I absolutely love this series. I love Kiersten White's writing. This twist that she did on the famous King Arthur story is so amazing and interesting. The book did start out a bit slow but wow did it pick up. I fell more in love with these characters and the relationships that they have with each other. The world of Camelot is being turned on it's head as the truth of King Arthur and Merlin is being revealed. I cannot wait to read the third and final book of this trilogy and see how everything wraps up. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Interestingly enough I was able to read this book on Netgalley before I did at my local library, as it hadn't yet been archived. The first installment, The Guinevere Deception, hadn't blown me away the first time I read it; I love Arthuriana and I was feeling quite attached to the version of these characters with which I was already comfortable. But I reread it in preparation to read the Camelot Betrayal and between the two completely changed my mind. This Guinevere and this Mordred and this Lancelot are SO INTERESTING. They're unexpected; they don't act like their counterparts from the old stories, but are still true to the characters, somehow. I also really love Brangien, who is so much more than a simple lady's maid.

Two things I didn't love as much: Arthur; Guinevere seems to idolize and idealize him a lot, and he comes across as very perfect and a little one dimensional. The second is Guinevach/Lily. I don't love the "uh oh new female threat oh no she's prettier and more popular and makes me look bad" trope. That said I still don't trust her and the "resolution" of her arc felt so rushed that I feel like she's going to have to turn around and betray Guinevere soon.

This installment of the series is more character driven and less plot heavy despite many events occurring, and I really enjoyed the time getting to know these characters some more. Overall I really enjoyed The Camelot Betrayal (and on second read also really enjoyed Deception) and am really looking forward to The Excalibur Curse!

This one was a little slower than The Guinevere Deception, but I still really liked it! I wish there had been more time spent on Mordred and Guinevere’s relationship, though, and I felt like the entire book was constantly hinting at who Guinevere really is, without actually getting closer to explaining it.

I have enjoyed the writing but the plot definitely had that second book syndrome feeling.
Hopefully book 3 explodes with action!

Incredibly compelling continuation of The Guinevere Deception! I love the build-up and self excavation that is carefully balanced over the course of both books. I'm also overwhelmingly excited by all of the tie-ins to Arthurian legend and seeing how Kiersten interprets and implements them. Looking forward to seeing how the various love interests end in this version of Guinivere's story!!

Book Review!
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I am always weary of the second book in a series. Simply because it typically falls into the trap of being a filler or connector between the first book, which is typically stellar, with the last book that is also out of this world. However, The Camelot Betrayal seemed to avoid this typical trap. Instead, the second book in the Camelot Rising series, continued Guinevere's character development by providing more pieces to the puzzle of who she may be or who she may NOT be. It expertly allowed for character arcs of returning supporting characters to be completed and brought in new supporting characters with their own character arcs that White acknowledges. White also is able to provide fantastic plot twists once again that was hard for me to predict beforehand that twist the narrative that we have been told thus far in the series, adding a more complicated layer that makes me extremely excited for the third book. I find Guinevere's character delightful to follow along with. Her view of the world is relatable and White does not make her helpless, but rather provides her with a power that complicates her character in an incredibly interesting way that forces Guinevere to question her morals and reinforces her inner quest for identity.

The only thing that I find slightly irritating with the second book is Arthur's stagnancy. His character once again fills the same place holder of the valiant king that is dutiful to Camelot and does not let anything stand in the way of that for him. I desperately crave for his character to either develop, become more complicated, or something that could also propel his storyline in the series. I feel as though White is setting the third book up for that for him, but we shall see.

Overall, a smashing success of a second book in a series. 4/5 stars.

I unfortunately didn’t enjoy this second book as much as the first one.
It felt like filler and not much happened, we didn’t get much progress of the story from the first book.
I do still love the characters and their relationships though.
The prose is still great and I enjoy the setting.
Just wished we had gotten more answers and backstory on Guinevere because it feels like we didn’t.
Not sure whether I will continue onto the next book or not.

"The second book in a new fantasy trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White, exploring the nature of self, the inevitable cost of progress, and, of course, magic and romance and betrayal so epic Queen Guinevere remains the most famous queen who never lived.

EVERYTHING IS AS IT SHOULD BE IN CAMELOT: King Arthur is expanding his kingdom's influence with Queen Guinevere at his side. Yet every night, dreams of darkness and unknowable power plague her.

