3.25/5 stars

When you get an ARC just a week before publication date...all chaos ensues. Nevermind that I have exams lurking at every corner 😂.

ANYWAYS! I thought this book was just okay. It didn't impress me, but it also wasn't bad. I'll be up front and say that I don't really know the King Arthur legend. I may have seen an old Disney animated movie or read about it in an old fairytale, but overall I have no clue as to what to compare this to. I went in blind, not knowing a single thing of the original work or the gist of this one, but I came out feeling pretty meh. i think that it's best if you're already familiar with the legend, as I found myself lost many times when it came to the central storyline.

This book was a bit all over the place. The beginning felt very rushed, as if it was racing to get to the main conflict and deceptions. The pacing would zoom on by, only for it to abruptly stop in the most awkward places. At the midway point the pacing fixed itself to a steady pace, which was much more easy to handle compared to the beginning. However, I found the story itself at this point to be weird? I can't find the right word for it, but it just felt off to me. I believe that if I had gotten to get a better sense of the characters, maybe even more backstory, it would have lessened this hole that I felt when reading. The characters themselves were a mixed bunch. Arthur I found to be completely uninteresting, and Guinevere I found to be likeable but a bit unrealistic in terms of how others reacted to her. The depth in the characters could've been developed more, as they seemed a bit hollow most of the time. They felt like walking cliches, which I have no problem with, but I honestly did expect better considering the hype this book is generating.

Overall, this book is alright. It's not fantastic but it isn't bad either. If you know nothing of the King Arthur legend, I say to save your coins and head to the library instead. If you're a fan of the legend, perhaps grabbing this book would be a good choice. I went in blind and found myself to have mixed feelings. I don't see myself picking up any of the future books in the series.

ARC provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I've been wanting to read some of Kiersten White's novels (I picked up And I Darken from my library a few months ago but the loan expired before I could read it...). Thank you to Netgalley and Delacorte Press for this ARC.

While I do love fantasy and medieval history, I have to admit that I'm not super familiar with Arthurian legend. That was probably not a good thing with this book; I felt like it dropped me right in the middle of things and assumed I was pretty familiar with the setting and characters. I actually had to double check to make sure this was part one of the series, just to be sure.

The flow of this book was all over the place. There was minimal introduction to anything and so much random information and references. In one chapter, the characters go to multiple places and have multiple confrontations, with each being only a paragraph or two long. The writing style seemed a little simple; there were just a lot of short sentences with very little variety. The dialogue and descriptions were very stiff and formal, making the character's not feel "real".

Most of the characters were lackluster. Arthur had no personality whatsoever. Guinevere is a classic Mary Sue and for some reason, all the males in this book absolutely adored her and think she's the greatest thing to ever come to Camelot. As a character, she is very very weak. I also found it so frustrating how she jumps to so many conclusions with little to no evidence. Mordred was an interesting character and was the only one who had any depth.

I hate to admit that I was forced to skim a pretty large portion of this book. I got to about 50% and really started to struggle. I'm just sad that this one didn't deliver, as I had really high expectations and was so excited to read it.

Overall, 1.5 stars.

I’ve never been well versed on the stories of Camelot so I didn’t really know what to expect when starting this book and unfortunately I don’t think it did either.

“The Guinevere Deception” begins with a wedding where the new Queen works to protect King Arthur from an unknown enemy while hiding her magic from those who wish to see her death or banishment for simply wielding the craft but as the Dark Queen hungers for revenge Guinevere finds herself looking to the past to find the truth which can unmake the future.

I think this book had a lot of aspirations but unfortunately didn’t know what to do with them, it was clear we had to get from point A to point B over the course of the novel but everything leading up to that journey was such a drag that it took all the willpower I had to continue. There’s a lot of wandering and sleeping which I would have cut in favor of action or even character development but instead we get a noble King who graciously grants us his presence sparingly thought out the novel with lighthearted romance that is there if you squint your eyes just right, a witch Queen who wants to be the weapon she believes she is but is too often shuffled off or stumbling around the holes in her memory to really be useful and a cast of characters that filter in and out when they can’t have her sleeping anymore.

Lancelot was one I was eager to meet especially with the twist but unfortunately the knights appearance is made at the halfway point and a few times after without really making any sort of statement which was disappointing but I have hope for the character to have a larger role in the books moving forward I’m just not sure this was enough for me to want to stick around and see if it happens.

