Elaine of Ascolat is a Lady of Camelot, who is also know was the Lady of Shalott, and this book is a retelling of her story. She is a daughter of a soldier in King Arthur’s army, and the only woman in his camp. She spends her time mending soldiers clothing, and collecting herbs to make remedies for soldiers wounds. She feels a kinship with all the men in the army as she cares for them, but feels particular affection for Lancelot.
Then the beautiful Gwynivere arrives in camp and Elaine thought to have the other woman for a friend, but Gwynivere is cold and snobbish toward her, and even worse Lancelot is obviously smitten with her. Then Elaine and Gwynivere are captured and held in the enemies camp. They must work together to survive and to save the lives of the countrymen.
This book surprised me a bit because it is poetry! The whole story is told in beautiful, descriptive poetry. I didn’t want to read it at first, but got over myself and gave it a chance. After all, I had read Out of the Dust and Love that Dog, which were novels told in the form of poetry and liked them very much. I wasn’t disappointed because the story flowed beautifully and I loved how Elaine was so connected to nature and how the author wrote those descriptions so beautifully. I enjoyed this read, but since I really do favor prose as the format of my stories I didn’t like it as much as I would have. Still, it was a nice, fresh read. If you love King Arthur stories then you probably won’t regret picking this one up.
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