Guinevere might have accepted her role, but she still cannot find a place for herself in all of it. The closer she gets to the people around her - Brangien, pining for her lost love Isolde; Lancelot, fighting to prove her worth as Queen's knight; and Arthur, everything to everyone and thus never quite enough for Guinevere - the more she realizes how empty she is. She has no sense of who she truly was before she was Guinevere. The more she tries to claim herself as queen, the more she wonders if Mordred was right: she doesn't belong. She never will.

When a rescue goes awry and results in the death of something precious, a devastated Guinevere returns to Camelot to find the greatest threat yet has arrived. Not in the form of the Dark Queen or an invading army, but in the form of the real Guinevere's younger sister. Is her deception at an end? And who is she really deceiving - Camelot, or herself?"

I would gladly just live in Camelot. Backstabbing and all!

This was a good sequel and I really liked how the series is going. The progression of characters and knowing the Arthurian storyline pulls me in. Looking forward to the next book!

Book 2 of this trilogy sees Guinevere facing more threats to Camelot and those she has grown to care for and love. She also gains new friends and allies… and new enemies. As she uncovers more about her past and lost memories, who and what can she trust? I can’t wait to see how the conclusion to her tale is told.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC of this title.

Let’s go, lesbians! Let's go!

So much respect for having characters communicate their feelings to each other and having them treat each other with kindness when they have to set boundaries (even the villains!). It helps to set a healthy standard of consent and waiting until both parties are comfortable with something fully before moving forward.

I can’t tell which potential ship I ship the most, because at the end of the day I want Guinevere to do what is right for herself even if that means she isn’t in a relationship by the end of the next book.

My poor, sweet Lily. I enjoyed reading about you. You better not die in the third book. She really humbled Guinevere in a way, and I needed that.

I better get more Mordred content in the future. Every time he was on the page, my heart started fluttering.

I love Arthur, but could he focus on one thing at a time or even one person instead of it always being about the collective impact of something on the people of Camelot. Like boy. Take a deep breath once in a while.

I think people need to stop setting such high expectations for this solely based on the original Arthur tale. There isn’t one single true account of the legend, therefore anyway the author chooses to take her spin on it is valid. And while this is full of magic, dragons, and knights with swords, I think the idea of what the story should be is holding the reader back from enjoying how the story actually is: wonderful.

I love the magic systems, the lore, and the atmosphere. Bring on the third book, baby!

Is it bad I want to see certain characters go full evil?

I like how this book brought up how hard it is to trust people when you don’t or can’t always trust yourself. I also liked how it touched on the fact that just because someone has a different opinion or lifestyle than you, it doesn’t make them evil.

Can I have book three? PLEASE!!?? OMG this book broke me. I finished it in just a few hours and I could not put it down. I need the next one and then I need whatever else White writes because this was the most amazing title ever. If you enjoyed book one this one is going to knock your socks off!

I love being able to get lost in Kiersten White's version of Camelot. These books are just so immersive. Technically not a lot happened in the book in terms of plot, but there was so much development of Guinevere's character and those around her that I felt it made up for it. A lot of fantasy series don't give me a lot of time to get a feel for the side characters, but every character in these books is fleshed out very fully. I love Lancelot probably a little too much. And that ending! Ugh. So good.

If you’ve ever visited Kait Plus Books before, you probably know that I LOVE Kiersten White’s books! To say that I was excited when I found out I was on this tour, and that I was able to interview her, would be an understatement- I was over the moon excited! The interview is down below my review, but here’s a sneak peek for those of you who can’t wait: Kiersten recommends two of my favorite books to Guinevere and the rest of the Camelot Crew!

In case you missed it, here’s my review for book one in the Camelot Rising trilogy, The Guinevere Deception. Okay, now for the review! I reread the first book before I started this one, so I was freshly hurt by the betrayal at the end. I went into this book expecting to find out more about Guinevere (and Mordred and Arthur and Merlin and Lancelot and Brangien and Isolde and Tristan and Didrane) and I did– but not as much as I’d hoped. I’m really looking forward to finishing the third book so that I can finally understand everything that’s happened in the first two. Basically, I want to find out more about who these characters are, both in terms of this story and the larger Arthurian framework.

