Some Goodreads reviews
The Nature of Things Good Read reviews
Bella Draper 5*
I found myself especially invested in Gwen's story. She’s strong, compassionate, and far more complex than many versions of Guinevere I’ve read before. Her role in shaping the kingdom gave the book a depth I wasn’t expecting.
Morrie ended up being one of my favorite characters. There’s something incredibly relatable about the struggles and choices he faces throughout the story. His relationship with the other characters added so much emotion to the narrative.
John Brown 5*
I went in expecting another Arthurian retelling and came out completely wrecked by a story about a little boy who isn't allowed to be himself. Myrddin talking to the water spirits as a seven-year-old and getting hushed by his own terrified mother broke something in me early on, and the book never really lets up after that. This isn't the wizard-with-a-staff Merlin. This is a kid who has to learn to hide his own nature just to survive.
Hayden Band 5*
Meinir might be my favorite kind of protagonist, not the one doing the magic on the page, but the one holding her breath every time her son almost does. Watching her love him and fear for him in the same sentence, over and over, hit way harder than I expected from what I thought was going to be a straightforward legend retelling.
Okay, Bleys. Can we talk about Bleys. The grandfather who has no magic at all in a family full of it, and somehow he's the one holding everyone together with sheer stubbornness and love. That scene where Myrddin points out that Bleys wouldn't be happy either if he were forbidden to read and write absolutely floored me. Such a quiet, devastating way to make a kid's grief make sense.
This book made me care about Gwenhwyfar before she was even Guinevere, before any of the legend stuff kicks in. A little girl burying her mother in the snow, taken to a fortress full of strangers, and somehow still lifting her chin at grown soldiers who laugh at her. I wasn't ready to love her this much this early.
5*
I'll be honest, I picked this up because I love anything Arthurian and I stayed because of Gwen. Her backstory, her mixed heritage, the way people stare and whisper before they even know her, the author does so much with so few pages in those early chapters. By the time she's queen you understand exactly why she fought so hard to become someone people couldn't dismiss.
5*
Vivien's arc absolutely gutted me. The fear in that scene where Morrie stumbles in bleeding, trying to explain what happened, and you realize Vivien told her to run and save herself instead of trying to save them both, that's the kind of moment that stays with you. This isn't a side romance, it's a whole tragedy sitting quietly inside a bigger one.
5*
Five stars and I'm still thinking about Morrie two weeks later. She's not the Morgan le Fay you're expecting. She's a scared, loyal, complicated young woman doing her best in a world that would kill her for what she is, and watching her relationship with Merlin evolve across the book is one of the most rewarding threads in the whole story.
5*
I didn't think I'd end up loving Taliesin this much but here we are. The bard-and-sorcerer combo could've been a gimmick and instead it's one of the warmest relationships in the book. Talli's loyalty never wavers even when everything around him is falling apart, and honestly by the end I wanted a whole spinoff just about him and Elga.
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