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4.44 AVERAGE
4.44 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I loved this.
Where Queen of None was about female rage, this is the love story of Sir Gawain and Princess Hwyfar. Arthur recognizes his nephew Gawain as a political threat that must be neutralized, so when Hwyfar (his ex-betrothed and Queen Regent of Avillion) asks for assistance against her kingdom's invasion by her uncle, Arthur sends Gawain to "help" while secretly searching for the Holy Grail. Meanwhile, Hwyfar and Gawain are wrapped in self destruction as they grieve Gwyenevere's death. Hwyfar and Gawain hate each other. But as they find themselves on a quest, they fall in love and discover a bond that can beat all odds.
I laughed, sighed, and ached for these two, and Barron makes me want to read the original Arthurian legends. There are also some deeply romantic lines in here that I am better for reading. And the jokes.
"What brings you joy? What brings you peace? What brings you pain?"
"Your face looks like a crumpled walnut."
"I will gladly go into madness with you, as long as you will have me, and I can feel your pleasure alongside my own."
"If you do not run, I will not falter."
"'So you knew I was there,' I said.
'Yes.'
'And you watched me amble around for an hour.'
'It was more than an hour.'"
"It is not the mirror that holds the power, Gawain. It is the frame. Men pass by our mirrors, calling them instruments of our vanity. In fury they may break the flass, but they do not think to destroy the framework. So survives women's magic: in plain sight."
"Until our bones are ash."
"When the options are 'murder' or 'not murder,' you're rather keen. But when nuance is involved, I'm afraid your strengths lie elsewhere, big brother."
"It is madness, yes. But what is love, but shared madness?"
"Some queens were kings, I suppose, and some princesses, princes."
I am so glad that Solaris picked this series up after the original publisher folded. I would hate to not have this book in my hands.
Where Queen of None was about female rage, this is the love story of Sir Gawain and Princess Hwyfar. Arthur recognizes his nephew Gawain as a political threat that must be neutralized, so when Hwyfar (his ex-betrothed and Queen Regent of Avillion) asks for assistance against her kingdom's invasion by her uncle, Arthur sends Gawain to "help" while secretly searching for the Holy Grail. Meanwhile, Hwyfar and Gawain are wrapped in self destruction as they grieve Gwyenevere's death. Hwyfar and Gawain hate each other. But as they find themselves on a quest, they fall in love and discover a bond that can beat all odds.
I laughed, sighed, and ached for these two, and Barron makes me want to read the original Arthurian legends. There are also some deeply romantic lines in here that I am better for reading. And the jokes.
"What brings you joy? What brings you peace? What brings you pain?"
"Your face looks like a crumpled walnut."
"I will gladly go into madness with you, as long as you will have me, and I can feel your pleasure alongside my own."
"If you do not run, I will not falter."
"'So you knew I was there,' I said.
'Yes.'
'And you watched me amble around for an hour.'
'It was more than an hour.'"
"It is not the mirror that holds the power, Gawain. It is the frame. Men pass by our mirrors, calling them instruments of our vanity. In fury they may break the flass, but they do not think to destroy the framework. So survives women's magic: in plain sight."
"Until our bones are ash."
"When the options are 'murder' or 'not murder,' you're rather keen. But when nuance is involved, I'm afraid your strengths lie elsewhere, big brother."
"It is madness, yes. But what is love, but shared madness?"
"Some queens were kings, I suppose, and some princesses, princes."
I am so glad that Solaris picked this series up after the original publisher folded. I would hate to not have this book in my hands.
I love the world it’s set in (arthurian setting) but i don’t understand why she’s changed certain names or places (camelot is carelon) and it just thew me off.
It also annoyed me.
I like the main character but the romance was so fast and the male character has been single for years, not wanting romance and all of a sudden he’s changed his mind. Just a little bit more of slow burn / tension wouldn’t have hurt ya.
The plot was shaping up to be interesting but the romance put me off.
It also annoyed me.
I like the main character but the romance was so fast and the male character has been single for years, not wanting romance and all of a sudden he’s changed his mind. Just a little bit more of slow burn / tension wouldn’t have hurt ya.
