I absolutely adored this book.

The Witch, The Sword, and the Cursed Knights, by Alexandria Rogers, takes place in a world inspire by Arthurian mythology, in which the fall of Camelot fractured the world into a couple dozen magical realms and one non-magical realm. Children are drafted from across the realms each year to go through trials to potentially become knights and protect the realms (a lifelong commitment). Ellie is a 12-year-old witch, something that she has hidden all of her life, who is rejected from the Fairy Godmother Academy at the start of the book. When she is drafted, she decides to carry out the ultimate fairy godmother task of helping a lost cause achieve their greatest wish in the hopes of getting her rejection reconsidered. Meanwhile, Caedmon is from the non-magical realm, and recently lost his best friend due to a sudden illness. When he is drafted, he finds out that his friend was killed by an evil magical creature unleashed by a curse upon the academy, and that the only way to keep his family safe is for him to become a knight and find the lost sword of Excalibur.

Both protagonists are wonderful, though I was somewhat partial to Ellie. She struggles a lot with the fact that she’s always had to hide the fact that she’s a witch, since witches are subject to intense discrimination and control in her world. She’s always been friendless, and constant insults from her mother make her want to do anything to gain her approval, which is what leads her to her dream of being a fairy godmother. She’s determined and fun and impulsive and I absolutely loved reading her character arc.

Meanwhile, Caedmon is still working through the trauma of his best friend’s death when his world is turned completely upside down through the knowledge that there’s magic that has been hidden from his realm for his entire life, and that he has to leave his family and become a knight in order to protect them. He’s rational and ambitious and a wonderful foil to Ellie’s character, even if I didn’t quite enjoy reading about him as much as I did her.

Ellie and Caedmon’s friendship is one of the best parts of the book. They’re both a little traumatized when it comes to friendships, due to Ellie’s never having had a friend and Caedmon having lost his best friend only shortly before the events of the book, so a lot of this development is them learning to trust and rely on each other in spite of those issues.

The side characters are wonderful as well, if a little two-dimensional. Ellie and Caedmon’s two main friends, Omari and Lorelai, are intriguing but don’t get much development, something that I believe would be addressed if there are further installments in the series. They both show a lot of promise as characters, but we just don’t get to see that much of them. Every other character is unique and interesting, no matter how small a role they play.

The worldbuilding is so fun as well; I loved all of the witches and fairy godmothers and knights and princesses. I wish a little more time had been spent on it, since there were definitely occasions where I was a little confused as to what was going on. However, I was always able to figure it out relatively quickly what characters were referring to, so it was never an issue for long. It isn’t the most complex lore in the world, but it’s still a really interesting take on Arthurian mythology, and I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of it.

One thing I will say is that this definitely feels like the first book in a series, but it doesn’t appear that any sequels have been announced yet. I’ll definitely be disappointed if there aren’t further books released, because it definitely feels more like the start of a story than the entire one; there’s still a lot of plot and character development that it feels like is right there waiting to happen, so I truly hope it does, as it’s relatively unsatisfying as a standalone.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed The Witch, the Sword, and the Cursed Knights. It’s a truly captivating and fun middle-grade fantasy based on the stories of Camelot. The plot is interesting, but the characters are what truly make the story as they figure out who they are and who they want to be. While I really hope that this becomes a series, since I want to see how all of the characters and plot-hooks introduced in this book develop, I would still readily recommend it if such a thing never comes to be. It’s a book about magic and knights and witches and learning to be friends; my only issue with it is that I wish there was more content coming, and there are far worse problems for a book to have than being too interesting. I’m giving it 5/5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.