I feel like if you enjoy all things Camelot and the legends of King Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere and Lancelot there’s probably enough here for you to enjoy but if you’re coming into it from any other place it might leave much to be desired.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**

The Guinevere Deception--I really loved the concept. Guinevere has never been a very likable character (hard to be when the legend treats you as an object) so it was interesting to see the whole character completely turned in a new direction. But the story just didn't have any teeth; it didn't feel like it was wholly fleshed out yet. Perhaps it will find its feet in the next book.

I was excited about this but I found it disappointing and dull. I couldn’t even finish the whole thing and what I did read I skimmed thorough.

I’m a bit conflicted about this book, tbh. To be transparent, I’ve never read the original King Arthur and his knights story. I’ve seen loads of movies. I know the basic premise behind the stories, characters, and even some of the ‘twists’. I’ve only read one King Arthur retelling (that I know of) and I disliked it greatly. I love Kiersten White’s Vlag the Impaler retelling trilogy so I assumed I would love this and I just...didn’t.

I did not dislike this book. I just didn’t love it. The characters fell very flat for me, the plot didn’t seem to know what it wanted even though it did (?), and the story itself just wasn’t as fun to read as I expected. Kiersten is an amazing writer and you can see that in this book but for some reason it just didn’t all come together to be a great read for me.

None of the characters had any defining characteristics that really made them stand apart. I’m sure in a week or so I’ll forget all about them short of what I’ve already associated them with from other avenues. All the twists that were in the story would have been amazing had I not already figured them out myself. I just felt like I knew exactly what was going to happen the more I read, and when I got there and my predictions happened it wasn’t exciting, it just like, “Well, okay.”

This review is such trash because I’m not really giving super specific reasons why this didn’t work out for me. I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone and I’m afraid I will if I keep going on. The story was fun to read but for me, it didn’t stand out among all the fantasy YA novels or even any of the YA retellings out there.

Guinevere started off as this badass witch who’s here to rock it out and save Arthur from this unknown ‘threat’ that Merlin would not tell her about. Arthur is in trouble, go save him basically. So she goes and is all gungho to do this. Some truth comes out and Guinevere ends up being like....well, I’m just queen now. Let me plan some parties and pine for Arthur who’s never here and doesn’t pay attention to me. Like...wtf. This is not the Guinevere story that I was expecting. I mean, it all changes later on but still, I was not a happy bunny at all.

Like I said, this review is trash and it’s really hard to explain why I didn’t love this story. A+ writing, piss poor plot, and flat characters. I’m hoping the sequel will be better but at this point I’m not sure I even want to read it.

Beautiful writing with wonderful descriptions! I really liked the characters, too! I was just hoping for more on the romance.

First of all, thank you to Netgalley and Random House for this eARC!!

It's been 1 year since Merlin and all magic was banished in Camelot. Guinevere does not remember her past, but she has been given a task: protect Arthur. Guided with magic, Guinevere, though not the real Guinevere, is sent to Camelot by Merlin. Despite presenting himself as a Christian King, Arthur and Merlin are still close, and Guinevere is married off to Arthur to pose as his queen and defeat the dark magic still lurking from the defeat of the Dark Queen. But Arthur is surrounded by enemies, and no one and nothing is as it seems.

Kiersten White is one of my favorite authors, and I was so happy to receive this eARC just before it's release! I've heard mixed reviews, but I have to say, this lived up to it ALL! I have a serious weak spot for Knight tales and medieval magic stories along the lines of Tamora Pierce, and Kiersten delivered. It seems around each corner we learn some new piece of this story. Guinevere is such a complicated, strong character, and I am so ready for the next 2 books in this trilogy!

*Spoiler free*

I love the story of King Arthur and I'm sucker for any books written about it. So, a book about Guinevere (maybe I'll be able to spell her name right on the first try after this review haha) definietly caught my attention. And it was supposed to focus on the women of this story and the strength they have and what they can add to everything around them. Plus, it there are lies and magic and Guinevere isn't even who she seems. Trigger warnings: vague mentions of sexual assault

This book wasn't what I expected it to be at all. I was softer than I expected. It was filled more forbidden magic done under the cover of night than sword fights. It was more about the knowledge that Guinevere had and the smart decisions she made, rather than her charging into battle. It took me awhile to get used to it, but I ended up really like this aspect. I liked how Guinevere and all the women showed their strength in their own ways, even if it wasn't traditional. Saying and acting the right way at all times, being patient and laying traps, and putting up with talking to gross men. Though, there is some sword fighting and battles near the end.

I was also surprised about a lot in this book, in a lot of good ways. I'm not too too familiar with the inner workings of the original King Arthur tale, but I loved this story take on it. I liked seeing names I recognized and I liked where this story took their characters.

