Review: The Lost Queen by Signe Pike

Published September 4, 2018 by Touchstone

544 Pages

First in a Trilogy

Rating:

Plot

Compared to Outlander and The Mists of Avalon, this thrilling first novel of a debut trilogy reveals the untold story of Languoreth—a forgotten queen of sixth-century Scotland—twin sister of the man who inspired the legend of Merlin. 

I write because I have seen the darkness that will come. Already there are those who seek to tell a new history...

In a land of mountains and mist, tradition and superstition, Languoreth and her brother Lailoken are raised in the Old Way of their ancestors. But in Scotland, a new religion is rising, one that brings disruption, bloodshed, and riot. And even as her family faces the burgeoning forces of Christianity, the Anglo-Saxons, bent on colonization, are encroaching from the east. When conflict brings the hero Emrys Pendragon to her father’s door, Languoreth finds love with one of his warriors. Her deep connection to Maelgwn is forged by enchantment, but she is promised in marriage to Rhydderch, son of a Christian king. As Languoreth is catapulted into a world of violence and political intrigue, she must learn to adapt. Together with her brother—a warrior and druid known to history as Myrddin—Languoreth must assume her duty to fight for the preservation of the Old Way and the survival of her kingdom, or risk the loss of them both forever.

Based on new scholarship, this tale of bravery and conflicted love brings a lost queen back to life—rescuing her from obscurity, and reaffirming her place at the center of one of the most enduring legends of all time.

How I Got This Book

I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My Review

I truly fell in love with Languoreth as a character, only to fall out of love with her in the end. This book begins when she is 10 and continues through time jumps until she is middle-age. While I truly enjoyed this book, and I would recommend it to friends who are fans of historical fiction or King Arthur, I don’t think that I would read it again. It is part of a series, and I am curious where they are going to take the story next. With the way the book ended, I truly believe that there can’t be too much left of Languoreth’s story, but they did introduce characters in the last section that could continue it.

Languoreth starts out as a girl full of hope, even though she knows that her life is set in stone and she can’t be a Wisdom Keeper like her brother. She begins to lose that hope throughout the novel, and by the end she is a woman, married with children, having an affair, and having forgotten everything she knew about the Old Ways. She started strong and ended weak. She wasn’t even my favorite character throughout the novel, that goes to another who is only in it for maybe a third of the novel.

There really isn’t much that I can say about this novel. I read it and finished it about a week ago. Life got in the way of me being able to post my review until now, and honestly this isn’t a book that sticks in my mind, even with the notes that I took as I read it.

Final Thoughts

This is an interesting read, with dynamic characters, a straightforward storyline, action, adventure, romance, and magic. I gave this 3.5 stars only because it wasn’t memorable. It wasn’t a book that I could sit and rattle off the details of it to someone in the hopes that they would fall in love with it and want to read it. This is a novel that I greatly enjoyed, and would recommend, but that I wouldn’t think of first when I was recommending novels. 3.5 is a good rating for a book, so pick it up if you like historical fiction or anything relating to King Arthur.