A History of Royals discussion

Please post your reviews of the books that you have read for this month's Open Read Topic.

I plan to read two books on this topic, mostly because the first one I read was more of a guilty pleasure book than well-researched historical fiction. It was a fun book though. The title was Goddess of Legend. I gave it 3 stars mainly for the enjoyment of it.

The story follows Isabel, a modern day Oklahoman, who finds herself whisked back in time by the Lady of the Lake. The Lady of the Lake wants Isabel to seduce Lancelot from Guinevere, but Isabel finds herself drawn more to King Arthur (no spoiler as this is told in every synopsis of the book I have come across). What follows is steamy romance and hilarity.

The book is like most traditional romances, cheesy as all get out. The time travel aspect is a little overdone with Isabel using pretty much every modern colloquialism that there is (the Jeopardy! stuff was way over the top) and modernizing Camelot completely. (Also, way too many baths for the middle ages, but like I said historical accuracy isn't really taken into account.) The ending is a little weird and I am not sure I like it. However, it was a fun book and a nice light read compared to all the royal biographies I have been digesting lately. I haven't read any of the other books in this series but I am curious to read them now.

So I read Avalon: The Return of King Arthur by Stephen Lawhead. I read this years ago and really liked it so I figured I'd give it another go. The funny thing was that while reading I was completely into it, but the end was just so . . blah that it kind of ruined the rest of the book for me. I ended up only giving it a 3.5 stars.

After about a week, I'm only about 100 pages into The Once and Future King and for some reason I just find it completely boring. I plan on just trying to power through it, because I'm told it gets better once you're past the 1st section. I was just wondering if anyone else had this experience too.

I think I might have been the only one reading for this topic. . anyway, I finally finished The Once and Future King, and I feel like it was the book that wouldn't end.

Review:
If I could sum up my thoughts for this book in three words, they would be "Not a Fan". I really had high hopes for The Once and Future King because I've been told by several people on multiple occasions what a great book it is, but it just was not. The first section of the book is "The Sword in the Stone" and I have to say that might have the most excruciating thing I've ever had to force myself to read. I read a 1200 page book in 6 days and it took me almost 3 weeks to trudge through that 200. After that it got a little better, but not by much. I found I was skipping whole pages just to not have to read the same thing over and over again. (He went on for 6 pages about what Guenever and Lancelot saw while looking out a window) Overall the story was decent, but other than The Sword in the Stone, most of the book was actually about Lancelot and not Arthur. While I get that their stories were interwoven, since the book was called The Once and Future King, I do wish there was more of Arthur in it. Unless T.H. White was somehow trying to insinuate that Lancelot was really who should've been king or some such thing like that, but that's not really what was going on, I'm sure. **1/2 stars is really about all I can honestly rate.

Melissa wrote: "I think I might have been the only one reading for this topic. . anyway, I finally finished The Once and Future King, and I feel like it was the book that wouldn't end."

Wow, so glad I didn't choose that one in the end! I'm only just about to start my Arthurian read today. I'm finding the timelines for these open reads far too compressed to be able to complete them in a month. I love the idea... but I can't make it work for me. So, I'll read my book a month late, and post my review, but I won't be joining the Windsor read.

I also read Child of the Northern Spring for this month's topic. While I enjoyed the different take on Guinevere, it seemed the author tried too hard to make her into this wonderful woman who has been misunderstood by history. She had Guinevere coming up with the idea for the round table and introducing stirrups to England. The budding romance between Arthur and Guinevere I enjoyed and you really walk away from the book feeling that they might have had a chance. IT was a good book, but I don't think I will read the rest of the series. My full review is here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/....

I am about to start mine, too. February was a really bad reading month for me, but I will still post when I get my Arthur book read.

Well I did finally finish Isolde, Queen of the Western Isle, and while it was quite interesting and easy to read, I found it just as easy to put it down in the middle of a paragraph and walk away from it. No, I was not gripped. I felt the settings were really strongly written - I had strong, vivid pictures of the scenes and people, but the emotional stiff was too syrupy and a bit tedious in places. Sometimes it seemed that the characters just needed a good slapping for a) making a big deal out of something really minor & carrying on like a drama queen or b) rejecting an obvious, easy solution to their dilemmas for no apparent reason, then carrying on line a drama queen. Gah!
And I can't finish without saying something about the cover of the edition I read:

Hello??? Does this cover say "legendary Irish beauty & star-crossed lover"? Or is it just me that thinks it's totally unappealing? If I was the author and this was presented to me as the cover for my book I think I'd cry.
So yeah. Quite interesting, easy read that really failed to hold my attention much.

I agree, its not appealing. I would not be attracted to the cover and probably pass it over. Sometimes when I'm not sure what to read-I look for exciting or unique covers. I think its important to make a good first impression. (even though, they always say, "never judge a book by its cover." lol
:D