ARC Review: The Camelot Betrayal

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of The Camelot Betrayal by Kiersten White from Delcorte Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The Camelot Betrayal is the second book in Camelot Rising trilogy, the first book being The Guinevere Deception. If you have not read The Guinevere Deception, I would recommend you head over to my spoiler free review of that book instead.

This review may include spoilers to The Guinevere Deception, but will not include spoilers for The Camelot Betrayal. This is a spoiler free review.

Synopsis from Goodreads:

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?

After finishing The Guinevere Deception I asked myself where Kiersten was going to take this next book. I thought, how could this story line get any better? It couldn’t! Until I read this book.

I love how Kiersten builds on Deception so easily. She takes the stones and piles on them, bringing back the points that she highlighted on before and making us realize that it wasn’t some throwaway comment, it was more important than that. Each new scene added to the previous one and created such a fun and engaging story. Even during the more mundane moments of the book, there was always a hidden agenda in the background.

The entire time I read this book, I was captivated. Not only was I in awe at Kiersten’s amazing story telling, but at how she continued to build the world in this story in different and creative ways. We get introduced to new characters without losing touch with the old ones. We see Guinevere’s changing perceptions and fears as she goes from impostor to Queen. And, the best part of all, we get some love interests thrown in there.

Speaking of new characters, I loved the new people brought into this story! We get to meet Guinevere’s sister Guinevach, as well as some other important characters from Arthurian legend. With those new characters came new challenges, but also some new twists that even I didn’t see coming! And we finally get to meet Isolde, which just made my heart melt! Every interaction between Brangien and Isolde made me want to cry it was so stinking sweet!

I loved every second of this story and I honestly cannot wait for the third book! If you haven’t read The Guinevere Deception yet, I would highly recommend changing that. And if you’ve read Guinevere and haven’t picked up The Camelot Betrayal, you’re doing yourself a disservice. I need everyone to read this book because I have a lot of feelings about what just happened!! Excellent story, excellent plot, storytelling, characters, and everything in between. An absolute favorite of mine! // 5 stars!

The Camelot Betrayal is now available at all major retailers. If you’re interested in purchasing a copy, you can order one here.

If this book sounds interesting, be sure to check out Kiersten’s other series, And I Darken, Slayer, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, and more!

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