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lilibetbombshell 's review for:
The King's Maiden
by Elle Parker
The mythology surrounding King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table varies in many places, save for one focus point of the tales: Guinevere belongs to Arthur in some way, Lancelot is Arthur’s most trusted knight, and both Lancelot and Guinevere end up falling for one another even if it means treason. No matter what, the tragic romance of Lancelot and Guinevere is one of the central focuses to all matters Arthuriana.
I’m a huge fan of books and fanfiction involving Arthuriana. The King’s Maiden comes across like a fanfiction that’s been converted into a novel, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. As we all know, the larger publishers have been doing this for a few decades now, and I’ve personally known authors who’ve pulled their stories from fandoms and converted them into indie novels in the past. What makes the difference between the two, in my opinion, is the editing process. You have to do a lot of content editing to smooth out the wrinkles and stitch up the seams between a fanfic and an original novel. You need to fill in the seams and then stitch them up to erase all evidence the novel was borne of other source material and you need to smooth out the wrinkles because after the seams have been filled and stitched the whole thing will need a few rounds of polishing. Ideally, this polishing should be done by new people who haven’t read the story in its pre-existing form, as you’ll want fresh eyes on the text.
There are definitely some copy edit and proofreading errors in this book that could be taken care of, but what concerns me is the general disparity in tone between the main male characters and the female characters. It’s not about shrill versus serious or anything like that, but it’s more about how they’re written in terms of age. They’re all roughly the same age (as in they’re all in college), yet the female characters all come across as much younger (they sound like they’re still in high school) than the male characters (who sound like they’re already out of college). It creates a false dichotomy that lends to both the females and males being objectified when that objectification does nothing for the plot. It feels like pandering and it sits wrong with me the longer I think about it.
The story overall was a fun read and entertaining. The spice level was medium (for me), with medium burn but also with instalust. There is only one partner in this book, but there are supposed to be more partners in further books and there are indications of fully polyamorous action further on in the series. This is categorized as enemies-to-lovers romance but I felt it was more like strangers-to-lovers (but the strangers have an agenda). I knew I was going to be reading a book with a virgin FMC but the manner in which her virginity is discussed and treated made me uncomfortable more than once.
I won’t be continuing with reviewing this series. I will probably finish reading it on my own time, but I won’t be reviewing it.
I was provided a copy of this title by the author via The Author Agency. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. All reviews rated three stars or lower will not appear on my social media. Thank you.
File Under: Billionaire Romance/Book Series/College Romance/Contemporary Romance/Kink Friendly/Romance Series/Polyamorous Romance/Secret Society/Spice Level 2/Why Choose Romance