Title: The Vixen
Author: A. Dee Carey
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Published in by Triskelion Publishing
IBSN:
Leigh, a young and lonely boy, comes upon a dead fox in a trap one day with her kits’ bodies scattered around her. Much to his surprise, he finds one small female kit still alive under her mother’s body. Rescuing the small animal, Leigh looks forward to having a play-mate to ease the loneliness he had endured for most of his ten years of life. Living with Helga the cook and housekeeper and the master of the house, Olyn, Leigh is unaware of his preordained destiny. He spends his days playing with his new-found friend and attending his chores, marveling at the closeness he feels for his new companion.
Until one memorable day when he comes upon a skunk. Stinking to high heaven, Leigh returns home to Olyn and Helga’s ministrations to have Olyn discover the Druid’s mark upon his body. Knowing at once what it means, Olyn takes Leigh to King Arthur’s court where he becomes a page to Sir Lancelot. Leigh, both a simple young man and an intelligent one, soon discovers there is more to the king’s court than pageantry, chivalry and being the cousin to Queen Guinevere. There is treachery, dishonor and deception.
Kit, the small and half frozen fox Leigh finds beneath her mother’s body, unknowingly to herself and others, is not your average fox. She is the descendent of the common girl who the Druids protected by giving her the guise of an animal. Her destiny lies with the royal who bears the mark of the fox. When both reach their potential, they will join together to rule Ireland with a true sense of the people. Unfortunately, Kit doesn’t realize her own powers and potential. Locked in the body of the fox, she is unaware of the ability to change herself unto human form and when she accidentally transforms, she forgets her animal form and becomes the daughter of a pirate.
Once her pirate father is lost at sea, Kit’s plans to captain the ship are foiled by the crew who will not be led by a young woman, no matter how fierce a fighter she has proven herself to be. With only her protector Scilit, first mate to her father, Kit abandons her father’s ship and makes her way to where she has hidden her father’s store of ill gotten gains and the castle that she dreams of making her own. Along the way she meets again those she couldn’t remember from her early fox days and discovers the secret to her animal transformation and the treachery that lies inside the court of King Arthur.
A Dee Carey's version of King Arthur’s court and the legend of Camelot, is filled with undercurrents of dishonesty, unchivarous knights and traitorous plots. Morganna, the king’s sister and witch, plots with the King’s most noble knight to undermine the King’s power and take for themselves what he holds most dear. King Arthur comes across as old and weary, His Queen, Guinevere as a sniveling unintelligent wimp, and Lancelot is portrayed as an evil, self serving lout.
I loved it! The twists and turns of the intricate plot lead the reader on a very convoluted trail where no one is what they seem. From the simple young page whose destiny will be to rule the Kingdom to the old wizard Olyn who protects both Leigh and Kit as they find their destinies during their journey to recapture Kits treasure, return the Queen to Camelot, and defeat Morganna and Lancelot, nothing is ever what it seems. If you love the legend of Camelot and love fantasy, you will definitely like this unusual take on King Arthur’s Court and the Knights of the Round Table. Other than some initial confusion in the first couple of chapters where A Dee Carey jumps around a bit trying to pack a lot of information into a short space, the story flows full of adventure and intrigue.
The Vixen by A Dee Carey is available now at Amazon.
Good Reading,
Julie
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