounded.

I absolutely love the duality of Guinevere's character and thought that the struggles she faced while in the midst of all sorts of discovery were true to herself. The supporting case of characters were well-developed, had incredible range and depth, and delighted and surprised me at every turn. The first part of the book did feel a little slow, but since this is the set-up to what I hope is at least a trilogy, I did find it necessary. There's a lot of ground to cover when reinventing a familiar story, and by the last half of the book, I was completely hooked and didn't want this to end. I don't want to spoil anything, but of all the supporting characters, I think Lancelot is my favorite and I'm so excited to see what White does with this character in the context of the familiar stories.

This is one of my favorite reads of the year, and not just YA reads, just because it was so much fun and so inventive on so many levels. I've never read White before, but I've had the physical ARC for her Frankenstein retelling and the first of another series on my kindle for a while, so I'm definitely bumping those up on my TBR because I enjoyed this so much.

Read this if you enjoy fantasy and/or King Arthur revisits, because this checked off so many boxes for me and I've not been able to stop thinking about it since I read it.

Huge fan of Kiersten White, but I loved this even more than I thought I would. Brilliantly reimagined, delicious plot twists, and I am overjoyed to know its not a stand alone book. Nearly read it in one sitting because I didn't want to say goodbye to such enjoyable characters.

This was so intriguing! Definitely my favorite of Kiersten's books so far. I like the twist on the tale of King Arthur, giving women the big roles and having them be strong and kick ass. The pacing was pretty well done and I stayed interested the entire time. As the story developed, the plot got more interesting and the ending killed me! I loved the relationships between Guinevere and her friends, especially Brangien. Guinevere isn't stuck up or threatened by other women. She befriends them and champions them and I love seeing women supporting women!
Great story; fun, engaging. and full of surprises. Excited for the second book!

I first read a Kiersten White novel earlier this year with “Slayer.” Really liked that book. Was looking forward to read this new series by her. I’m definitely a fan of the entire Merlin, Arthur and Camelot tale. Thought it would be interesting to read this interpretation from Guinevere’s perspective.

I enjoyed the story but had a few issues with some of plot points. I grew frustrated by the constant teasing of the protagonist’s real name. I have my suspicion who she is but I think it would have worked better if we initially started out not knowing she wasn’t who she said she was. That revelation would have been surprising.

Having said that the ending was good and I’ll be reading the next installment.

I’d like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book for my honest review.

f you love Camelot, get ready for this female-empowering remake! 

I liked how this one focused more on a female lead instead of directly taking us to King Arthur. It definitely takes a twist on the classic story. 

We follow the main character who is a princess sent to marry Arthur, but secretly, she's there to protect him from his enemies. So she embarks on her secret identity which was so fun to read! 

My favorite part was the setting. It had total Renaissance-like vibes, and I couldn't help but picture such a vivid place!

I gave this one 4 out of 5 stars and highly recommend for those who want a spice in their retelling game!

GoodReads Summary:

