Review ‘The Fifth Knight’ by Claire Luana & Jesikah Sundin

Title: The Fifth Knight (The Knights of Caerleon #1)

ISBN: 9781948947978

Goodreads Rating: 4.17

Four cursed knights. One Warrior Princess. A faerie sword that binds their lives together. Fionna’s only hope to save her family lies across the Irish Sea. As a warrior princess of Ulster, the rival clann holding her father and sister for ransom knows she’ll pay any price to get them back. But even she couldn’t predict the task set before her—to steal a faerie sword from a king. The Kingdom of Caerleon is dying under Morgan la Fay’s dark magic. Her vengeful curse has locked Excalibur in its scabbard, placing Arthur Pendragon’s kingship in jeopardy. Now Arthur and his sword brothers—Lancelot, Galahad, and Percival—have but one hope. The fifth knight. The one foretold by Merlin who will break the curse and heal the land. But Arthur and his sword brothers didn’t expect the warrior to be a fierce and captivating woman. Or the legendary White Fay, prophesied by Morgan la Fay to destroy Caerleon by claiming the heart of a king and three sworn knights. The Fifth Knight is a Reverse Harem tale of betrayal and fated love.

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When I came across the cover of ‘The Fifth Knight’ on Netgalley it immediately grabbed my attention. I was looking for something other than Contemporary Romance to read, since I had been reading a lot of those, and ‘The Fifth Knight’ sounded like a great read. I haven’t read many Arthurian books, but I’ve always loved Arthurian stories. So I really was excited to startreading this book.

In ‘The Fifth Knight’ we meet Fionna. Fionna is a warrior princess who’s determined to save her family. The only way Fionna can save them is to steal a sword and become a King Arthur’s Knight. But woman don’t normally become Knights. So Fionna pretends to be a guy. After becoming a Knight, and getting to know his other Knights Fionna finds it more and more difficult to keep in mind that she has to betray them to get her family back.

Apparently this book is Reverse Harem. It says so in the book description but somehow I didn’t notice it. Do you know what that is? I for one had not heard about it until after I finished reading this book. Apparently it’s when multiple heroes fall for the same heroine. Yep, that’s a thing. So I love romance and stories, but I believe in romance between two people. Not five. And in this book four Knights all have feelings for one woman. Although I didn’t get that at all, there was just something about this book that made me want to keep on reading.

Fiona’s character was definitely fun. She was a tough woman, who could fight like the best of them. And I truly enjoyed reading about her fights. I loved that she wasn’t easily swept away. And although I don’t really get the whole liking four different guys part, I definitely got why she liked all four knights. There where some 18+ scenes in this book, but not many and they were pretty mellow.

The other characters in this book were also really fun to get to know, and they made me laugh. I definitely enjoyed reading about Arthur, Galahad, Lancelot and Percival. They all had this charm about them. And I sure would love to get to know them better. I feel like there’s still a lot I don’t know about these characters.

The fantasy part of this book definitely fascinated me. There where Fae, there was magic and there were curses. And there is an evil Fay determined to destroy everything. This first book in the series still left me with a lot of questions. And although the romance isn’t really my thing, I surprisingly would like to read the other books in this series. There’s just something about these knights that I loved.

Claire Luana grew up reading everything she could get her hands on and writing every chance she could. Eventually, adulthood won out, and she turned her writing talents to more scholarly pursuits, going to work as a commercial litigation attorney at a mid-sized law firm. While continuing to practice law, Claire decided to return to her roots and try her hand once again at creative writing. She has written and published the Moonburner Cycle and is currently working on a new trilogy about magical food. She lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband and two dogs. In her (little) remaining spare time, she loves to hike, travel, binge-watch CW shows, and of course, fall into a good book. For more information about Claire please visit her website. Or visit her on Twitter and Facebook.

Jesikah Sundin is a multi-award winning, bestselling sci-fi/fantasy writer mom of three nerdlets and devoted wife to a gamer geek. In addition to her family, she shares her home in Monroe, Washington with a red-footed tortoise and a collection of seatbelt purses. She is addicted to coffee, laughing, and Dr. Martens shoes… Oh! And the forest is her happy place. For more information about Jesikah please visit her website. Or visit her on Facebook and Twitter.

Maureen Bakker

Maureen is a mom, wife, nurse, and Ravenclaw living in the Netherlands. She spends her days juggling mom-life, reading, blogging, planning date nights with her husband and working as a nurse. Maureen also is a big Anglophile, loves cooking, Gilmore Girls, Bridgerton and Harry Potter.. Always!  Facebook | Instagram