SamoaPhoenix Guest Review: Endings (King Arthur and Her Knights, Part III)

Title: Endings Author: K.M. Shea Publisher: Take Out the Trash Synopsis: (from Goodreads) The thrilling conclusion to the King Arthurs and Her Knights series! Britt has finally settled into her life as King Arthur. Her knights know who she really is, her lands are peaceful, and she has friends and family who she loves. But all of this is threatened when Rome, led by Emperor Lucius, invades. In order to repel the Romans and ascertain Camelot's survival, Britt must achieve Merlin's greatest dream: to unite all of Britain.

The Twist: See my earlier review of the first five books in this series. A young woman is pulled back from the 21^st century to take the place of a vanished King Arthur and begins to build a unique, and ultimately legendary, kingdom.

Spoilers, etc…

SamoaPhoenix Guest Review: Endeavor (King Arthur and Her Knights, Part II)

Title: Endeavor Author: K.M. Shea  Publisher: Take Out the Trash Pages: 112 Synopsis: (from goodreads) Only a few weeks have passed since Britt—or, as most know her, King Arthur—was outed as a girl. Britt’s relationship with her knights is strained and precarious, Lancelot is mucking up everything from tournaments to questing, and Merlin starts to act strangely when a beautiful girl named Lady Vivien comes to Camelot. Can Britt reclaim her knights’ loyalty? Will Merlin finally realize how much Britt means to him?

Spoilers, etc…

SamoaPhoenix Guest Review: King Arthur and Her Knights, Part I

Title: King Arthur and Her Knights Series (Enthroned, Enchanted, Embittered, Embark, and Enlighten) Author: K.M. Shea Publisher: Take Out the Trash Pages: ~600 for all five Synopsis: (from Goodreads) After posing with a rusty sword for a photo in a British graveyard, Britt Arthurs is pulled through time all the way back to the age of King Arthur where the shockingly young and handsome Merlin is waiting for her. The wizard has some bad news: the real Arthur has run off with a shepherdess, and whoever pulls the sword from the stone is to become the King of England. Unfortunately for Britt, the sword slides out like butter when she pulls it after fighting with Merlin. Long Live King Arthurs!

King Arthur and Her Knights Series

--Enthroned

--Enchanted

--Embittered

--Embark

--Enlighten

There are five fairly short ebook-only novellas in this series already and more planned. Due to their length, I will review the first five all together. The next book, Endeavor, will be released in late 2015 so I will try to review it in a timely manner. When it comes time to discuss plots and characters, I will do the plots of each book, the characters that appear in more than one book (most of the important ones do), and then characters that are unique to one book.

Spoilers, etc…

SamoaPhoenix Guest Review/Reread: The Lioness and Her Knight

Title: The Lioness and Her Knight Author: Gerald Morris Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company Pages: 343 Synopsis: (from the publisher) Lunet is tired of living in dull Orkney with her mother and father (who happens to be the most boring knight of King Arthur's Round Table).  She prides herself on always getting what she wants, so when the opportunity presents itself, she jumps at the chance to stay at a family friend's castle near Camelot.  Her handsome cousin, Sir Ywain--a young knight seeking adventure--arrives just in time to escort her. Along the way they pick up a knight-turned-fool named Rhience, whose wit and audacity set many a puffed-up personality in its place.  Before arriving at Lady Laudine's castle, the trio stops at Camelot, where they hear the story of the Storm Stone, a magical object deep in the forest that soon sweeps everyone into a web of love, betrayal, and more than a bit of magic. Filled with broken promises, powerful enchantresses, unconventional sword fights, fierce and friendly lionesses and damsels in and out of distress, The Lioness and Her Knight proves itself as witty and adventuresome as the rest of Gerald Morris's tales from King Arthur's court.

This is, I think, the first of the Squire’s Tales books I read originally while actually knowing Story and her interest in Arthurian legend. Morris typically had a year or two in between the release of each book in the series, and sometime between Dung-Cart Knight and Lioness I made the jump from high school to college where Story and I met. So this may or may not have been the first Morris book she saw me reading, though Savage Damsel is another contender for that title since I’ve reread it so often.

Spoilers, etc….

Reread: The Lioness and Her Knight

Title: The Lioness and Her Knight Author: Gerald Morris Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Pages: 343 Synopsis: (from the publisher) Riding through the great courtyard ringed with banners of the Round Table knights, Luneta felt very alone and uncharacteristically shy.   Luneta is tired of living in dull Orkney with her mother and father.  She would much prefer the rich pageantry of court.  And Luneta prides herself on always getting what she wants, so when the opportunity presents itself to stay at a family friend's castle near Camelot, she jumps at the chance.  Her handsome cousin, Sir Ywain--a young knight seeking adventure--arrives just in time to escort her.  Along the way they pick up Rhience, a young man living as a fool for a year. Together they are about to step into a web of love, betrayal, and more than a bit of magic.

Morris says that the Tale of Yvain is a rare story for Chretien de Troyes because it involves two people whose love leads to a marriage instead of an extramarital affair.  This seems strange to me because Erec and Enide's romance leads to a marriage-- one that eventually becomes unhappy, but still.  A marriage is a marriage.  Cliges has a romance that begins with an extramarital affair, but ends with a marriage.  Perceval too has a romance that ends in a marriage.

In fact, the only story of de Troyes' that ends in an extramarital affair and not a marriage is the Dung Cart Knight.  That is the odd one out.  This one is par for the course.

Also, this cover is weird because they characters look like they're ten.  I don't fancy it.  Nor am I really thrilled with Luneta standing behind Ywain and the Lioness, both of whom are secondary characters to her.  But that's a rant for another day.

Warning for Spoilers

The Prince and the Pilgrim Review

Review number five in SamoaPhoenix and my five part review series of Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy which is actually five books.  SamoaPhoenix's reivew is found here and our discussion of the book can be found here.

~Storyteller Knight

Title: The Prince and the Pilgrim Author: Mary Stewart Publisher: Fawcett Crest Pages: 308 Synopsis: (from the publisher) Eager, burning and young, Alexander sets off towards Camelot to seek justice from King Arthur for the murder of his father.  But he is diverted from his quest by beautiful, sensual Morgan Le Fay, who persuades the young prince to attempt a theft of the Holy Grail Alice has lived a life of lively adventure, accompanying her father, a royal duke, on his yearly pilgrimage.  Now she has come under the protection of a young prince brothers were murdered, a prince who is in possession of an enchanted silver cup believed to be the Holy Grail. And so the state is set for two young seekers to meet-- and find the greatest treasure of all...

What?  What!  That is a horrible synopsis.  That's so bad and wrong and incorrect I can't even laugh at it the way I laughed at The Hollow Hills synopsis.  Thank you for ruining my expectations Fawcett Crest.

Warning for Spoilers