3 1/2 stars.

I loved the concept, but the execution fell a little flat. It was good for what it was, but it needs a little more depth to it for it to be *really good*.

I think the characters could have been developed more as well.

I loved that it’s basically a Camelot Fae retelling though, I’ve never read anything like that!

I new re-telling of Morgan Pendragon and Camelot. This story is an exciting fast-paced tale of hidden destiny, family ties, and tragedy. Morgan's life is far from the picture perfect life we imagine for a princess. Kingdom taken away from her, a tyrant of a brother on her throne, and the medication she's forced to take to hide her Fae blood. It's a great retelling, a little predictable at times with the sudden introduction of a second MC, but still enjoyable enough that I will be diving in the next book right away.

This Book Had Me Hooked From The Beginning!! The plot the characters were magnificent I will definitely be reading more from this author!! Highly recommend!!

Definitely not what I expected to discover when reading about Camelot and King Arthur. This book has some triggers which are listed in the table of contents for those who aren't expecting a dark read. Otherwise this story was excellent!!

Morgan Pendragon was the first born child to the evil King of Camelot. Her mother had fae blood in her that she passed onto her daughter which only enraged her husband. After Morgan witnesses her father brutally murder her mother when she was only 5 years old while she was hiding under the bed, her life changes for the worst. The King's mistress, who bore him a son, Arthur, replaces her mother as the queen and Morgan is passed over as the heir to the throne. Leaving it open for Arthur to be the future king. Her father then dictated her fate and promised her to the Goddess Temple for life when she turns 21 years old. She's an outcast from her own family. Her youngest brother, Kaye, was born after Arthur's mother died. Kaye adores her, but Arthur hates her. She looks nothing like them, she has long gray hair from her fae side, and she tries to be invisible avoiding the court whenever possible. Arthur has had a special medication created for her to ingest every other night to suppress her fae heritage.

When the King demands that she travel to extract a fae weapon of extreme power that only she can touch, she's eager to please her brother, the King. She needs to find the lost sword, Excalibur. Arthur sends her alone with only with two guards for the task. That's when she realizes that she won't survive the trip. Her medication is doubled on the journey, she's forced to drink it every night. It's making her so ill that it's killing her. Draven, the Captain of the Royal guard, makes her stop drinking the medication after he finds out it's poisoned. The other guard ends up dead when he tries to kidnap her in the middle of the night. Without her nightly "medication" her true fae heritage emerges, and she's beautiful. Her once dull gray hair, is now silver and she has runes all over her body; she no longer hides her true self.

Morgan stumbles upon a half-fae, Vesper, at a festival while he plays his pipes, she's lulled in by his music. Days later, he finds a way to run into them again at just the right time to be a hero in her eyes. Draven doesn't trust him. Morgan's too naive, having led a sheltered life as a Princess in Camelot. She just thinks that Draven's jealous. Vesper slowly seduces her with his music and his body to win her trust, and Morgan thinks that she's finally found true happiness; but she's so wrong.

After Morgan retrieves Excalibur, she figures out Vesper's real intentions. King Arthur isn't expecting his sister to return home after she retrieves the sword. He hired the half-fae thief to follow them through their travels and seduce Morgan with his magical pipes. He needed to win her trust to get the sword, kill her, and return to Camelot. When he stabs her in the stomach leaving her to die, her fae powers come to her defense and she turns Vesper to ash. But a powerful Fae woman appears and takes the sword when she sees that Morgan is traveling with a creature like Draven. Morgan doesn't understand what the woman means before she collapses from blood loss. Apparently, Draven has secrets that she's unaware of.

Can she trust Draven with her life now? Because she doesn't seem to have a choice anymore.

A must read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Starwater Press for an ARC of this book.

I don't understand what this book is about. I mean, I get that it's supposed to be something like an Arthurian legend, but it's ALL over the place. It reads really poorly and has no real depth to the world or the characters. Your main character is Morgan and she's first introduced as a forgotten royal who is promised to the temple but is learning how to fight and is better than her knight-in-training best friend. But literally that's all the strength that she has in the entire book. The rest of the time, she's a simpering, weak, woe-is-me character. Like you had so much potential and you threw it away.

The "romance" is half done. There was potential with one of the possible interests, then it was thrown away for the first guy who winked at her. Like come on, virgins may be virgins, but they're not that gullible.

Honestly, this book isn't worth it.

Thank you Netgalley and Briar Boleyn for the ARC!

A twisted King Arthur’s retailing, starts off incredibly slow. There is some action in the end. multiple animal deaths, wish I had read trigger warnings somewhere. If you like a less spicy FBAA you will like this

So I read like A LOT of fantasy, and find that the more I read the pickier I become, so I tried to go into this book with a really open mind... and let me tell you my mind expectations were blown out of the water. This book just was EVERYTHING. I thought the story felt familiar but fresh, the writing felt like fantasy but didn't slog like how some fantasy stories can and overall I devoured it. Briar just had a way of making these characters simultaneously so funny but also so lovable. This was my first book by her but I absolutely will read everything she puts out now. I loved it so much that I must get myself a copy for my permanent physical library.