Review:
I have to start this review off by sending a thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest (and very late) review. I'm glad to have gotten this one, even if it was approved only days before the release date because I don't know how long it would have taken me to get around to buying it. Now that I've already read (and loved!) it, I'm planning to go buy my own copy this weekend.
The Guinevere Deception is a retelling of the myth of King Arthur and Camelot, but with a more feminist focus. We follow Guinevere instead of Arthur. I know little to nothing about the original mythology (which I will talk about a bit later in the review), so for me this was a fun and fantastical read with characters I vaguely knew of.
I loved Guinevere. She's sent to Camelot to protect Arthur from something, but Merlin hasn't told her what that something is. She has magic, which has been banned from Camelot. So she must keep her magic a secret. Of course, she doesn't. But the few she entrusts her secret to are characters I really like. Guinevere is determined not to let Arthur down and even might fancy him a bit. But though she is his Queen, it is not real. Honestly, I was rooting for a little more romance between Arthur and Guinevere. I totally ship them and didn't particularly care for the almost love triangle that was going on for a bit.
I loved all of the supporting characters too. Guinevere's lady's maid, Brangien. She was more than just a maid and I really liked that. She supported Guinevere and helped her with everything she was supposed to already know. Also, Brangien's love interest and how Guinevere helps them see one another melted my lil heart.
Now, the patchwork knight was my favorite. The mystery of their identity and whether or not they were involved in nefarious things was excellent. And I was more than pleased when we do finally figure out who the patchwork knight was.
I even liked Arthur, even though he wasn't really center stage in this book. I'm hoping we get more of him with Guinevere in the next book because I totally want these two to love each other forever and ever.
I thought the writing was beautiful and the characters were loveable. So when I went to mark this book finished on goodreads I was more than surprised to see that it has almost a 3.5 star average. I think that has to do with how well loved the original myth of King Arthur is. As I said above, I'm not overly familiar with it, so I wouldn't know one way or the other how close it stayed to the original or didn't. Many of the reviews I read that spoke negatively of this book were readers that pointed out they love the original mythology. But that wasn't something that was a factor for me.
So, maybe don't pick this one up if you're a huge fan of the story of King Arthur, but if you're like me and vaguely know it. You might love this one like I did.
Keep on reading lovelies, amanda.

This book was incredibly boring and I felt like it dragged for so long. I loved White’s And I Darken series and I expected it to be like that it terms of its tone and fierceness when it came to female leads but I felt like this missed the mark.

I really enjoyed that the setting didn’t feel generic, nor the mysteries contrived. I had a good grasp on who all the players were and (though maybe because it’s built on established canon) Camelot felt real and unique to me. I also thought the magic system was well-crafted and memorable.

I wish there had been more about who Guinevere is, toward the end of the book. I felt as if that got brushed aside for plot and I was left hanging. On the other hand, the character dynamics and unanswered questions will definitely draw me to the sequel, so maybe that’s worth an open-ended feeling!

I'm not much of an Arthurian legend fanatic but I know the very basic bare bones stuff of it.

I liked how the author tried to give Guinevere some agency compared to the original tale. I enjoyed the parts where she wove magic and used it to find or do the things she want. But, honestly, there was still something missing from this recreation of her character. First of all, there isn't any explanation of the motivation behind her being sent - as in what's in it for her? Why did she agree to do this? What does she get out of it? Love? Riches? Camelot? All good questions but they aren't fully answered in the text which makes me unable to connect or root for her. Which in the end still makes her seem a bit more of a quiet, pushover character.

The pacing is slow with more of the day to day things without real action happening. Much of the exciting parts of the Arthurian legend has already taken place so we're left with the after. The writing is much the same as when I read her first book, Paranormalcy, so it's not bad by any means. Very readable.

I wanted more and didn't get it. The cover artist better have been paid handsomely for the great work they did.

I'm not too familiar with the Knights of the Round Table tale, and that might impact how someone reads this story... as for me, I'm obsessed.

It took me a little bit to get into the story, I'm not sure if it was where we were dropped into the story, the character names, or the narration, but something was holding me back for the first couple chapters. But once I got to chapter 3, I started getting really hooked into the story.

I love the character relationships! Guinevere and Brangien, just the best friendship! Guinevere and Arthur, complicated but intriguing. Guinevere and Modred.... I was really into that. In fact so interested that 90% of the things I highlighted had to do with him... I'm not sure what this says about me but oh well.

I'm very interested in seeing where this goes. There's queer characters, magic, and mystery and that's really all I could ever ask for.

The Guinevere Deception is a five-star read for me and one of my top ten books of the year. I hadn't read any Kiersten White before this book and am certainly not an Arthurian buff, but for whatever reason, I just really wanted to read this. And I'm so glad I did. I've seen other commenters note that it can be slow-paced in the beginning followed by a huge amount of action at the end. While I somewhat agree, I really wasn't bothered by the pace. I think the book moves quickly and I liked how things were being setup. I didn't find Guinevere's actions or circumstances to be slow, but again, I can see how others could feel that way. The ending was a jaw-dropper and I CANNOT wait for the follow up books. So many good things were started here and I'm very much looking forward to what's in store next.

