I didn't like The Camelot Betrayal as much as book 1, The Guinevere Deception. I'm not sure why exactly this book was so different for me from the first but I really struggled with Guinevere herself in this one. I found her really bratty and I just didn't like the way she lashed out at the people around her, specifically I mean her sister, when she felt threatened in regards to beauty and popularity. Overall there were still some really interesting parts, I find this world and the magic really cool and fun to read about but it just wasn't my favorite in the end.
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If she had been right about her sister being evil or a threat in some way then I would feel differently because it would have shown that her instincts were trustworthy and that she was able to see a threat where everyone else was mislead. Instead, it turns out her sister was just sad and lonely and it made Guinevere come off as a child over the entire situation. Now I get that she is 16 or 17 and her feelings and behaviors aren't unreasonable but I still just found it annoying.

Guinevere is so annoying. She's selfish and naive, and makes all the wrong decisions. I couldn't stand her, nor any of the other characters the whole book. She also feels like she's nine, so the fact that she's in a love triangle didn't sit well with me. Really didn't like it, and sadly, I think I am done with Kiersten White altogether. I have tried almost everything she has written and almost none have worked for me.

First of all, thank you so much to the publisher and Net Galley for approving me for this eARC!

I am a huuuuuuuge fan of Kiersten White, and I read an ARC of The Guinevere Deception last year, so I've been eagerly anticipatign book 2 of the trilogy!

Without spoiling anything from book one:
Camelot Betrayal has a similar slow-burn. We get action, new characters, and character development, but don't expect a super action packed book. I'm glad we got to know the characters a lot more, and compared to other Authurian retellings, I really love the way Kiersten is twisting this tale!

Everything could go wrong in Camelot, and Guinevere is waiting for them to find out who she truly is. Does Guinever belong? Or is the deception falling apart?

Cannot wait for the final book in this trilogy!!!

Annnnnd Kiersten White has done it again folks! She's not my favorite modern author for nothing. THIS WAS EVERYTHING I WANTED AND MORE. I loved the first book in the series so much and usually the middle books disappoint (from experience) but this was somehow even better than the first but, again, it's Kiersten White so no surprise there! I had such an enjoyable time reading this and it held my attention the entire way through that I finished it within the day! I enjoyed every page and thought that the plot/story is still very unique. Would recommend to anyone!

In my review of the first book I closed by saying that I couldn’t wait to see what the sequel did, and I was absolutely not disappointed! However, the second book of Kiersten White’s Camelot Rising series plunges right into the narration, picking up shortly after the first book left off, so if you didn’t read the first book (or, like me, don’t remember it terribly well a year after reading it) good luck!

After unwittingly betraying Arthur, Guinevere is doing her part as queen to try to stave off the Dark Queen’s encroachment with the help of her allies Brangien, Lancelot, and the rest. (Remember, Brangien and Isolde are lovers and Lancelot is a woman in this telling!)

There is a great deal more development of Lancelot in this book, and knowing the Arthurian legends, I read with a great deal of interest to see how things turned out with her, particularly when the arrival of the real Guinevere’s younger sister, Guinevach complicates matters, leaving Guinevere isolated from her circle and her people.

One thing I like very much about this retelling is how it includes so many female characters, and how many of them come into their own, even though they are still frequently bound by the constraints placed upon them by being women in their day and age. Even better is how White resists the easy road of pitting women against one another in order to win over oblivious men who would only feel flattered by their competition if they knew about it. Instead, White has her characters talk to one another and work out their problems (eventually).

In addition to White’s skillful portrayal of Arthurian figures (including sly asides about the difficulties of telling apart different famous knights by name alone), she continues to excel as a writer, slipping in clever bon mots and observations about being human.

Something that did strike me as unusual, and which relates back to the asides about the similarities of knightly names is the inclusion of several full-on stories within the middle of the narrative. The information is important, and too long to tease out in the usual manner of dialogue, but I didn’t really like having sudden chapter breaks to tell characters backstories. It felt like padding for length.

