A very rich and descriptive world, Sam Davey really plants you into the atmosphere of this world. As I was reading this, I felt like I was watching a Starz or HBO show taking place in Arthurian time. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the land, clothing, and people within this court, and this is definitely the author’s strong suit.
I did find a lacking in the character development. Igraine as a character was a bit flat for me, and hard for me to connect with. I didn’t feel like she reacted in ways that seemed realistic, and I don’t believe that she was a strong enough protagonist in her own world. I wanted to see her do more to the story and be more active with the plot.
A lot of the plot dragged for me, and made it difficult not to feel the urge to skim over things. I think editing it down, and making Igraine a more integral role to the plot would do this book wonders, as I really love the atmosphere that we were given.
Thank you NetGalley, Diversion Books, and Sam Davey for this ARC!

Thank you to NetGallery for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I give this book a strong 3.5/4.

This is my third book for Arthurian April and the first book I have ever read where Igraine is the main character POV.

Her character will either make you extremely frustrated or giddy with book girlie excitement, depending on how you wish to see this version of Igraine.

For the romantasy fans, I would say this book gives you the following:
- Forced Proximity
- Desire and Hate mixed together
- Morally grey charicters! - Uther, Igraine and Gorlois are all this way!
- fated mates - but is it ???
- Secret identity

This book plays extremely well with desire and human emotion. i loved Igraine's termiol with lust and hatred. This book can be read as very dark or very sexual depending on your viewpoint. that being said, the author needs to work on her spice level cause despite all the lustful things that occur, her depiction of it gets about a 1.5 rating from me.

Spice Groupings:
- sexual trickery
- forced/ or not depending on how you read into Igraine

The books deal with some sexual violence, but again, it depends on how you read Igraine. it can be read as kinky or controlling depending on how you wish to look at it.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I feel sorry for Arthur the most out of all this as neither parent goes on to want him as we approach book 2.

I feel like some scenes could be cut off. Beltane chapters are a bit to long as are the goodbyes of the children

Firstly, I would like to thank NetGalley and Diversion Books for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who is very intruiged by fiction based on Arthurian legend, I was very excited and grateful to receive an arc of this novel - my first ever ARC, in fact!

Unfortunately, I did not connect with this one as much as I had hoped I would.

'The Chosen Queen', although clearly well-researched, lacked a substantial plot. There is a large portion of this book that felt very sluggish and repetitive, and I began to lose interest. There were lots of desriptive moments that I did not feel were necessary, but then parts I found more interesting were brushed over. I also found Davey's writing style hard to get used to, in the beginning, as it felt very clunky and lacked flow. Past the 50% mark, I did see an improvement with this - but this could just have been me getting used to the writing style.

I am a reader who loves to feel connected to characters and felt that what this book needed was a real connection between reader and Igraine. We needed to feel her anger, feel the injustice and burn with rage alongside her, however I just ... didn't. I empathised with her, but I found her unengaging as a character. Igraine comes across as very passive and, frankly, dull in the earlier chapters of this book. I was hoping to see a huge character arc for her where she finds her inner fire and wows us all, however I just found her ... meh. This is such a shame as I think this story really had the potential to pack the punch.

Overall, I believe this novel would benefit from some tighter editing (especially in the earlier chapters) to balance out the pace and smoothen the flow.

If you enjoy historical fiction, witchy elements, and a character-driven story, you may enjoy this one - it just needs a polish first!

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

Unfortunately this book was not really my cup of tea. I do think there is an audience for it out there but I personally did not enjoy it. Thank you for the advanced reader copy.

The Chosen Queen is a novel of contradictions—beautifully immersive yet frustratingly sluggish, compelling in concept yet flawed in execution.

Let’s start with the positives: the prose is undeniably lovely. The author paints a vivid, atmospheric world that makes you feel as though you’ve stepped into the misty, mythical past. The descriptions are rich, the setting lush, and the attention to historical detail admirable. If you enjoy slow, immersive reads, you may appreciate this aspect.

