This series was read straight through, so I’ll review all 6 books on this post. This is a 5 Star series.
The Dragon Ring
Fil Reid
Time Travel Romance
Gwen goes to scatter her Arthurian scholar father’s ashes on Glastonbury Tor, and in the ruined church tower, she picks up a gold ring embossed with a dragon emblem. This snatches her back 1500 years into the dangerous world of the Dark Ages.
The Merlin tells her she’s destined to become the Guinevere – of the legends her father devoted his life to studying – and fulfill a prophecy by marrying Prince Arthur. Only with her help can he become the famous King Arthur.
If anyone is less enthused about this idea than Gwen, it’s him. Tall, handsome, and ruthless, he doesn’t truly believe any prophecy can decide his future. Son of the ailing King Uthyr Pendragon, he’s ruled the hilltop fortress of Din Cadan for his father since he was sixteen. But his jealous older brother is set to inherit both the kingdom and the High Kingship – so when news comes that Uthyr is dying in far-off Viroconium, Arthur sets off to stake his own claim.
He takes Gwen with him, putting more and more distance between her and the Tor, where she believes she can return home. But as time passes, her intention to leave wanes. While the lure of modern comforts and familiar faces is strong, the pull between her and Arthur grows ever more enticing…
Uncaged Review: This retelling blends legend of old with a new look. And in many ways, I hope it doesn’t follow the strict legends as this series goes on, because I really love Arthur in this series. In the old legends, Guinevere falls in love with Sir Lancelot and betrays Arthur, but I hope this retelling bypasses that.
Gwen goes to scatter her father’s ashes and is sucked into a time loop, and thrust in the fifth century, a time of King Arthur and Merlin. Merlin has watched her since she was a small girl, and knows she is the key to the prophecy of King Arthur. For most of the book, Gwen wants to get back to her own time period, but as she starts to fall in love with Arthur, she questions her reluctance to leave and her place, whether it’s in the modern world or the ancient one. The book leaves on a slight cliffhanger, but there are 6 books in the series, and they are all out now, so readers can continue on. Thankfully, Gwen’s father was a scholar of the ancient Authurian, and she knows enough to get by with Merlin’s help. When she finally gets a chance to go back, will she?
Great pacing, great cast list and a book that carries a lot of legend with it, with some creative re-telling by this author. Great recommendation for historical lovers and the 2nd book is on my Kindle. Reviewed by Cyrene
5 Stars
The Bear’s Heart
Fil Reid
Time Travel Romance
Twenty-first-century Gwen, now a Dark Age queen, is cursed with the dubious knowledge of a future she dreads. She’s newly surrounded by once-murky history and still-confusing legends.
She has no idea which of the tales told by her late father, a fanatical Arthurian scholar, are true. Her worst fear is that history is fixed, and she might be merely treading a path long laid down for her… one that she can do nothing to alter despite all her love for Arthur and her new life, as challenging as it can be at times.
Every decision she makes could lead her closer to the doom that hangs over the people she’s come to love – Camlann. It’s the legendary battle in which Arthur, the man she’s given up everything for, is destined to die by the hand of his wicked nephew, Medraut.
Will any of her questions be answered as she marches north with her husband to battle the invading Saxons? Will she even survive? Unsettled, but devoted to both Arthur and their people, Gwen has little choice but to see things through.
History, romance, and legend intertwine in a story with an epic sweep that spans the post-Roman period of Early Medieval Britain.
Uncaged Review: The second book in this series stands the test of a sequel. In most of this story, Gwen is pregnant, and the battles rage on with Arthur being the Drux. A lot of betrayals, and battles, and losses. The author does this re-telling of King Arthur and Guinevere well, with descriptions that take you into the lives of medieval Britain. Gwen is settling in nicely and the love between Arthur and her is unmistakable. She still dreads the legendary battle in Camlann that Arthur is destined to die as the other battles that she read about are coming true. Her goal is to save Arthur and rewrite the history books. This sequel may even top the first book and the author takes you through the trenches, the good, bad and ugly of the times.
Highly recommended series, I doubt I can read another re-telling of this story that would match the masterful way Fil Reid has written this one. Reviewed by Cyrene
5 Stars
The Sword
Fil Reid
Time Travel Romance
Merlin’s sword in the stone has stood for three years in the forum at Viroconium. Can Gwen get Arthur there to draw it and set him on the road to becoming the king of legend?
