Camelot is reborn in the modern era and thanks to Merlin, Queen Guinevere is reborn in the present. The fae are on the verge of attacking the human realm using a feisty, independent dragon and the last thing King Arthur needs is his queen meddling in his affairs. Old arguments threaten to drive a wedge between king and queen, not to mention the knights. Can King Arthur see his Queen for the woman she is and make her his equal or is the royal enchantment a faint memory?



I’m a big fan of all things Camelot and while this was an original take on King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, I found it hard to relate to the characters, especially King Arthur and his knights. Arthur is a ROYAL JERK and a pompous one at that. The conflicts between him and Gwen were never-ending, making me sometimes wish the dragon would just light King Arthur’s body on fire and be done with it. The belittling of Gwen in modern times got so old. I’m elated the ending was a happy one but boy, it took a long, long time to get there.



What I loved most was Guinevere. She’s regal in all regards but the more she’s in modern times, the more growth happens to her. She’s an intelligent woman whose search for knowledge makes her astounding, even by today’s standards. She could run the world and I’d like to be her advisor! Gwen is the best part of this book, hands down.



If you’re looking for a modern-day feminist Camelot story, I highly recommend Royal Enchantment. It’s a great series and kudos to Ashwood for bringing a fresh approach to the King Arthur lore.



Many thanks to Harlequin Books and Sharon Ashwood for giving me an ARC via Netgalley in the hopes I’d review it.



Favorite Character/Quote: “Battling monsters was a man’s business. Never mind that it was the women, left at home, who had the most face time with whatever horror was tearing the village apart. They typically had the beastie on the run by the time Sir Whatever showed up to poke it with a sword.”



My Rating: 4 stars

I enjoy this book and I like the story. I wish more book were written in this series.

In Sharon Ashwood’s Royal Enchantment (Amazon | B&N | Kobo) we learn that Arthur and Guinevere's marriage had never been an easy one. A political alliance rather than a love match, Guinevere’s headstrong “meddling” had always annoyed Arthur while his dismissal of her as anything but a womb had annoyed her. When the Fae declare war on all humankind, Arthur, Guinevere and his knights are sent into an enchanted sleep, only to awaken when the need for them arises. When they do wake up it is to find themselves not in England but at a theme park in America, Camelot reduced to a tourist attraction. Gwen and Arthur’s physical reunion is explosive:

He kissed her hard, reminding her that he was the master, and yet leaving coaxing nips behind. When they were together like this, there had never been a question about the spark between them.

But as much as Gwen wants him, she wants respect as well. Can an ancient love give birth to a modern relationship? Definitely.

I've been thoroughly enjoying this series, but this installment has been the best of the lot. Full of action, humor, danger and of course romance. This is the first series I've read Ms. Ashwood but I'll be reading her backlist very soon. The characters have all been exactly what I would imagine the Camelot characters to be like, only displaced in to modern times. Simply couldn't put it down.

Once upon a fairy tale, Merlin put King Arthur and his knights into an enchanted sleep, to await a future time when they would be needed. I think the line I recall was 'to defend Britannia in her darkest hour'.

However, what would happen if some wealthy entrepeneur happened to buy up the church where the knights lay in their enchanted sleep and relocated the whole thing lock, stock and barrel to the United States? Camelot is now on American soil, and as the knights begin to wake in the modern world, they have to adapt to many things they never expected.

The last thing Arthur expected, after months of working hard to fit into the mortal world, is for his wife to reappear.

Merlin, you see, neglected to mention that he put Guinevere into an enchanted sleep as well.

Married at seventeen to seal a treaty, Guinevere respected the warrior king who was her husband, but the truth was that she barely knew him, and he certainly didn't know her. Left behind again and again as he took his knights off to war, she grew tired of being a queen in name only, an ornament for the king's court. So when Merlin told her that he'd had no choice but to put Arthur in an enchanted sleep, to await some nameless peril in the distant future, Gwen was of no mind to be left behind again.

Waking up in the twenty-first century, she's still pissed with Arthur, who I felt a bit sorry for even while fully understanding Gwen's point of view. Married to a beautiful young girl who he saw as a beacon of brightness and hope in a world full of war and death, Arthur was desperate to keep her safe, untarnished by the darkness he spent his life fighting against. Finding out that he almost lost her to an illness she contracted nursing sick soldiers the one time he allowed her to come to battle, I completely understood his desire to protect her.

Arthur's journey to acceptance of Gwen's free will isn't an easy one, and when he has to contend with dragons and other mythical beasts a rogue fae seems hellbent on loosing on the world, it's very tempting for him to act like an autocrat, especially considering the status of women in the time he was born to.
In the end, however, he accepts Gwen's need to be queen in more than just name. They find their way to a true partnership, and the love both of them always wanted in their marriage besides.

While this is apparently the third in the Camelot Reborn series, it is quite readable as a standalone. I confess to a massive weakness for Arthurian legends, starting with T.H. White's classic Sword In The Stone when I was about eight years old, and I'm just as happy with modern versions as medieval ones.

This is a really great story. I loved Guinevere and Arthur together, but I was a little disappointed at Merlin's 'magical cheating' which enabled her to 'just know' lots of things about the modern world. Making discoveries about the modern world could have had lots of comedic potential; perhaps that's my own tendencies to look for the laughs when writing showing. Maybe one day I'll write my own tales of King Arthur and his knights waking up and having to contend with massive culture shock.

Until then, I highly recommend you give Royal Enchantment and the other books in the Camelot Reborn series a try. They're well worth a read. Five stars.

This was a fast paced book. King Arthur's Court has been brought to the future to save the mortal realm. Queen Guinnivere has a woken to a different time period. Arthur and Gwen are learning about themselves. They are battling a magical being trying to be the king of the fae. They are trying to work on their marriage. There are many twists and turns. I was on the edge of my seat as to whether good will win over evil.

I enjoyed Reading Royal Enchantment. The story is well paced and I loved the concept and character interaction. I look forward to reading more.