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 4.5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

"Stories are not nails to be driven home. They are tapestries to be woven."

While I’m not big on Arthurian legends, I have always enjoyed reading about the stories of Queen Guinevere, King Arthur, and Merlin. A new story with these three characters told in a new light served as an exciting premise to dive into for new possibilities (I will admit, however, Mordred as a good guy almost had me fooled).
I highly recommend this for readers who enjoy magic, retellings, and especially the BBC series Merlin.

I go through reading cycles where my interest in Arthurian legend ebbs and flows. Recently, it’s been rising to the surface again and it was just in time for Kiersten White’s recent release of The Guinevere Deception, the first novel in her new YA Camelot Rising Trilogy. I had read something by her a while back and remembered her name. While I didn’t enjoy the story of that novel enough to continue in that series, I did appreciate her writing itself. Mixing that with the familiar characters from Camelot and I was ready to try another of her series. And having finished this initial installment for the Camelot Rising Trilogy, I will absolutely keep an eye out for when to expect the second book.

While Guinevere is making her first journey to Camelot, accompanied by Arthur’s knights with her wedding to take place upon arrival, she muses on her true mission. She is not really Guinevere. She is Merlin’s daughter and he has sent her to Arthur so she can use her own skill in magic to protect the young and idealistic king from magical threats. In his rise to power and his quest to reform Camelot, Arthur defeated the Dark Queen and banished magic (and those who use it, including Merlin) from his kingdom. The true nature of Guinevere is only the first of many twists in what promises to be a new take on the ancient legend, designed with a modern audience in mind.

I read The Once and Future King in either high school or middle school and read excerpts of various other tales in the Arthur mythology during my literature studies in college, so I have a working knowledge of most of the major characters and the outlines of the biggest commonalities. That knowledge certainly helped with regard to a bit of what unfolded in The Guinevere Deception, but it also made some of the twists more entertaining. Rather than being completely predictable, there was a predictable layer to most of the twists and turns, with a more satisfying surprise underneath ­– the kind of element you expect, that lulls you into thinking you were right, only for the real twist to hit its mark with greater impact.

Following Guinevere so closely (but not in a first-person narration, for which I was exceptionally grateful), there are times when it’s clear she’s jumping to a conclusion too quickly or is being too naïve. Though it could be annoying or frustrating, it is perfectly in keeping with her character, both because of her personal background and because she’s only supposed to be sixteen (and Arthur is only eighteen, which I had a difficult time remembering a lot of the time).

Thematically, Guinevere’s struggles with her identity are the most prominent in the novel. The decision to make her Merlin’s daughter and for her to be impersonating another is part of what drew me to this novel. As events progress and Guinevere learns more about Merlin and the role he played in Arthur’s life and Camelot’s reimagining under Arthur’s rule, she questions everything she’s known and ultimately looks to what (and who) she wants to be in the larger scheme of things. The more traditional questions about right, wrong, justice, and mercy spiral out from Guinevere’s personal grappling.

I look forward to the continuation of the series, hopefully sometime next year (and hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to preview it).

The problem with retellings is that readers may have both knowledge of the story you're retelling as well as strong attachment to specific pieces of the original. Think of it like this, in music let's say there's a famous song that everyone loves. But if an artist comes in to do a cover of this song there might be specific melodies or notes or inflections that if changed would leave the audience unsatisfied and wishing for the original. That's kind of how I felt about The Guinevere Deception. Granted, I haven't delved extensively into King Arthur's stories and what I have read was like ten or fifteen years ago. So not everything is fresh in my mind. However, there are certain key things that I knew I didn't want messed with or had been hoping Kiersten White would go in a specific direction. And well...she did not.