DID I LIKE LOVE IT?
YES! One thing that I really loved about this book was the focus on duality, or the idea that things are more than one thing at a time. Which I don’t think I’m explaining very well, so here’s an example: one of my favorite quotes from this book is “Beauty and terror and the wonder that encompasses both.” Kiersten White does a wonderful job showing that things aren’t always what they appear to be. Characters may do horrible things for good reasons, or do good things for terrible reasons, and trying to figure out whether that makes them good or evil is one of the best parts of this book!

FAVORITE CHARACTER?
Okay, so Guinevere is my favorite favorite character, but also I love Mordred, Brangien, Tristan, Lancelot, and Dindrane!

WILL I RE-READ IT?
1000% yes! First of all, because I’ll reread the first two books before I start the third (and sadly, final) book in the trilogy, but also because (just in case you missed this somehow) I LOVE KIERSTEN WHITE’S BOOKS OMG THEY ARE SO GREAT I JUST !!!!!!!!!!!

THREE WORDS TO DESCRIBE THE BOOK
magic, belonging, OHMYGODWHATJUSTHAPPENED (yes, that’s totally one word)

I really enjoyed the first book, so I was really excited to recieve this one. While it was definitely a fun read, it wasn't quite as captivating as the first one. Still definitely a worthwhile read!

I wouldn't call this a retelling of the Camelot/Arthur/Excalibur myth, even though it pulls heavily on the characters, setting, and token of that myth. Instead, I'd call it a rearrangement, but not in a bad way. At it's heart is the fact that Guinevere, instead of just being Arthur's wife and queen, is the main character of the book, only she's an imposter that only Arthur knows about. Also, she wields a special kind of magic, which she uses to protect Arthur, but magic is forbidden in Camelot, so it's pretty tricky to use.

These conflicts alone make for an interesting plot, as do Guinevere's unexpected feelings for Mordred, Arthur's erstwhile right-hand man, and the introduction of a "sister" who Guinevere suspects might be trying to weasel her way onto some kind of throne. But, that being said, it did feel at times like certain action scenes were included more for their speeding-up-the-heart value than their building-tension value. Not that I'm opposed to action scenes, but some didn't seem as closely related to the plot as I would've thought they should've been.

This, plus the fact that the ending was a HUGE cliffhanger (can I just tell you how much I HATE cliffhangers?), keep me from giving Camelot Betrayal a full five stars, but I did appreciate the vivid character development and tantalizing clues about Merlin's involvement in the whole scheme. THAT is the thing I'm most looking forward to in the third book, the full disclosure of what his end game was or is.

I really enjoy that this author gives women such a strong perspective. This is the second book in a series and it didn’t have the usual second book filler feel. This book was a lot of fun to read.

I have so many feelings about this book, none of which are helped by the fact that I'm late, late, late with this galley review.

I was SO relieved at the end of The Guinevere Betrayal and I thought Guinevere's love triangle with Arthur and Mordred had been resolved, which made me really frustrated when I got into this and realized it really, really wasn't. Don't get me wrong, I think this love triangle makes sense, I just personally don't like it. One of the things I fond super interesting in White's Arthuriana is how Arthur has to handle this dichotomy of being a freaking 18 year old king and still being a FREAKING 18 YEAR OLD. This makes him aloof sometimes, and I can totally see why Guinevere would feel the pull of someone who is allowed to be more emotionally available. I JUST HATE IT.

Ahem.

The Lancelot character White's created, who is AFAB, is fantastic, and I love them, and I really, really wish they had been the one in the triangle; I'd be a lot more invested and conflicted about it then, but we can't have everything.

The worldbuilding and magic systems continue to be a really vibrant part of the story, and it's purely personal malice over the love triangle that made me knock it down from four to three stars.

Highly recommended teen fantasy.

(actual rating: 3.5/5)

As much as I want to hate this book for how overly dramatic and relatively pointless it is, there were certain scenes that I really enjoyed. And, of course, the ending.

Following the events of 'The Guinevere Deception', Guinevere is feeling pretty lost because of Mordred's betrayal. She trusted him and had some love-triangle drama going on with him, so it's perfectly understandable. Of course, there's also the whole matter of the Dark Queen having a corporeal form, and the truth of Guinevere's past.

I like how Guinevere was portrayed in this book because even if it was irritating at times, it was above all realistic. She's unsure of who she really is, at her core, because of all the roles that she's been playing, as well as Merlin's tampering. She's worried that she'll fail again if she isn't vigilant, and feels responsible for the Dark Queen's return. She feels discouraged because Arthur treats her more as a friend than a wife. She's hurting because she trusted Mordred. She's insecure over her magic because she doesn't want to end up like Merlin.

