Queen of Roses is a dark fantasy romance with a loosely inspired King Arthur/Camelot retelling- with a Fae twist!

* SLOOOOW BURN
*ENEMIES TO LOVERS
*BANTER
*MAGIC
*FORCED PROXIMITY
*ACTION & ADVENTURE
*SPICE

The plot was definitely interesting and the world building hooked me in. I'm looking forward to more plot building in the next book. I wasn't a fan of Vesper, but he was necessary for the story line.

Get ready for an epic cliffhanger ending! I'm so glad this is a series, because I can't get enough!

I’ve never read a lanclot/author retelling before so it was quite interesting to see if from a different perspective! However, the pace of the story wasn’t my favorite. I felt like if took a while to get started on the adventures and the love interests weren’t my favorite. My favorite scene will always be the “who did this to you”, I’m a sucker for those!

I dont think I'm the target audience here. I was so intrigued by an Arthur retelling in favor of Morgan. I do like the gender role swap of Merlin and I also liked Arthur being portrayed as the bad guy. But for me this book just felt like teenage rebellion, wanting to be the one infavor instead of the outcast, sneaking off in the night, SA, and just absolutely no safeguards being used to protect her as a woman or as a princess. It seems very gilded cage awkward rebellion and the book is far too long because we bear the dead horse for hundreds of pages with the same story.

I was really intrigued by this book. An Arthur-legend retelling focused on his sister Morgan. Merlin and Lancelot are both female (Lancelot is Lanclet) and Arthur is slightly sinister. Add in a mysterious, dangerous man (Draven) and I was ready to be completely swept away.

But sadly, the pacing was off. It took far too long to send Morgan off on her quest. And then once things were starting to get good between Morgan and Draven, a new love interest was introduced and Draven was all but dropped from Morgan's thoughts. Not to mention that Morgan's powers suddenly appear and are promptly forgotten about.

There was a lot to like about the book, such as the mystery surrounding Morgan's heritage, the scheming at court, the tried and true 'who did this to you' moment, but there was a lot that could have been trimmed to make it a stronger book.

I am a total sucker for a good fantasy series, and with this first book of the series I am hooked.
I love the unique spin on the old King Arthur story, and I really enjoyed how everything was put together by the end.
The ending was a bit of a cliffhanger so I'll be starting book two ASAP.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC

Honestly I loved this!
It has all my favourite vibes (TOG/FBAA, etc)

I haven't read many retellings of the King Arthur/Camelot story, so I was pleasantly surprised by this book!
I felt transported into the world and that's exactly what I look for when I read! While I wish there was just a little more development between the two MCs, I'm assuming the slow-burn of this story explains the small lack of it. While it was a slow-burn with little spice, I still loved this story! The pace of the storyline itself was fast and always kept me on my toes!

So excited to keep reading the series!

Overall this was a 4/5 stars for me! x

As the first born, Morgan should have been queen of Camelot, but she was deemed unfit by her own father. She now lives in the shadow of her brother Arthur. With her country on the verge of going to war with its neighbour and her own freedom at stake, she is sent on a mission to retrieve Excalibur, a mythical fae weapon.

I must say, I do enjoy when old tales are revisited and I enjoyed how the author shuffled the characters. This book really sets the mood for the other books in the series. It had flaws, could have been better proofread, and there were a few predictable plot twists. Unfortunately, there is some unnecessary violence that I really don’t understand its purpose. The book ends with a cliffhanger.

It is a solid first book: I can feel how this book was used for building the world and putting the characters in place. I am eager to see what the other books will be like.

Also, there is quite an extensive list of triggers at the end of the book. Please do verify if some subjects are sensitive for you.

I do often give 5 stars because let’s be honest, if it’s good why doesn’t it deserve all the stars?? I go in with an open mind and love ARCs. This one deserves every single one of those stars though and I hope everybody gives it a chance! I just finished the second book and am about to start the third, knowing I am going to be devastated while waiting for the fourth to be released!! Fingers crossed I can be part of that ARC team because WOW! This series is now in my top 5 ever! That is truly saying something!! Great great job. Enough world building to where I feel like I’m getting a story and not just too much smut. Also not so much building that I feel not encouraged to want to finish it. I could not put this series down! There have been twist and turns that I did not see coming which for me I usually can guess the plot pretty well so this kept me on the edge of my seat. One of my not so favorite things is when the main characters always become lovers to enemies and circle over and over again before we get our HEA, but I know that’s what makes a good book we’ve got to have some storyline. So 5 stars from me all the way!!!! 👏🏼

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice level: 🌶️🌶️

Read if you like:
▫️Arthurian retelling
▫️fae and magic
▫️found family
▫️reluctant allies
▫️court politics

Thanks to NetGalley, Starwater Press, and Briar Boleyn for the ARC!

I read this book in a day and a half. I am fully obsessed. I love books about fae, and I love the King Arthur legend, but this flips it on its head by making Arthur the bad guy! It was perfect.

If you want action-packed romantasy with twists and turns, betrayals, and an epic quest, then this is your next read. It has basically everything you could want: forced proximity, slow burn, enemies to lovers, and a surprise ending that I did not see coming.

Kairos Draven is my new book boyfriend. He is broody, overprotective, and gives hardcore “touch her and 💀” vibes. At one point, he literally says “Who did this to you?”. He is 🔥🔥🔥

In summary: I loved every second of it. I gobbled it up and wanted more right away! On to book 2!

This book was awesome! Fast paced and had me hooked from the very beginning! I can’t wait to read more books by Briar Boleyn! So good!

