Daughter of Destiny (Guinevere’s Tale Book One)
Nicole Evelina takes a fantasy-supernatural approach to the old familiar story of Queen Guinevere from Arthurian legends in Daughter of Destiny, the first volume in a series centering on the character.
Although firmly rooted in the historical world of fifth-century Britain (a milieu Evelina has obviously researched extensively), the Guinevere of this book is also connected to a mystical realm, possessed of “The Sight,” which gives her telepathic and precognitive flashes.
It is the Sight that prompts her to voyage from her home to Camelot, where she encounters a woman named Morgan and several characters who are cleverly-created variations on other famous figures from the stories of King Arthur and the Round Table.
Evelina’s re-imaginings of this familiar material is unfailingly energetic and innovative, and her version of Guinevere herself is captivating virtually from the first page – no small feat in an overall plot with such well-defined parameters.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to its sequel.
