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beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Death of parent, and Abandonment
Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual content, Pregnancy, and War
emilywrayburn's review
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
From the blurb, I thought this was going to be a modern-day Arthurian retelling. The blurb literally says that Arthur and Merlin need to get over their "thirst for one another... or act on it."
Alas not.
This is set in some kind of alternate London/Camelot... around the 18th century? St Pauls Cathedral exists (it opened in 1710), but England/the UK is still split up into kingdoms such as Camelot and Lothia. But the language is completely modern, which jarred at times.
The plot is actually pretty decent, though it did often feel like things went wrong only to be easily solved in a chapter or two. The exception to that is the conflict with Yuriel and Morgana, which will clearly continue into future books.
I enjoyed Arthur's character development and how he started standing up to Uther, and I liked that he isn't a warrior by any means.
I liked Emry Merlin as a character but a lot of her development was basically mooning over Arthur. Also I couldn't figure out the relationship she'd had with her father. Half the time it sounded like he'd been pretty jerky towards her when she'd been growing up, but then it seemed to suggest that he was actually protecting her and they'd actually had a really loving relationship and she misses him greatly. It's clear that finding out for certain whether or not Dad is still alive is a plot point for the series gong forward.
spoilers for the various romances:
The main romance suffered from the Moonlight Curse... I liked the lingering looks and the tension and then they got together and then it was all a bit boring. Also I appreciate that since Lancelot in this version of things is gay, and Arthur is obviously ending up with Merlin, the author had to find someone else for Guinevere to end up with... and of all people, she chose Emry's useless brother?
Alas not.
This is set in some kind of alternate London/Camelot... around the 18th century? St Pauls Cathedral exists (it opened in 1710), but England/the UK is still split up into kingdoms such as Camelot and Lothia. But the language is completely modern, which jarred at times.
The plot is actually pretty decent, though it did often feel like things went wrong only to be easily solved in a chapter or two. The exception to that is the conflict with Yuriel and Morgana, which will clearly continue into future books.
I enjoyed Arthur's character development and how he started standing up to Uther, and I liked that he isn't a warrior by any means.
I liked Emry Merlin as a character but a lot of her development was basically mooning over Arthur. Also I couldn't figure out the relationship she'd had with her father. Half the time it sounded like he'd been pretty jerky towards her when she'd been growing up, but then it seemed to suggest that he was actually protecting her and they'd actually had a really loving relationship and she misses him greatly. It's clear that finding out for certain whether or not Dad is still alive is a plot point for the series gong forward.
spoilers for the various romances:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, and Outing
Minor: Death of parent and War
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