The book ends on quite the cliffhanger, and I cannot recall if the first book did the same, but it definitely makes me eager for the third book and some resolution. (Maybe a happily ever after with Guinevere for Mordred?)

I would hesitate to recommend this book to someone who had not read the first book, but I would happily recommend the series as a whole.

The Camelot Betrayal is the second installment in author Kiersten White's Camelot Rising Trilogy. First, let me say that there is a whole lot to discuss about this book, including the ending, so I will try hard to avoid spoilers. Once again, the author creates a world based on a woman who history claims never existed. Guinevere has been portrayed as everything from a villainous and opportunistic traitor to a fatally flawed but noble and virtuous lady. It’s still debatable whether Arthur really existed, but there are historical aspects of the story that fits the time frame, including the Saxon’s and Pict's who changed the course of England’s history.

So, let’s get started to events of this book and a summary of past events. Magic is not allowed in Camelot, but Guinevere’s magic helps protect Camelot from the Dark Fairy Queen. There are only a few, including Arthur, Brangien, and Lancelot who knows that her magic is protecting Camelot. Meanwhile, Guinevere is still trying to figure out who she is and why she has no memories of the past. But, what's even more curiouser is her dreams of water, and the Lady of the Lake. Curious because she shouldn't be dreaming. She magically gave them away to Brangien to keep in touch with Isolde.

To top it off, she's still wondering if she made the right choice by returning to Camelot where she doesn’t know what her role is supposed to be, and not disappearing with Mordred who betrayed her and allowed the Dark Fairy to return. For the Mordred supporters among you, yes, he does return several times in this story always at the most interesting of times when Guinevere is in trouble. Then things really get twisted when Princess Guinevach arrives with her entourage from Cameliard claiming that she is Guinevere’s younger sister who she hasn’t seen in years. Guinevere, who still believes she is a changeling, is confused at why Guinevach recognizes her and does not see her as the impostor she is.

This part of the story is important since it gets close to revealing what really happened to her before she arrived in Camelot. The Guinevere deception worked because no one in Camelot or the surrounding areas had ever met the Southern Princess known as Guinevere. If you have read the first installment, which I hope you did, Guinevere was sent to Camelot by her alleged father Merlin to protect her. There are so many secrets that have not been revealed when it comes to Merlin and what he apparently did, and the Lady of the Lake who gave Excalibur to Arthur which destroys magic, including Genevieve’s.

There are several key moments in this book including Genevieve, Lancelot, Isolde, and Brangien going on a quest to rescue Isolde from King Mark. The author twists her own version of the historical duo of Isolde and Tristan to make it fit her own alternative version of the story. The author also digs more into Lancelot’s background. Lancelot isn’t like the other knights who owe fealty to Arthur. She wants to be the Queen’s Knight and protector for her own reasons which are touched on. Guinevere struggles how to handle Lily’s presence in Camelot, she questions her own identity, she questions what Merlin did to her, and finds out who the real threat was within the city all along.

The last part will be the background for the next installment. I must briefly say that readers will find themselves meeting an extremely dangerous woman who I don’t think hates Genevieve. I think she has revenge on her mind for what happened not only to Mordred, but her mother, and yes, the author does spend time on why she has revenge on her mind. I also think that Lancelot will be one of the key players in what choice Genevieve eventually makes to stay with Arthur and Camelot, or Mordred. I am hoping that the Merlin question is answered quickly. I have my own questions as to what happen, but I’ll reserve comment until the final installment is released.

While I loved (!) the first book in the series, unfortunately, the second novel falls a bit short. I'm not certain why Ms. White wanted to constantly (and a bit unbelievably) separate Arthur and Guinevere with clunky side plots for Guinevere and her crew. Additionally, the late plot twist/cliffhanger ending wasn't appreciated.

An ARC was provided by NetGalley for my honest review.

I’ve enjoyed reading these two books, but I’m not sure how I feel about them. Much like Guinevere, I’m not sure how anything fits together. I don’t understand the roles of the characters in her life. I feel like my confusion mirrors Guinevere’s, but the confusion is too much! I’m lost.