Gwen, a woman from the twenty-first century, was kidnapped back in time to become King Arthur’s Queen Guinevere in Book One, The Dragon Ring. In Book Two, The Bear’s Heart, she presented Arthur with his heir. But a dark cloud hangs over their son’s birth, and she can’t be sure Arthur believes the baby is his… she doesn’t even know if he still loves her.
With a head full of the legends her father told her, Gwen knows both too much and too little. She’s keeping all she knows a secret – out of fear some of it could be true. Maddeningly, she also fears that if it isn’t, revealing her suspicions could actually make everything she’s afraid of happen.
And she loves Arthur far too much to let him die at Camlann.
For love, Gwen follows her husband north to the old Roman Wall and the town of Vindolanda, then beyond the Wall into dangerous enemy territory.
She has to leave behind the quiet librarian she once was and discover her inner warrior queen, as she sees the battles her husband is famous for unfold before her eyes. Meanwhile, at Viroconium, the sword is still waiting for the only man who can draw it from the stone…
Uncaged Review: The first half of this book which is the third in the series, consists of a year long campaign that keeps Arthur and Gwen away from Din Cadan and their son. Vivid imagery and battles make up the Dark Ages of Britain during King Arthur’s reign. The timeline of history remains, although the author has taken her own retelling of this King in a much more romanticized direction. The reader is immersed in the story but there is always danger right around every corner. The evil sister of Arthur is Morgana, and she’s taken a smitten Merlin away with her deception. So Arthur goes to his vile brother’s fortress and a decision is made to fight.
We learn more about Morgana, and her cruel ways, and now the sword, that’s been in the stone for three years will finally come into play. Was Arthur the one meant to pull it out and be the High King?
This is a non-stop action-packed story, with even further development of the friendships Gwen is forming. A 21st Century woman becoming the Queen she was meant to be. This is the first series in a long time that I’ve been drawn to read in order. Thankfully they are all out now. Reviewed by Cyrene
5 Stars
Warrior Queen
Fil Reid
Time Travel Romance
It’s been almost three years since Gwen, a 21st century librarian, fell back through time to become King Arthur’s Queen Guinevere. Arthur’s drawn the legendary sword from the stone and beaten his jealous brother. The only thing left to do is prove to his fellow kings that he’s worthy of the title High King of all Britain. Not an easy task.
At the same time, the countdown through the list Gwen knows of Arthur’s legendary twelve battles is flying past, bringing the thirteenth, fatal Camlann, ever nearer. With history tracking so close to legend, all of Gwen’s fears seem likely to come true.
While Arthur is away fighting Irish invaders in the far west, messengers arrive from the north, requesting urgent help. Gwen is forced to lead a party of her husband’s men across the River Severn in search of Arthur’s army. But she’s heading towards the inevitable realization that there are no true victors in war.
Can there be a happy ending for Gwen and Arthur, or is it written in stone that he must die?
Uncaged Review: Arthur has been named High King. This time out, as Arthur is away on a campaign, messengers come and request help. Gwen leads a party north to find Arthur, only to find he’s not where they had hoped. This is the 4th book out of 6 in this series, and this time out, there will be a lot of danger, and some heartbreaking moments. I had to actually set the book down and walk away to deal with the emotions I was feeling in one spot of the book. The author does not hold back the brutality in this world, it wouldn’t feel as real if she had. Gwen proves herself a true warrior queen in this book and believes it’s her destiny.
This ends with a couple of surprising alliances as we head to book 5. The author has truly brought the myth and the legend that is King Arthur and these times to life. Reviewed by Cyrene
5 Stars
The Quest for Excalibur
Fil Reid
Time Travel Romance
Twelve years ago, 21st-century librarian Gwen decided to remain in the Dark Ages with the man she loves above all else – a man around whom endless well-known tales of legend and magic have been spun. King Arthur. Over the years, she’s carved a life for herself by her husband’s side, gently steering him in the direction she wants him to go, but always with an awareness that he’s a Dark Age king with a Dark Age view of the world.
Equipped with her prior knowledge of Arthurian legend, Gwen’s sole aim has long been to save her husband from the legendary fate she dreads hangs over him. But always, at the back of her mind, is the nagging doubt that whatever she does is already set in stone, and nothing she can do will change his future which is already her past.
Now, in book five of the Guinevere series, she’s all too aware that time is marching on, and that this fate might well be drawing closer to the man she gave up everything for.
Danger lurks in the most unexpected places, and long-hidden secrets threaten to rise to the surface. After a long, cold winter in their hilltop fortress, Gwen’s pleased to welcome traveling players to Din Cadan. But these players are hiding secrets of their own, and one of them has come with black deeds in mind. Gwen will have to fight harder than she’s ever done to save herself and thus her husband. And all evidence points to the hand of Morgana, Arthur’s wicked sister, manipulating everything from afar.
