The Witch, the Sword, and the Cursed Knights

A lush, richly drawn world in which an epic, Arthurian adventure unfolds. Beautiful writing and fresh plot moments, not to mention the amazing cast of characters, make this book one that will stay with you long after the last page. Cannot recommend it highly enough. 🥰💜

Congratulations to the author of The Witch, the Sword and the Cursed Knights who wove a wonderful spell of magic of her own in this fantasy! Filled with imagination, humor, intrigue - they’re all there and more!

Great book and would recommend. Can’t wait for the sequel. Reminded me of a mix of Harry Potter and the Iron trial (Magisterium)series.

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc and arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.Book: The Witch, The Sword, and The Cursed KnightsAuthor: Alexandria RogersBook Series: StandaloneRating: 3/5Recommended For…: middle grade readers, fantasy, retelling, King Arthur retelling, magical boarding schoolPublication Date: February 8, 2022Genre: MG Fantasy RetellingRecommended Age: 11+ (gore, death, griefExplanation of CWs: There is some mention of gore here and there throughout the book. There is talk about death and characters dealing with grief.Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young ReadersPages: 422Synopsis: Twelve-year-old Ellie can’t help that she’s a witch, the most hated member of society. Determined to prove her worth and eschew her heritage, Ellie applies to the Fairy Godmother Academy—her golden ticket to societal acceptance. But Ellie’s dreams are squashed when she receives the dreaded draft letter to serve as a knight of King Arthur’s legendary Round Table. She can get out of the draft—but only if she saves a lost cause.Enter Caedmon, a boy from Wisconsin struggling with the death of his best friend. He first dismisses the draft as ridiculous; magic can’t possibly exist. But when Merlin’s ancient magic foretells his family’s death if he doesn’t follow through, he travels to the knights’ castle, where he learns of a wicked curse leeching the knights of their power.To break the curse, Ellie and Caedmon must pass a series of deathly trials and reforge the lost, shattered sword of Excalibur. And unless Ellie accepts her witch magic and Caedmon rises to become the knight he’s meant to be, they will both fail—and the world will fall to the same darkness that brought King Arthur and Camelot to ruin.Review: For the most part I thought the book was ok. I thought the book read a lot like The School for Good and Evil and was a decent fairytale book. I loved the magical boarding school feel to it and have added it to my HP Recovery List on my blog. The book also did so well with the King Arthur themes. The world building was good and overall it’s a great story that I could see a lot of middle graders loving.However, I had a lot of issues with the book. I found it really hard to get into and the book was very chaotic at times. There was a lot going on with the plot points and it was just hard to keep everything straight sometimes. The characters are, in my opinion, not well developed and a bit weak. There’s really nothing I can think about either of the main characters to distinguish one from another except for maybe one or two things. The book is interesting, but it wasn’t enough to keep me intrigued.Verdict: It’s good, just not for me but maybe for you!

This book is EPIC. I so enjoyed reading Alexandria Rogers’ debut fantasy and you will too!Told in dual points of view, we follow Ellie from one of the faraway (and yet not so faraway) realms, and Cuadmon from our own realm. The two are chosen to be Knights of the Round Table famous for the King Arthur legends and what comes next is a wild ride of monsters, magic, and mayhem.This book gripped me from start to finish, and I read it all in a weekend! At times, I was laughing my butt off and, at others, I was too scared to turn the page. But every word of this book is pure fun. The references to Arthurian legend are AMAZING and keep the story grounded in history while being wholly new. The side characters are fun, despicable, mysterious, and all types of complex. And the villain, oh my, what a villain!I can’t wait to dive back into the world and know that whoever the reader is, there’s something in THE WITCH, THE SWORD, AND THE CURSED KNIGHTS for everyone.

For such a thick book, it really didn't give much depth to its plot or characters. Rogers aimed for the stars with this, and from the blurb, my brain said Wicked x Arthurian Legend, so I was sold, but upon reading, it was cliche after cliche, and many had done significantly better.That being said Alexandria Rogers undoubtedly has potential. She tried doing too much with this one, but I think that she'll have a long career if she keeps at it.Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the publisher.

I had so much fun reading this debut! There's so much to love--the characters, the worldbuilding--but what made me fall head over heels for this book was the voice. It was so fun and engaging! The footnotes especially had me laughing out loud, and the tiny world building details were so clever and imaginative. Get ready for a fun, engaging and highly imaginative fantasy. I can't recommend this story enough!