And that freaking twist at the end, that was brilliant. It came out of nowhere, but in the best way possible. I was actually kind of mad at myself for allowing myself to trust a certain character when I knew he felt slimy in the beginning! It was brilliantly done.

Though, I'm still a bit confused on the inner workings of some things. What is the end game? I guess that's kind of the point since this is a beginning of a trilogy, but I would have liked a firmer grasp on that. There were threads that didn't quite make sense to me from world building to character relationships/development. They make sense, but when I think about where they're going and what is going to happen in the next books, it gets confusing.

I really, really loved Guinevere. She is such a fantastic character and a fantastic person overall. She's caring, she's strong, she's fierce, she's a fantastic friend, and she's just all around super awesome. I also liked pretty much all of the side characters. I wasn't sure about a couple of them, but they all grew on me.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the writing. It felt like a majority of the sentences were short, and it just felt a bit choppy to me before I got used to it. That's just me though!

I feel like there is so much mystery to this book yet and that there's still so much hidden. I want to know more. I really want to know the name that was just out of reach the entire book. I have a guess, but I'm not 100% sure. I guess I will be waiting to read the second book haha.

I loved Guinevere, I loved the forbidden magic, I love the strength of women in their own ways, I loved the horses, and I loved Camelot. I had a few issues with this book, but I still really enjoyed reading it!

I got a super last-minute approval to review this book, so I dropped everything and binge read it in 2 days.
The rest of the time has been spent trying to figure out how to put my thoughts down in a way that didn’t sound too negative, but also expressed my feelings in a truthful manner.

Basically, this wasn’t what I was expecting, and I’m feeling a bit disappointed. WOMP. Maybe I just have a harsher view than others because anything to do with Camelot/King Arthur is like holy ground for me? I don’t know.

I DO know that the concept had so much more potential than the final product.

Let me just put out there that I completely LOVED Kiersten White’s take on Frankenstein with The Dark Decent Of Elizabeth Frankenstein!
That one felt like it complimented the original story, was highly creative, and was an interesting spin.

This one just kinda missed the mark for me.
I struggled with nearly all the characters in terms of being able to connect. I found that by the end, there wasn’t one that I even could find a preference for, my biggest issue being Guinevere herself. Yes, I know that she’s not meant to be exactly human, so I wouldn’t expect her to act completely like one, but she felt very bland, even when there were parts that were supposed to be conveyed as emotional for her.

There was no spark at all between her and Arthur, and when an attempt at a love match between them WAS made, I found it to be not only bland, but also not that convincing, considering how he spent most of his time away from her.

It felt like the writing was a bit scattered, and I wasn’t a fan of the bits where we are getting the Dark Queen’s POV.

There were times I felt that the storyline/writing regressed into what felt would be better for much younger readers as well.

HOWEVER, having said all that, I don’t want it to seem like it was a terrible book or a flop.
I liked the mystery aspect as to what really had gone on between Merlin and Guinevere; I liked that in this story, Merlin is portrayed as having a very blurry line between dark and light.

I honestly feel like the sequel will be better because all of the things left unsaid about Guinevere & Merlin’s relationship will start to be revealed; as well as all the questions Guinevere herself had brought up. IE: where she came from, why she there were so many lapses in her memory, etc...

Even though this one fell a bit flat for me, I’m sure it will still be a hit for many readers! It still has tons of potential moving forward. Plus, as I said before, I might just be biased with this subject.

I think for that reason alone, I’ll stay in the neutral with my stars: 2.5/3 stars for this one.

* I received a copy of this from the publisher and Netgalley for review. (Thank you SO much!)
All opinions are my own.

I will have this distributed amongst my platforms ASAP!

I was sincerely looking forward to all the fantastical twists on Arthurian legend this book promised. Too, I loved the idea of structuring a plot around a Queen of Camelot with "agency and longing" who was "a mystery to everyone" because few things in the world delight me more than giving familiar female characters a new voice, their own vices and virtues, or including surprising deviations from original legend. Unfortunately, with this, with the Guinevere depicted here, I was underwhelmed. Neither she nor the story as a whole worked for me, sadly.

However, I will say that I liked the Lancelot twist even though I saw it coming from ten miles away. The ending was also full of dynamism and adventure and high stakes decisions, which, had they been weaved in a little earlier, I might have been able to enjoy this more.

2.5 stars

Thanks so much to Net Galley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with this ARC!

This book was sent to me 5 days before its archive and publication date. There is no way I could have read it and written a review in time with this being my busy season (I am a photographer and fall is full time). I did start the book and I love the writing and the mystery. The cover is beautiful and I was so excited when I requested it. I just expected to be given more time. Unfortunately I cannot give a full review at this time.