Can we ogle that cover for a minute? Beautiful!

The story continues with Guinevere at Arthur’s side, playing queen. She is struggling with who she once was and how that affects her as queen. Can she keep playing queen with all these questions? Does she want to?

Arthur is a great character. He is kind and brave and responsible, the type of person stories always claim him to be. But his relationship with Guinevere is strained. They are still searching for what their relationship means to each other and even where they want it to go. Arthur’s Camelot always comes first.

I really like Guinevere. She is searching for herself, who she wants to be and how to go about it. This is something I feel we can all relate to. We still don’t have much info on her background, and while frustrating, I still see the point of it for the story. It makes me excited for the final installment where hopefully we get the answers.

I’m a bit nervous for where the romance is headed in book 3. There is talk of two potential love interests and I don’t like either of them. I’m hoping it will all be wrapped up nicely in a bow at the end because I’m obviously too invested! I’ve enjoyed this series and can’t wait for book 3.

Thank you to Random House Children’s/Delacorte Press and NetGalley for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. This book is out Nov 10, 2020.

I really enjoyed this continuation of Kiersten White's take on the Arthurian legends.

We continue to see huge growth in Guinevere, as she continues to struggle with her identity, and what it really means to find her own way. Her relationship with Arthur grew on me in this book, but I'm still not fully on board with that ship, haha. I would much rather have her end up with another character that she gets very close to.....anyway.

There were aspects of this book that dragged, but it had some clever twists that really made up for it. Also, Lancelot. Oh, Lancelot. I love how the author made Lancelot a girl and I SO WANT a queer romance, but I also adore them as friends and just love their relationship in general.

This was a strong sequel to the first book, and I'm really excited for the third one to finish up this trilogy! I can't wait to see how Guinevere continues to grow!

Thank you Netgalley for this free ebook arc in exchange for an honest review.

When I first started reading this sequel to The Guinevere Deception I had to say that I was a bit disappointed as it started off so slow. The book doesn't actually pick up until about halfway through it. I really want Guinevere and Mordred to get together but that's probably not going to happen since Guinevere and Arthur are finally growing closer. I'm not even going to lie I did start this book back in October and I put it down because I couldn't get into it. I'm glad I picked it back up though and I'm looking forward to reading the third book when it's finally released.

I love the time given to develop the friendship between Lancelot and Guinevere. I also really loved the personal development that happened for our Queen in this sequel.
The thing lacking for me was a romance. I'm still not on board with the Mordred train right now, and really thought I would be seeing more of a spark between Lancelot and Guinevere.
The cliffhanger was INCREDIBLE at the end, but this seems to be White's MO.
Wanted to love it more, but still enjoyed it.

I love this retelling of Camelot. Guinevere is fierce and strong and capable, but uncertain. Uncertain about how to be a good queen, uncertain of her past, uncertain of who she can really trust. Which may prove to be her undoing. And Camelot's as well. Intricately plotted. Indelible characters. I can't wait for book three!

Book 2 did not disappoint! I am in immediate need of Book 3 now, please and thank you.

The Camelot Betrayal sets us back into the land of Camelot after the events of book one. Guinevere is struggling with the betrayal of Mordred and the part she played in bringing the Dark Queen back to physical form, not to mention the trauma of being kidnapped and what she had to do to save herself. She continues to question herself--is she the queen Camelot needs, can she ever be that queen?

I must admit, I missed Mordred. We got to spend more time with Arthur and got to know him as a character a bit more (which did make me warm to him a bit), but I missed the witty, cunning Mordred that tested Guinevere and brought out a different side of her. Obviously, I have a thing for the moody bad boy in books. Anyway...

I loved the adventures and the new characters. They were very interesting and were great foils for Guinevere. I like that the events of the first book really continued to play a part in this one; it's in how Guinevere must now look at the world and the people surrounding her. Are they who they say they are? Are they one of the Dark Queen's minions? White had me guessing the intentions of every character alongside Guinevere.

