About the Author
Kiersten White is the New York Times bestselling and Bram Stoker award-winning author of the And I Darken trilogy, the Paranormalcy trilogy, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, Slayer, The Guinevere Deception, and many other novels. Kiersten lives with her family in sunny San Diego, California, where she perpetually lurks in the shadows.
Author Links:
Website: http://kierstenwrites.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kierstenwhite
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorkierstenwhite/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3027554.Kiersten_White Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KierstenWhite
About the Book
The second book in a new fantasy trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White, exploring the nature of self, the inevitable cost of progress, and, of course, magic and romance and betrayal so epic Queen Guinevere remains the most famous queen who never lived.
EVERYTHING IS AS IT SHOULD BE IN CAMELOT: King Arthur is expanding his kingdom’s influence with Queen Guinevere at his side. Yet every night, dreams of darkness and unknowable power plague her.
Guinevere might have accepted her role, but she still cannot find a place for herself in all of it. The closer she gets to Brangien, pining for her lost love Isolde, Lancelot, fighting to prove her worth as Queen’s knight, and Arthur, everything to everyone and thus never quite enough for Guinevere–the more she realizes how empty she is. She has no sense of who she truly was before she was Guinevere. The more she tries to claim herself as queen, the more she wonders if Mordred was right: she doesn’t belong. She never will.
When a rescue goes awry and results in the death of something precious, a devastated Guinevere returns to Camelot to find the greatest threat yet has arrived. Not in the form of the Dark Queen or an invading army, but in the form of the real Guinevere’s younger sister. Is her deception at an end? And who is she really deceiving–Camelot, or herself?
Tour Schedule!
Review!
I loved The Guinevere Deception so had no qualms about signing up to the blog tour for the second book in the trilogy! Thanks to TBR and Beyond Tours & Delacorte Press for the review copy.
The Camelot Betrayal picks up after the events of The Guinevere Deception. Mordred has betrayed Camelot and used Guinevere’s blood to bring his Grandmother, the Dark Queen, back to life. Now Guinevere spends her days trying to be everything to everybody: Queen, friend, witch, protector. Her days are spent patrolling the woods with her trusted Knight Lancelot to search for the Dark Queen’s taint, and also learning how to be a Queen, taking over parts of the day to day running of Camelot, something she has little knowledge of. So when someone claiming to be the real Guinevere’s sister turns up, Guinevere believes this to be an attempt from the Dark Queen to infiltrate Camelot. She is unwilling to trust Guinevatch, and instead pushes her away until the young girl takes matter into her own hands. To survive Guinevere is going to have become better at the one thing she always fails at, she will have to learn to become not just the witch, but the Queen that Camelot deserves.
I absolutely love the amount of gender bent re-tellings we are getting treated to atm, and Guinevere is definitely becoming a favourite character of mine. She is incredibly resilient, whilst at the same time constantly questioning her decisions and through them herself. She doesn’t believe herself worthy; of being Queen or of Arthur, and through it all she is still trying to learn the truth of who she is. Is Merlin her father? Where does she come from? We get a greater insight into her background in this book, but I think the author is building us up to a much bigger reveal. This book is definitely strong on the female characters from the brash and unique Brangien to the brave and loyal Lancelot, and while we do have male characters playing a part in the plot, their main reason for existing is to further Guinevere’s story line.
If I have on issue with these books it is the pacing. I found the same issues I had in book one in this, we get a lot of story for the first 75-80% of the book before the story picks up pace. While there are some action scenes throughout the plot, they don’t seem to further the main story line in any way, in fact they are more like separate plots all in themselves. I have every faith that the author knows what she is doing, and that all these little sub plots will come together at the end, but they do make the book lack pace in parts and I found my reading speed to be really erratic.
White’s descriptive writing and ability to implant the reader into the story is something I love. You can’t help but be transported to Camelot, to feel as though you are wandering the streets and corridors, and you certainly can’t help but bond with the characters. And while it may be easier to bond with the likes of Guinevere and Lancelot, the protagonists, the good guys that we are supposed to be rooting for, White has a talent for making her antagonists equally as likeable. We don’t have a true ‘baddy’. No one we can place all the blame on. In fact most of the stories antagonists are people whose stories have been twisted. I know we are heading for a big reveal and I an incredibly excited to see where the story leads.
Plot twists galore, a well written love triangle, an unreliable narrator and brilliant side characters make this a truly unique twist on the Arthurian legend we all know and love. If you’re looking for a story you know but with a twist, one where the usual male MC gets relegated to a side character and instead the story becomes that of the women, then look no further. An easy 4* read and I cannot wait to get my hands on the final instalment.
Favourite Quotes!
“Guinevere envied her both the ability to defend herself even as a child and the memories of those events. She was hungry for a past, for some way to fill the emptiness she found when she tried to excavate her own history from the memories.”
“She remembered Lancelot’s description of her as a waiting adder and smiled, picturing herself coiled up not with knots and tension, but with deadly power.”
“Guinevere did not remember the stars so much as she knew them down to her soul. She had stared up at them for so long hey were written on her mind where no one – not even Merlin – could erase them.”
“Do not answer me now. Take your time to think about it. Maybe all this pain has been because you have been trying to be too many things to too many people. Queen and protector and witch and wife and sister. So many secrets, so many identities. It is too much for anyone. When you chose me before, in the meadow, you chose Camelot. And I love you for that, because I will always choose Camelot, as well. But for now I want you to choose me.”
Giveaway!
Book Links!
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43908050-the-camelot-betrayal
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-camelot-betrayal-kiersten-white/1136466624?ean=9780525581710
Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Camelot-Betrayal/9780593305485
Indiebound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780525581710
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Becky's Book Blog 
Great review! I’ve been putting off this series until all the books are out because bookhangover angst but this really makes me wanna pick it up! ❤️
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Oooh you have much better self control than me then! I always pick it up and then get annoyed with myself when it ends on a cliffhanger 😂
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Honestly, it’s cowardice really. I’d rather bee annoyed about missing the fun stuff in the bookish community than obsessively refresh an authors website about updates! 🤣❤️
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