I love Arthurian tales and this one did not disappoint. It was a refreshing take giving Guinevere something to do other than being window dressing and a tortured lover. The author includes other well loved characters like Tristan and Isolde and challenges gender status quos with Lancelot. As this is not a stand alone the books ends with questions.

The Guinevere Deception is the story of a young woman who deceives a kingdom to save its king. It is about the testing of loyalty, perseverance, and love in the face of danger and disarray. It combines modern ideology with ancient lore to create an intriguing and twisty bent on the Arthurian legends. It is wonderfully imagined and dully written.

Author Kiersten White set out to strengthen the female characters of the Arthurian legends, but once again we have the beginnings of another poorly developed love triangle in which love is determined by the amount of spark in a touch. Is she falling for Arthur, the boy king who is so busy running a kingdom, she is always lamenting that he’s never around to get to know? Or the other person, who she thinks is snake-like one moment and her BFF the next?

Guinevere spends most of her time poorly investigating a threat by jumping to huge conclusions, floundering when she doesn’t know basic things, and always seems to be confused. Confused about who she is, what she should be doing, who she has feelings for, and who is telling her the truth. White’s female characters may not be sex fodder, but they definitely aren’t strongly written either.

In fact, no one is strongly written, and the characters fall flat. As does the story and writing. Most of the story is told rather than shown and the plot points the author does try to foreshadow are hammered in and obvious.

I finished this book because I love Arthurian legends and I wanted to see what the author did with it. However, the writing is not particularly beautiful or rhythmic. The story moves slowly and isn’t well crafted, not are the characters. It’s intriguing enough to want to know how it finishes but not particularly well written.


Positives:

Genderbending and twists on a few Arthurian legends


Negatives:

Writing is mostly telling, not showing
One dimensional characters
Clunky, monotone writing at times
Dull and uninspired love triangle


Things that might matter to some people:

Slight LGBTQ representation. Some kissing. No language.

I've always loved the King Arthur legend, and as I have long been a fan of The Mists of Avalon's female-driven tale, I was curious to see how this book would play out.

Although the pace was a bit slow, I was intrigued by the story early on. I liked how Guinevere was portrayed as more of a strong-minded character, with a fixed goal of protecting Arthur, rather than as a decoration. The mystery about who she is, and what exactly her role is to be adds to the draw of the story. I especially liked how Guinevere is clearly a clever character, rather than the absentminded bimbo that she is often portrayed as in other tellings of this story.

Perhaps the aspect of this story that appealed to me the most is how the pieces of this tale that we take for granted are turned upside down - gender roles, sexuality, and race are not fixed in this version, which is a pleasant surprise. Since some parts of the story were changed, I was left questioning what else would change. Would the hero still be the hero? Would the villain change? I was not disappointed in the outcome. The author kept some parts the same, but the story was still unpredictable, so that I wasn't bored with the story. I'm looking forward to reading more of this series!

The Guinevere Deception is a reimagining of Camelot legends, which I'm not very familiar with past recognising character names, so I didn't know what to expect from this one. Regardless I had a great time reading it. It had magic swords, brave knights, women doing secret magic, a fairy queen, dragons, and an all around fun escape into Camelot with a bit of modernization for the female characters to shine.
Fast-paced and kept me wanting more. It did leave quite a lot of unanswered questions to answer in the next installment and I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel.
I loved Kiersten White's And I Darken trilogy and The Guinevere Deception is another hit in my book.

