Loved reading the mesmerizing and engaging story. When Morgan is sent on a mission with Kairos Draven and Whitehorn, Whitehorn continues to minister the drink to Morgan each evening to suppress her fae tendencies, but Draven notices the ill effect it is having on Morgan. Read the highly recommended, wonderfully written full of suspense and mystery, and a must read riveting story. Can't wait to read the next story in the series by the amazing author, Briar Boleyn!

I'm not usually one for fantasy but I looooved this! It truly was amazing and I'm already halfway through the rest of the series!!

In a world of doomed love, perilous quests, and impending war, Morgan Pendragon, a forsaken princess, seeks to seize control of her destiny. Bound by duty and whispered to possess fae blood, her life is a pawn in the schemes of others. But when tasked by her brother, the king, to retrieve a legendary fae weapon, Morgan sees a chance for freedom.

On her journey, Morgan is ensnared by a band of outcasts led by a captivating warrior. Amidst conflicting desires, they uncover horrors beyond imagination. Meanwhile, a long-lost fae kingdom, feared by mortals, resurfaces, ready to reclaim its power through violence.

As Morgan delves deeper into her heritage, she realizes her blood holds dangerous secrets, making her a target in the brewing conflict. Caught between duty and desire, she faces a destiny more treacherous than she ever imagined.

Some stories pull you in from the start and refuse to let go. This is what happened to me. I started reading and I just couldn't stop, I needed to know what happens next.

My favourite character is definitely Draven. The rude and annoying guy who turns out to be kind and compassionate and much much more.
Then Morgan. Now she at first seemed naiv but I have a feeling she will be fearsome and great.

I loved all the creatures in the story and I hope to know more.
Also immensely curious about the history behind everything.

Thank you to NetGalley and Starwater Press for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Queen of Roses
Author: Briar Boleyn
Blood of a Fae #1
Fantasy

Thank you netgalley for this arc! Fun fact: growing up, “Quest for Camelot” was one of my favorite movies 😂. I have always loved King Arthur and the story of Excalibur and everything surrounding that. This is a FAE retelling and it was so friggin good. A lot of world building, and lots of twists and turns, and characters to meet. Our main character is King Arthur’s sister, Morgan Pendragon, who has fae blood in her veins. King Arthur is a D-BAG in this book!!!! He sets her off on a seemingly unattainable quest, which ends up setting off a chain of events that really sets this up for an amazing series. It’s four books and it is complete! So excited to start the next.

The author did an amazing job with this book. I loved it so much. Nothing bad to say. Chefs kiss on this one. More people need to know about this book! I had never heard of it until I saw it on netgalley. Fae and fantasy loving girlies will go nuts over this!!!!

This is a captivating and thrilling fantasy novel that follows the journey of Morgan Pendragon, a cast-off princess who is destined for a life of duty and sacrifice. But when her brother, the king, tasks her with finding a powerful fae weapon, Morgan sees it as an opportunity to break free from her predetermined fate. What follows is a dangerous and exhilarating adventure as Morgan joins forces with a group of outcasts, led by a mysterious and alluring warrior. As they navigate through the treacherous fae world, Morgan must not only confront her own desires and duty, but also unravel the secrets of her own blood that make her a target for the fae kingdom.
Boleyn's writing is enchanting and vivid, painting a rich and intricate world filled with magic, danger, and morally grey characters. The plot is well-paced and keeps readers engaged from beginning to end. The world-building is superb, with every detail carefully crafted to create a believable and immersive setting. But what truly sets this book apart is its characters. Morgan is a strong and determined protagonist, who struggles with her own identity and desires. Her relationship with the enigmatic warrior, whose sharp wit and fierce beauty captivates her, is slow-burning and full of tension. Their chemistry is palpable and adds a layer of depth to the story. The supporting characters are equally well-developed and add their own unique dynamics to the group. Each with their own secrets and motivations, they bring an element of unpredictability to the story. Overall, this is a must read for fans of Jennifer L. Armentrout, Raven Kennedy, and Sarah J. Maas.

"I burn for you Morgan. You've set me aflame.."
"Then let the flames consume us."

After reading this book twice, I realized why I loved it both times! I read it one year ago when it was initially released and immediately was left feeling like I wanted so much more! Of course my TBR list got in the way and I didn't get around to reading the rest of the series, nevertheless I am so excited I reread it! At first I was disappointed there wasn't much spice, however after reading Briar Boleyn's excerpt at the end of the book, I understood exactly why. This is a SLOW burn novel, where the author spends time with the MFC, developing her background, introducing those close to her, and world building. This novel contains characters from the tale of King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table however not a direct retelling of that particular story. The MMC is still so mysterious to me I cannot wait to find out what occurs in the next book between him and the MFC. The shock at the end will leave you with your jaw dropped! There are some scenes where the MFC undergoes assault but do not fear she does get her revenge! It was great to see the MFC have real internal dilemmas about speaking out or acting out. She was not necessarily reckless with her decision making and even expressed her fear of what could happen as she had others to think of. Also, I think the author does an excellent job of really driving home the adversary of the MFC and MMC. Overall, I am so intrigued to see how the rest of the story plays out, I will definitely be reading the series!

