Published September 4, 2018 by Touchstone
544 Pages
First in a Trilogy
Rating:
Plot
Compared
to Outlander and The Mists of Avalon, this
thrilling first novel of a debut trilogy reveals the untold story of Languoreth—a
forgotten queen of sixth-century Scotland—twin sister of the man who inspired
the legend of Merlin.
I write because I have seen the darkness that
will come. Already there are those who seek to tell a new history...
In a land of mountains and mist, tradition and
superstition, Languoreth and her brother Lailoken are raised in the Old Way of
their ancestors. But in Scotland, a new religion is rising, one that brings
disruption, bloodshed, and riot. And even as her family faces the burgeoning
forces of Christianity, the Anglo-Saxons, bent on colonization, are encroaching
from the east. When conflict brings the hero Emrys Pendragon to her father’s
door, Languoreth finds love with one of his warriors. Her deep connection to
Maelgwn is forged by enchantment, but she is promised in marriage to Rhydderch,
son of a Christian king. As Languoreth is catapulted into a world of violence
and political intrigue, she must learn to adapt. Together with her brother—a
warrior and druid known to history as Myrddin—Languoreth must
assume her duty to fight for the preservation of the Old Way and the survival
of her kingdom, or risk the loss of them both forever.
Based on new scholarship, this tale of bravery
and conflicted love brings a lost queen back to life—rescuing her from
obscurity, and reaffirming her place at the center of one of the most enduring
legends of all time.
How I Got This Book
I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an
honest review.
My Review
I truly fell in love with Languoreth as a character, only to
fall out of love with her in the end. This book begins when she is 10 and
continues through time jumps until she is middle-age. While I truly enjoyed
this book, and I would recommend it to friends who are fans of historical
fiction or King Arthur, I don’t think that I would read it again. It is part of
a series, and I am curious where they are going to take the story next. With the
way the book ended, I truly believe that there can’t be too much left of
Languoreth’s story, but they did introduce characters in the last section that
could continue it.
Languoreth starts out as a girl full of hope, even though
she knows that her life is set in stone and she can’t be a Wisdom Keeper like
her brother. She begins to lose that hope throughout the novel, and by the end
she is a woman, married with children, having an affair, and having forgotten
everything she knew about the Old Ways. She started strong and ended weak. She
wasn’t even my favorite character throughout the novel, that goes to another
who is only in it for maybe a third of the novel.
There really isn’t much that I can say about this novel. I
read it and finished it about a week ago. Life got in the way of me being able
to post my review until now, and honestly this isn’t a book that sticks in my
mind, even with the notes that I took as I read it.
Final Thoughts
This is an interesting read, with dynamic characters, a
straightforward storyline, action, adventure, romance, and magic. I gave this
3.5 stars only because it wasn’t memorable. It wasn’t a book that I could sit
and rattle off the details of it to someone in the hopes that they would fall
in love with it and want to read it. This is a novel that I greatly enjoyed,
and would recommend, but that I wouldn’t think of first when I was recommending
novels. 3.5 is a good rating for a book, so pick it up if you like historical
fiction or anything relating to King Arthur.
Jane Yolen
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