I will say I was beginning to guess the big twist, but White reveals it right on time. I just felt so enveloped in this story, I couldn't put it down. Each scene, each character, draws you in and I love it.

This book while it had its moments of being annoying or frustrating that wasn't the over all feeling. It was a good book I feel like we are actually making it somewhere in the mystery could of kicked her butt when she left camelot and at this point I don't know who will do what and I'm excited to read the next book

Thank you, NetGalley for the e-arc.

In this sequel, we find Guinevere still unsure of herself, her relationship with Arthur, and her attraction to Mordred. After the events of the first book, I was so excited to see some character development and some serious antagonists. Alas, I was underwhelmed.

The pacing, for one, was way off. So much in fact that I felt jarred at the way this book was all over the place. I had no idea was the main plotline was; if there was one, it got lost in all the random. There was no steady flow of storyline. the chapters felt like a sitcom where each episode has nothing to do with the one before it.

The characters fell flat. Each sounded exactly the same with next to no uniquness. I couldn't latch on to anyone besides Mordred, who takes a backseat this time around. Funny enough that the boy in black gave the story the most color. I think I expected a bit more romance? Seeing as things sort of ramped up and with how Guinevere Deception ended and with her choices and all, I expected something more than a vanilla romance where the man can't even be bothered to...feel much of anything. At least Guin was trying. I felt for her.

All in all, this was a weak installement to the series. There seems to be a build up to something, but I don't see it. At all. There was a hint of an antagonist the the first book, but this one had next to nothing save for one little spoiler at the very end. You can't have readers slog through 400 pages of a sequel and give them absolutely nothing in return. Guin should have had some character arc at some point. We should have had some romance. We should have seen some huge reveal that knocks our socks off.

I'll hold out hope for the last book, but at this point, It's not looking good.

This November, we return to the land of Camelot in the next book in Kiersten White's take on the legend of King Arthur and his court.

In the Guinevere Deception, the "new Guinevere" comes to court, marries Arthur, falls for Mordred, and quickly gets in over her head, awakening the Queen of the Dark. Oops!

In this one, Guinevere also faces supernatural forces, but she also faces a very human threat: the arrival of the true Guinevere's new sister, Guineveche. Will her sister recognize that she is not the true Guinevere? And if she does and doesn't say anything, does that mean she's in league with the darkness, or has aspirations of her own?

Add in Lancelot adjusting to her power as a knight as well as handling the optics of her friendship with Guinevere, a husband who won't even kiss Guinevere goodnight, and a quest to save another queen, and this book is chock full of Camelot adventures, bits of magic, and quests after quests.
While I'm not the BIGGEST fan of retellings and King Arthur lore, I find these books the right mix of fantasy and adventure--without leaning too far into WHY magic works, without straying TOO far or TOO close to the mythology, and it's pretty enjoyable. I'm still not sure where exactly this story will take the inevitable Lancelot question, or how it will deviate with the Mordred stuff, and I probably won't think much about this book before the next one comes out, but i'll definitely read book three.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My opinion was not affected by the free copy.

I enjoyed the first book of this series a lot so was very pleased when I was given a free copy. I'm going to get my negatives over with first as always, and honestly most of my negatives revolve around Guinevere. Her character felt like she never learned anything, and every other character was basically showing their support no matter what she did. I really wish someone had the guts to smack her upside the head and tell her to LEARN SOMETHING DAMMIT. Because she kept making the same mistakes over and over-- she even acknowledges that she does this-- but she never learns from it. She just wallows in how terrible she is and the mistakes she's made, and that's it. She was captured on two or three separate occasions to the point where it felt like it was getting repetitive and just acted as book padding.

Something that happened at about the 70% mark of the book really get me angry. Without spoiling, a new character is introduced who basically inserts herself into everything and even rudely butts in on royal meetings and just sits there rather than leaving when they're told. This character even calls a meeting and makes plans without any input from the queen and... all the knights are okay with that, somehow. Even when it's revealed why the character is doing this, I can't believe that this was allowed to happen. That Guinevere let it happen without saying or doing a damn thing. She basically let this character walk all over her, and it seemed like none of the knights respected her authority if they didn't bother to inform her about the meeting and went along with what this new character wanted.

