Book Review: La Vie de Guinevere

Book #8 for 2025: La Vie de Guinevere by Paula Lafferty, 3.5/5 ★
536 pages / published October 2024 / available here

Goodreads Blurb: After the sudden death of her boyfriend, Vera would have been happy to spend the rest of her days curiously unnoticeable, washing bed sheets and cleaning toilets in present day Glastonbury. But when the strange new guest at her hotel reveals himself to be Merlin and drags her back to seventh century Camelot, a place she knows only from legends, only Vera (or Queen Guinevere as Merlin calls her) can right the course of history and save Arthur’s kingdom from the will of a power-hungry mage.

My Review: In some ways, this is a fun read and interesting take on Arthurian legends. There’s enough research to make it feel relatively familiar while also leaning heavily enough on the author’s imagination to feel like it’s solidly in the fantasy realm. I enjoyed the first third of the book, but struggled a bit in the second third – too many twists & turns without really moving the main story forward. I enjoyed the uptick in plot driving towards then end, then grew increasingly frustrated when I realized it was going to have virtually no resolution and just be a set up for a sequel. After 520! pages, I’m more than a little annoyed for the writer to not wrap anything up. The magic system was a bit confusing and seemingly inconsistent at points. I also struggled with inconsistency in characters, namely Lancelot and Merlin. The homophobia discussions felt forced, and there were some very silly scenes that just didn’t work for me, namely the rock-paper-scissors and jousting. While the writing is easy to read, I was also put off by the emotional whiplash of all the characters. So many “absolute” feelings, “completely severing of attraction,” etc. It felt very…high school. There’s some fun potential here, but it rambled too long for me without endearing me to the characters or the story.

CW: moderate profanity, execution, car accident, loss, depicted assault, gore, one spicy scene