However, the pacing is where the book lost me. It drags—a lot. There are long-winded descriptions of things that add little to the plot or character development, making it a struggle to push through. I found myself skimming passages just to move forward, and it took me two weeks to finish simply because I had to force myself to keep going. A tighter edit would have helped tremendously.

Then there’s the portrayal of women. While it touches on important themes like women’s agency over their own bodies, the execution falls flat. The female characters, especially Igraine, feel more like idealized figures shaped by the male gaze rather than fully realized people. Given that this is a first-person narrative from Igraine's POV, it’s especially jarring. It’s understandable to an extent given the story’s premise, but ultimately, it weakens the impact.

Overall, The Chosen Queen had the potential to be a great read, but it gets lost in unnecessary detail. If you have the patience for a slow burn and appreciate elegant prose, you might enjoy it. But if you prefer tighter storytelling and well-rounded female perspectives, you may find this one frustrating.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC!

I am a sucker for Arthurian retellings, I don't care how many get published.

The cover for this book is gorgeous, and I'm sure that will help it sell well.

My issue with the book is that everything in it just felt....bland. There was a ton of dialogue and it could feel wooden at times. The author gives descriptions, but it's in a matter of fact way that doesn't feel like it added to the setting meaningfully, and I normally love lots of descriptive prose when it's done right. But I can't even call the descriptions "prose" in this case because of how bland it felt to me. This is also a fairly slow book where not much happens, so you really need some fire prose to help get through things.

Igraine is a character that is so frustrating because people just tell her what to do or things happen to her, and she just feels like she has absolutely zero agency in anything that happens (which I get in a historical aspect, but I also need something to root for in a character. At least show some fight, please). There are also a lot of lines where the writing will just tell you rather than show how the characters are feeling and it gets repetitive. Igraine will say she is sad or anxious but we don't really get much else to go along with it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours for an ARC of this book!

Arthurian legend retellings are always interesting to read and this one is one of the best I've read regarding Igraine. Actually, I think it might be the only one I've read told from her point of view and it really added a personal quality to the entire Lore. Igraine was a wonderfully strong character and, while the highlights of the retelling were known, the substance of the plot and how it unfolded were wonderful. I don't actually have anything to say other than that this was an engrossing read and a great addition to the Arthurian universe. My first five star review on NetGalley!

I love an Arthurian set story. This book however, I think could have used some more shaping. It was well paced in the beginning and the end but the middle was very slow. I also think that there was too much description and not enough dialogue. What also kind of threw me was some of the descriptors used, it seemed a little inconsistent. Like using auburn, tawney, and copper to describe one characters hair color- to me those are three very different colors. It’s perhaps not the biggest deal in the world, but I’m a sucker for consistency.

It wasn’t a horrible book but I think it could have used some improvement.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read this earc.

Thank you to NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours for this early copy in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed myself so much I started rewatching Merlin to solve my need for more Arthurian vibes. This feminist retelling of Igraine starts strong and delves into the right amount of character and world building. Davey has written a protagonist that made me want to know what her next decision would be. How she would solve the interwoven problems thrown at her while balancing motherhood, friendship and her duties.

There was I felt, I bit of a slowness towards the middle, some repetitiveness in phrases and explanation that could have been cut but the plot really picked up from the Solstice. I would be curious to see a spin off, Morgan’s alluded future towards the end holds a lot to be explored, and as my favourite character, I would love to see more of her.

3.5 stars rounded up

I was excited to read this since I love Arthurian legend stuff and there were good things like magic and I liked getting more on Igraine. My issue was that it kind of dragged at times and I just couldn't continue because I got bored.

I love mythology retellings (and I’m a huge fan of Merlin/Arthurian myths) and this cover and concept really caught my eye, so i’m very sad to say that I felt underwhelmed and disappointed by this book.

This story focused on Igraine, the mother of King Arthur. While this novel and author did a good job of painting a beautiful and magical setting, the story often felt bogged down in the details and extensive speeches that did little to move the story along. I did love how the visions of Igraine and her daughter Morgan were portrayed very vividly. I wish this story had a bit of a quicker pace as I often felt like I was dragging through this novel trying to find something to grab on to.

Apart from this, I personally would have liked to see more agency on the part of Igraine. I understand that sexism and the lack of agency for female characters comes with the territory of a mythology retelling - but everything seemed to just happen to Igraine and she allowed so many characters sway her and convince her that she secretly wanted what happened to her.

Overall, this story has an interesting concept and potential, and could be for other readers who are interested in this form of a slower mythology retelling.

There’s so many retellings of Arthurian legends out there, but none of them I’ve seen so far have retold the story of Arthur’s conception from Queen Igraine’s perspective – a story which definitely needed to be told. This novel has great historically inspired worldbuilding, with Celtic and pagan worship clashing with the rising tide of Christianity, which is interwoven well with the rich Arthurian folklore. It is a strong character-driven, female-focused narrative with political machinations and other characters pulling the strings behind the scenes – it reminded me of a Phillipa Gregory-style historical novel. Igraine’s character and relationship with both Gorlois and Uther was well written, and you can’t help but feel sorry for her as others use her for their own ends, a pawn in a game she never wished to play. I liked how the author raises the question of how, if certain powerful characters had not behaved and interfered as they did, the prophecy might have unfolded with a lot less betrayal and bloodshed – a trope about prophecies that I can’t get enough of. I loved as well Igraine’s relationship with her two daughters Morgan and Morgause. The foreshadowing of their future roles in Arthurian legends, especially Morgan’s with her uncanny ability to scry and cool demeanour, was dramatic and succeeded in getting me interested in reading the next books in this series to see how the author portrays them as adults. Characters from Arthurian legends that I recognised were Merlin and the Lady of the Lake (Vivian) – both trying in their own way to fulfil the prophecy of the Once and Future King, often too busy trying to influence the future to think about the feelings of people in the present.

I would highly recommend this book to those who enjoy character-driven historical fantasy and love Arthurian legends.

Thanks to NetGalley for the free copy! True rating is 3.5 ⭐

Sam Davey weaves a beautifully narrated story of Igraine, the mother of King Arthur, wife to Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall and mother to Morgause and Morgan. I wasn't really that engaged with her lore prior to picking up this ARC and I have to say that I was truly mesmerized by the knowledge the author held of the era, the etiquette, the magic system and the everyday ins and outs of women in the Athurian circle. It was a book that I did find entertaining after a long and stressful day, and I couldn't
stop reading to see what Uther was going to do and how Igraine would act since I didn't know at all her story.

As with many retellings, my main "complaint" if I'm to use this word, is that they focus only on 'retelling' the story, not reimagining it, dissecting it in a way that does justice to the hidden messages and meanings behind the original myth so to stand out in the current publishing trend. While I loved every single scene in this book, even if sometimes it felt slower than needed, I did want to see an extra layer of the myth, a new insight or something very uniquely made by the author. The ending got me at the edge of my seat, but I missed the grounding/more narrative time to digest what happened and its potential aftermath. It was, though, a very educational read for me both as a reader fascinated by Arthurian lore and as a writer of myth and folklore (albeit Greek).

"The Chosen Queen" raises important issues about the women's agency over their bodies in the medieval world, forced and chosen motherhood, attraction and female rivalry. With delicious foreshadowing of the events in the Arthurian circle after Igraine's story, it's a slow-burn, historical fantasy read that's bound to entertain fans of the genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and Diversion Books for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I am honestly a sucker for the Arthurian ledgend and everything medieval. So, when I was accepted to be an ARC Reader for THE CHOSEN QUEEN by Sam Davey, I was more than ecstatic to sink my teeth into a feminist Arthurian retelling, told from the POV of Arthur's mother, Igraine.

Therefore, I say with a heavy heart that this was a hard one for me, because I didn't enjoy reading this book as much as I thought I would.

I liked some parts of this novel. I thought Davey successfully painted a vivid picture of a magical world, morally complex people, and devastating events within the narrative.

The plot itself was enchanting and had great potential. However, there are a few things that I just didn't vibe with while reading.

For starters, the exposition was so bogged down by flowery language, repetition, and excessive details that it was—at times—hard to follow what was going on and keep track of all the characters and their relationships to one another. I found myself speed reading through the last few chapters as they dragged on.

Additionally, I felt like the FMC had little to no character development and kinda seemed to move through the story as a plot device rather than the protagonist. What’s more, I am not a big fan of dramatic irony and found the plot twist slightly predictable, making me feel annoyed at the FMC's naivete.

Having considered all of this, I give this book a 3.5⭐️(rounded up to 4) rating because I believe there are readers out there who might find a deeper appreciation for this story than I did.

This novel would be great for readers who enjoy retellings, historical fantasies, Celtic folklore/mythology & druidic culture, fated mates, love triangles, forced proximity, magic v. religion, women leadership, and fighting for what you believe in.

I was really excited to read this take on Igraine’s story. Arthurian retellings from a new perspective always intrigue me. The world-building was vivid, and I could easily picture the landscapes and settings. The mother-daughter relationships were a standout, adding depth and emotion to the narrative. The use of visions and foreshadowing was also a nice touch, giving the story a sense of inevitability.

That said, the pacing was uneven. Some parts dragged with overly detailed descriptions, while others, especially key moments, felt rushed. The dialogue leaned heavily into long-winded speeches, which sometimes felt more like monologues than natural conversations. I also wished there was more focus on the broader Arthurian legend rather than stretching a smaller aspect into a full book.

Overall, it’s a beautifully written story with some great elements, but it didn’t fully hook me. If you love deeply immersive historical fiction and don’t mind a slower pace, this could be a great fit.

I really wanted to get into this book but struggled. I don’t think I’ve ever picked up and put down a book so many times. The idea is so interesting and some of the story lines really intrigued me but the writing style is what caused me to struggle. I felt it was too fluffy and descriptive of things that didn’t need to be. This caused the pacing to feel so slow. Took me 2 weeks to finish it when I can normally finish a book this size is about 3 days.

Thank you Sam Davey, Diversion Books and Netgalley for this free ARC in exchange for a review.

This fantasy adventure was a really good page-turner.

I especially liked how it ended with a strong move by Igraine.

I feel like the plot and storyline was lacking, and could've used some more editing. It didn't flow like it wanted to I feel and needed to be fleshed out more. The premise and the cover were what drew me in but this book fell flat because of how in-cohesive it was and while I understand that it's a debut and the set up for a series, it needed a little more work to truly hold up.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Author for this ARC ♥️✨

I love myths and legends, so really thought I’d enjoy a retelling of the story from Igraine’s point of view.

Pros:
- I enjoyed the immersive nature of the story, I really felt like I was in the rolling hills of a medieval Brittany.
- I liked the use of foreshadowing and visions to give insight into the plot
- I thought the mother daughter relationships were very well done

Cons:
- The pacing was very very slow, and then other elements too fast
- There was a lot of focus on in-depth explanations of scenes and locations, so much so that I ended up skipping through sections
- There was a lot of lengthy dialogue and speeches. This felt more forced than courtly and I struggled to read all of the dialogue

I think this book took an element of the Arthurian legend and drew it out too long. There isn’t as much in that part of the legend to fill a whole book, and the best/most poignant part was right at the latter end of the book. It felt like the author was writing for the sake of filling a book rather than driving the story forward.

I wish it had told us more of the Arthurian legend and spent less time on seemingly menial things. There was no action and the tension around Uther that was built fell very flat in my opinion. I enjoy books where there is peaks and troughs which grab at your attention, this one didn’t have that pull, and I really struggled to feel incentivised to read.

I think the story had great potential, and there was some parts of the story that felt much better paced (like the scenes with her husband) but overall it was lack lustre.