Reviews - The Guinevere Deception

The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White

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I find that most of Kiersten White's books are really different from each other (see: [b:Paranormalcy|7719245|Paranormalcy (Paranormalcy, #1)|Kiersten White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1496938681l/7719245._SX50_.jpg|6949381], [b:And I Darken|27190613|And I Darken (The Conqueror's Saga, #1)|Kiersten White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1449153532l/27190613._SY75_.jpg|41682914] and [b:The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein|38255342|The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein|Kiersten White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1518635930l/38255342._SX50_.jpg|58014825]) and you have to admire an author that tries so many different genres. The results can be uneven at times but I'm happy to report that The Guinevere Deception is actually one of the better books that I've read from White - actually with the exception of her first most popular series, Paranormalcy, I've liked almost everything else that she's written.

The Guinevere Deception sets place sometime after King Arthur's fame has surpassed him, as he rebuilds the city of Camelot to reach greater glory than ever before. Our unnamed narrator is the titular Guinevere deception, as she is a changeling sent in Guinevere's place to wed Arthur - the real Guinevere is unfortunately dead and gone. Instead, all her father Merlin has told her is to go to Camelot, to protect King Arthur from unnamed forces of evil that wish to harm him. To do so, she has to rely on what little magic Merlin has taught her and to hide her true identity and abilities, as magic has been outlawed in Camelot due to its volatility. This plot sounds rather simple but there's plenty of palace intrigue as "Guinevere" tries to adapt to her new life as queen and all the ladies that expect her attendance and subterfuge, as she tries to understand who may wish to harm Arthur and their motivations for doing so while masking her true abilities.

I will say that this story moves rather slowly, certainly far slower than And I Darken because most of the story sets up the mythology behind Arthur (such as Merlin, the Lady of the lake, him pulling out the sword, his father Urthur and the despicable way in which he gained the throne etc), behind his goodness and the way that his knights would lay down their lives to see that his vision of their future comes true. Furthermore, there's a lot of foreshadowing going on as well, to build up the suspense.

Spoiler

There was a lot of talk about how bringing the girl to Camelot will portent disaster for Arthur's reign, but there wasn't a lot of showing about how this could happen until around the last 40 - 50 pages of the book perhaps.

Finally, i's also very slow because White really spends a lot of time building up that love triangle between Arthur, our girl and Morded, which I'm not really sure will pay off in the long run.

Spoiler

In the sense that there seems to be very little chemistry between Arthur and her and yet, it turns out that Morded is utterly duplicitous and pretty evil, even though he has a great deal of chemistry with her - so what really is the end game here?

Yet, despite all these obvious potential flaws about the story, I still find myself actually liking it quite a bit. I think it may be because the writing in the story is really rather lovely, with the descriptions of Camelot's beauty and the girl's personal confusion

Spoiler

in terms of both her real purpose for being at Camelot and in terms of how she seems to have forgotten herself in the process

. Furthermore, there's also plenty of twists towards the end of the novel that I'm invested in.

Spoiler

For example, what's the girl's link to the Lady of the Lake and who is the girl really?

I'm pretty willing to give the next book a chance to see how things unfold.

miamuses's review against another edition

4.0

This book is a must-read for anyone who is fond Arthurian legend. The book features an interesting twist on the legend, with Merlin having been banished and the young King Arthur outlawing magic in Camelot. One of the things I liked about this book was how the geographic location of Camelot makes it another character in the story. I would recommend this book to teens and young adults who are looking for variations on the King Arthur legend and enjoy stories with magic and interesting settings.