The entire book I was waiting for the scene where Nimue becomes Queen, and takes the throne of Camelot from King Uther, but that never happens. The closest we come to having her declared Queen is 'Queen of the Fey' and that's only when she takes over one village! They immediately declare her queen, with no prior scenes to showcase her ability as a leader, and no challenges from the other Fey, especially the elders. That scene was extremely forced--it felt as though the author had intended for a powerful scene that showed Nimue as a powerful female, especially with the Sword of Power, but in reality it left the me, the reader, disappointed. The only other female character is Morgan, who has little to no character change and is almost added as an afterthought. She is still the half-sister of Arthur, but that seems to be it. She helps out the Fey to escape from the bad guys, the Red Paladins, but that seems to be it. She lectures Nimue about never giving up the sword, and especially not letting her give the sword up to a man. That seems to be the only reason she was brought in--to act as female support to Nimue. For all that the author seems to portray a Female Empowerment book, it falls flat. I have no idea what Wheeler was thinking, but I know for sure he did not consult any females for it. The entirety of this book seems to be fluff, some story aimed at young adults as a filler, something to read that doesn't impact in any way. At least, to me. There were scenes in the book that were definitely not intended to be read by a younger audience, and yes it does set a darker tone for the book. However, the darker tones are not explored! The Fey people are being hunted down, killed, exploited, treated as less than human, and there's nothing to show for it! You cannot tell me that someone would suffer the persecution of their people and not be furious. Nimue, herself, suffers a personal loss at seeing her village burned down, but never reflects on it. *spoiler* She loses her mother, but never seems to take a moment to grieve. At all. She seems to be pushed forward only for plot purposes. There's no deep exploration of her feelings that normally would be given to a traumatized character. It's another point in the negative category for me. More than once I have read parts of the book that seemed to me to be rushed. Many times I read a section and thought, 'Wait, what just happened?' before it moved on completely and the issue never resolved. The Red Paladins, for example, are set up as the terrible bad guys that are persecuting the Fey and doing absolutely horrific things--torturing the victims that they capture all in the name of 'purifying' them. It calls back to actual real-time events when Hitler persecuted the Jewish people. The only retribution reaped upon these Paladins are by Nimue's hand. But the Fey are described as a magical people with abilities that no man can hope to overcome? Abilities that they never use to defend themselves? That seemed like a plot-hole to me--that the Fey never tried to defend themselves beforehand. Nimue's mother is described in her final moments to fight to the death with only a dagger--so where were the other moments just like this? The mothers and fathers fighting tooth and nail to defend their children? It could have been saved if the Red Paladins were said to have had Iron, or some other weapon that hurt the Fey and left them defenseless, rather than have them killed when they are clearly a superior magical race that seemed to give up without a fight until Nimue shows up. Also, another negative: the supposed plot twist in the middle of the book? With Nimue's father? Didn't elicit gasps of surprise or even shock. I read the sentence and thought 'huh' before moving on. That's it. The author did not do a good job of garnering my attention and holding it. Overall, it was an average book, and interesting to read. I really liked the Arthurian tale twists that the author added, but I definitely felt that it should have been worked on more, to make it better. I felt that it had potential, but at the moment it's not that good of a book.