La Vie de Guinevere

5/5

Holy shit, I'm in awe.

Around 2 years ago I stumbled upon a tiktok of a woman talking about Arthurian legends. More specifically, what if someone time-travelled back to the Dark Ages because she was, in fact, the queen Guinevere? I was immediately hooked and interested. It was so simple and yet brilliant.

Over the course of the next 2 years, I followed Paula on tiktok and followed her journey of writing and publishing this book, and I am so grateful that I can be a small part of its journey too and read the book before publication.

I have to be honest: I was hesitant to read this book, as someone who is not exactly a fan of time travel and hates amnesia. And I was very scared that Paula would fall into the trap so many authors before her did, and have them follow certain aspects of Arthurian legends and make it canon in her story. I was so relieved to see that she avoided it and delivered a beautiful love story instead!

I love characters so much. Vera is a headstrong, badass woman who tries to live her life despite many problems awaiting her, and Arthur, the myth, the legend, the everything is such a generous person who tries his damned best and he was hurt far too many times but who still tries despite it all.

Matilda's an excellent chambermaid/lady's maid and a good friend. Lancelot is known as one of the best knights of the round table, and here he's all that -as well as a cocky little shit whom I love. Merlin is stubborn and laser-focused and I have a complicated relationship with him, but I enjoyed his character too. Percival is amazing, I just love him and his energy. But my absolute favourite (other than Arthur) was Gaiwan. He was everything. I immediately loved him, which only grew with each page. He's just so good and kind and he tries and he's smart and... I can't wait for the next book to see more of him and the rest of the characters. The found family vibes were everything.

The plot was amazing. It was a slow read in the first 30% of the book, with a lot of unnecessary details at times, but it all faded away. The further I read the better the writing has become and I was hooked. I read this nook in one sitting and now I'm depressed that I have to wait for so long for the next books.

It had everything: love, friendship (oooh, this one platonic relationship was everything, i need a friend like that too), adventure, a good backstory, amazing characters, and a complicated but very interesting magic system and world.

You can easily follow the plot even if you don't know Arthurian legends. I know only the basics (literally what Vera does) and I could follow everything pretty easily. The references were great, and the author changed a lot of things in a fun and creative way. I was very interested in the story and the characters. I laughed, I cried, I screamed, I was flabbergasted and shocked, and I enjoyed the book so very much it was a pleasure to read it.

I- The damn ending nearly broke me, I did not expect t. I might have guessed one or two things (in a very vague way at the very end) but the rest of them were unexpected. In hindsight the foreshadowing was great, but they all flew over my head and I'm only connecting the dots right now. I'm very interested in the next book in the series and I hope they will answer the questions that I have now.

All in all, it was a fantastic book and I'm excited for more!

Thank you, Paula Lafferty (and NetGalley) for this opportunity and for providing me with the eARC.