Book Review: La Vie de Guinevere
What if everything we knew about King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table was wrong?
Vera, a modern-day woman living a quiet life in Glastonbury, has her world turned upside when Merlin arrives on her doorstep to inform her that she is, in fact, Queen Guinevere of legend. Vera must travel through time to return to Camelot to help solve a curse which is slowly draining magic from the kingdom. If she refuses, the world as she knows it will cease to exist. Unwilling to risk the lives of her 21st century family, she sets out to save the future.
Vera has no memories of her life as Queen Guinevere, and only subtle feelings to help guide her. Camelot is nothing like she expected. How could history have gotten so many things wrong? The architecture is spectacular, magic is commonplace, the knights have a rectangular table, and there’s even indoor plumbing! However, not everyone behaves as they should. Guinevere’s loving husband, King Arthur, can’t seem to stand the sight of her, while Lancelot behaves as her most loyal friend and ally. Was Lancelot and Guinevere’s fabled affair the one thing history managed to get right? With the threat of Saxon enemies rallying against King Arthur, Vera must work quickly to fill the role of Queen Guinevere and unlock her trapped memories in this unfamiliar version of history or the fabled Camelot will fall before it’s even had a chance to rise.
I thoroughly enjoyed La Vie de Guinevere. I think perhaps the best way to describe it is a retelling of the Arthurian legends in the style of A Knight’s Tale from 2001. There is adventure, danger, romance, mystery, with just the right amount of comedy on top.
If you’ve seen the movie then you know what kind of vibe and shenanigans to expect from La Vie de Guinevere.
The story moves along at a good pace and jumps into the action very quickly. La Vie de Guinevere was an easy read and very entertaining. There were some great and unexpected twists and many moments which may make you laugh out loud. Vera is a great protagonist who has no problem jumping in and doing things, or with speaking her mind, yet doesn’t come across as a “girl-boss” which I love. She has real fears and doubts, she struggles, but she is compassionate to others, and she tries her hardest and stays true to herself throughout the story. She felt like a real person that I could relate to, which is so fantastic and so refreshing.
History makes Guinevere out to be an adulteress villain.
Let me assure you, Lafferty’s Guinevere is here to set the record straight.
When I was younger I was obsessed with stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the round table. It was one of my favorite things to study. Reading this book brought that back for me. I found myself looking up characters to see where they fit into some of the original legends, and trying to guess what kind of twist Lafferty might put on them. You don’t need any knowledge of any of the King Arthur stories to enjoy this book though, and indeed our main protagonist Vera didn’t bother to learn any of the history when she was growing up in the 21st century, which may or may not put her at a disadvantage now that she’s having to live history. This is definitely a unique take on the legends and if you are familiar with any of the King Arthur stories, you will find some interesting new twists to the stories.
The Accolade by Edmund Leighton
As I was asked to give a fair and unbiased review, There are two things that I didn’t immediately love about the book. However, as I will explain below, I think they were appropriate to the story and the author handled them beautifully:
There was one point in the story which felt on the verge of being too convenient. Very early in the book Vera voices her concern of being able to understand anyone in 6th century England. Merlin assures her that the magic which transports her back in time will help translate, so she will sound normal to them and vice versa. It’s a “That’s just the way that magic works” type situation. While this initially annoyed me, once I got further into the book, it fits the vibe of the story and ultimately I think the story is better off for it. It did a decent job of saying “Hey, this is a thing I know would be a problem, I took the time to address it, now you don’t have to worry about it and you can enjoy the story”. And I honestly can’t think of how it might have been accomplished better, so, again, this ends up being appropriate to the story and works well.
The second thing is 100% personal preference, and that is I generally get really annoyed when characters don’t talk to each other. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but it is fairly obvious from very early on in the book and from the author’s marketing/social media that initially Arthur does not want a lot to do with Vera. He ignores, avoids, or even snaps at her to varying degrees throughout the first part of the book and refuses to explain his behavior. Luckily it doesn’t drag on too long, and when he does finally start talking to her, I believed the reasons his character gave for the motives for his behavior. In other words, it made sense for his character to act that way given what had happened. Even if I don’t like the “miscommunication and/or withholding information trope”, if it makes sense in the story and to the characters, then that’s all you can really ask for, which in this case it did. People often refuse to talk to each other in real life, so it does make sense to include these elements in storytelling. It rang true for characters. So, yet again, the author handled the trope very well and it was fitting for the story line.
If either of these are the types of things that tend to annoy you in books, I would encourage you to give this book a chance to see how the author made them work. It was a very well done way to handle these tropes.
God Speed by Edmund Leighton
In summary, I love this refreshing version of medieval fantasy which does not take itself too seriously as Vera brings a healthy dose of 21st century fun to 6th century England, complete with swearing, high fives, rock paper scissors tournaments, and more. The author does a good job subverting reader expectations. This book leaves you feeling warm and cozy, and more importantly, ready for the sequel. For this author’s debut book, I think she absolutely nailed it. Job well done.
I rate this book 🦞🦞🦞🦞🦞/5 lobsters.
As a small aside, as an independent author myself, it makes my heart so full to see another independent author achieve so much success! Lafferty’s Kickstarter for the book was wildly successful and I can’t wait to see her become even more successful as a writer. I’m looking forward to the sequel for this book and many more books to come. :)
Till next time dear reader, go support an indie author! Consider pre-ordering this book, or writing a review for an author whose work you love. <3 Tiff
DISCLAIMER: ***I received an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