The plot was shaping up to be interesting but the romance put me off.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Gawain and Hwyfar were two of my favorite secondary characters in Queen of None so I was very excited about them being the focus in Queen of Fury. Just like in the first book, the world that Barron has built here is so easy to get lost in, especially if you’re a fan of Arthurian legend. The magic system felt A LOT more intricate than in the first book since we get to see more lands, which no complaints here, but you really do have to pay close attention. There were many things I loved about Queen of Fury, but the best part in my opinion were the character journeys of Gawain and Hwyfar. Watching them recognize strengths they never knew they had and taking claim of what was rightfully theirs was such an incredible thing to read. I absolutely loved their romance too. Oh my goodness, it was so beautiful. The action was so exciting and so vividly written. I feel like this book ended so perfectly, but it also sets up another book so well and I honestly can’t wait to see where the story goes from here.
Thank you to NetGalley and Solaris Books for a digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Queen of Fury is the second in Natania Barron’s Queens of Fate series - brilliant feminist retellings of Arthurian legends.
This story is based on Gawain and the Green Knight but centres on the princess of Avillion, Hwyfar. She is thrust from being an unwanted sister carousing through Arthur’s court to acting as regent for her failing father as war threatens their farthest border.
Gawain and his knights are sent by Arthur to support his sister-in-law, but not all is as it seems. What follows is an epic quest with an even more epic love story.
What I enjoyed most about this book was the emotional connection and vulnerability Hwyfar and Gawain had together, and how that connection supported them to navigate and ultimately overcome loss and pain that they’d suffered as pawns in a hyper hierarchical and patriarchal court. As Barron mentions in her acknowledgement, “patriarchy and toxic chivalry does not just break women, but men, too.” I felt that Hwyfar’s sensuality and her rebelliousness were key elements of her character that weren’t moulded to fit a romantic ideal.
I also loved the exploration of the agency of women in the story - how so many of the strong women in Arthurian legend worked in the shadows, influencing and weaving the future with their magic but also their knowledge of what had come before and their ability to share with each other. I thought it was key that the women of the story seemed to disregard physical borders - that the lines drawn by men meant little to women sharing working across a different realm to protect humanity.
I can’t wait to see what comes next as Barron tackles the most famous of the Arthurian women - Morgen Le Fay.
My thanks to the author and Jess at @rebellionpublishing / Solaris Books for a proof of this epic story. Queen of Fury is out now!
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Queen of Fury by Natania Barron is the first person dual-POV historical fantasy romance continuation of Queen of None. Sir Gawain, the son of Queen Anna and the nephew of King Arthur, has been sent by his uncle to meet with Queen Regent Hwyfar, Arthur’s sister-in-law. Arthur plans for Hwyfar to marry one of his knights to bring Avillion under his control but Gawain is not an option. Too bad there’s a spark between Gawain and Hwyfar.
One of the things I really liked was how Hwyfar and Gawain feel older, around their thirties if I understood the timeline correctly. Gawain is described as an excellent knight but also has something of a belly while Hwayar is sturdy and has a very desirable figure but she’s never described as thin. A lot of fantasy romance features leads with perfect, model-esque bodies or six-packs without even trying whereas this was going for a more realistic depiction of a strong man (they often have a layer of fat on their stomachs) and two people who don’t have ultra fast metabolisms.
The romance between Gawain and Hwyfar is forbidden and, to a degree, taboo. Gawain is Arthur’s nephew and Hwyfar is the older sister of Arthur’s wife, making them family by marriage and Hwyfar is older than Gawain by at least a few years. Hwyfar was also one of the many lovers Nimue, the shadow of Gawain’s mother, took. There’s a lot of mess and possible taboo if you examine their relationship super closely but, at the same time, none of it really matters for the time period or in the grand scheme of things. It could, however, be a hard pass for a reader if there are certain things they are not looking for in a romance.
This was a lot more of a fantasy romance than Queen of None, which had romantic elements but wasn’t focused on a particular couple. As a sequel, it is set in the same world, but takes place years after Nimue disappeared and mostly features new or minor characters. Anna does make an appearance but it’s fairly brief. I’m curious to see how all of this culminates in the third book because there were ramifications from what happened in Queen of None, but it felt more like sweeping things that altered the course of a possible future instead of an immediate domino effect.
I would recommend this to fans of both Arthurian lore and fantasy romance, readers who love romances where the two leads are a bit older and a bit more self-assured, and readers who wanted more of a romance focus while reading Queen of None