I received this copy from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I choose to read The Guinevere Deception, because it was a new and modern perspective of the story of Guinevere. In this book the real Guinevere is dead and in her place Merlin, exiled from Camelot because of an anti magic policy, sends his daughter, a forest witch, to protect Arthur from an unknown danger. So the new Guinevere finds herself in a world different from hers, married to a man she didn't know. At least, in her deception least Arthur knows her real identity, while she's forced to adeguate herself to a new life as queen and protector.
During all the book Guinevere tries to and investigates possible dangers against Arthur, using her knot magic (interesting bit, but never expanded), what she knows to protect the realm, while struggling to be a queen and to be wanted and loved by Arthur (thing that annoyed me a lot, since she went to Camelot for a mission and seemely falls in love after a day).
I found many characters flat, so one-dimensional, Arthus above all.
Arthur is constantly seen as the stereotype of the great king, so good, loyal, the savior of the world and, as soon as she meets him (basically after five minutes) Guinevere is already besotted by him and would die for him. Arthur's character is flat, without any depth. He's beautiful, he's strong, he's legendary, he's solving borders problem, he loves his knights and people, blah blah blah. It was really annoying to read and I really wanted to shake the main character.
Mordred is seen as a young knight, Arthur's nephew, winking and flirting all the time with Guinevere, a misterious character and almost a stalker, since Guinevere finds him everywhere she goes, and, of course, she's intruiged by him. Brangien, her maid, is sweet and I liked her story with Isolde, but, same as before, there are things put there without any explanation or development. She loves Isolde, No words about Isolde herself, where she could be, how to reach her. Nothing. There is an Isolde. An Brangien who knows magic and even though Arthur forbidded didn't flinch when she discovered her queen practices it. On the contrary, they became even more friendly to each other, sharing magic secret and picking up ingridients. OK.
Nothing about the knights, sir Percival, Sir Bors....they seemed like puppets, put there and stop. Vaguely interesting Guinevere's investigation towards the patchwork knight and Lancelot as a woman was intruiguing, above all if the author develops her relationship with the queen in the future, but for now, like many other things, it's put there. Like a plant. Without any kind of attention, or attempt to develop. Lancelot had so much potential, her being a woman, fighting to gain her place beside Arthur, fighting for him and her queen, her disgregard of women clothes, but it wasn't expanded, wasn't evolved. It was "revolutionary" only because she's female.
So, I didn't like how many characters (basically everyone) lacked of depth and development, just put there. I liked the idea of a strong witch sent to protect the king, a queen to protect the king, but it fell short since Guinevere was fooled both by Arthur and her father. For almost all the book the girl runs around doing almost nothing, if not simple magic, trying to discover a misterious threat to discover Merlin fooled everyone, tricking her.
I didn't find Guinevere the strong character the author wanted to be. She's always saved by others, always feeling sick because she overused her magic, always so absurdly ignorant about the world things.
I was appalled reading about the scene with her period and her ignorance in almost everything, from period to baby teeth, to sex. The idea her magic or Merlin's left holes in her memory became almost an excuse and it was more annoying that anything else. I really, really hated seeing the damsel in distress used as a plot. She should have been a witch able to protect herself and an entire kingdom, not to be seen as a young ignorant and besotted woman, who falls in love with three people at once. Mordred is the spark, Arthus is the warmth, Lancelot is something else...NO. Please, not. I expected a different character. I hoped in a different character and I was annoyed in how many times she was defenseless and not reacting.
I was a bit disappointed in the language, too, but I could get behind that if it was used for a modern retelling, but..,it wasn't. The set is medioeval, the language is of today and I'd appreciated a coherence.
There are not major twists, no great exploits. The main character feels she doesn't have a purpose, but even her confusion, her loss of purpose isn't well developed and after a very predictable choice, she resigned herself to be with Arthur, with Camelot, even though she sees the faults in Arthur's reasoning of banishing magic, renouncing to be with Mordred and choosing her duty as queen against the dark queen. I'd loved to see Mordred more explored and the Lady of the Lake and the Dark queen too, because this book felt like too many things put together and none explained or almost no plot, until 60%. The reading was a bit slow and it was dragging in the end, some choices (Like getting back to Arthur) really predictable. I'd love to see her as "villain", choosing to free herself of another cage, trying to learn more about her life and magic.
3.5 stars

I really love Kiersten White's writing. I've read a few of her previous titles (The Conquerer's Saga and Slayer) and I've enjoyed the way she takes well known stories and adds new and intriguing layers. Unfortunately, The Guinevere Deception fell a little flat for me. While I was intrigued by the plot, I found the characters to be rather one-dimensional and the setting felt inauthentic. There was language used and actions taken that felt wrong for the time period, as this took me out of the story on a few occasions. I love the story of King Arthur and I love Kiersten White enough that I will definitely be revisiting this story when the sequel comes out, I was just left with a lackluster feeling after finishing this first book in the series.

This was such an interesting take on Arthur and Guinevere's story. I'm always a sucker for retellings of Arthur and the knights so this was right up my alley. There is so much I want to say but I can't without spoilers. I definitely recommend this one. It has magic, kingdoms, twists, and mystery. There wasn't a lot of romance which didn't take away from the story but I hope we will get more in the sequel. The characters were so lovable too and I was trying to figure out who was actually bad and who wasn't. Lots of surprises

4/5 stars

This is my first ever Kiersten White book, therefore i can't compare this to her others works. A constant critique that people gave this is that her other books are better. I enjoyed it! The writing style took a while to get into but then it became so easy to get into. The book was fine. What didn't make me rate this higher was because i thought that there was going to be more emphasis on the forbidden romance. I can't even believe that i'm saying that!