Throughout the book, even if Guinevere doesn't make the best decision at any given moment, and agonizes over it later, it falls into character with the person the author's crafted. She might be impulsive and somewhat reckless, but she's well-written, which I really appreciated.

Then, there's Arthur. There's clearly a lot of potential for Arthur's character, and what he means to the plot. While I can understand that Guinevere is the main character here, and can't be overshadowed by Arthur, I would still appreciate something more from him. Ultimately, there's a lot of potential there, but without any additional development, he's left plain and in need of something more.

Lancelot was definitely one of my favorite characters. This book saw a lot more characterization for her, and her relationship with Guinevere. She's loyal and brave, and her character's backstory reveal just makes her all the more interesting.

There's also the original Guinevere's sister, Guinevach. Guinevach decides to visit her sister, Guinevere. The problem is that Guinevere is not the real Guinevere, and her deception could be caught, so they send her away. She decides to stay, and seems to think that Guinevere is her Guinevere, which opens up the possibility to many theories and an excellent set-up for the third book. At this point, I have no idea what to think considering everything that has been revealed so far, and am insanely excited for the conclusion.

Mordred is revealed to be more morally gray than he was made out to be at the end of the first book, but honestly, are any of us even surprised? Morgana, or Morgan le Fay, his mother, also makes an appearance in this book (her identity something which I almost guessed by myself), and I certainly hope that the two of them get more page-time in the final book.

Brangien, Isolde, and Sir Tristan's story is finally revealed in all of its glory, and I was glad to read about Brangien and Isolde's reunion, despite all the mishaps that it took to get them so far.

The plot of this book is... more than just a little messy.

While the ending of the first book left us all on tenterhooks because of everything the return of the Dark Queen could entail, that plotline was almost entirely pushed aside for the duration of this book. And though there was the potential for some action, this book is mostly focused on Guinevere and her insecurities that were put into sharp relief by the ending of the first book. As a result, while things do happen, it's drawn out, and much of the book is just her internal dialogue told from a third-person perspective.

While I do appreciate Guinevere's character growth, I was certainly expecting more from this book. There just didn't seem to be enough plot to justify how long this book is, and it doesn't answer many questions that the last book posed - if anything, it created more.

In particular, there's the plotline with the dragon (which was dramatized by the synopsis much more than it should have), Isolde's rescue, and all the drama with Guinevach (which was starting to resemble a soap opera, and was ultimately resolved). And that's about it.

But the one thing that makes all of this relatively forgivable? The ending. Kiersten White knows how to write exquisite endings that make me think that getting through the whole book was completely worth it just for the end.

In the first book, the main romantic subplot lies between Guinevere, Arthur, and Mordred. In this book, Guinevere is still extremely hung up over Mordred, despite his betrayal, and finds herself fighting between her attraction towards him and her duty towards Arthur.

Personally, I think that the love-triangle (if one is even necessary) should have been/should be between Lancelot and Mordred. Arthur doesn't even need to be in the picture, seeing as to how characterless he is, and how he expects Guinevere to play a role when she's with him, rather than be herself.

(I mean, Guinevere herself has even said as much - something along the lines of how Mordred and Lancelot were the only ones who truly saw her for she was, and everything that encompassed, and while she was with Arthur, she felt like she was trying on a role that didn't fit her.)

To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure who Guinevere will end up with in the third book. I wouldn't be very bothered if she didn't end up with anyone and became a single, badass witch protecting Camelot from evil, instead, either, lol. At this point, I'm just hoping for that, or Lancelot or Mordred as endgame.

Apart from all of that, I absolutely loved the twist on the classic Tristan and Isolde tale that was given in this book. While I do think that it would have been more interesting to see more character development for Isolde, I also understand that it doesn't really serve many purposes to the story, so it doesn't bother me too much.

As for the matter of Guinevere's true identity: I'm not entirely sure, but I'm really excited to find out Guinevere's true past in the next book.

Overall, while this book definitely could have been better, it was enjoyable. There were some parts that I really liked, while others that I didn't, and some parts that suffered heavily from second-book syndrome. That being said, it works well as the middle installment of the series, and I'm very invested to see how it will conclude at this point.

A well written addition to the series, the character development was nice, and even the 'filler' areas were fun!