Published By: HQ
Pages: 416
Released On: 19/11/2026
Isolde, Queen of Cornwall, is on the run.
She didn’t mean to drink a love potion with the king’s nephew, but that little accident has made her scandalously famous. Luckily, she and Tristan find refuge in Camelot, the legendary court of King Arthur. This ought to be her happy ending.
Only it isn’t. She discovers that Camelot is full of chivalrous knights who aren’t sure how to speak to a woman, and while it houses the greatest wizard of all time, he might just be responsible for crimes against humanity. And one more thing, the love potion has worn off…
Now Isolde will have to work out what sort of life a woman can carve out for herself when the songs about her have already been written.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and HQ for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I’ve got Phoenicia’s other two novels – Herc and Aphrodite – but I haven’t read them yet so I was going in blind.
I have read a lot of mythological retellings over the years but the story of Isolde is not one I know well. I know of it, but I know nothing about it so that was interesting. I’ll be honest, I thought they were Greek mythology, but it turns out they’re Celtic mythology, which was new to me. And I liked the merge with the Arthurian legend too.
She has created such a sense of space and place and time. The vivid descriptions of Cornwall and Ireland and Camelot are so good that it really makes you part of the story. And her depiction of the Middle Ages is good too.
It’s written in the second person, and if I’m honest, I can’t think of a single book I’ve read in single person and I’m not a fan of it. It flits between Isolde and Tristan’s inner monologue talking to each other, so there’s a lot of “you” and “us” and I felt that kept me at arms length from the heart of the story. I’d have preferred third person, or even first. And because of this, I felt I had no connection to the characters and so didn’t really care what happened. They were just names on a page. I also didn’t feel the romance plot – you know, the main plot – it felt forced and I felt no chemistry. (Having read other reviews I can see most people thought the characters and romance were the plus points to the story so this is clearly a personal thing).
There were a number of issues I found. At times the writing, the dialogue felt quite juvenile and jarring. Scenes and characters would suddenly appear and I’d be confused because I swear a moment ago they were somewhere else and I felt like I’d missing something. It’s also got pacing issues. The opening is great, you’re thrown right in, and then the ending when the stakes are raised and it’s more intense is good. But for the majority of the middle section it’s quite a slog. I don’t mind if a book is sedate with little action, but there has to be something to keep it going and I felt this struggled with keeping that interest.
Overall, and interesting book, very good world building, with a strong opening and closing. But I felt it was too long, too rambling, a bit dull, with lacklustre characters and a love story that never really sparked to life for me.