🧐 my thoughts:
I was super excited to read this after being an avid reader of the Magic Tree House series growing up which had Camelot and King Arthur in it.

👌🏻what i liked:
I really enjoyed the storyline and the fae twist. The world in which this story exisited was super captivating. I really enjoyed that. The story really picked up in the middle and I got super into it. I am really looking forward to the spice in the next book, or what I hope will be in the next book with how she set it up to go!

🙃 what i didn’t like:
This story definitely lacked in depth and character development. It didn’t have that spark that I was waiting/looking for.

🥰 special thanks
Thank you to NetGalley, Briar Boleyn, and Starter Press for granting me this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I wasn't 100% sure of this one at first, but the story definitely didn't dissapoint. Loved the MC and her friendships, can't wait to start the next installment to see what happens!

Rating: 4.5/5
Spice: 2/5

An Arthurian retelling with an evil king, Fae princess who isn’t a damsel in distress, AND a love triangle in the mix? Yes please! Not to mention forced proximity, he falls first, and a quest for a special magical object!

I’ll admit that I don’t really read much in the way of Arthurian retellings but only because it takes a lot to catch my interests. Briar Boleyn has done just that!

Draven and Morgan have the best banter and I am LOVING the slow burning enemies-to-lovers storyline between them. I will be starting Court of Claws immediately.

"A doomed love, a dangerous mission, and a kingdom on the brink of war...
A cast-off princess…

Born into a life of duty and sacrifice, Morgan Pendragon’s destiny has never been her own. Rumored to carry the tainted blood of the fae in her veins, her birthright is stolen from her when she is a mere child. Growing up in the shadow of her brother the king, she has been promised to the goddesses when she comes of age..."

A morgan la fae retelling? SIGN ME UP! This is amazing.




⚠️ Trigger Warnings ⚠️ May contain spoilers:

- alcoholism
- domestic abuse
- watching a parent die as a child
- biases and speciesism against fae
- misogyny
- execution of a child
- death in childbirth
- insinuation of rape (none actually occurs)
- abuse and bullying
- homophobia
- murder of children (off page)
- violence and murder
- beheading
- enabling of abuse
- victim blaming
- hunting of endangered species
- physical abuse from father (on page)
- animal on animal violence
- public whipping (off page)
- hanging (off page)
- tyranny


Some parts were on the pedictable which is fine and pretty normal for me. One critique: a little more development is needed between the two MCs. But I’m guessing it was setting up for that in book 2.

It's giving from blood and ash (with fae) vibes meets King Arthur, Im down

I really enjoyed this book! I love the story of King Arthur and this book so different from the story we know. I Love that it comes with a Farie twist on it. It was interesting to see Arthur as the villian in the story and not the hero.

I really enjoyed the characters and I loved Draven. I hope we get to learn even more about him in the next book. I did like the FMC Morgan but she jumped too much to trust people that were glaringly obvious using her. She was very naive though I did really like her journey in this book and I can’t wait to learn more about her background as well.

Overall, this was a fun, exciting, interesting world and I especially love the Arthurian take on this book. I am really excited for book 2.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and Briar Boleyn for this book in exchange for my honest review and opinion.

I love retellings of myths, and this one was great! It was a bit slow to get started. The first half of the book is all set up. But I do think it’s necessary to get that initial look at what Camelot is like at the beginning for where things go later. We also get to know our heroine very well. This myth twists things. Instead of Arthur being the hero and the rightful heir who was usurped, needing to claim the throne to bring back peace and balance, he’s a bastard who was legitimized in order to usurp his elder half sister, and ends up a cruel tyrant. We also get a lot of other cool twists on the myth and the characters in it. The author certainly found new ways to spin the old tale, and developed a rich world around it.

The hero here is Morgan. Based on Morgan Le Fay (literally, Morgan the fairy), here she is Morgan Pendragon, half fae, and the rightful Queen who was passed over by her cruel father (Uther Pendragon) because of her fae blood. She’s quite fine with it, all things considered. She’s a bit resentful about not being found worthy, but when opportunity presents itself to push herself forward, she prefers to fade into the background. Her family has been giving her “medicine” for years to keep any fae traits at bay, and her hair turned grey, which she likes to hide.

The plot really picks up when it comes out how her brother Arthur truly feels about her, and that he intends to send her after a mythical weapon, the blade of the god Perun. Excalibur. He sends her with two soldiers, his awful advisor’s right hand man, and the new captain of his guard, Kairos Draven. Draven is an assassin that Arthur hired, but who is instructed to get the sword for him.

He and Morgan have enemies to lovers chemistry right away. I really loved all of their interactions. It had big touch her and die vibes right away. His employer may not care for her life, but he certainly seems to! And that is only reinforced at the end. I’d course, once they begin to get more friendly, interruptions occur!

As the journey progresses, lord of twists and turns pop up. I was able to guess a lot of the twists coming up, but that’s because the clues are all there. The enemies to lovers romance I was anticipating did not come to pass. Not yet. But wily half fae lute players and all sorts of other things come in between the two. The ending promises more to come however.

