Worth the hype!!

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What a stunning novel!! When does book two come out?

This was my first book by this author, and I loved every moment of it. It has more humor than I expected, and so many quotable lines (like seriously, I have a list written down of my favorite ones). There is adventure, and magic, and romance (queer romance!), and scandal, and all the good things in between.

I actually started doing reaction stories on my Instagram because the book had me feeling all the feelings, and I needed to tell someone about them! At one point my husband even asked if I was okay because I kept making so many noises because of the story.

I want to say that if you're going into this book expecting the Big Bad to be revealed early, and have the rest of the book spent with the characters trying to defeat them: you will be wrong. This is the first book in a series, anyway! But the majority of this book was Arthur and Emery coming into their own, both on their own and with each other, and the adventures they are sharing. I feel like this was very character oriented, but that is okay! There was also a magical quest and other, smaller, events woven throughout as well. In a nutshell, not a boring moment.

The Big Bad does get introduced mid-story, but even then I was not sure if it would be them or King Yuric, who was talked about since the start because he was threatening to wage war. But, if you pay attention to details and certain scenes you get a better idea of who the villain is, and in the end there is a smaller action scene with the villain....that does not get resolved. Ugh for cliffhangers!

The characters in this are all likeable and goofy in their own way. Like I said before, they have some great, quotable one-liners! And, with my base knowledge of Arthurian legend, I squealed every time a known character came into play. But, since this is a retelling, each character has a different role in this book than they do historically. I mean, Merlin had twins?! BUT it works and the author did such an amazing job writing out this story.

I mean, I might be partial just because I love Arthurian centered stories (like Legendborn and The Guinevere Deception), but this was a damn good book . If you like legendary story retellings, or fantasy books, or even anything medieval, then I suggest picking this up as your next read.

Overall, I was excited when I first spotted this book and it did not disappoint. From my story reactions, people I follow on Instagram were interested too (and I tried staying spoiler-free!). The characters are amazing, the one-liners are funny, the plot is well written without being bogged down for details or lacking information, and I am really looking forward to future installments in the series.

Huzzah!
CW: Loss of a parent, blood, death, poisoning, misogyny/sexism, violence