Review: PERCIVAL'S ANGEL by Anne Eliot Crompton

If you love Arthurian legend, knightly battles, and tales of The Good Folk (you know, faeries!), I have a book for you.

The third in Anne Eliot Crompton's series of companion novels taking place in the times of Merlin and the Knights of the Round table, PERCIVAL'S ANGEL is an adventure novel sprinkled with magic and mystery.  Percy has known the Fey Forest as home his whole life -- his mother brought him there when all of her other sons and even her husband were killed as knights.  She never wanted Percy to become a knight, and it was her life's goal to prevent this, even if it meant living in isolation among the faeries.  But when a few of Arthur's knights stumble into the forest, Percy knows that his path in life is to pursue knighthood.  He will have nothing else.

Lili is fey, grew up not knowing her mother, as is traditional for fey.  But she's always known Percy.  And over the years she's developed a desire to understand the human heart.  In fact, she wants one on her own.  When Percy decides to go questing, Lili accompanies him, both as a protector, but in pursuit of her own goal -- the human heart she yearns for.

And elegantly written novel, PERCIVAL'S ANGEL is filled with prose that is almost magical in its construction.  The reader is immediately swept into the world of magic and knights and ladies and kings.  While this is the third in a series, it does stand alone (I haven't read the first two books myself) and it's an adventure that readers of Robin McKinley and Ursula K. LeGuin will love to follow.