The second book of the „Camelot Rising Triology“ ended with Guinevere being abducted by the northern people and their King Nechtan who is accompanied by the Sorceress Morgana and her son Mordred. While Guinevere finds an ally in Nechtan‘s daughter Fina she is still very worried what the Dark Queen wants from her. The lines get further blurred for Guinevere and now she isn‘t so sure about Arthur‘s noble intentions anymore. The faith she held in him and her believe in his rightness slowly begin to quiver. But Guinevere is still absolutely determined to find out more about her past and she won‘t let anything come between herself and this vow - not even her feelings for Mordred.
What I loved most about this trilogy where the friendship bonds between the women. Guinevere described their friends as „they were so strong, so smart. So complex and infinite and human.“ I think this was the most beautiful part of the book: The complexity of the characters.
I kind of digged the slow burn romance between Arthur and Guinevere in the first book and then the passionate, fiery love Mordred had for Guinevere (the most tragic character in the whole series, honestly) and although Guinevere gets to decide yet again in book three of the series to whom her heart really belongs, it just didn‘t do it for me anymore.
Guinevere is so desperate to find out who she truly is, that she does everything for it, destroying a lot of things along the way. I understand that she is upset about what happened to her but it gets repeated sooo often that I really considered not finishing the book. She is absolutely convinced that she has to find out who she was before „Queen Guinevere“ to fill this void in her that she doesn‘t even consider that she just could find out who she is now. She doesn‘t stop a second to think about what she wants and what she truly feels - instead she just puts other peoples emotions and expectations on herself. She states over and over again how lost she feels, saying stuff like: „Until she felt whole on her own, how could she be a partner to someone else?“.
When she finally gets to know things about her past live, her self-pity gets even worse. Not seeing what lies right in front of her, she repeats past mistakes and wrong decisions.
This series started off so good and has such amazing characters that I hated it to be destroyed by Guinevere and her inability to come to terms with her past and her destiny. Guinevere simply doesn‘t see how she could be lovable or worthy of anything and so she does kind of indulge in self-destructive habits and guilt trips her whole existence.
In my opinion, she steps really late into the power that always belonged to her, making the book seem endless despite its many unexpected turning points.
