Queen of None

King Arthur and the Arthurian legends have always been a spot of interest for me, and when I saw this book being promoted by the author on Bluesky, I decided to take a look at it. It's a very unique take on the legend, as this one is told by Arthur's sister, Anna. (Apparently in the original versions of the story, Arthur had a sister. Who knew!) Anna is prophesied to be forgotten by history. She leads a rather miserable life, unfortunately. She's married off to a man MUCH older than her, has three kids, and just...well. It's miserable. Thankfully, we don't spend a lot of time in her misery – it's rehashed a couple times during the novel, but for the most part we see Anna grab hold of her life and change it to be what she wants.

We see all the usual faces in this book, Arthur, Merlin, Morgen, Lancelot, Bedevere, etc. I enjoyed this for what it was, but I do wish it had been a slightly more happy novel? I know the Arthurian legends aren't really feel-good stories, but I feel like Anna deserved to get a happier ending than the one she did receive. I guess I need to find a version of the legends where Merlin isn't a bad guy, and where we get to be happy for at least a little bit before things go wrong.

Three and a half stars, rounded up as the writing itself was gorgeous. I'm not sure I'll be reading the rest of this series if this is the tone the rest of them have.