Rating: 4 out of 5.

This is the last book in an interesting YA Fantasy Retelling of Camelot. In this book, Guinevere struggles with identity issues and her quest to unravel the mystery of her past may cause all to be lost.

The book starts off with Arthur out of Camelot on a personal mission. Guinevere leaves the castle, trapping Camelot, including Lancelot, in a bubble of protection against invaders. With Camelot in good hands, Guinevere heads out to free Merlin, intent on demanding he at last tell her how she came into existence. Instead she ends up captured by agents of the Dark Queen. Realizing she isn’t making it to Merlin while captured, she teams up with Morgana and Mordred to try to discover the truth. Unsurprisingly, that doesn’t turn out well, and Guinevere makes things worse. When she finally discovers the truth about her past, she must make a gut-wrenching decision – right a wrong or stop a war.

This is my least favorite book of the trilogy. Guinevere became quite a bad-ass in the last book, but once she finds out the truth of her past, takes a giant leap backwards and is indecisive, reckless and whiny. The constant back and forth inner dialogue drove me crazy. Her plan to right the wrong didn’t make a lot of sense and wasn’t practical. Her fling with Mordred seemed out of character considering how principled she was in the first two books.

The book was unevenly paced and the ending felt rushed. I liked how the book ultimately ended, however, but just question some of the decisions as to how it got there. Overall, these few nitpicky issues didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the series and I still recommend you read it.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and Delacorte Press. All opinions are my own.