Happy Friday and welcome to my review of one of my most anticipated 2019 releases! This book is wonderful and amazing and I love it! Because of that, I am so so excited to share my review with you today, plus more info about the book and author! And now without any further ado, let’s get to the review!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White
Series: Camelot Rising #1
Also in this series: The Camelot Betrayal
Published on November 5, 2019 by Delacorte Press
Genres: Fantasy, Retellings, YA, Queer
Pages: 352
Format: ARC, eARC
Source: NetGalley
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Goodreads, Instagram

There was nothing in the world as magical and terrifying as a girl.

Princess Guinevere has come to Camelot to wed a stranger: the charismatic King Arthur. With magic clawing at the kingdom's borders, the great wizard Merlin conjured a solution--send in Guinevere to be Arthur's wife . . . and his protector from those who want to see the young king's idyllic city fail. The catch? Guinevere's real name--and her true identity--is a secret. She is a changeling, a girl who has given up everything to protect Camelot.

To keep Arthur safe, Guinevere must navigate a court in which the old--including Arthur's own family--demand things continue as they have been, and the new--those drawn by the dream of Camelot--fight for a better way to live. And always, in the green hearts of forests and the black depths of lakes, magic lies in wait to reclaim the land. Arthur's knights believe they are strong enough to face any threat, but Guinevere knows it will take more than swords to keep Camelot free.

Deadly jousts, duplicitous knights, and forbidden romances are nothing compared to the greatest threat of all: the girl with the long black hair, riding on horseback through the dark woods toward Arthur. Because when your whole existence is a lie, how can you trust even yourself?

A TL;DR OF MY REVIEW:

• I LOVED this book!!! (did anyone really expect me not to? I mean, it’s Kiersten White…)
• CAMELOT RETELLING I AM EXCITE!!!!
• wHO is GUInevERe?!?!?!
• can I have the next book right now please?!?!?
• I’ve always said I’ll drop everything to read a new Kiersten White book, and in this case… I actually did!

WHERE DO I START?! If you’ve ever visited Kait Plus Books before, you probably already know that Kiersten White’s And I Darken books are some of my MOST FAVORITE BOOKS EVER! What you probably don’t know (unless you’re my college roommate who overheard me binge watching seasons one through four) is that I LOVED BBC’s Merlin! And any Arthurian retelling, tbh. So when I found out that Kiersten White was writing a book about Guinevere, my mind basically exploded (with happiness). This book has a TON of things going for it! The characters- especially Guinevere, Lancelot, and Mordred- are PHENOMENAL. All of my updates on Goodreads are just me saying that I love View Spoiler »Mordred « Hide Spoiler but don’t trust him (yet). And the world-building is just FANTASTIC. I WANT TO GO TO CAMELOT. I want to visit all the places Guinevere goes because everything felt so real! Now, I know some people like instant romances, which this book is not. But what I love is relationships that build and turn into more of a slow burn and this book DELIVERS on those kind of relationships. At one point there’s this almost quadrangle? of love interests and even as someone who loves Arthurian lore I had NO IDEA what was going to happen because every relationship was solidly built and felt SO REAL. And! The mystery! I was on the (metaphorical) edge of my seat the whole time trying to figure out what was going on and just!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

tl;dr: I LOVED EVERYTHING.

I HAVE NEVER WANTED TO BE WRONG MORE than I did with this book!!! I can’t say much more here (although there is a longer discussion down in the spoilers area), but basically I knew something bad was coming, spent most of the book preparing for it, and STILL FELT BETRAYED when it turned out I was right!! And okay, I actually do want to know who Guinevere is, and I’m really hoping we’ll find that out in book two or three. Also, I wish I had books two and three in my hand RIGHT NOW.

WHO DESIGNED THIS COVER?! (some quick google research says Regina Flath and Alex Dos Diaz) IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL and also AMAZING!!! Something you can’t see online very well is the gold is actually shiny!!! It’s SO PRETTY. Also the colors and font are *mwah!* and THAT GUINEVERE!!!! just !!!!

So basically what I’m saying is that this cover is PERFECT and I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!

100/10 stars!!!

• Cursed by Thomas Wheeler and Frank Miller
• Avalon High by Meg Cabot
• The Magic Tree House books by Mary Pope Osbourne
• BBC’s Merlin
• Arthurian Legend

okay all of this section is under the spoiler warning today!

View Spoiler »OKAY I need to talk about two things: WHO (or what?!?!) GUINEVERE IS and also FUCKING MORDRED (i mean, not really but AHHHHH!)

SECTION ONE: GUINEVERE

for a main character, I do not know enough about Guinevere to be completely satisfied!!! I am positive that we will get all the answers in the next two books, but I want to know who she is NOW!!! At first I thought she might be Nimue (The Lady of the Lake) or the Spirit of Avalon, or maybe a tree nymph, but after finishing the book I’m pretty sure that whatever she was before she was Guinevere was NOT HUMAN! (Example A: She has NO IDEA about anything to do with her period. Example B: She didn’t know about baby teeth?!?! Example C: Merlin says “Get out of here you creature!” and I don’t think he meant a human…) BUT I DON’T KNOW WHO OR WHAT SHE WAS AND I WANT TO KNOW NOW!

do you have any ideas???? please let me know!!!

SECTION TWO: MORDRED

AHHHHHHHH

i knew! i knew mordred was going to be the bad guy and I didn’t want to trust him or like him but then … I kinda maybe started to like him... and I wanted to trust him! and then!!!! just when I let my guard down…

HE’S THE FUCKING VILLAIN.

I wanted to be wrong!!! I wanted to be wrong so badly. but I wasn’t. And now I need to know what happened to Mordred after he freed his grandmother!!!

SECTION THREE: LANCELOT

okay, so I totally called it being Lancelot the second we started talking about this “mystery knight”, but I had NO IDEA she was going to be a girl!!! but I love it!!! I really hope we keep the Lancelot/Guinevere relationship because HOT DAMN I WANT THAT.

okay, yes that was three things. But I’m done now!

« Hide Spoiler wHEW!

Kiersten White is the New York Times bestselling 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. Visit her at www.kierstenwhite.com.

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Have you read this wonderful, magical book yet? Do you love it as much as I do? Let me know in the comments and have a splendiferous day!

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• 2019 Reviews