Dawnflight by Kim Iverson Headlee is the first book in the The Dragon's Dove Chronicles. It's an Arthurian tale following the strong female lead known as Gyanhumara “Gyan” nic Hymar. She is betrothed to Urien map Dumarec, the son of Gyan's clan's enemy and Arthur's political rival. Before she is wed to Urien she meets Arthur map Uther, the Pendragon, who conquered her people in the war. Even though he conquered her clan she is taken with Arthur, and he is taken with Gyan, which causes strife between Arthur and Urien even more so than before she entered their lives.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It has a strong female protagonist who isn't afraid to speak her mind and isn't afraid to wield a sword. There is romance with just a tad of detail, which I could handle. The characters are well defined, and the world building is decent. There are vivid and exciting battles, and though there are religious undertones throughout the tale, it is a vital part in understanding some of the trials Gyan and Arthur had to face, and definitely added to my interest in their plight. I would recommend this book to anyone into Arthurian historical fiction. ( )

A retelling of the Arthurian legend, where the Guinevere character is a fantastic warrior chieftainess of Caledonia. I enjoyed this retelling, though it is by no means a light read. There is a made up language that is somewhat complicated. Note to reader: there is a pronunciation, dictionary and character guide at the rear of the book. Unfortunately I did not find this feature until after I read the book, so it didn't do me much good. I think I would have enjoyed the story more if I would have known how to pronounce the words and knew what they referred to. Once I looked through the dictionary, I realized I didn't understand a lot of what I read (though some of it I was able to figure out from context).

In this story, Guinevere is Chieftainess Gyanhumara of Clan Argyll in Caledonia. She was a brilliant swordswoman and I had a perfect picture of this woad-painted warrior in my head. Although in this story she has copper red hair, I really kept seeing her as Keira Knightley's character in King Arthur. I really liked this version of Guinevere. I prefer to see her as the woaded warrior than the lusty wench going between Arthur and his men.

Gyan is betrothed to one of Arthur's men, Urien, due to a treaty that came into effect when the Caledonians were defeated by Arthur's troops. Urien is not a nice guy, and Gyan slowly realizes that. Not to mention, the chemistry sparks from her very first meeting with Arthur.

Arthur is portrayed as red-golden haired giant in his Roman uniform with a jeweled sword. He is not yet a king in this story, and there is no round table. He has just defeated Caledonia, and is still battling Scotland. Arthur is handsome and honorable and a strong fighter. I liked his character very much.

Merlin does appear in this story as a bishop and Arthur's advisor. Religion plays a big role in this retelling... Gyan struggles with her pagan religion and there is a lot of talk and legend about the One God, heretics and the varying beliefs across the land. I found the details about custom and religion to be interesting, and overall I liked the story. However, I did not like the made up language. That is just not my thing. It slows down my reading if I am trying to figure out how to pronounce every few words or trying to figure out what they mean. If I had known about the back section before reading, that would have been super helpful.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 3.5 stars / 2 flames. I will be reviewing the second book of the series next month.

Full review posted at Bambi Unbridled. ( )