Week 15 Reviews: Once & Future, Sword in the Stars

From Goodreads:

I’ve been chased my whole life. As a fugitive refugee in the territory controlled by the tyrannical Mercer corporation, I've always had to hide who I am. Until I found Excalibur.

Now I'm done hiding.

My name is Ari Helix. I have a magic sword, a cranky wizard, and a revolution to start.

When Ari crash-lands on Old Earth and pulls a magic sword from its ancient resting place, she is revealed to be the newest reincarnation of King Arthur. Then she meets Merlin, who has aged backward over the centuries into a teenager, and together they must break the curse that keeps Arthur coming back. Their quest? Defeat the cruel, oppressive government and bring peace and equality to all humankind.

No pressure. 

From Goodreads:
In this epic sequel to Once & Future, to save the future, Ari and her Rainbow knights pull off a heist... thousands of years in the past.

Ari Helix may have won her battle against the tyrannical Mercer corporation, but the larger war has just begun. Ari and her cursed wizard Merlin must travel back in time to the unenlightened Middle Ages and steal the King Arthur's Grail---the very definition of impossible.

It's imperative that the time travelers not skew the timeline and alter the course of history. Coming face-to-face with the original Arthurian legend could produce a ripple effect that changes everything. Somehow Merlin forgot that the past can be even more dangerous than the future...

My Review:
Wow, I really enjoyed reading these books! They're such great stories, I love the fact that they're gender bent King Arthur retelling. Well, the first book is more of an extension, while the second one is more of a retelling, since they're back in the original. Yeah.

I love that this is set way in the future, that Ari is a girl, and that Merlin is a teenager. It's a great mix of elements that were just so enjoyable to read. And that this world is pretty diverse in terms of gender identity and sexual fluidity, as well as skin tones, since Ari is from the planet  Ketchan, were people of Arab descent settled, and how Ketchan is their identity, not Arab. Also, English is now called Mercer, because of course the evil company that they're after changed culture stuff.

We got Ari's perspective and we got Merlin's. Ari has the more important story in the first book, she does her Arthur quest, and does pretty well, with all the big reveals and such. But it's not quite enough, and Sword in the Stars is more Merlin's book. We learn so much about him, and he does come into his own in this book, which was pretty great to read!

Both characters learn and grow over the course of these books. Because there's a whole year gap in the first book, with an unseen, but know it happened training montage. Plus the whole, Gwen and Lancelot bit. As for Merlin, he has to confront aging backwards, and then in the second, being gay in a pretty restricted and backwards time. But I enjoyed both of their journeys, the growth that they both went through, as well as all the story reveals and how everything wrapped up story wise!

Loved reading these stories, they were so enjoyable to read and it was great to have widespread representation!

Authors: Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy
Series: Once & Future #1, 2
Read: April 5th, 6th, 2020
Source: Bought, NetGalley
Reason Why: Sounded really good, and they're 2020 Retelling Reading Challenge Books and Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2020 Books! And Sword in the Stars is a End of Series 2020 Book!
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson
Published: March 26th 2019, April 7th 2020

Once & Future:

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars

Sword in the Stars:

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars