Summary:
While journeying north toward the Dark Queen, Guinevere falls into the hands of her enemies. Behind her are Lancelot, trapped on the other side of the magical barrier they created to protect Camelot, and Arthur, who has been led away from his kingdom, chasing after false promises. But the greatest danger isn’t what lies ahead of Guinevere—it’s what’s been buried inside her.
Vowing to unravel the truth of her past with or without Merlin’s help, Guinevere joins forces with the sorceress Morgana and her son, Mordred—and faces the confusing, forbidden feelings she still harbors for him. When Guinevere makes an agonizing discovery about who she is and how she came to be, she finds herself with an impossible choice: fix a terrible crime, or help prevent war.
Guinevere is determined to set things right, whatever the cost. To defeat a rising evil. To remake a kingdom. To undo the mistakes of the past… even if it means destroying herself.
Guinevere has been a changeling, a witch, a queen—but what does it mean to be just a girl?
The gripping conclusion to the acclaimed Arthurian fantasy trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White finds Guinevere questioning everything—friends and enemies, good and evil, and, most of all, herself.
Review:
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
I’m not usually one for historical fantasy or retellings like these. But I absolutely loved White’s And I Darken trilogy. So, I went into this series knowing that I’d probably like it too because White is an amazing writer. I was not wrong with that assumption at all. This is the third and final book in this series, so I won’t say too much about the actual details of the plot because I like to avoid spoilers in my reviews.
We’re following Guinevere as we have for the past two books. I was honestly a little bit annoyed at how she still hadn’t gotten any answers to the question of who she actually was because she’s been asking and searching for answers for three books at this point. It took most of this book to finally get those answers. I felt a little disappointed that so much of the story was focused on “who is Guinevere” rather than the exciting part of the story about defeating the big bad threat that the first two books were leading up to. I think that’s because I really enjoyed the magical bits that we did get when it came to the big bad threat of this series. I will say though, that I was really satisfied with how everything played out. It felt like the story had a really natural progression and the specific ways that the story unfolded felt like it made sense for the characters.
I still really liked Guinevere, but she was a little whiney in this book. I get that she felt like she was trying to do the right thing by the actual Guinevere, but when literally everyone in your life is telling you something, maybe you should listen to them? I liked how she came into her own and really started to push Arthur and make him see how unfair so many things can be for women. I think that was one of my favorite things about this story, the focus on how women are treated and how much of that treatment isn’t right. I loved the steps that Guinevere took to right those wrongs.
Most of all, I loved the writing. There were so many quotes and lines that I will come back to again and again in this story. White really is a phenomenal writer and her words just come together beautifully to tell this story.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and I think it was a really great conclusion to this series. As i believe I mentioned in my review for the first book, I don’t know much about the myths and legends of Arthur and Camelot, which I think allowed me to be more easily swept away by this story and it’s characters. I would definitely recommend this series for fantasy lovers or anyone that likes retellings that have a twist.
Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.
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