What a great retelling ! Just say Morgan, Merlin and Arthur, and I'm in. If you mention also magic and Fae world, I'm a gonner.
I really enjoyed diving into this story : Morgan, Arthur's sister, is half fae. And her brother is not far from a tyrant. She lives in Camelot, and at 21, she will have to become a priestess. Wish of her belated father. But Morgan could be the queen. And yet, she doesn't rebel, too afraid to do something against him.
And one day, he sends her on a journey, to get a sword. A magic sword, which name is Excalibur ! This sword will give him power, but Morgan isn't sure this is the best for Camelot.
She travels with a royal guard, Draven, who appears to be an assassin. Has her brother decided to eliminate her ? But why is Draven so careful with her ?

Great rhythm, reaaaaaly slow burn, amazing mix between history and magical world, sickening cliff hanger at the end of the book, I can't wait for the sequel !

SPOILERS!!

omg this book.. i went from happy to angry and everything in between. first that jerk florian. I'm so glad she killed him. then I was all team Draven but nothing happened. then came vesper and at first I thought no I would like to see her with Draven but okay vesper got a chance. all super cute. AND THEN HE STABS HER. i was so angry. and then the end omg poor morgan.. i hope she gets some happiness in the 2nd book because this was mostly suffering.

A fast-paced and fresh Arthurian retelling, perfect for fans of Jennifer L. Armentrout and Elise Kova!

This book surprised me in so many ways! It was a refreshingly interested take on Arthurian legend, a concept I have always been interested in but am not such an expert that I found the changes jarring. I absolutely adored the new take on beloved characters, particularly Lancelot and Merlin.

In regards to plot, it certainly followed familiar plot beats and was a rather comfortable read - fans of FBAA and ACOTAR will find themselves in familiar territory. Despite that, the book did manage to keep me hooked and even surprise me at points. The characters and concepts were inspired enough that I didn't feel like I was reading the same YA/NA fae-fantasy I've read hundreds of times before. The plot points was familiar enough to be inviting but unique enough to keep my attention. And keep my attention it did. After a slow start, I absolutely ploughed through this book.

I would have loved more character development between the two MCs, but considering the interplay between them and other characters, I do understand why we as readers received the level that we did. Considering the direction of the second novel, I fully expect (and hope) to receive more there. The female MC swayed between 'I'm a badass' and 'I'm helpless' a few times but most of these fit within their context and are understandable - but I would still love to see her continue to develop over the next novel to new levels of capability and independence. The secondary characters were compelling, believable and had a refreshing amount of depth. All that aside, I think my absolute favourite parts of the book were the MONSTERS - good and bad. They had me absolutely enthralled the entire time.

I will say I found one or two instances were a closer edit may have been necessary - a word missed in a sentence or accidentally written twice. However, those are easy fixes in the editing suite. The writing was smooth and engaging, the author has a wonderful way with words and describing things without getting too bogged down into detail.

I absolutely need to have a copy of this book on my shelves and that should be testament enough to how many I enjoyed the ride. Can't wait for the sequel.

INSERT QUOTE

3.5/5 ⭐
1/5 🌶️

I received this book as a netgalley arc and was very excited because I liked the blurb.

It's a good storyline and I liked the writing style, but it was very slow and most of the plots were predictable.

There were a lot of side characters that deserved a big punch in the face and I would've liked it if Morgan stood up for herself a little more.

The last third definitely made the whole story. Nonetheless, I think I'll continue the series because the last chapter was kind of crazy and I need to know what happens next.

Read if you like:
✨ fae world
✨ morally grey characters

I THOROUGHLY enjoyed this book! The world building was good, the MC was rather enjoyable with good amount of sass! I did lose a little bit of interest with Vespar, I thought him to be a "charming" creep and super sus. But the ending hooked me right back in!

Overall: 3.5 / 5

“I hated him at first. Perhaps a part of me still did. But one thing was certain... He was the air I breathed. I could not live without him”

I went in blind reading this book, thanks to the free e-book I received from NetGalley. This book is a King Arthur / Camelot retelling but add some twists, Fae and spice! Similar vibes to FBAA! I loved the world building and plot but I wished there was more chemistry between the MCs.

The ending though!! It ends on a major cliffhanger and it makes you want to read the next book asap!!

I received an ARC of Queen of Roses from Netgalley for free and am leaving this review voluntarily.

