Sunrise of Avalon: A Novel of Trystan & Isolde

The conclusion to Elliott's Avalon trilogy gives readers the happy ending they've been waiting for, but murky motivations and plot lines stretched to the breaking point lessen the fun. The star-crossed lovers, secretly wed, are separated once again by duty and Trystan's fear of letting Isolde get too close. As the armies of "Octa of the Bloody Knife" of Kent, in collusion with Trystan's vicious father, Lord Marche, and Britain's own High King Madoc, surround Britain, Trystan secretly undermines the forces. Madoc confides in Isolde that his hand was forced: Octa has captured his son Rhun. Worried about Trystan's fate and eager to help her king, Isolde offers Octa an alliance, but is ambushed by Lord Marche, to whom she was forcibly wed for a brief time the previous year. Political alliances, she now learns, dictate that they wed again. Isolde's revelation that she's with child (Trystan's child, though he doesn't know it yet) holds Marche at bay long enough for her to escape with Rhun so that Madoc may now stand against the Saxons without fear. Though largely satisfying in its details, alliances and treacheries are too difficult to keep track of, and Trystan's avoidance of Isolde grows frustrating. (Sept.)