Review: Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love

Lex Croucher

Publication Date: November 28, 2023

Hardcover, 416 pages, Wednesday Books

Genres: YA, Historical Fiction, LGBTQ+

Goodreads

Heartstopper meets A Knight’s Tale in this queer medieval rom com YA debut about love, friendship, and being brave enough to change the course of history.

 

It’s been hundreds of years since King Arthur’s reign. His descendant, Arthur, a future Lord and general gadabout, has been betrothed to Gwendoline, the quick-witted, short-tempered princess of England, since birth. The only thing they can agree on is that they despise each other.

 

They’re forced to spend the summer together at Camelot in the run up to their nuptials, and within 24 hours, Gwen has discovered Arthur kissing a boy and Arthur has gone digging for Gwen's childhood diary and found confessions about her crush on the kingdom's only lady knight, Bridget Leclair.

 

 Realizing they might make better allies than enemies, they make a reluctant pact to cover for each other, and as things heat up at the annual royal tournament, Gwen is swept off her feet by her knight and Arthur takes an interest in Gwen's royal brother. Lex Croucher's Gwen and Art Are Not in Love is chock full of sword-fighting, found family, and romantic shenanigans destined to make readers fall in love.

My Review

If you're missing the fun of BBC's Merlin show or want a book similar to Alexis Hall's writing style, then Gwen & Art Are Not in Love might just be for you. It has some hilarious and disaster characters, along with some crazy situations with a bunch of young people just trying to find love. It's a lighthearted historical fiction comedy with romance and sword fighting thrown in.

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love follows two POV characters, Gwen, the current king's daughter, and Arthur, a descendant of King Arthur with none of his capabilities. Against their wishes, the two are engaged, even though Gwen likes a certain female knight and Arthur is very into men. So, they agree to make each others' lives easier and keep their secrets. What's entertaining after that is watching them become enemies to allies to sort-of friends. Both characters are complete messes.

I will say that in addition to the two protagonists, the other side characters, such as Bridget Leclair, the knight, and Arthur's friend, Sid, all are pretty flushed out characters. Bridget reminds me of Brienne of Tarth in personality, not appearance, which was very fun to read. However, I don't think the members of the royal family truly got a lot of development. I would've liked to have seen more, especially from Gabriel, Gwen's brother, and the king and queen. They felt a bit like afterthoughts at times.

Now, though I did enjoy this book, it took some time to get into. I think I had to get about 15% into the story before I truly immersed myself into the world, especially since I thought this was going to be an actual King Arthur retelling, just with gay characters, and instead it ended up having very little relevance to King Arthur at all. Honestly, that whole plot point could have been taken out. But anyway, I guess I should have read the description more closely. The plot overall, is very fun, though. Gwen and Art are trying to figure themselves out while fitting in some romance, and it's a wild ride. But the ending. I was not expecting the action that happened. Just when you think you're in a fluffy historical fiction book, BAM! Everything goes crazy! My eyes were glued to my Kindle.

All in all, Gwen & Art Are Not in Love is simply a cute, entertaining read. It will give you all the feels and make you wish to live in an age of knights and princesses. Just don't go into it thinking you're getting the actual tale of King Arthur, and you'll be all set for a quick, cheery read.

*Note: I received a copy of this book to review from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way affected my opinion/review.

Stacking the Shelves: The Priority ARC Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

Wow. It's almost Thanksgiving. Where the heck has November gone? I have so much to do before the holidays and absolutely no energy to do it. It doesn't help that I've been completely integrated into the world of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. Yes, it's become a huge problem. They've suckered me into their various fields, and I hate it. But I also love it. Ugh. I didn't have become-obsessed-with-a-celebrity-romance on my 2023 bingo card. Also, #CeasefireNow.

Now, onto books. I haven't been reading very much at all. Again, the TnT situation has taken over my life and all romance books (which is primarily what I read) pale in comparison. I still have preorders coming in though, and one major buy that has made me extremely happy. My Indigo order for A Fire in the Flesh by JLA arrived this week. It took way longer than my Indigo orders normally take. It got stuck in Canada for an extra week. My Barnes & Noble preorders for Iron Flame and Fangirl, the 10th anniversary edition, also came in. The Fangirl copy is so cute! It has pink and white stenciled edges. But the big news for this post is the ARC of Blood Passage by Heather Demetrios. I've been trying to find an ARC of this book for sale somewhere at a decent price for about two years now. And someone was selling it on Mercari. Gah! The hardcover got a cover change, but I loved the original cover design, so I wanted this copy, as this series is one that really inspires me when it comes to daydreaming about writing my own fantasy worlds..

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?

October Wrap-Up & November TBR

Well, October was probably my worst reading month of the entire year. Which isn't surprising. My vacation took up a full week of the month, and then after, I needed to catch up on life and decompress. Also, the world is on fire right now, so reading has just been difficult overall. I'm hoping November will be better, but holy cow, it isn't starting off great. #CeasefireNow.

In this wrap-up, I’ll list the books I read, the books I reviewed, the books I bought/received, and my TBR for next month. Now, let’s get this bookish party started!