Thank you for this ARC!!!

I remember being obsessed with Arthurian stories back in high school and watching Merlin.
So as soon as I read it was a retelling retold as Morgan being the Heroine I was sold.

Morgan is the elder sister to her 1/2 brother Arthur, who is the King of Camelot, she is sent on a dangerous quest to find Excalibur for him. On this journey she discovers truths about you her family and herself.

The ending left me wanting to know what’s next and glad I can pick the next book up immediately to continue.

This is a dark retelling and new twisted take on King Arthur and Excalibur.

Morgan Pendragon is a half fae princess who’s the eldest of her 2 siblings; Arthur (a ruthless King) and Kaye who’s sweet and innocent.
Her birthright of becoming queen had been stolen from her given her fae born blood. She is sworn to the goddesses to become a High Priestess once she turns 21.

Arthur hires a new royal guard who is mysterious and seems highly suspicious given how quickly he was given the job. Morgan suddenly gets sent on a quest to find a special weapon of great power by Arthur. She is only given 2 guards to accompany her on the journey Whitehorn (one of her brothers most trusted guards) and one of them is the new guard Draven Kairos.

They begin their quest and this is where the story gets really interesting. Morgan discovers more of her fae side on the journey she never thought possible and her and Draven form an unlikely alliance.

The story ends on cliffhanger and I had to jump right into book 2 straight away !!

Tropes
- One bed
- A long quest
- Slow burn
- Enemies to lovers
- World building
- “Who did this to you”

The world building was fantastic. I have no complaints. Easy to follow and very interesting.

The MMC also was written to perfection ! I was swooning and falling in love.

Now the MFC, I could not stand. A bit immature for me when I am reading a NA book.

I also wasn't a fan of the love triangle and how it was written - when this is a favorite trope of mine.

The plot though was great. I was hooked the whole time.

Thank you to Netgallery for this arc.

Firstly I just want to say I really enjoyed this read, it was a fun romance that I cannot wait to read more of.

It is a sloooooow burn which I much prefer, the longer they take the happier I am. So if you’re not into it, this won’t be for you.

I LOVED the King Arthur take on this series, I haven’t read anything of the sort before so it was super refreshing.

The first half of this book was mostly history so it will take some time to get into but please please stick with it.

Overall I really enjoyed this series and will definitely be reading the rest of the story!

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read Queen of Roses!

This book starts off by learning what happened to Morgan’s mother and how Morgan lost the crown to her brother when she was a child. Her king brother Arthur is a horrible, gruesome king and sends Morgan on an impossible journey.

I could definitely tell that Queen of Roses was setting up for a series, and it was pretty well done. There’s one character that I had a feeling about the entire time, and I turned out to be right (no spoilers). However the ending was very confusing - which is kind of good - it leaves the reader wanting to read the next book.

Queen of Roses is a dark fantasy romance with a loosely inspired King Arthur retelling with a Fae twist! The story has an EXTREMELY slow burn romance with a top notch enemies to lovers trope and is filled with magic, mythical creatures, tension, banter, forced proximity, sibling love, friendships, self discovery, love, betrayal, adventure, action and unexpected twists! While I enjoyed the world building, character development and plot I could have used a little more fire and spice. Hopefully, that will be the case in the next book in the series

This retelling of Arthurian lore, told from Morgan le Fay's perspective and with gender-bent and lgbtq+ characters was engrossing from the very start. As a reader who particularly enjoys Arthurian legend and books about the fae, I loved the way they were combined in this book, and can not wait to read the next one!

Typically, if a book involves faeries, action, and some romance, you can count me in! It did take me a little bit of time to finish this book, which surprised me. I was really intrigued from the beginning, I thought it was a unique plot amongst various books revolving around faeries. However, as soon as the main characters left the castle walls to embark on an epic journey full of suspense and peril, my interest level dipped. I liked the author's style of writing and some of the character's diaogue, however, I don't think I am going to pursue reading the sequels at this time.

The premise of this book was interesting to me purely because I have always enjoyed and found there to be a lack of modern fiction inspired by the Arthurian tales and I feel that in some ways because of this preconception this book felt a little slow for me. The world building was excellent and I could really picture the scenes that the characters were going through beautifully. I also found it interesting to see Arthur who I have usually rooted for in other adaptations to portrayed more cruelly with his ban of magic but also focusing on how young he is and how he is most likely a puppet himself. Whilst I understand that this is a slow burn, I didn’t feel much chemistry between Draven and Morgan and only a little bit of tension near the very end as she fell for Vesper. I’m intrigued to see more on the fae themselves and how that will link up with the plot in Camelot.

I didn’t know what to expect since I haven’t had much exposure to Arthurian fantasy. However, it was such an amazing introduction to this retelling with a twist. The story is filled with action and drama that kept me engaged all the way through. The protagonist, Morgan, has been through so much which heavily influences her actions (or lack of). Although some readers might not understand Morgan’s choices, I think it’s important to remember everything Morgan witnessed and endured at such a young age which the author makes a point of showcasing from the very beginning of the book. I love Morgan because she is the embodiment of perseverance. She misjudges and makes mistakes, but that is a part of her growth. I can’t wait to see how her character develops throughout the series.

Did I forget to mention slow burn? You can’t go wrong with two handsome men who guide and protect. You have the juxtaposition between hot grumpy Draven and handsome romantic Vesper, which just had my feet kicking in the air. The ending has so many shocking twists and turns; I went straight to reading the next book in the series. I highly recommend you make this your next read.