Review: La Vie de Guinevere by Paula Lafferty

Blurb:

After the sudden death of her boyfriend, Vera would have been happy to spend the rest of her days curiously unnoticeable, washing bed sheets and cleaning toilets in present day Glastonbury. But when the strange new guest at her hotel reveals himself to be Merlin and drags her back to seventh century Camelot, a place she knows only from legends, only Vera (or Queen Guinevere as Merlin calls her) can right the course of history and save Arthur’ s kingdom from the will of a power-hungry mage. There’ s one enormous problem: Guinevere was the sole witness to the curse that’ s now draining the kingdom of its magic, and Vera doesn’ t remember anything of her supposed life as Queen Guinevere. With Camelot’ s peace ebbing ever closer to shattering, the clock is ticking. But working with Merlin’ s magic to retrieve her long-lost memories and save the kingdom brings more questions than answers: why is it that King Arthur, who treats his subjects with loving benevolence, can’ t even stand to look at her? And why does that make Vera’ s soul feel like it’ s splitting in two? What robbed her of her memories in the first place... And most importantly... Why? As Vera is about to discover; in a world of legend and power, the secrets of her memories are only the beginning.

Review:

Overview

A modern-day woman finds out that she is the legendary Queen Guinevere from Arthurian legend when Merlin summons her back in time to save magic. This was one of my most anticipated reads of the fall and I have to say I really enjoyed my time with this book. There were so many things to love but there were also some missed opportunities that would have taken this book from I really liked it to I LOVED It. That being said I think it is worth the read and I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I had had the right expectations.

Plot

The plot was very fun and engaging, I enjoyed the modern-day Guinevere who is taken back to the Middle Ages and finds a world nothing like the history books because it is a world run with magic. I loved seeing the different knights' tales woven in and seeing how she interacted with these mythical characters and magical world.

Characters

I had some mixed feelings about the characters. Lancelot is the star of this book, he is by far the best-developed character and my favorite. This character leapt off the page from the moment he was introduced and I absolutely loved everything about him. This was also a point of frustration while I was reading because he was not the love interest and yet he was the character I cared the most about. The leading character, Vera, was likable but often infuriatingly passive. This was part of her character development and I loved when she actually started standing up for herself. Then we have Arthur, who started to grow on me by the end, but I just didn’t get enough time with him to connect with his character.

Romance

The romance was probably the source of most of my frustration. The relationship that we spent the most time with on-page was between Lancelot and Vera, but this is not the romantic relationship. The romance with Arthur just didn't get enough page time to get me invested and I wanted to care! Much of Vera and Arthur's relationship was a summary that was brushed over vs intimate moments that would help build the romantic tension between these two. That being said there were some scenes between Vera and Arthur that I really enjoyed! I just wanted more. For the majority of the book Arthur is largely described as angry and aloof. This made it hard to connect with him because we just didn't get enough deeper insight into who he was. That being said we did get more of Arthur and his story toward the end and I hope we get a really strong showing of the legendary king in book two. 

Worldbuilding

I enjoyed Lafferty’s spin on a magical version of the Middle Ages. The architecture and magic system fit well and the explanation that there was no archeological evidence of these things because magic doesn’t leave a trace felt like a nice way to create an alternate world based on our own. I enjoyed the magic system and the role it played in the story, and I won’t say more as it is a key plot point. 

Enjoyment

While I was frustrated with the romantic plot line I overall really enjoyed this book and never once felt like walking away. I enjoyed the world, and of course, Lancelot and I was dying to know how certain breadcrumbs were going to come together in the end. This was a strong debut and I’m excited to see how things turn out in the sequel.