Guinevere Deception (Camelot Rising Trilogy, #1)

by Kiersten White

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White comes a new fantasy series reimagining the Arthurian legend, set in the magical world of Camelot . . . . There was nothing in the world as magical and terrifying as a girl.

Princess Guinevere has come to Camelot to wed a stranger: the charismatic King Arthur. With magic clawing at the kingdom's borders, the great wizard Merlin conjured a solution--send in Guinevere to be Arthur's wife . . . and his protector from those who want to see the young king's idyllic city fail. The catch? Guinevere's real name--and her true identity--is a secret. She is a changeling, a girl who has given up everything to protect Camelot.

To keep Arthur safe, Guinevere must navigate a court in which the old--including Arthur's own family--demand things continue as they have been, and the new--those drawn by the dream of Camelot--fight for a better way to live. And always, in the green hearts of forests and the black depths of lakes, magic lies in wait to reclaim the land.

Deadly jousts, duplicitous knights, and forbidden romances are nothing compared to the greatest threat of all: the girl with the long black hair, riding on horseback through the dark woods toward Arthur. Because when your whole existence is a lie, how can you trust even yourself?

*THE FIRST BOOK IN THE CAMELOT RISING TRILOGY*

• ISBN10: 0525581707
• ISBN13: 9780525581703
• Publish Date: 13 October 2020 (first published 5 November 2019)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Ember
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780525581703

Reviews

[alindstadtcorbeax]

Star Rating: —> 4.5 Stars

Kind of, sort of, completely obsessed with this new take on Arthurian legend!

[mrs_mander_reads]

I really enjoyed this! I like the legend of Arthur flipped on it's head a little. I would have really liked more from other characters, POV, but looking forward to book 2.

[thepunktheory]

Full review on my blog coming soon!

This was soooooo cool!
I don't know much about the Arthurian legend except for the Disney movie The Sword in the Stone and Lord Tennyson's poem The Lady of Shalott. The Guinevere Deception really inspired me to learn more about that! I love nothing more than novels that inspire me to learn something new!
Anyways, what made this novel so intriguing?
First of all, as far as I can tell, the novel draws from legend but gives it a twist to create something new. It's difficult to pull off the balance between making it too similar and not similar enough. However, here this was expertly done!
The story is exciting and captivating. I could hardly put this book down and found myself reading deep into the night. We get many surprising twists and there wasn't a boring moment.
I am rooting for all of the characters but especially for Guinevere. She already is one of my all-time favorite characters but even though we know little of her. There is so much more to her story and I am beyond excited to explore that in the next novel.

[katie]

2nd Read: Okay. I have a solid theory on who Guinevere might be now. And I'm terrified that I'm right. Going to jump immediately into book two (thanks NetGalley!) and hopefully find out the answer..... and also hopefully get some good Guinevere/ Lancelot!!!

1st Read: I'm... so... confused???
I've never wanted to be wrong more than I did with this book. But at the same time I need to do a LOT more research because I WILL figure this out. Maybe. Full review to be published as soon as I wrap my head around everything at http://kaitplusbooks.com!

[Nessa Luna]

Let me tell you a secret – I have watched a bunch of Arthurian movies, I’ve watched two whole episodes of Merlin (there’s a story behind it, for another time) but I have never read the original stories nor have I ever read a retelling. The Guinevere Deception was my first Arthurian retelling and honestly, I didn’t love it. I loved the premise, Guinevere as a changeling, but the story overall wasn’t what I had hoped for. The last couple of chapters were great and were the main reason I gave this book the rating it got, but alas it wasn’t the epic magical story I had hoped for.

CAWPILE: 7 | 6 | 7 | 6.5 | 6 | 7 | 7 (Avg: 6.64)

[Kat @ Novels & Waffles]

Things I Liked:
-deftly beautiful writing style
-a creative, utterly fresh retelling that's both familiar and new
-The intrigue! The deception! The unanswered questions!

Things I Liked...Less:
-The slow but deliberate pacing might not be for everyone
-Some of the italicized sections written from the Dark Queen's perspective were a bit confusing to me

This review was originally posted on Novels & Waffles

Not going to lie - I SERIOUSLY considered DNFing this which is highly unfortunate because I've loved Kiersten White's other books I've read. But this one just felt....lacking. No connection, writing that felt mediocre (scenes felt jumpy at certain times -- basically someone was here, then they ended up over there), and if I saw one more misplaced exclamation point I was going to SCREAM. However, there was *just* enough to keep me moderately interested. And I'm happy I stuck with it because the ending was far more intriguing. Of course, it still left a lot to be desired and I don't really connect with any of the characters, but I'm just intrigued enough to see where it goes. It's a shame though - this truly could've been something exceptional.

[leahrosereads]

I went into this pretty blind as I don't know much about Arthurian legends, so I can't speak to how true this is to those, but I really liked it.

I liked Guinevere as a character. I thought she was decently fleshed out, and I loved her friendship dynamics with Brangien. Those were some of my favorite parts. I also really liked her with Arthur, but I didn't feel like we got enough there.

I took a star off because this had the inklings of one of my least favorite tropes in YA, but it gets resolved by the end (hopefully!), so I guess I can forgive it a bit.

There's a lot to be answered still, lots of open threads, and I'll definitely be picking up the next book in this series to see if I'm right regarding some theories I have.

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

Initial Thoughts: Interesting, but some elements of the plot are too obvious, and I could do without a love square. The characterizations are generally great, however, and I love all the allusions to Arthurian legends. Not sure I care enough to read book 2, however.

[tweetybugshouse]

This book started out as a two for me as it was very slow to get to the meat of the story. It simple and boring i read quite a few of this author book and i was expecting a bang out of the gate. Maybe it cause i know the Arthur stories and read many of them. The one thing that really bumped this story to a four is that it does what many of those do not it centers on Guinevere and other female characters to where you almost forget your reading a Arthur retelling.

The story at the heart of it is a deception story and our king is all in the know about it. Their are small secrets and then their are big ones. Kirsten White is the master of dark materials and this one has hints of it but i have a feeling now that all the ground work has been laid the remaining books in this serious will take that hint of darkness and it going to splash all over the story.

This is one novel that you have to wade into it takes sometime to get the ground work laid and I not usually a big fan of these kind of stories. I want the meat but in this case it paid off to get the ground work. Now that it been laid i really excited to see where the rest of this retelling is going.