I reviewed this book for Romance Reader At Heart website.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

I advise all who read this version of the legendary lovers to throw everything they ever read about them out the window. This is much more than a romance; this has the feel of an epic tale and saga, filled with rich details of history and lore combined.

Isolde, accompanied by Trystan, is on a mission to persuade some of Britain's kingdoms to ally themselves with King Madoc in a fight against Lord Marche. Trystan and Isolde have grown up together, but now she is wife to Trystan's father, Lord Marche. Neither is willing to voice their true feelings for the other—Trystan, because of his deep feelings of guilt, and Isolde, from her own fear and self-reasoning. Their journey is fraught with danger, while both struggle to come to terms with their hidden desires. Their journey toward admitting and accepting the love they feel for each other is so poignant and real that the reader aches and rejoices as the story develops. And while some might think the pacing of this book is slow, I loved it and thoroughly enjoyed the initiation into a world filled with magic and danger; despair and sacrifice; passion and love.

I’m in awe of how real this book felt. The author has given so much care to every detail and aspect of it. Her characters were perfectly drawn then filled with colorful brush strokes, so that everything just jumps of the pages and magically draws the reader in. There is no escaping the pain that our hero and heroine feel at hiding their love and pain from each other, and there is no shortage of joy on the part of the reader when they finally confront their deep love for one another.

I have to admit that reading the second book in this series had me lost (and I don’t like to be lost), so I bought and read the first one in this series as well. I also went to the author's website and downloaded (free of charge in a PDF file) DAWN OF AVALON, a prequel to TWILIGHT OF AVALON, and THE WITCH QUEEN'S SECRET, a TWILIGHT OF AVALON short story. In doing so, I thoroughly got to enjoy this beautiful tale of secret love and friendship; war and betrayal; magic and legend. I would also recommend the stories be read in order, especially now that she’ll have the third book, SUNRISE OF AVALON, out shortly.

Melanie ( )

4****

Dark Moon of Avalon by Anna Elliott is a quite good read. Set in the time period shortly after King Arthur’s death, “Dark Moon of Avalon” tells the tale of Isolde, a healer who has clear visions of the past, present and future.

In a land filled with tumultuous chaos, with wars being waged quite regularly for kingdoms, Isolde suddenly finds herself being offered for marriage - and knows that she really has no say in such matters. If King Madoc decides Isolde is part of the bargain - then she is. However, Isolde has other ideas in order to help solve the dangerous situation that has arisen, and save her from an unwanted marriage.

As a healer, Isolde knows that life is often brutal and she is frequently required to attempt to heal men have been badly wounded in battle. Time and time again she is forced to make tough medical decisions - and left wondering why men must war. On occasion, the best she can do for the wounded is to ease their way into the great beyond.

As if life wasn’t complicated enough, however, Isolde is suddenly forced to face a deep love for a man she has known since childhood and that she has long kept secret - and denied even to herself. When that man, Tryston, suddenly appears in her herb room, Isolde must find a way to deal with both her feelings for him and find a way to raise more troops for Madoc’s army - before they are attacked by one of the most ruthless kings around - Marche.

Isolde must make an incredibly important journey and is forced to travel with Tryston for her protection from outlaws and other dangerous enemies.

I received this book for free to review from Bookdivas.com. I am a member of Bookdivas, Librarything, Goodreads and the Penguin book club. DBettenson ( )

DARK MOON OF AVALON by Anna Elliott is a historical fiction/fantasy set in sixth century in a land far far away in Britain,and Ireland.Book two of the "Twilight of Avalon triolgy.(book one" Twilight of Avalon). It is well written with depth,details and some historical facts. It has magic,myths,legends, war, fear, romance,betrayal, Arthurian legend,medievaltales,danger,bitterenemies,healing,political,military,honor,trust,wounded hearts and love that last throughout time. This is a story that will last the test of time of love,honor and hope. The hero, Tristian, most learn to deal with his past hurts,his father was brutal,a king,cruel and out to destroy him.The heroine, Isolde,is a High Queen, a healer,accursed of being a witch, married twice not by choice but for survival.Once to Tristian's evil father,once as a child of only twelve to a young king who was betrayed my Tristian's father and murdered by him. If you will enjoy this fast paced,page turning story based on myths and legends during medivial times especially if you enjoy magic, love,danger, sacrifice and the trials of young love.This book was received for the purpose of review from the publisher and details can be found at Touchstome,a division of Simon and Schuster and My Book Addiction and More. ( )

I am a big fan of English Historical Fiction, so I was very excited to get a copy Dark Moon of Avalon. This was not a book I had heard of before but it sounded like a book I would enjoy.