What a grand adventure that synopsis promises, a grand adventure that I feel was not delivered upon, unfortunately. The makings of the great adventure were there, but I think most of it will come in the following books. Hopefully.

Because the story was intriguing. As an Arthurian lore retelling, one expects King Arthur to be the most upstanding, moral character. However, this isn't the case in Queen of Roses, which is an exciting new twist. What if King Arthur is actually the bad guy? A curious thought and one the author seemed to be trying to explore.

However.

Morgan. I will not refer to her as the "bane of my existence," but ... no. That's probably unkind, but Morgan had absolutely no agency. Everything that happened happened to her. She made no real decisions, and the decisions she did make were so spontaneous that I had a hard time even believing she made them. I kept waiting for the chapter's last sentence to be, "and then she woke up," after some of those decisions because I couldn't understand how she had even gotten to that point. Not to mention her constant denial that anyone could do any wrong, specifically Arthur. I get wanting to believe the best of your siblings, but the things she kept writing off? Girl, no.

I also won't be touching on the romance because, yikes. That was one of those decisions. I'm sure some people thought it was romantic. I did not. Enough said.

In any case, despite my reservations about Morgan and her nonexistent decision-making skills, I actually did enjoy the story. For the most part. Enough to finish it and be curious enough to want to read the next book. Not to mention the ending was a giant cliffhanger, and now I need to understand all the bombs that were dropped. So, I'll probably be reading the next book, if only out of curiosity.

I am completely in love with this book. It has now become my newest obsession. I’ve always been a fan of this genre but Boleyn manages to breathe new life into it. Everything about this was well done and left me wanting more.

A solid beginning to a new series. I will definitely be watching for the next one! But while the names suggest that this is a new take on the King Arthur story, I honestly didn’t see that many parallels with the traditional version. I think I would have preferred it if it was just a wholly original idea.

A unique take on Arthurian legend full of magic and romance. Although this was slow to start I felt immediately hooked and I loved the dark face element which made the twists and turns that much more exciting. The slow burn enemies to lovers was *chefs kiss*, I couldn’t wait to see what happened next and I can’t wait for the next instalment.

I received an arc of this from netgalley so thank you!

A little slow to start but good enemies to lovers. mostly predictable twist but a fun take on arthurian legend
this is definitely the first book in the series in that most of the action is right at the end and leaves on a cliffhanger so i'm totally invested in the series and looking forward to book 2!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️
Morɢαɴ Lα Fαy reтellιɴɢ
Dαrĸ roмαɴтαѕy
Hυмαɴ / Fαe worldѕ
Slow вυrɴ roмαɴce

Thank you to Netgalley and Briar Boleyn for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed this reimagining of the King Arthur legend with Morgan, Merlin, and other symbolic characters of the ancient legend. Gender roles are muddled, which I love, putting new twists on the timeless tale. The dark fae spin was intriguing with the anticipation for the next installment. I cannot wait to see what happens! The world building and anticipation I have for the rest of this series is high.

There were a few spelling/grammar errors but nothing of distraction. The book was on the longer side (I don’t mind it) but the slow burn anticipation has me reeling! That cliffhanger, though! More steam is yet to come…

The storyline and plot expands with the read, as the true heir to the Camelot throne, Morgan Pendragon, reels with balancing her life under the watchful eye of her younger half brother, cruel King Arthur. Morgan is naive and a bit dense, but once she begins her quest outside of the castle her badass FMC role starts to pick up. But who is the new mysterious guard she is coupled with for this quest? His secrets begin to unravel on their journey, and only time will tell…

I want to write a creatively clever review, but I'm still processing that cliffhanger ending.

It was glorious, involving lots of my favorite things

Magic
Mayhem
Murder
ZOMBIES
With a little bit of spice thrown in.
Don't know if I can hold out until the next one.

thanks to netgalley, the author and publisher for this arc.

3 stars. i was considering giving it less, tbh, but the ending made up for some annoyances i had while reading this.

i feel like i should have loved this. it had the perfect recipe, the storyline, the settings (i love it when there's extensive traveling through forests. idk why. i eat it up). but the execution just wasn't there for me. i know this was an advance readers copy, but this book needed at least one other round of editing. maybe two. there were mistakes in the story i came across that would've been easily avoided with some external revising, like the way place names are differently spelled sometimes, or when the mc was shocked about something when before it was said that she knew about this already. again, easily avoidable, had someone carefully read this through.

and the main character. i am not one to say this quickly because i can tolerate a LOT– but she was insufferable. i'm sorry, but the choices she made were questionable and made it harder for me to believe her. and sometimes i just wondered why, because there was no reason for her to withhold some of the information she had. and vesper?? i'm so annoyed at her naivety (or just plain dumbness, i'm sorry,) because what do you MEAN you trust this guy??? again, it was just so unbelievable. and i know it's a fantasy book and it ISN'T real but what real person would do all this?

though, as i said, the ending made up for a little of it, because i liked it a lot. maybe even enough to read the second book, but we'll see about that. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I thought the worldbuilding and plot was great, the characters felt a little flat to me but overall I enjoyed this!

