BLACKHEART KNIGHTS [DUOLOGY BOOK 1] | Laure Eve

 

PUBLISHING DATE: 27 May 2021

Let me start this by saying that I am obsessed with Arthurian legend.

I will read, watch, and listen to pretty much anything with even a vague connection. So when I saw this pop up on my feed, I wanted it immediately.

Blackheart Knights is an urban fantasy retelling/reimagining of Arthurian legend, where knights ride motorcycles and Arthur's political sparring partners are tech magnates. The book is split between two timelines - the first timeline follows Artorias Dracones, 'nineteen years ago', as he becomes the new king of London, and the second follows Red, 'one year ago', as she fights and trains to become a knight. The two timelines converge at the climax of the book, where Art and Red's stories finally meet.

The concept of this book is so cool. It is flooded with queer characters. It's a sexy, fresh, bloody, magical reimagining of the King Arthur story. I was expecting to fully froth it, and to not shut up about it for weeks and weeks, but when I finished it, I was just... whelmed. I can't even point to a particular reason! The setting is rich, the characters are interesting and their motivations deep, but it just didn't quite gel with me. Perhaps it was the dual timelines - both Art's and Red's stories were so interesting that I feel like the book could be written from either perspective only and be gripping and exciting, and maybe some of that was lost by switching between the two.

This feels like a cop-out of a review, because I can't actually point to any one thing, so I'm going to chalk this one up to personal preference. This is not my new favourite book, but it could be yours! It's a queer urban fantasy retelling of the Arthurian legend - like, come on. If that sparks your interest, definitely add this one to your TBR.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Quercus/Jo Fletcher Books for providing me with this ARC.