The Fifth Knight: An Arthurian Legend Fantasy (The Knights of Caerleon series Book 1)

Fun fact to start this review: I live in the real village of Caerleon. So naturally, I was raised on the legends of King Arthur and his knights, and I love seeing new and creative adaptions of the mythology.This book, is by far my favourite adaption (and not just for the romance). The authors have crafted characters based from legends and Celtic history, and fantastically weaved them into a fairy tale of curses, knights, and love.It would be impossible for this series to be 100% historically accurate, but the little pieces of known Celtic culture, like female warriors, and known legends of trickster fairies, give the book a realistic atmosphere even within a fantasy world. The magic is enchanting throughout and begins a promising series of spells, battles, and romance.

Interesting storyline, Very descriptive and I enjoy the story.Totally read it if you are not too bothered with the details on Ireland!! (Britannia/England faired ok)The place names and terms have been heavily anglicised.I find it really hard to get past the fact that while this is set in the 11th century (pre english control), completely wrong names for Ireland are used. Hibernia or Eire would be more suitable than Ireland, even "londonDerry" is listed instead of "Daire" or even just Derry. What also confused me is the FMC is from Ulster, but her father is the king of Tara? (Tara is not in Ulster it is in Leinster) Also the map included in the book has even misspelled londonDerry as "londonBerry", not sure why?

This is a new take on an old story. I still prefer the more classic takes on this story, which is a shame as the book is actually quite good. For me the take on these knights just takes a little bit away from the brilliance of the story.After having said that, I must also say that if I look at just the story and how it is written, it is brilliant. I just need to see the characters not as Arthur and the knights, but a random king and his knights. I loved how everything was explained, how the story developed and needed to read the rest of the books straight after this one.

This book is absolutely beautiful. As a major Arthurian legend fangirl, I squeed an awful lot. The characters are amazing, and I love each of their personalities, and their full-fleshed backstories. Thank you so much for such an awesome book!!!!

At its core, this is a Mary-Sue self-insert King Arthur fanfic where Arthur, Lancelot, Galahad and Percival all fall for the heroine.And you know what? I thoroughly enjoyed it.Yes, Fionna is a bit too perfect to be true. She’s otherworldly beautiful (even though she compares herself unfavourably to her sister), a super-fighter who can go toe to toe with Arthur or any of his knights despite her small size, and apparently is also destined to be a great enchantress, according to Merlyn. Everyone falls in love with her at first sight. She’s pretty much the definition of a Mary-Sue. And yet… I still really liked her. She has relatable motives and is willing to work hard to get what she needs; she’s kind to servants and doesn’t treat other women as rivals, and she regularly questions her attitudes and works on being a better person.I’ve always been a huge fan of Arthurian fantasy, and this was a nice take on the story, with Morgana a vengeful fae bent on getting her revenge after Lancelot cheated on her. Several curses afflict Arthur’s kingdom, not least Excalibur being stuck in its scabbard, and only Merlyn’s prophecy of a fifth knight to join their company and help them find the Grail gives them faith.Fionna joins them under false pretences, winning a tourney disguised as a man, and by the time her identity is revealed it’s too late to back out. Besides, her blood released Excalibur, so Arthur has no choice but to believe she’s the right person for the task.Morgana certainly isn’t about to give up without a fight, though. She’s working contrary to Merlyn’s prophecies the whole time, and as this first book in the trilogy draws to a close, it’s obvious things are about to get a lot trickier for the group, especially since some of them are still concealing important truths from the others.While this is Reverse Harem and marketed as unsuitable for readers under 18, there’s not that much sex in it. Clearly the story is building to Fionna having a relationship with all four men, but in this first part of the trilogy she only gets intimate with Arthur and Galahad, and the heat only probably reaches a 3-4 stage. Considering Lancelot is under a curse and Percival has taken a vow of celibacy, I don’t think you’ll see too much more action until at least Book 3, either.I liked the way that Lancelot was written as explicitly bisexual, and it was certainly at least hinted that Percival was too, so homophobia isn’t something you have to worry about here, often a problematic element in RH books. I think this is a great example of a fantasy romance with a slow build to a reverse harem which makes logical sense given the circumstances, and I’ll definitely be looking out for parts 2 and 3 of the trilogy. Five stars.Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review through NetGalley.

The fifth Knight is Book 1 in the series The Knights of Caerleon. This series comes from authors Claire Luana & Jesikah Sundin. This is my second read from the author Claire Luana and she continues to show how great of a fantasy author she is.This is my first time reading a reverse harem read, and was surprised at how much I enjoyed the adventures our characters faced. This book was made even better by the way the author has written it - I love that we get told the story from various POV’s it gives us a better understanding to our characters, there thoughts and feelings and why they do or say certain things.First off let’s point out how great of a spin on the story of King Arthur and his knights of the round table this read is. Then to make it even more captivating we are thrown into the world with fae and magic.I loved the mythology in this read, and how facts from history are incorporated into the story. This author has made this a mentally visual read, so whenever I plunged into this world I would feel as though I was there alongside the characters.This read is action-packed read that continues to captivate you from start to finish. It left you on the edge of your seat wondering what could happen on numerous occasions.This book engaged me into the story and characters so much the ending came much too quickly - with that being said I really am looking forward to Book 2 in this series.