Throughout all of this, simmering in the background, is young Medraut, Arthur’s nephew. Unnoticed, despite still being only a boy, he’s been exerting his malignant influence over those around him, in particular, Gwen and Arthur’s son and heir. The wedge he succeeds in driving between Arthur and his son will carry forward into the cataclysmic events of the final book, The Road To Avalon.
Uncaged Review: The battle of Badon is the main focus in this book. The great battle of legend is coming upon them and seeing how history is playing out, the final battle will occur after, the one in which legend says Arthur will die and Gwen is afraid. It’s been 12 years that Gwen was transported into the Dark Ages and for a short moment, she’s thrown from her horse from a sabotaged saddle and goes back to her own time. Scared and afraid, she runs from the hospital and back to the tor where she originally was transported. She makes it back, but Merlin, Arthur and Gwen know that Morgana was behind it all. Merlin casts a spell of protection around Gwen, to be able to keep Morgana from seeing Gwen’s thoughts.
As the battle nears, Arthur has called on his brother Cadwy and Cerdic as allies to fight the Saxons, crucial to their success at Badon. The cost of the war is their son Amhar, who is feeling unloved by his father and is not resolved by the end of the book. We go into the final book in this series, with the nail-biting final battle looming. Will Gwen and Merlin be able to change history? Highly recommended series. Reviewed by Cyrene
5 Stars
The Road to Avalon
Fil Reid
Time Travel Romance
Guinevere: wise queen, brave warrior, passionate lover, dedicated mother… savior?
Twenty years have passed since Gwen fell back in time to become King Arthur’s Queen Guinevere. Eight years of comparative peace since the triumph at Badon. All seems quiet and, with Medraut long gone and possibly dead, the prospect of Camlann seems far away and perhaps just another part of the legend that’s not true.
Until Arthur and Gwen go to Viroconium for the Council of Kings and take Amhar, now eighteen, with them. There, he meets up with the very much alive-and-kicking Medraut again, who has not improved with the passage of time. Unable to prevent Amhar inviting Medraut back to Din Cadan with them, Gwen can only watch in fear as events begin to unroll that will lead to the one thing she’s been fearing throughout her time in the Dark Ages – the fateful battle of Camlann.
But before Camlann can rear its ugly head, news comes of the death of old King March of Caer Dore in Cornwall. Arthur, Gwen and their daughter travel west for his funeral rites. Accompanying them is the old king’s son, Drustans, whose one aim is to claim the kingship and reclaim the love of his life, Essylt, who was forced to marry his father instead of him nineteen years ago. But Gwen has seen this warrior’s grave marker in the far off twenty-first century, and she’s afraid this will not end well.
Gwen and Arthur’s love is about to be tested to its absolute limit as Medraut takes on the mantle of chief villain in the story, and all seems lost. The young man’s malevolent influence within the walls of Arthur’s stronghold grows, alienating the younger warriors, and in particular Amhar, from their elders, which is where Arthur finds himself. But when the odds are stacked against her, Gwen is at her strongest, and she’s armed with a foreknowledge no one else possesses.
When the day of Camlann finally arrives, can she prevent the tragedies that threaten to unfold and change the course of history and legend? Can she find the road to Avalon for Arthur?
Uncaged Review: The final installment in this series left me with many emotions, and it’s an ending befitting of the series. It’s been 20 years since Gwen first traveled back to medieval times, and in this book, everything will be answered. Here Morgana makes her last stand, and pits Arthur and Gwen against each other and their children. A murder, an innocent wrongly accused and a deadly enemy within their ranks. And Camlann is upon them, not as Gwen thought it would be, but a battle that may end Arthur. The Road to Avalon is not always an easy road, and not well marked.
This is a great series, and one I plan on buying the physical copies for my shelves, and I don’t say that often. This is a great retelling, and this book will tear at your heartstrings and have you glued to the pages. I’ll probably take a couple of days and let this series sink in before starting on another book, I read this series straight through, and I haven’t done that in a long time. Reviewed by Cyrene
5 Stars
All-in-all, this is a 5 Star series and probably my favorite series retelling the tale of King Arthur and Guinevere. I was never enthused about the original versions, so in my mind, this is going to become canon for me. I hope anyone who likes the legend of King Arthur or even Medieval Historical romance, will give this series a try.