That said, I still enjoyed parts of it. The mystery of who Guinevere is remains the most intriguing part of this book. I also liked the continued tangled mess of her and Mordred. Things between her and Arthur progress a little when they actually bother to talk to each other about it, and her relationship with Lancelot has its high and low points. Though for me, Lancelot still doesn't come off as a person sometimes; for me she feels like a robot, taking more guard shifts than the other knights and having such a narrow focus that I wanted to shake her. And the one time Guinevere tried to treat her like the other knight she sulked, so that didn't endear her to me.

I am still going to read the next book. I want to learn more about Guinevere and the mess Merlin made of everything. I could do without all the repeating for next time, though, thanks.

***eArc provided by Netgalley & Delacorte Press in exchange for an honest review***

Hi. Hello. Wow. Okay, so I absolutely LOVED the first book in the Camelot Rising series by Kiersten White. It was everything I ever wanted in an Arthurian myth retelling, and the second book The Camelot Betrayal doesn't hold back.

I don't think I was waiting for the other shoe to drop anymore. In fact, I fully trust that whatever Kiersten White's next plotted moves are for the third book. I know that, given the first book in the series and now this one, that White's interests, concerns, and attempts to reimagine and examine Arthurian stories aligns with my own. I believe beyond a show of a doubt that she will do things in the next book (much like she did in this book) that will surprise and delight me.

And truly, I trust no one else to give a compelling and interesting leading character not one, not two, but THREE different viable love interests and have them all be people I can see Guinevere ending up with. Besides the romance, which is delightful, the world building on both a magical and day-to-day kingdom basis still slaps. I feel so drawn into this world that I can't wait until I get to enter it again. And again. And again.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Children's, and Kiersten White for the opportunity to read The Camelot Betrayal in exchange for an honest review.

The Camelot Betrayal is the second installment of the Camelot Rising trilogy, preceded by The Guinevere Deception. Before reading further, please take a moment to just admire the absolute aesthetic beauty of the cover. The elegant colors and the portrayal of the character: gorgeous!

It was very easy to get right back into this story, even though it has been a year since I read the first one. Guinevere isn't who everyone thinks she is. The real Guinevere is dead, and this Guinevere takes her place with only King Arthur knowing the truth. Magic is not allowed in Camelot, but it is Guinevere's magic that helps protect Camelot from evil.

There are a few interesting plot points to this story. One is Dindrane's Wedding, the lead-up of which takes about the whole first half of the book. Before heading out to the wedding, the real Guinevere's sister, Guinevach (or Princess Lily), appears. This poses a problem as Lily is sure to know that Guinevere is an imposter, for she certainly doesn't have Guinevere's memories or skills. With evil looming just at the edge of the forest, Lily is suspected to be in Camelot for sinister reasons.

Another aspect of the plot is saving Isolde from King Mark. Isolde, like Guinevere, can use a bit of magic. She is perceived as a witch and will be executed. The real tale of Brangien, Tristan, and Isolde is told, with an urgency to save her from death. Along the way, Guinevere must ask for help, but may get tied up with the wrong sort of people.

After the wedding and during the harvest festival, Guinevere still struggles with how to handle Lily's presence in Camelot, questions her own identity, and finds out who the real threat was within the city all along.

This book is a fantastic second installment. One thing I appreciated was White's craft in terms of structure. Every so often throughout the book, an old myth of Camelot would be retold in the world of this book, like Brangien, Tristan, and Isolde, as opposed to the tale of Tristan and Isolde that some may be familiar with.

This series is an exciting re-telling of Camelot lore featuring an intriguing female protagonist. I would recommend this series to anyone interested in Camelot mythology or just young adult fantasy in general. Kiersten White is a great writer, and I highly recommend checking out her other works as well. I can't wait to see how this series comes to a close!