"The young former High Queen, Isolde, and her friend and protector, Trystan, are reunited in a new and dangerous quest to keep the usurper, Lord Marche, and his Saxon allies from the throne of Britain."

My only knowledge of Trystan and Isolde comes from listening to the music by Wagner and the movie with James Franco, so I really enjoyed reading and learning about them in Anne Elliot's book. The story is captivating, filled with the legend of King Arthur and the love between Trystan and Isolde carry it along.

The Prologue, and the way it is written, had me a bit worried. Written in the first person and stylized to sound poetic perhaps. It would have been hard to read the whole book this way. Thankfully, I didn't have to.

Dark Moon of Avalon, which was released in September, is the second book in the trilogy. The first book is Twilight of Avalon and the last book, Sunrise of Avalon, will be available September 2011.

I do wish I had read the first in the series but it did not ruin my enjoyment of Dark Moon. This most definitely can be read as a stand alone book. I look forward to reading the first in the series and getting the last in the trilogy. ( )

Summary: Lady Isolde is many things: the granddaughter of King Arthur and of his sister Morgan, the daughter of the traitorous Modred, a healer who is gifted with strong but unpredictable flashes of the Sight, and the former High Queen to two of Arthur's successors: Constantine, the young king, as well as Marche, Constantine's murderer and the figure that haunts Isolde's nightmares. Now that Marche has turned traitor and formed an alliance with the bloodthirsty Saxon King Octa, Isolde and the other British kings are left in dire straits, with little chance of holding Britain free of Saxon conquest. When Trystan - a young man who is Isolde's childhood friend, a mercenary fighter, escaped slave, and Marche's son, amongst other things - reappears at the fortress where Isolde is staying, she formulates a desperate plan to save the kingdom: she and Trystan will cross Saxon lands, and seek an alliance with King Cerdic of Wessex. But their journey together will place them in grave peril - both from the the swords of bandits and enemy fighters, as well as from their own feelings for each other, feelings to which they dare not admit, even to themselves.

Review: Once again, Anna Elliott has done an excellent job of taking Arthurian legend (or, in this case, the post-Arthurian legend of Trystan and Isolde) and grounding it in a believable historical context of Britain in the Dark Ages. Of course, there are bits of her story that are either anachronistic or made up out of whole cloth, as she freely admits in her author's note. But on the whole, she's taken tales that are frequently treated as fantastical or implausible, and turned them into a story that is easy to believe might actually have happened.. Even the fantasy-based elements that remain in her story - Isolde's gift of the Sight - feel grounded in known Celtic religious traditions, and don't ruin the story's credibility.

The story of Trystan and Isolde is, of course, primarily a romance. While most of the romance elements had been stripped away from Twilight of Avalon, they're brought more to the forefront here, although the romance isn't really the driving force of the story. Or, well, it *is*, but it's also well-integrated with the politics and the action, so that while the relationship is only the sole focus of a few scenes, it's always present humming away in the background, motivating the character's choices without totally overshadowing the outcomes of those choices.

It is, however, the type of romance story where the entire conflict is driven by the fact that the main characters refuse to actually speak their minds and thus misunderstandings ensue, which gets pretty old pretty quickly. No matter how much I like the characters (and I certainly do like both Isolde and Trystan), I wind up just wanting to slap both of them and say "look, I know you think that he/she doesn't love you back and you don't want to burden them with the knowledge of Your Impossible Unrequited Love because they are too good for you, but for the love of little apples, just speak up and tell them that you love them and think they're awesome and that you want to do unspeakable things to them, and save everyone involved a lot of hassle." Of course, if they'd actually listened to that advice and, y'know, *talked* to each other, it would have been a very short book indeed. And, just because the lack-of-communication-style romance gets on my nerves occasionally, it doesn't mean it's not effective; I still got all mushy when they finally do tell each other how they feel.

Overall, Dark Moon of Avalon was a solid blending of historical fiction and Arthurian legend, with interesting and sympathetic characters, plenty of action, a touching love story, and a realistic historical framework. I'm looking forward to seeing how Elliott wraps up the story in Sunrise of Avalon. 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Elliott does a nice job of summarizing what's come before (although without boring established readers), so this could theoretically be read independently of Twilight of Avalon... but since everything that I liked about this book I also liked about the first one, I'd really recommend reading them in order. Recommended for fans of historical fiction, particularly those who find normal Arthurian retellings a bit melodramatic or implausible. If you're unsure, I'd definitely recommend checking out one of Elliott's free short stories on her website to get a feel for her writing and her world. ( )