This was the slowest slow burn on the face of the earth, with a very well done enemies to lovers! There was a lot of world building, which was amazing but I needed just a little more something firey since it was such a slow burn.
An amazing cliff hanger, which made me immediately look up the next book!

4🌟 1 🌶
Thank you net galley & Briar Boleyn for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this book.
It has-
- enemies to lovers
- fae
- camelot setting
- " who did this to you?"
- epic quests
- purring battle cats
-slow burn 🔥
& more
After that cliffhanger I will be going to straight on to book two!

Thank you to NetGalley and Starwater Press for the advanced reader's copy of this book!

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Queen of Roses. I am by no means an expert in the Arthurian legends, but I appreciated the use of the characters and lore from the stories. So going in most people will have a general idea of characters and items to expect to hear about in the book.

The story was a little slow and repetitive in the middle, but sometimes slower pacing is needed to have explosive scenes in other parts of the book. And those last few chapters of the book were NOT what I was expecting. After reading through the end of the book I had to know more about the world, Morgan (our FMC), and Draven (knight), and continue reading the series.

I really appreciate that the two most stereotypical views of Fae and Faeries is portrayed in the book. We get both the extremely human/classically beautiful as well as the human/animal hybrid interpretations of the Fae. In many Fae inspired books I have read, it seems that the author chooses one or the other, but not both. I hope this dynamic is explored more in the next books in the series.

I can't wait to continue reading this series!

⭐️ Ratings
Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.5/5
Writing: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5
Plot: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.5/5
Characters: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5
Romance: 🌹🌹1.5/5
Spice: 🔥🔥 1.5/5

📝 My Thoughts
Thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC of Queen of Roses.

The longer I think about this book the more I don’t know what to rate it. I was very engaged the whole time, but overall it seemed like the whole book was like a prequel to the actual story.

This is an Arthurian fantasy following Morgan, part-fae Princess on a mission with her gaurd Kairos. There is barely any romance in this one, but I feel like there will definitely be more in the following books. Again, it was almost as if everything written in this was to establish the characters, world, and mission. It didn’t seem like much was going on a lot of the time. I honestly enjoyed the characters and world despite that though, and it was such a short read, so I will definitely still be reading the second book to see there the story goes. I’m hoping for more romance, more action, and MUCH less animal cruelty in the next one!

📝 Favorite Quote
“I felt the fury of a small child who sees the injustice of the world and wants to reach out and stop it any way they can.”

- Dark Camelot vibes
- Forced proximity
- Fantasy creatures
- Twists and turns
- Enemies to ...?

I'm sorry, what just happened...
I devoured this book, I couldn't stand half the characters in the BEST way. Characters felt well developed with meaningful relationships, which made the heartbreak all that much worse.
Loved the beginning of what I'm sure will be such an exciting magical system and world, with fantasy beasts I look forward to exploring more of.
It's enemies to something or other with a twist haha (don't want to give away any spoilers)

The last 20% of this book gave me whiplash with the twists and turns, you're going to want to have the second one ready to go as soon as your done!

Side note: check your triggers

This is a super loose retelling of King Arthur, and focuses on his sister Morgan, who in this story is half fae. I was obsessed with this book!!! Morgan's freaking awesome, she's definitely a bit sheltered but anyone who thinks she's too timid or submissive should remember what happened to Vesper! Draven was incredibly hot, I feel like Briar made him too great haha there is another love interest in this book introduced later but it was too late I was already a Draven girlie and the other guy was nothing! I was surprised by the twist at the end which I usually would've seen coming! The world-building was incredible and I really felt apart of the story!

Listen, I am so not a Camelot/King Arthur person. At all. I literally had no idea what I was getting into here but it ended up being a fun time.
A little wordy at times, but it didn’t bother me. I enjoyed the FMC, it was nice that she wasn’t all fight and witty comebacks. I am excited to read the next ones!

Thank you to NetGalley for the free access to this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Starwater Press for this Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

