This is a great trilogy. It's one of the better Arthurian / Avalon series' I have read. It's action packed and spiritual. It's mostly on the side of the Goddess, but it is not one-sided. There are some good Christians.

The characters have their flaws, but there are even times that you can empathize with Morgan [though they don't make it clear whether or not she

Spoiler

committed the crimes she was accused of

].

Spoiler

Arthur and Merlin are both weak and are controlled by women, which ultimately causes the downfall of both of them, and Guinevere can be selfish and shortsighted

, but there are things that are likeable about all of the characters. I liked how Guinevere and Morgan made peace in the end.

I really enjoyed the spirituality of forgiveness towards ones enemies.

One thing I didn't understand is why something different wasn't done after

Spoiler

Guinevere had her vision about Rohan and Elga

. The whole mess that happened could have been avoided. Still, that wasn't annoying enough to lose any stars.

I received a free copy via NetGalley for a true and honest opinion.

I have to say, I enjoyed this book. It is about 800 pages long but it is actually really easy to read through. I love anything to do with the legends of Arthur but this book actually focuses on Guinevere. More especially, it doesn't depicted her as this traitorous adulator or weak helpless woman. She is depicted as a warrior priestess. This trilogy is about Guinevere and her challenges and life from her point of view, so while it does have Arthur and Camelot etc., its not about them.
I think I would have loved this book in hard copy or if I had read them separately, I found with the e-Book I was often skimming very quickly, which I didn't lose from the story but I do prefer physical copies.

I actually really liked the character Morgan, even more than maybe Guinevere. My favourite was the second book.

I think overall I would give it 3.75 stars

A new perspective

I didn't think I would like these books since I am such a fan of The Mists of Avalon but I enjoyed them. It was interesting to see a new side to Guinivere.

I've seen so many Hollywood versions of the Arthurian legend through the years starting in childhood with Disney's Sword in the Stone, and also read several books about Arthur. But I've never read the story from Guinevere's perspective until now. Hollywood depicts Guinevere as a secondary character most famous for cheating on Arthur with Lancelot and nothing else. This book describes her life before Arthur as a priestess of Avalon and a strong warrior woman, forced into a marriage she didn't want. Her actions, described from her perspective, were justified and she became more the hero of the story than Arthur. I enjoyed this book so much! Thank you to Nicole Evelina and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this story.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

This is a hard review to write and not in a necessarily bad way. This was a separate trilogy that is now being offered as a box set. As the title hints this book is about Guinevere. The first book is Guinevere before Arthur, the second is with Arthur and the third is following Arthur. I described the books using Arthur but don't mistake this as a book about Arthur. I used that because most people think of Camelot and Arthur. This is a story about Guinevere and her challenges and life from her point of view.

The reason this was a hard book to review is because in e-format this is an overwhelming book. I think I would have loved this book in hard copy or if I had read them separately. As an e-book my ADHD led to me skimming parts. In book one I actually disliked Guinevere and her treatment of Morgan and it was a slow burn. In book two Arthur was not really my favorite and the stuff Guinevere puts up with I just find hard to accept based on her character from book one, she seemed a little power hungry. Which leads to book three. I still do not know how I feel about Guinevere. I actually liked Morgan and felt more sympathy for her than anybody else. Morgan had a worse deal than Guinevere by far.

That being said. I really love that Nicole Evelina created a really awesome world that wasn't all roses and brought to light that the woman of Arthur's life were strong and had a lot stacked against them. I loved how Evelina also allowed for multiple religions and showed that good and bad of multiple of the religions. This was written well. Yes I skimmed but that was because of my own brain not because of the writing. And to round it out I really did like how Nicole's author's notes was factual and let you know some of her thought process and why she adjusted them to fit her narrative.
4 stars to NetGalley because I do recommend this book but due to skimming I cannot give five stars. I did skim after all.
4 stars on Goodreads because I really did like this story. Yes there were parts that didn't resonate with me but I still liked it. I would pick up a book by Nicole Evelina again but I would not do a trilogy in one reading from her again. It just burnt me out a little bit.