Review: “Her Knight’s Quest,” Alexis Morgan

Pros: Enjoyable world & story
Cons: Flat villain & confusing magic
Rating: 3 out of 5

Review book courtesy of Penguin Group

Alexis Morgan’s Her Knight’s Quest is the second book in her “Warriors of the Mist” saga, following My Lady Mage. The story follows five legendary warriors who can be called forth from their god-induced slumber to aid a person in great need. In My Lady Mage, a woman named Merewen called them forth. In Her Knight’s Quest, Duncan leaves the group in order to seek out forbidden tomes of knowledge at an abbey. Without that knowledge, they stand little chance of prevailing against the Duke’s evil blood magic. The abbess, Lady Lavinia, may prove to be far more valuable than any of the books under her protection, however; she possesses great power of her own, and the Duke seeks to kill or capture her at any cost.

I read My Lady Mage just long enough ago that I don’t feel comfortable giving it its own separate review, but I will say that I quite enjoyed it. The blend of magic and mysticism, romance and fantasy, is intriguing. Although it had been some time, I found it easy to pick up the threads again in Her Knight’s Quest—however, I would strongly recommend reading the books in order. That half-remembered background definitely made a difference.

My biggest gripe with the book is the villain. He’s about as mustache-twirlingly eeevil as you can get, and there isn’t any real dimension there. This made it harder for the conflict of the series to grab hold of me. The Duke also isn’t the only flimsy character; you’ll recognize the standard child who knows too much/is touched by the gods as well. It’s hard to see her as more than a transparent plot device. In part this is because while we see the religion present in the warriors’ veneration of their Lord and Lady, we see little of other gods, leaving the child’s eerie pronouncements without any apparent divine personality or guidance to back them up. Like the religion, the magic system tended to leave me a bit confused, trying to reconcile how it apparently works in one instance with how it works in another.

All that said, I did enjoy the book. The main characters are interesting, and their romance is sweet. There are some plot twists that keep things moving. It’s nice to see that the villain has weaknesses. I also appreciated getting to see bits and pieces of what’s going on with Merewen and the rest of the knights.

It isn’t a series I’ll hurry to follow the whole way through, but it’s a nice read when I happen to get my hands on the books.