The Guinevere Deception

[b:The Guinevere Deception 43568394 The Guinevere Deception (Camelot Rising, #1) Kiersten White https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1551892183l/43568394.SY75.jpg 67787916] was an odd book for me. I'm sure if you watch my star rating, it'll flip back and forth between two and three several times before I actually settle on one. And then probably see it on my book list and change it a few more times. So, look, it's a solid 2.5. Rounding up or down is absolutely pointless. This book is heavy on mystery and low on plot. Guinevere isn't the real Guinevere, but a changeling witch sent by Merlin to protect King Arthur and Camelot. Is there a real Guinevere? How does she feel about this? What happened to her? What are the ethical implications of swapping one woman for another woman to pretending to be the first woman? I mean, that's more than a little troubling right? What is Guinevere supposed to protect Arthur from? I hope you weren't hoping for answers, reader. There are none to be had. Mostly Guinevere talks and runs into other famous Arthurian characters and has pretty boring conversations with them. It feels like White is taking you a meandering one note tour and hoping that occasionally running into an old friend here and there is enough to keep you interested. Oh, there's Sir Bors! Isn't he always a delight to see? etc. etc. It's not enough. Here I will admit that I kind of hated most of White's choices with the Arthur's mythos. Arthur is supposed to start the new age of man, which means getting rid of all the magic, but his right hand man is a sorcerer and his wife is secretly a witch. So a bit hypocritical. But mostly turning fairy tale Camelot into low fantasy world is kind of a bummer. Mordred gets made over into a hunky antivillian who has a brief fling with Guinevere, instead of Lancelot who gets a surprise gender reveal as female, but wait no, trans? nonbinary? IDK. They only show up for a hot minute anyway. Most importantly, where is my boy Gawain aka best knight?Still! I know that Arthurian canon is pretty much a choose your own adventure story, and while it was not personally to my taste, I was willing to at least go with it, or would have been had you know anything of interest happened. Guinevere makes no political maneuverings and spends so much time separated from her husband that the very premise of the story (changeling witch bodyguard) starts to look shaky. The last forty pages is pretty good, but it was way too little way too late.