I was all for bringing some strong(er) female characters into this world, but one of the things that I'm coming to find is that oftentimes this is done at the expense of strong male characters. That's not always the case, but it does happen. And I was a little conflicted with how Kiersten White chose to go about her changes to the females in this story.

First there Guinevere who is not Guinevere. We still don't learn her real name, and honestly, I'm not sure she even remembers it by the end of the book. She's Merlin's daughter and thus can use magic. She believes she's sent to Camelot by Merlin to protect Arthur from an unknown magical threat. To remain close to him, they marry and she becomes queen. Even though she's active in trying to find the magical threat against Arthur, I was a little disappointed that her biggest accomplishment (from Camelot's view) is planning and executing a tournament. I feel like there could have been some better uses of her within the story and in Camelot that might defy the traditional role of a woman and/or a queen from that time period beyond the magical. My issues with this are complex and would take a great deal longer to discuss than I want to do here in this review.

Brangien is Guinevere's maid. She also becomes her closest friend. She came to Camelot with Sir Tristan when he was banished for his love affair with Isolde. Only Tristan wasn't the one in love with Isolde. So while I loved Brangien as a character, Tristan and Isolde's story is one of those pieces of the source material that I wasn't fond of being twisted. It's like taking the high note out of I Will Always Love You as sung by Whitney Houston.

Dindrane...I couldn't decide how I felt about her. She's one of those characters that most people would hate but Guinevere saw beyond the surface and took on as a friend. I guess knowing that the things she says are mostly her attempts at protecting herself emotionally helps, but at times she could appear delusional. Thankfully Dindrane knew that Guinevere wasn't really buying what she was selling and so her comments became comical where they could have been more grating. I wasn't sure she was fleshed out enough. Or maybe Kiersten White knew her well enough but the reader doesn't get to understand her as much as I would have liked. I was excited to see her have the possibility of a romance though.

Rhoslyn was fine. Nothing really to complain about there.

I (mostly) liked how Kiersten White chose to write Lancelot. I never have liked the love affair between Lancelot and Guinevere in the original legends. Lancelot probably accomplishes the most (beyond Guinevere) of what Kiersten White was trying to accomplish with her approach to this retelling. However, there's one line that becomes a Mountains Out of Molehills issue for me.

I definitely appreciated how Kiersten White chose to write Arthur. He is no less captivating than he should be. The way that he's written is supposed to keep you guessing as to his feelings and intentions toward Guinevere, but I found everything about him to be the exact reason for me pressing on and continuing this book when at multiple times I thought about putting it into the DNF pile. If anything, I am curious to see the continued development of Arthur as things move forward, but to be honest, I'm not sure I'll finish the series as further books are published. I'll see how I feel after some time has passed and what the descriptions look like for the remaining two books.

Mordred kept me guessing the most. Was he an enemy? An ally? In love with Guinevere? Would he expose Guinevere if he found out about her use of magic? So many of my questions revolved around him. And I bounced back and forth between whether I liked him or not.

Kudos to whoever designed the cover for this one because it is stunning in my opinion.

All in all, I felt like Kiersten White didn't just want to write an empowering, female-strong version of King Arthur and his court so much as a politically correct, LGBT friendly one which resulted in her twisting some of my favorite pieces of the original stories. In some areas, I enjoyed the twists, and in others, I felt like she strayed too far. The analogy I used above was of someone covering a Whitney Houston song without hitting the high notes or changing the melody. Some pieces of the original are too ingrained and left me feeling unsatisfied with the changes she decided to make. I bounced around so much with my enjoyment of the book. At times I was dying to get back to it, and other times I was considering DNFing it. I had to go back to my rating scale which lands me at 2.5 Stars. I can't say it was completely "ugh" but I don't think I can give it a "pretty good" either. Have you read The Guinevere Deception? What did you think? Let me know!

I was given this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I can't remember the last time that I read a book that made me feel so much or that I enjoyed as much as this.

I don't think I've ever read the original King Arthur, so my knowledge is limited to a couple of films.

