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Searching For Arthur (2000)

by Donna Hosie(Favorite Author)

3.81 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1482738775 (ISBN13: 9781482738773)

languge

English

genre

Romance

series

The Return to Camelot

review 1: So this should be 3 and a half stars by the way..I really had to give this book time before I could review it in a way that wasn't cranky and crabby. First off let me say I did like this book. My biggest issue was it wasn't an unwavering "like" I had for it. I went in super excited, nervous because of how much I love Arthurian legend (I also super love BBC's Merlin) and was worried it would somehow insult or make a fool of the characters I love so much. Thankfully it didn't do that.. well except it made me dislike Arthur here and there, but overall I was content with what was done with him.While keeping in mind that I really did like this book, the longer it went the more I hated the main character Natasha. The biggest thing that bugged me about her was she deemed herself ... morea better person than Morgana and Mordred in this knowing what she'd done to her little brother, Patrick. It wasn't what happened to him that made me hate her but it bugged me that the guilt didn't get to her very much. It seemed to at times bug her, but not eat at her like I felt like it should any normal person with a conscience. Half the time I just wanted to punch her because she was just super annoying besides that.. I kept having to remind myself that she wasn't twelve because her thoughts just were... very twelve-year-old-ish.. I did like Bedivere (even though I kept getting confused when they were talking about Bad-..whatever the bad guy's name was) but the "MY LOVE!" KILLED ME. I love cheesiness and I can handle my dairy but that was a lot of queso... Also I REALLY badly wish the love story there took more time. Not only did it just seem to take moments for Natasha and Bedivere to decide they were madly in love, which bugged me, I also didn't have the time to fall in love with Bedivere. It's those little moments.. the almost touches/kisses, the wanting to say something but not.. those are what are just so fantastic about a love story.. the leading up to the "My love"s and it started out great, when she instantly noticed Bedivere's green eyes, and when she rode on his horse with him I was getting excited, my stomach ready to unleash the butterflies and then when Bedivere swore to protect her I was thinking, "yeah he's a knight that's what knights do.. alright, still good." And then even the kiss I was alright with, it showed Natasha was spontaneous, but after that, it just got way too carried away way too quickly, at least for my liking.Pushing past some of the faults with the story itself, Donna Hosie has quite an expanded vocabulary she's ready to use and I really liked her word choices a lot, I only wish everything else followed suit.
review 2: Finally got some time to write my review.Where to start? Well, best of with the positive things. The idea is great. I think, a fresh version of the Arthurian myth will be very appealing to a lot of (younger) readers. References are well done and the story told in a way that you are drawn into it and can't put the book (eReader) aside before you have finished it.However, I do have a couple of things that I did not really like about the book. If it was a draft, I would suggest some editing before trying to publish it as hard copy.Here they are:1) When I started reading the book, I actually thought it was written for a younger audience, like twelve plus. The main character seemed so immature in her thinking and behavior and also so much younger than her (not so much)older brother, who acts like a surrogate father. That is why I was surprised that she is already 17, which made me wonder if it was a wise decision to have a young teenager having to identify with a young adult.Only later in the story it became apparent that the story was written for an older audience, especially by the depiction of graphic violence. Unfortunately, the main character stayed somewhat immature throughout the story, which is most apparent in her coming up with silly nicknames like "Slurpy" and "Lady Puke". Well, maybe teenagers of 17 are really like that, I don't know. I just couldn't relate and didn't like it.2) The main character is basically the major flaw of the book.As I said, she is very immature. She becomes more violent (and used to violent ongoings) as the story moves on, but otherwise she does not really change at all.The constant screaming was just as annoying. She screams and screams. I know I am a little "infested" by my emancipated upbringing by my mother, but I consider that a good thing. Women should make the most of their emancipation and keep working on it. We don't need other (literature) drawbacks such as recent examples (Twilight, Shades of Grey ...). As a young woman at the verge of adulthood I would look for strong female role models - in reality and in fiction. That means, no cliches and no old stereotypes. Unfortunately, our narrator is not a woman to look up to (neither are any of the other female characters; they are all either deprived of the compacity to love, or are deceitful and spiteful).In addition she is rather bratty (not naughty, but more Juliette Lewis-esque), especially in this one scene: "I threw myself into Bedivere's arms and spread my mouth across his warm lips". Arthur wasn't the only one choking about this image, which is obviously only intended to get back at her brother for making her watch making out with his girlfriend.Another minor thing about the narrator is that she keeps calling the knights "boys". They might not be that old, that's right, but then in the middle ages, when most people didn't get much older than 40, an 18 year old is already a full-grown man. "Boy" sounds really weird! On the other hand we only have the POV of a late pubescent girl, so I guess this minor flaw is negligible.3) The atmosphere. While the author describes many of the character's attires and looks in great detail, she neglects landscape and atmosphere, which appear too pale for my taste. At some ponits during the story I was surprised that the characters had moved on to a different place, because it did not differ from the previous. A more colorful depiction of a mythical land would have been a nice touch to create more Athurian atmosphere.4) Basically, one incident follows the next, each gorier than the one before. Which wouldn't be so terrible, if the actual final battle against Baldivore and Mordred wasn't rather anti-climatic in comparison. Even though this was a long thrashing, I still think that the story itself is promising and the Arthurian and Arthurian literature ("The Once and Future King") references well done (I loved the bearded squirrel!!). I am eager to see how the story unfolds in the second volume. less

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