Welcome to my stop on the Blog Tour for The Camelot Betrayal, run by TBR And Beyond Tours! I’m so very excited to be part of this amazing tour and group!

Author: Kiersten White
Series: Camelot Rising
Series #: 2
Genre: fantasy, retelling
Age Group: young adult
ARC?: yes

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?

Review

The Camelot Betrayal is the sequel to The Guinevere Deception and was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. Much like it’s predecessor this book was a 4 star book for me. I really enjoyed it overall, and I am excited to read the next book in the series. Much like TGD it is a slow paced book filled with characters slowing learning, and finding themselves. There are a few moments of action in this book that breaks up the slower paced character driven portions. I love a good character driven story, and so this book really fills my needs in that regard.

Guinevere is back as Queen in this one, and still struggling with Arthur and their relationship. If you know the story of Camelot, you know what happens, but I like White’s take on their relationship, even if Arthur is a little boring (for my tastes!). Is he too good? Too modest? I don’t know. But Arthur of all the characters, does not stand out so strongly. Is this intentional? I don’t know, all I know is that I am intrigued by her relationship with Arthur.

Guinevere and Lancelot. Another relationship that is…interesting. And I can’t really talk about Arthur without Lancelot and in this book Mordred as well. Guinevere has a complicated relationship with the three of them, and it seems they are all poised to be her love interests. <s>I know exactly who I would pick for her to end up with…</s> Anyways I love how we are given these relationships because I loved watching them play out. They were some of the most delightful aspects of the the book.

Other delightful relationships is Guinevere’s friendship with Brangien, which I loved. There are so many moments between them that are delightful. I love female friendships, and I love how this one was depicted in this book. It was nice to see that even with the romance portion there was a good amount dedicated to her friendship.

As I mentioned earlier the plot in this book was heavily focused on still trying to find out who she was (being more character driven) and what is going on with her memories and Merlin. A bit more is revealed in this book, and I am so excited for the third to see what new secrets will be revealed! We also see Guinevere taking more action in this one versus the first and her struggle with that. There were some amazing moments in here.

That ending though!!!!

White’s writing is still one of my favorite things. There is something so readable about it, and so enchanting that it is easy to get lost in it. I absolutely cannot wait to own this book!

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Book Links

Goodreads
Amazon
Book Depository
Barnes & Noble
Indigo
IndieBound

Author Info

Bio

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.

Links

Website
Goodreads
Twitter
Instagram
Facebook

Tour Schedule

To see the rest of the tour schedule please click here!

Giveaway

Finished copy of The Camelot Betrayal. The giveaway ends on November 16th.

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Welcome to my stop on the Blog Tour for The Faithless Hawk, run by TBR And Beyond Tours! I’m so very excited to be part of this amazing tour and group!

Author: Margaret Owen
Series: The Merciful Crow
Series #: 2
Genre: fantasy
Age Group: young adult
ARC?: yes

Kings become outcasts and lovers become foes in the thrilling sequel to Margaret Owen’s The Merciful Crow.

As the new chieftain of the Crows, Fie knows better than to expect a royal to keep his word. Still she’s hopeful that Prince Jasimir will fulfill his oath to protect her fellow Crows. But then black smoke fills the sky, signaling the death of King Surimir and the beginning of Queen Rhusana’s merciless bid for the throne.

With the witch queen using the deadly plague to unite the nation of Sabor against Crows—and add numbers to her monstrous army—Fie and her band are forced to go into hiding, leaving the country to be ravaged by the plague. However, they’re all running out of time before the Crows starve in exile and Sabor is lost forever.

A desperate Fie calls on old allies to help take Rhusana down from within her own walls. But inside the royal palace, the only difference between a conqueror and a thief is an army. To survive, Fie must unravel not only Rhusana’s plot, but ancient secrets of the Crows—secrets that could save her people, or set the world ablaze.

