Hello everyone and welcome to my stop on The Camelot Betrayal Book tour! I loved the first book of the series, and this sequel did not disappoint. Also thank you to TBR and Beyond Book tours for including me in the tour. Read on too see my thoughts, a moodboard, and a playlist for this book. Check out the rest of the tour.
Title: The Camelot Betrayal (Book #2 of the Camelot Rising series)
Author: Kiersten White
Purchase: Barnes and Nobles / Amazon
Synopsis (GR): 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?
Pro’s
- Action packed! – This plot was actually picked up pace for faster than it did in the last book. Which was a good thing given the ending of the last book was actually epic! I really enjoyed reading about Guinevere and her coming into terms with her role in Camelot and just being a badass little queen. I also loved the inclusion of the little excerpts in between chapters talking about dreams, and stories in such because it added a lot more detail and fun into the plot.
- Plot twists! – Even though it is based on Arthurian legend, Miss master-at-storytelling Kiersten White made this completely on her own! She added a lot of plot twists that will leave you on the edge of your seat, and probably destroy your perception of pain, but that is what makes it so good. Or maybe I just like hurting myself idk
- World building/Magical system was A++ – So in the last book we get to know about knot magic, and fire magic and Guinevere is one of the few people in Camelot who can do magic. But in this sequel we see other people do magic and it’s so beautiful yet haunting at the same time. It’s pretty hard to explain without spoiling anything but we see other forms of magic that are sooo interesting. If you like very cool magical systems that are not so complicated and very easy to understand, then you will like this book. The way magic and sorcery is used is probably my favorite part of this book. I literally had a dream of doing magic with Guinevere, I loved it that much okay.
- Teasing romance! – Just like in the first book, romance doesn’t take the main stage of the book but it it there is teasing hints here and there. In the first book it also focused a lot on Arthur and Guinevere but in this one Guinevere definitely has a lot more chemistry with Mordred. And I loved it! Their moments together were sparse but so well-written and so cute. Mordred definitely cares for Guinevere and Guinevere also has feelings for him as well even she refuses to acknowledge it.
Cons
- I really enjoyed the plot and I didn’t find anything wrong with it.
- Guinevere – Let me start by saying I!! Loved!! Her!! Development!! I honestly wasn’t that big of fan of her in the first book because of her obsession with Arthur, but we get too see her grow away from that. Feeling lost and unsure is a very familiar feeling and seeing that reflected in her really spoke to me. And despite this feeling of uncertainty she was always trying to be her best self. She does act out rashly sometimes but given her situation it’s pretty understandable. I also sympathized with her love of nature and am glad that we go to see her sensitive side. She was a good fully dimensional character and a great main character!
- Arthur – Okay he wasn’t my favorite and his character is pretty one-dimensional and he pretty much stayed the same in the second book as well. I did admire how noble he was though.
- Lancelot – My second favorite character.! Really liked her development and how she interacted with the other characters. She’s so noble and such a great friend. We know in the original tale that Guinevere also ends up in a forbidden romance situation with Lancelot, and I do know Lancelot cares about Guinevere a lot in this book so I’m really excited to know who ends up with who.
- I love Kiersten White’s writing in general (And I Darken was my favorite book in 2017) and she didn’t disappoint. Everything flowed smoothly and it was great. There a few times where I was slightly confused because of how the action scenes were written but it didn’t really take away from the experience.
moodboard + playlist
So for my moodboard I just chose out some of the main characters name and their meanings. I also hate the formatting of wordpress very much, and I swear it looks 10x better on my tumblr.
About The Author
Kiersten White is the New York Times bestselling and Bram Stoker award-winning author of the And I Darken trilogy, the Paranormalcy trilogy, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, Slayer ,The Guinevere Deception, and many other novels. Kiersten lives with her family in sunny San Diego, California, where she perpetually lurks in the shadows.
Nerd In New York 
Thank you for being part of the tour. I love your pro/con list and your mood board.
Heather
TBR and Beyond Tours
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