I've also never had the pleasure of reading a Kiersten White piece before although I've been tempted more than once.

Having finished this one I can say that her work is atmospheric, the prose is nearly lyrical, and the story crafting was absolutely everything I wanted.

When you read as frequently as I do you start to notice patterns in storytelling, and it's not easy to be caught off guard. The ending was a shock that I'm honestly still reeling.

I love this feminine reimagining. I love focusing on the girls that are so often over looked. For the first time in such a very long time, I had trouble pickinga favorite character because they were all so wondeful.

I don't want to ruin anything for you, but if you're on the fence about it, get it! You won't be dissapointed. Perfect for high fantasy fans. I'm dying for the next one!

Helloooo, gorgeous cover!

“There was nothing in the world as magical and terrifying as a girl on the cusp of womanhood.”


I was especially excited to see this was an Arthurian retelling from Guinevere’s POV, and that it deals with the clash between magic and, well, men. Arthur was made king because of magic (a sword, Merlin) but can only stay king by pushing out that magic (banishing Merlin, turning to Christianity). This also leads to a curtailing of women’s power – both magical and political. The Lady in the Lake and the Dark Queen may have had far-reaching powers, but the Queen of Camelot is reduced to seating charts for banquets and visiting the other ladies of court, a footnote in Arthur’s story. Because of that, the book does move somewhat slowly – there’s some adventure, but a lot of it is Guinevere exploring the limits of her life as a lady of Camelot.

“She was not Arthur’s wife, not really. But she was sad nonetheless. It was not easy, revolving around someone who did not revolve around her.”


I felt let down by the romance plot. Obviously, there’s something between Arthur and Guinevere, but there’s also a third character as well. I’m not much of a big fan of love triangles, though I’m more accepting of them in YA, and honestly at points I wanted to throw up my hands and tell Guinevere to hightail it out of Camelot and find some farmer or something. There were some good scenes between Arthur and Guinevere, but most of it is bookended by Guinevere fretting about why she couldn’t be interested in him. This was also compounded by the fact that Arthur felt bland to me. This may be by design – Arthur puts Camelot above everything else, including himself, and certainly above his wife. As for the other love interest, I loved their interactions, but, due to being familiar with the Arthurian legends, I had a pretty good idea how this would all end up.

“I believe in King Arthur. I believe in his story. And I want nothing more than to be part of it.”

With all that said, there was a lot I liked about this book. Guinevere’s friendship with Brangien, her lady’s maid, and other women in the castle and beyond were lovely. There were a lot of plot twists throughout the book, some obvious to me (the Patchwork Knight) and some not. While all those twists were exciting, it was also jarring, as it felt like a lot of information was being withheld from the reader for too long. I did like how Guinevere started the book as a blank slate and then slowly grew into her power and sense of self, accelerated in the last portion of the book. I’ve mentioned the slower pacing before, and it’s the end where everything really picks up and there’s action and plot twists a-plenty.

Overall, while the book wasn’t what I was expecting and seriously suffers from first-in-a-series syndrome, I’m still curious enough about what happens to Guinevere to read the next one. I'd rate the majority of the book as 3 stars, with the last portion being more 4 stars, so rounding down to 3.

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I love Arthurian myth retellings, and I realized as I waited for the other shoe to drop on this book that I'm quite picky about them. But everything Kiersten White's done here in the first book in the Guinevere Deception series is right up my alley.

The characters are well realized, funny, interesting, and I would love to read a story from any of their points of view. But we're with Guinevere, a strong choice! Especially given the plotting of the story and the given history of the world White has built. The magic is interesting, but not too obtuse and detailed. It makes its own kind of sense and it's believable for us as an audience without too many details because it means things to the characters who practice it.

There's a pseudo love triangle where I'm rooting for both choices, and the turn that was bound to happen was so well done, I couldn't believe it. It was strange because I thought White would wait to have the character pivot until the second book or so, but it really works right at the end.

This was the first Kiersten White book I've read, but I'm dying to read everything else.