Review

The first book in this series – well that book was amazing. I had no idea what to expect going into this one. Mostly because it had been a bit, and I worried I would have trouble dropping into this book from that. I need not have worried, because apparently the last one made such an impact it was still quite clear for me when I read this one. There were a few parts I had to really search my memory on though. Overall, I was so excited to get back into this world and see what Owen was going to deliver to us this time.

I really do not have the words for this book. I sat for probably a good ten minutes staring into nothing after I finished the book. I could not even think properly after that! I was stunned into silence and then into a book hangover. So very rarely do I think second books surpass the first – sometimes I feel like there is a struggle. But this book…this book was just as good, if not better, than the first book. I mean, yeah, there were parts where I was grinding my teeth and practically screaming at the characters. It was hair tearing intense.

Owen is a master storyteller. There are moments in this book where you’re on the edge of your seat and you cannot stop reading. I certainly couldn’t. But I adore Owen’s writing style. I find it easy to read and delightful. It sucks me in, and the pacing always works really well for me throughout this book. In fact, it has some of the best pacing I’ve ever read.

You know how sometimes authors split up characters and most of it is annoying and eye roll inducing? And sometimes hard to keep track of? Yeah, not the case here. At no point did I feel that it was annoying or eye roll worthy. In fact I loved how it happened. It worked so well for the plot of the book. Speaking of the plot of the book I never knew which way the book was going to go. I had many FEELINGS during entirety of this book. As in I was practically weeping at one part. Also, you already know about the screaming.

This book is one large emotional rollercoaster ride. It was!!! Just something that I cannot even speak about. I’m still struggling to wrap my mind around this book. So perhaps I need to wrap this up will bullet points.

-Fie. An amazing character. I love her. Adore her. My fave.

-Tavin. Yes. Good. Love him too.

-Jasimir. Again, love him.

-Khoda. He’s grown on me. Love him.

-Barf. CLEARLY the best character.

-Really, no character was bad. I felt that they were all well developed.

-Now, the plot was great. The plot in this one worked SO WELL and I love how things tied together at the end. It made me very happy.

-Honestly, if you’ve read the first one, you need to read this one. It is the perfect conclusion to this series. I would love short stories about the afterwards. I think it would be really cool. Or prequel stories. I’m actually quite invested in this world, and I am not ready to leave it yet.

The end.

P.S. 5/5 stars for this book. Seriously.

Favorite Quotes

“The dead gods, though, had denied the Crows a Birthright of their own.”

“The truth was, it had never gotten easier to deal mercy to sinners. But sometimes, they made it easier.”

“It would remember the choices Fie had made. Every last one.”

“Wounds became scars, pain tempered to bitter wisdom, and from the embers of her grief always, always rose rage.”

“For another, the teeth of the living always sang louder than those of the dead.”

Book Links

Goodreads
Amazon
Book Depository
Barnes & Noble
Indigo

Author Info

Bio

Born and raised at the end of the Oregon Trail, Margaret Owen first encountered an author in the wild in fourth grade. Roughly twenty seconds later, she decided she too would be an author, the first of many well-thought-out life decisions.

The career plan shifted frequently as Margaret spent her childhood haunting the halls of Powell’s Books. After earning her degree in Japanese, her love of espresso called her north to Seattle, where she worked in everything from thrift stores to presidential campaigns. The common thread between every job can be summed up as: lessons were learned.

Fortunately, it turned out that fourth-grade Margaret was onto something. She now spends her days wrestling disgruntled characters onto the page, and negotiating a long-term hostage situation with her two monstrous cats. (There is surprisingly little difference between the two.) In her free time, she enjoys exploring ill-advised travel destinations, and raising money for social justice nonprofits through her illustrations.

Links

Website
Goodreads
Twitter
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Tour Schedule

To see the rest of the tour schedule please click here!

Giveaway

Prize: Finished copies of The Merciful Crow and The Faithless Hawk (US and Canada Only)

Start date: August 23rd, 2020

End date: August 29th, 2020

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