Queen of Roses
Really interesting retelling of Morgan Pendragon and the Court of Camelot. I’ve noticed these are quite popular lately.

I do love Morgan and her characterization. Smart, kind, caring, but horribly abused by her father and brother. Florian, a deviant and disgusting individual, horrified me at the beginning of the novel. His malice is so disturbing that the entrance of the hero is a huge relief. I get that the hero has many things to accomplish other than being dark and brooding, but I’m not sure that he’s protecting her quite enough. At times he almost mocks Morgan, someone who has clearly been physically and emotionally abused for decades.

I think that’s what was lacking. Morgan had too much piled up against her. There is so little compassion for her except for a random outburst or two, that the connection wasn’t fully there.

Once she goes on her journey and gets the chance to develop more as a strong female lead, the novel improved drastically. There was even a wonderfully timed and vague spin at the end that I enjoyed! I’m all, I’ll get it a 3.5. Lots of potential!

An Arthurian story with some character gender-bending, bad guys who are normally good guys, and some fae action thrown in? Here we go! The beginning was a little hard to get into, but once the major plotline started I was hooked. The FMC could be a little dense sometimes, but the reader does have the benefit of knowing what's going on and she didn't. I was expecting a twist at the end, but not all of what took place. Looking forward to the next book out in June!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book for writing an honest review.

I could not finish this book. The whole thing read was very juvenile, stuttering and repetitive. This was not an adult novel. The final straw for me was at 18% when Florian carves his name into Morgan's headboard and she "began to scratch and stab away at those six unbearable letters." SIX? There are seven letters there. I can forgive bad writing in a debut novel. It's bound to happen as an author hone's their craft. But counting? Who let this get printed?

The beginning of this book had me hooked as I wasn't entirely sure of where the retelling of Morgan Pendragon would take us with the introduction of fae and a very different Camelot than many of us are used to but near the middle of the book I started losing interest. I am not sure if it was the writing style, or solely the build-up that this book is creating for the next, but I wanted more development between Morgan and Draven.

At the beginning of the book I really liked Morgan, but her character took quite a hit with her struggling to know who she truly is and Draven himself put up some walls that I feel impacted the development I wanted to see. Overall the ending of this book and overall storyline pulled me in, there were just some things I would have liked to see more of.

This book gets only glowing reviews it seems and I feel a little ashamed to admit that I was disappointed in it. Was it a bad book? Absolutely not! Will I continue reading the second installment, without a doubt! But I think I went in with the wrong expectations.
I went in with the expectation of reading a Camelot retelling for the perspective of Morgan Le Fey. As a big fan of the round table and especially Marion Zimmer Bradleys interpretation of it, I just set my bar to high. Don’t read this because it is a Camelot retelling. Because it hardly is. There is a few name droppings like Arthur, Camelot, Merlin, …but this story didn’t need to be set in Camelot. It didn’t need to be Morgan Le Fey as the main character. This could have been any fantasy romance novel. Even the time that we spend in Camelot was very little and didn’t add anything from the original myths.
That being said… you will probably love this book if you enjoyed FBAA. It is very similar to it. I see the comparisation with Sarah J Maas on the cover, but I really can’t see why. It is a decent story but not Sarah J Maas worthy. More FBAA. It is definitely a very slow burning fantasy romance with mythical creatures. But to be compared to Miss Maas it missed a lot. The character development isn’t all that great. There isn’t enough debt and why too much is concealed for the reader. The entire book felt like a set up for the second installment. And you felt that while reading. There should have been some serious editing and some more “oomph” in the story. Now at times it drags along.
In other reviews I see spice mentioned. Where people where? There isn’t any spice! If you look very closely the whole relationship that will take of in book 2 falls flat. There is a little banter, there is maybe one or two cute moments… but that’s it. Nothing more.
So yes, this book has promise and I really hope the second installment will let it shine.