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With such a gorgeous cover and an intriguing synopsis, I was so excited to start The Return of Sir Percival by S Alexander O’Keefe. Yet, when I started, all I wanted to do was put it down and never pick it up again. Sadly, I could not get into it at all and found myself wishing I hadn’t started it, or hadn’t needed to finish it.

The largest problem is the pacing of the story, which is all over the place. It drags and is slow for the most part and then suddenly spikes with a fight or any kind of action, only to fall back to a near standstill. Telling and not showing is the main contributing factor to this slow pace. The majority of the novel is simply characters telling other characters about things that happened. Telling characters about battles, telling characters about feelings, telling characters about escapes, etc. Reading an entire story about people telling each other about these things instead of showing the reader these important pieces of information is such a misstep.

The writing was dry, the dialogue burdensome, and the characters lacked any depth or complexity, all of which could have made up for the terrible pacing but didn’t. The Return of Sir Percival by S Alexander O’Keefe was a slow read that ultimately felt like listening to someone who read a book but was retelling it without any form of enthusiasm.

// I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this title. // ( )

Ten years ago Sir Percival was sent on a quest for the Holy Grail. He returns to England (here called by it's old name of Albion) to kind that King Arthur is dead and so are all the other Knights of the Round Table, Queen Guenevere is in hiding in a northern abbey, Norse raiders have taken over London and it's surrounding areas. The woman responsible for this havoc is Morgana who remains in the land in the hopes of finding and killing Merlin the Wise. Then her quest will be fulfilled. I like that this is an Arthurian tale after Arthur. The only other book like that I've read is Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant (which is fantastic). It also turns canon on it's head quite a bit. In some instances this is great, like Lancelot being a bit of a jerk. In other instances, like no acknowledgment whatsoever that Lancelot is Galahad's father are strange. Similarly, Percival speaks of his father but never mentions his name. Canonically, Percival's father is King Pellinore and he has several brothers, all of whom were also Knights of the Table. None of this is addressed in this book, so the reader is left to assume that none of that is true here. Things like this make me feel like I would have enjoyed the book a whole lot more if I didn't already know Arthur's story backwards and forwards. The deviations from the norm were so great that they distracted me, rather than intrigued or delighted me. I know that it's difficult to put a unique spin on a story this old, but I feel that other authors have done it much better. On a positive note, I really liked original character Capussa. He was a gladiator with Percival in Egypt who hails from Numidia (modern-day Tunisia and Algeria in northern Africa). Unlike Percival, Capussa had a sense of humor; he loved a good joke and enjoyed the rapt audiences he always had for his stories. Unfortunatley, his stories were mostly about Percival so we learned very little of Capussa's life before the two met. While I didn't hate the book, I won't be checking out the rest of the series. ( )

3.5 Stars
A retelling of the Arthurian story after the fall of Camelot with Sir Percival and Queen Guinevere as the MCs. It's a good story and I enjoyed many of the supporting characters, especially the knight's dark companion and the archers, hunters, and Queen's maids. Some parts are a bit lengthy and the pace of the story changes from time to time. For fans of Arthurian legends and historical romances.

Net Galley Feedback ( )

It’s been ten years since Sir Percival left Britain on his quest to search for the Holy Grail. King Arthur and the rest of the Knights of the Round Table have been dead for seven years after dying at the Battle of Camlann.

Seven years after the battle, Sir Percival has returned with his friend Capussa, a brother-in-arms, from his travels in the Holy Land. Britain has changed dramatically in the last seven years. Local warlords and Norse invaders terrorize her citizens. Lady Morgana is searching for her enemy Merlin the Wise and will kill anyone who gets in her way.

Queen Guinevere has taken shelter at a heavily guarded abbey with only a few of her ladies from court and the local clergy standing by her side.

This is a story of Percival returning home in search of his Queen, his brother knights and his fellow soldiers. It’s up to Percival to band his countrymen together in order to fight off outside invaders and local enemies. His duty is to restore the Queen to her rightful place as head of state.

“The Return of Sir Percival” is the first book in a series and I’m definitely looking forward to O’Keefe’s future installments. ( )

For those of you familiar with King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, this will be a book you want to read.

This particular book takes place 10 years after the death of King Arthur and his Knights. Morgana is still as evil as ever. Guinevere is now in exile living quietly in an abbey hidden in the woods. All of the knights are believed to have died at the Great Battle. The surrounding towns and villages are under the control of the Morgana and the Norse invaders.

However, very quickly the reader learns that Sir Percival is alive and on his way home from his own nightmare in the Holy Land. I thought this story was so well written and very historical. I was definitely hooked within the first few pages. Excited to hear there will be more books to come! I received a complimentary copy via Netgalley.com. ( )