Books Read in October

Devil's Dance: 3 stars (KU)

Saint's Song: 3 stars (KU)

The Fall of the Orc: 3.5 stars (eARC, my review)

Violent Demand: 4 stars (KU)

I only read four books in October, and all of them were ebooks. Three of the books were Kindle Unlimited downloads: Devil's Dance and Saint's Song by Garrett Leigh and Violent Demand by Ariana Nash. The other book was an eARC sent from author Finley Fenn for me to review her book The Fall of the Orc. It was one of my most anticipated books for the remaining of 2023, so I'm glad I was able to get it a bit early.

Books Bought/Received in October

I thought October was pretty chill, but there was actually a lot of stuff added to my shelves this month. I bought 12 books, and of those I bought in October, I received seven of them within the month. And in total, I received 15 books, which includes those seven.

The 12 books I bought include five preorders that haven't arrived yet or just didn't arrive until early November. Those include my FairyLoot preorders of The Scarlet Veil and The Midnight Kingdom, as well as my Indigo and B&N orders of A Fire in the Flesh. I purchased the regular and B&N edition from B&N. I had seven orders that were actually delivered to me within the month or were directly purchased in the store. Those include Night of the Witch and 10 Things That Never Happened from B&N, Throne of the Fallen from Blackwells, two copies of The Hurricane Wars (Waterstones and FairyLoot editions), the FBAA Walmart edition, and a fairy book I purchased in an Iceland Christmas shop on Rainbow Street.

 I also received eight books, either from preorders or review copies. They include four FairyLoot editions: the first three books in the Vampire Academy series and Sun of Blood and Ruin, the September adult book, which I paid for in September but didn't arrive until October because it was shipped to my parents' house while I was on vacation. My B&N edition of The Scarlet Veil also didn't arrive until I was on vacation, though I was charged in September, and the last book in Brandon Sanderson's Kickstarter, The Sunlit Man, arrived this month as well. I paid for that last year. Other than those, I had two ebook review copies. One was The Fall of the Orc by Finley Fenn, which I received from the author, and the other was Court of Wanderers by Rin Chupeco from NetGalley.

Currently Obsessed With

I've been watching a rollercoaster of things this month. It's been crazy. There's been a lot of movies and shows to take my attention off of everything I need to do. It's also taken away from my reading a bit.

Like I mentioned in last month's wrap-up, I've been really into the Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce romance. This lead to me going to see the Taylor Swift Eras Tour film on its Thursday opening night. There were only two other people there since most people already had tickets for Friday's original release showing. I also watched a couple of her other streaming films. One was the Reputation tour and the other was the Miss Americana documentary. I also finished my rewatch of Schitt's Creek, and I moved back to The Office. I did finish season two of The Wheel of Time as well. I slowly made my way through season five of What We Do in the Shadows too (I finished it in early November). My family (mostly my mom and sisters) watched the Barbie movie too. It was... something. I was disappointed. I don't think I mentioned this in last month's wrap-up, but I also watched Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves on Prime in September as well.

November TBR

Only one new TBR book for the month. The other two are repeats from last month. No surprise there. The newbie is A Fire in the Flesh, since that just released last Tuesday. The other two include my NetGalley ARC of Calamity by Constance Fay and Charm by Tracy Wolff. I'm only 200 pages into that one, and it's taking me forever to get through it because I liked the side characters and they're not really in this installment, sadly.

***

Okay, well, that's the month of October, plus some November sneak peeks, all wrapped up into one post. Do you have a wrap-up post for last month? If so, share in the comments!

Stacking the Shelves: The AFITF Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

Well, October is over. It's Christmas season! While I do love the Christmas festivities, I do not have the energy to buy presents this year. Ugh. People may just be getting gift cards from me. As for the most recent holiday, I did nothing special for Halloween. I just ate candy in front of my TV in my pajamas. It was very attractive. Lol.

As for books, I had two Barnes & Noble deliveries, neither of which should be a surprise. My preorders for the regular hardcover and the B&N hardcover of Jennifer L. Armentrout's A Fire in the Flesh arrived Friday. I really wish B&N had some faster shipping. I don't like ordering books from Amazon unless I just have to (e.g., independently published), but B&N takes sooo long. At least I'm not as excited about the Flesh and Fire series, so I don't have to worry about downloading the ebook to read this one day-of like I do with the regular Blood and Ash series. My Chest of Fandoms German order for A Light in the Flame also arrived. Well, technically, it was delivered to my parents' house and they dropped it off.

 As for ebooks, I have two for the week. I downloaded Blurred Lines by Andi Jaxon and Danger Zone by Brooke Blaine on Kindle Unlimited. Blurred Lines is the sequel to a MM hockey romance book I read earlier this year. I think it follows a different couple though. Also, this is a special edition cover. The regular cover is a bit spicy. Not terrible, but more skin is showing for two characters than I normally show on my blog. I think... I honestly can't remember if I've shared other spicy book covers here or not. I've been blogging for so long. Danger Zone's cover is on the edge a little too, but I figure most everything is in shadow. Plus, it didn't have another US cover.

Well, that's all for me. What books have you bought/received lately?