Heartbreakingly, breathtakingly beautiful. An absolute must for fans of legendborn and Arthurian legends. Beautifully written and absolutely heart shattering from the first few pages. 

Covering about fifteen years, following Morgan from childhood to womanhood, her growth and the injustices she endures, this novel truly felt like a journey and a half.

As I was reading, the pages flew by and I felt very immersed in the story. But as I put the book down I didn’t really find myself reaching for it again, so it took me surprisingly long to get through it. Don’t get me wrong, disrupting and unexpected things happen that made me want to continue, but the pacing didn’t change very much: Something happened, then something else, and something else… and it’s not entirely clear where things were heading, so we’re mainly going along for the ride. That’s all right and well, but but maybe I would have hoped for a bit more intensity and higher stakes, all the while it was still interesting and well narrated.

The first couple of chapters gripped me off the bat, then I found myself a bit bored with the slightly dragged out (quite cliché but still well written) romance, before things stepped up a bit in intrigue and pace towards the last third of the book.

I would have liked to see certain people suffer a bit more at the hands of Morgan, but it was truly refreshing and empowering to see her grow into her own power. I enjoyed her as a fleshed out protagonist and the people she chose to place her trust in. I found the empowerment of women to be masterfully woven into this setting of formal courts and malign kings without making it into something overly feminist and unbelievable for the time period in which the story takes place.

Looking forward to reading the follow-up!

★★★★+

I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't necessarily this. The author refers to it as a "feminist retelling" and I don't know if I necessarily see it that way? If it is it is very much not intersectional feminism and lives more in a women's lib type vain of feminism. I also see the author tweeted this is a planned trilogy, which I didn't know going in, but makes sense with the pacing. This is very slow and it isn't until near the end that Morgan actually takes some action and things in the plot stop happening to her and her making things happen. 

The synopsis is basically noble born girl who loves her quiet secure life and her father has her whole life turned upside down. Her father dies and she ends up with a cruel stepfather who just wants her gone. Unfortunately, he's king and she's just a woman in medieval times, so she has no say in anything. She rebels under the threat of death and gets sent to a nunnery where she makes her first true friend. She is called back to be wed and shit starts getting even worse from there. 

Basically, cruel man after cruel man is presented to her. Perhaps that is the feminist angle? I did like that Morgan is a healer and has a very strong ability in it which is consistently shunned, first as being of the devil and second as being unbecoming. Her best friend though is very much supportive of it and helps her out quite a bit. However, for the fact that she is her best friend there isn't a whole lot of them actually being friends. This is kind of an artifact of the narrative style and first person, but Alice still feels kind of empty. I felt that we know more about Arthur's nature once he is revealed than we do about Alice or Tressa (I am hoping that is the spelling because I just had the audiobook). For a feminist retelling the men are described in detail while the women are not so much? Save for the woman we see with Merlin the first time he is introduced. Most of the women in the story are cruel to each other, cold and callus. It was kind of exhausting. 

Near the end when Morgan finally starts taking charge, which I kind of hate the inciting event for this, it started to pick up a bit. The pacing increased, the detail in which things were described changed and Morgan started using her abilities and her rank to her favor. I will probably pick up the rest when they come out but I am disappointed to have this as my first Arthurian tale. Especially with how much I loved the BBC Merlin show. I think I may have to go back to the OG feminist Arthurian retelling: The Mists of Avalon and give that one a go. 

I had high expectations based on the synopsis of an Arthurian retelling about Arthur’s Half sister Morgan le Fay (and I love retellings). I was pulled in from the prologue, it was so good but then it slows down and drags.

Pacing is all over the place, sluggish and slow as the story is dragged out and apparently will be book 1 of a trilogy. Honestly the retelling could be done in 1 book instead of 3 and would be much better written. It drags out the story so much that it makes me not want to pick it up or have any interest in reading a whole series especially because it starts when Morgan is 8 but then we suddenly skip to her being 15 so clearly the author knows she can skip around to tell the whole story in 1 book.

The writing style is just not my cup of tea with so many words written but so little being said to move the story or develop the character. 

It’s also less fantasy and more romance than expected. I could not care less about Morgan’s childhood in this much detail and want to hear the powerful feminist story being taken back from all the Arthur legends painting Morgan in a terrible light, like I was promised. Another novel that has an amazing concept but lacks in execution.

Liked hearing about Morgan’s perspective. Weird to see the Pendragon’s as the villains and this version of Merlin is awful.