This is a debut and it reads as such: there are rough patches and the book falls too much on telling instead of showing. As such, a lot of elements fall flat for me, as they don’t seem to be organic developments, but more so “because that’s what the script says.” 

A lot of the romances in this book were very insta-love, but a lot of page time was devoted to them. Since the romances didn’t really change, it made for a bit of a boring read. 

Speaking of things that didn’t change, most of the characters were rather flat and one-dimensional. Our protagonist, Morgan, doesn’t really have a character arc. To be honest, a lot of her character felt very modern—which contrasted with everyone else acting more “medieval.”

At one point, she says something about not wanting to be sold to the highest bidder, which just felt out of place with the setting.

 

I’m a big fan of the Arthurian mythos, and as such, tend to read anything that comes out in relation to it. This retelling didn’t really offer a fresh take on the mythos. If you have read The Mists of Avalon (ignoring MZB, if you can, for a second), this reads like a flat rendition of that book. The most unique element of this book, in comparison to other retellings, was

the convent element. I liked the way her time in the convent was portrayed: a place of learning and refuge, a mix of scholarship and religion. It reminded me a bit of The Book of Gothel in that sense.

The other element that I really enjoyed was

how Arthur and all of those going-ons were shoved off to the side. Guinevere isn’t named in this book; it’s just presented as “Arthur suddenly got married for love.” This also goes for Mordred—we can see how both Arthur and Morgause know about this, and her child is described as blonde, but there is nothing that Morgan knows about the situation.

If you are looking for something you can breeze through in a couple hours, maybe pick this up, but if you are looking for something fresh, I’d skip this one.