Queen of Roses yielded a wide array of reactions from me. I’ll start with saying that I really loved the concept behind this book. I am a sucker for all things Camelot and Arthurian, but I am not sure the Arthurian themes really worked here. Aside from names, nothing in the story reflected the Arthurian legends, so I’m unsure why the author didn’t go the extra step to make her own world. I thought there were several things done well and several things I desperately wish either didn’t appear or could be changed. I’ll start with the negatives to get them out of the way so that I can proceed to the parts I loved. First, the modern-day language bugged me, and the ‘bond’ between Morgan and Draven seemed very contrived. He gave her no reason to loathe him from the start, and Draven spoke like an angsty teenager rather than an experienced, disgruntled warrior charged with the care of a rebellious young woman. Draven’s switch from indifference toward Morgan to caring deeply seemed like an abrupt shift, and this shift did not make sense—nor was it explained. Florian was an entirely useless character. Every trigger warning pertained to Florian, and the scenes in which he appeared were pointlessly unpleasant. You could remove Florian from the plot and absolutely nothing would change; in fact, the book would have been so much better if Florian hadn’t been admitted to the cast of characters at all. Next, I would have loved to see more complexity in Arthur—sometimes understanding an evil character can help us hate him more, and this would have improved the storybook villain a great deal. The book also contained a few typos, grammatical errors, and repeat words. The descriptions were also poor at times (ex. “his wavy hair fell in waves”). The ending, however, was the most disappointing part. Things weren’t explained very well and suddenly two characters were thrust together as mates without any real bond between them and for no explicable reason. The ending relied on telling instead of showing, and Draven’s dialogue read less like what an actual human would say and more like he was story-telling what was happening in front of him. I physically cringed. The author also lingered on the plot twist far too long. The surprise-villain and the heroine stood there just talking for five pages and neither character said anything new. It slowed the plot twist down and I’ll admit that I experienced a great deal of boredom when this was supposed to be the most action-packed and emotional part of the book. I also didn’t understand why Lancelet had to appear halfway through the story again simply to tell Morgan about what was happening back in Camelot. She came back, shared some details, then died… what? Her plot function toward the end of the story would have been better formed through Morgan having sudden magic-induced nightmares that ended up being a form of subconscious scrying. I also did not understand why Lancelet and Morgan were training to become knights. While I love the concept of a Valkyrie-by-a-different-name, and I usually love the female warrior trope, this served zero plot function. She never used her fighting skills in any meaningful way, so the decision to make her a warrior just felt like another arbitrary plot choice without any real value. The two LGBTQ+ characters should have had more space in the plot. Neither were given important roles other than best-friends/sounding boards, and I would like to have seen them more involved. Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, let me proceed to the good parts. I really loved the atmosphere. Each setting drew me in, particularly as we grew closer to the fallen fae kingdom. I loved the scene in the inn, and I really enjoyed Morgan’s physical transformation. I’m very much looking forward to finding out more about her fae heritage. I also absolutely adored the creatures in the story. The exmoors were adorable. I thought the harpies were rendered in a clever manner, and the zombie children were quite interesting. The first chapter of the story was very well done. It set the scene for the main character’s emotional development and gave us insight into the choices she would make in the future. The high priestess was likely the most well-done character, and I wish that all the characters could have been rendered with similar care and effort. Overall, every problem in the book linked back to Chekhov’s gun—everything in the story should serve a plot function, and there were many things that simply did not. That said, I deeply enjoyed the base concept and will continue to book 2.

This book was a really interesting retelling of King arthur and the world of Camelot. This book was a lot of world building and getting the reader set up for more books. Due to this, The love story and characters lacked a bit of nuance and development but it hooks the reader enough to want keep reading more books. Overall I enjoyed the book and am excited for the others to come.

First off, thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing for allowing me access to this book in exchange for my honest review. I really enjoyed this book. I finished it in a day and immediately started book 2. I love a good fantasy series, and this seems to be just that. Morgan Pendragon is the oldest daughter of the king, but because she is half-fae, she is passed over for queen for her younger brother, Arthur, who is pretty much the worst and hates the fae for some reason. Arthur sends Morgan on a mission to locate an old fae weapon, during which she discovers things about herself that had been repressed and tries to figure out which of her companions, if any, she can trust along the way. I thought I had a good idea on how the story was going to go, but it definitely surprised me in a few places. Looking forward to seeing how the story continues in book 2!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The world building and character development was five stars. Despite all the world building, the story was a quick read and didn’t lose my attention due to lack of action. It’s your classic King Arthur tale with a fae twist.

The story of Queen of Roses is a unique twist on the Arthurian legend, set in a world of fae. The world-building was truly impressive, creating a vivid and brutal society with complex family dynamics.

The plot was engaging and kept me hooked throughout. While it's categorized as dark fantasy, I didn't find it overly dark, with just the right amount of death and blood for a fantasy novel.

However, I did find the protagonist, Morgan, to be frustratingly and naive a lot of the times. And a bit disappointed by the romance as well, especially the introduction of a love triangle. The writing style also shifted at times, with Morgan seeming unaware of her own world. Overall, it was an interesting read with some flaws but I do recommend it and can't wait to get to the next installment!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

Queen of Roses by Briar Boleyn is an amazing dark fantasy romance.
I thought the world-building and plot was just phenomenal.
The book was surprisingly very fast paced and I completed this book in one sitting. I could not put the kindle down.
I was sucked in by the first page and I thought the flow of the book was perfect, and it made for an easy read.
I would recommend this book to all the fantasy lovers out there. Go read this book. I'm already starting the next one today!

Thank You NetGalley and Starwater Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!