Morgan changes a lot on the trip. From discovering magic to learning painful lessons at the end. And things between her and Draven are far from settled. I think they are only just beginning. Which I’m down for. We don’t learn much about Draven, and at the end, only confirmed my suspicion as well as laid hints at his past. Morgan is more of an open book for most of this, until she goes to get the sword. A fae guardian is there, and there’s a lot not quite understood here. But one thing is certain, there is more to her memories with her mother to uncover. And her own destiny.

The second half of this book really picked up the pace. With fights against wild animals, mercenaries, harpies, and zombies of all things! I was not expecting that one! It’s a wild ride for this last half and I loved it. I sped through this section much faster. I couldn’t put it down! There’s so much to this world that we’re only just beginning to uncover. It seemed like a fairly simple Camelot retelling at first, but it’s not just the medieval style world here. It’s so much bigger. There’s so much more history of the fae, both factions, to uncover. It seems we’ve now met both leaders, and that the fight is sure to kick back off. Then there’s Arthur and him cracking down in Camelot, doing public executions and everything.

And Morgan’s own destiny is sure to come up. The people in Camelot know Arthur wasn’t originally the heir, after all. And then there’s a Princess of the fae and what she called Morgan. Leading me to believe she’s owed quite a bit more than she may think. Or be comfortable with. After all, even hearing about the horrible things Arthur is doing, and Lancelet’s hints, she doesn’t think of herself. I can’t wait to see where the next book takes this!

I am beyond late doing this review but I beyond loved this book. It was fast paced and kept my attention the entire time. I stayed up way to late reading two or three nights in a row to finish this wonderful book. I immediately pre-ordered the second once I finished this. I also got the bonus chapter from signed up for her email list and wow.

I am so mad I didn't read this book the second I was approved for an ARC of it because I could not put it down.

This book has no right to be as deliciously good as it was. I love most anything involving fae and retellings? Oh they're my jam. So when you combine the two, I'm very rarely left disappointed. But when a book delivers me an Arthurian retelling when some gender bending and then you add fae into the mix? Okay, Ms author, I see you. And I am here for it all.

I was entirely engrossed in the happenings of Morgan and reading her world flip flop from the, well maybe not comfort, but as close as she could get to comfort with the memories she holds. Throwing her brother Arthur as the morally gray-ish turned completely villain last we leave him was just a stroke of genius that left my jaw on the floor. Maybe because my first introduction to Camelot and Arthur tales comes from the whimsical Disney version...but I did hate seeing that character in my head be a giant crap bag.

We also have Lancelet and Merlin as female characters who are strong and independent in the tolerant Camelot...even when Arthur begins to return back to the past.

And I can't forget the dark and mysterious Draven and the half fae Vesper. I won't say much about them...but I am so, so, so curious to learn more about Draven and his back history in the next book. The chemistry between the characters was believable and so were their thoughts, words and actions.

By the time I turned the final page and realized I was at the end of the book, I was thrilled to see I wouldn't have to wait long...it says the sequel is out June 30th. SQUEEEEE!

This book really just took me for a ride. I loved the build up, the character development, and the writing. I would definitely read more from this author!

Thank you Starwater Press and NetGalley, for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Morgan Pendragon’s destiny has never been her own. Rumored to carry the tainted blood of the fae in her veins, her birthright is stolen from her when she is a mere child. Growing up in the shadow of her brother, the king, she has been promised to the goddesses when she comes of age. So, when her brother commands that she seek out a fae weapon of legendary power, Morgan seizes the chance to break free from the chains of her fate.
It's been a while since I've read a fae fantasy book, so its gripping beginning pulled me easily into the story itself. Morgan's character has been on journey of a self-exploration and realizing her identity. There's slow-burn, betrayal, and most importantly a dagger to throat. What I caught me off guard was the quick transition between the slow start and the sudden big amount of action filled with one another that made me keep on reading. Though the development of the main characters made me lower my overall rating, I am looking forward to book number two.
Fans of Sarah J. Maas and Holly Black should give this Arthurian retelling a try.

I received a reader's copy by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity to review this book.

This is the first book in the Blood of Fae series.
This is also the first book I have read by this author. This is an action packed slow burn magical romance with a unique take on the Arthurian story. I truly enjoyed this book and I highly recommend if you enjoy Fae and legendary stories. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

I received this ARC for free in exchange for a honest review. Queen of Roses is a well written book that will grab your attention from the very start. I appreciate how she writes her characters and look forward to more of the authors work!

3.5 stars rounded to 4.

I received and ARC of this book, so thank you to Briar Boleyn and Starwater Press for the opportunity!

I’ll be the first to admit, I haven’t read the original story of Camelot, so I have no idea exactly how much of this book was pulled from it, but I did not mind it one bit. I recognized a lot of names, and I loved the LBTQIA* twist on it!

I also have to admit, it really did take me nearly 50% of this book to actually become invested, which is why I gave it 3.5. BUT, I rounded it to 4 because the second half really made up for it for me! The love triangle was so confusing, unexpected, and the magical elements and creatures added in there made it unique!