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.

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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?

Stacking the Shelves: The FairyLoot Overload 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.

I'm having an interesting time right now. I've been on TikTok watching Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce videos practically 24/7, but I did manage to finally read something that I liked. Hopefully that means I'm getting out of this godawful reading slump. Oh, my older sister came to visit this past weekend too, that's why I didn't post an StS. I also only had one ebook to share, so it wasn't worth the effort.

I had quite a few deliveries show up at my parents' house while I was on vacation that I was just able to pick up this past weekend. It's some good stuff too. My FairyLoot order of the first three Vampire Academy books arrived, along with the September and October Adult books. They're all very pretty, though I think I prefer the Waterstones edition of The Hurricane Wars, which you'll see below!

And next up is the Waterstones edition. I just like the lighter color scheme of this one versus the FairyLoot edition. I actually think I might sell the FairyLoot copy since I like the Waterstones one so much better. But, I'll wait until I read it to officially decide. I had a Blackwells order of Throne of the Fallen by Kerri Maniscalco arrive and a B&N preorder of Night of the Witch by Sara Raash and Beth Revis as well. And 10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall was a B&N preorder that was actually delivered to my place instead of my parents'. Yay for progress! My JLA FORAW preorder incentive bookmark was shipped to my parents' house though. Sigh. One day I'll get all my orders to go to my own house. Maybe.

Next, I have the last Brandon Sanderson box for the year: The Sunlit Man. Have I read any of the books from Sanderson's Kickstarter yet? Nope. Will I one day? I hope so. I think I'm going to wait until the first five Way of Kings books are all out, so then I can get into the overall Cosmere story without having to read Mistborn. I read the first book and it was fine. I just don't want to reread it anytime soon to finish up the trilogy + spinoffs.

 As for ebooks, I have three. I downloaded Violent Demand by Ariana Nash on Kindle Unlimited, and it's been the book that's helped get me out of a slump a bit. Thank goodness. I was sent The Fall of the Orc by Finley Fenn for review, and it was good. I also was able to get a copy of Rin Chupeco's Court of Wanderers on NetGalley!!! I plan to read it as soon as I finish another NetGalley book that's releasing very soon. Ugh. I'm so behind on reviews.

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

Review: The Fall of the Orc by Finley Fenn

The Fall of the Orc

Finley Fenn

(Orc Forged #2)

Publication Date: October 20, 2023

Kindle, 323 pages

Genres: Adult, MM, Romance, Fantasy

Goodreads

The orc broke him in battle. Now he’s aiming for his heart…

 

In a world of warring orcs and men, Lieutenant Aulis Gerrard can’t afford to lose one more battle. But when he faces off against the biggest, most brutal berserker in the orcs’ war-band, he knows he’s met his doom…

 

Until the deadly orc drops his axe. Draws Gerrard close. And orders him… to run.

 

In the heat of the moment, caught in the orc’s inexplicable thrall, Gerrard obeys — but the fallout costs him his rank, his position, and his pride. With little left to lose, he decides to hunt down the brazen brute in the forest, and demand a rematch.

 

But the orc doesn’t want just a rematch. He wants to court the pretty human lieutenant. To convert him. To conquer him…

 

But Gerrard would never yield to high treason with an orc… right? Even if the devious devil offers up gifts, sweaty sparring-matches, and sweet surrender in the dark. Because fraternizing with a fearsome, fallen enemy might destroy everything Gerrard has left… and leave his heart shattered, too.

My Review

The Fall of the Orc is the second book in Finley Fenn's Orc Forged series, which is a spinoff/prequel to the Orc Sworn series. You don't have to read the other series' books to enjoy this one, though. I know I've had a great time picking and choosing which Orc books to read based on my interests and mood.

For this installment, we have Gerrard, the POV character and a lieutenant in the human army fighting against the orcs. He's kind of broken whenever the book first starts, which was really fascinating to see play out. And, at first, you think he'll be a baby cinnamon roll, but he gets to have his major badass moments. And his orc love interest—because of course there has to be an orc love interest in an orc series—is Olarr, an enemy orc keeping secrets. Honestly, I liked Olarr, but he didn't have as much personality as I feel the other orcs in the series portrayed. He was still fun, but I wanted more. I always want more with Fenn's books, so that reaction is consistent.

The way the story played out, with the two characters meeting on the battlefield, was awesome! We love a good enemies-to-lovers arc here! But, things moved pretty fast after that. I wanted a bit more tension than I got. I know that's not typically this author's style, I just think, in this particular story line, it would've worked well. Not to say the whole book wasn't a fun time, it totally was! There were lots of spicy and kinky moments and sword swinging of all kinds. *Wink* I simply love me some major angst and tension buildup. I also didn't understand why Olarr couldn't have attempted some of the tasks Gerrard ended up taking on. It was a little confusing to me.

All in all, I was really excited for this book once I learned of Olarr and Gerrard's existence in the previous Orc Forged installment, but I think world events also played a factor in my enjoyment, through no fault of the book besides the things mentioned here. So, I do plan to come back to it one day and reread with a fresh state of mind. I love Finley's Orc world, and I'm excited to see whose story is next.

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

September Wrap-Up & October TBR

I'm back! Yay! I know I've already said it in my last post, but it is nice to be back to the regular routine. My trip abroad has definitely confirmed that I'm definitely an introvert. As I mentioned, I went on a vacation at the end of September/beginning of October. My friends and I went to Iceland for 1.5 weeks. And it was great! Hectic, but great. I might share some pics in a post later. I haven't decided yet. It's been tough to get myself to blog or even just read lately. But anyway, my vacation is the reason this wrap-up is so late.

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 September

The Tragedy of Felix and Jake: 3 stars (KU)

Gravity: 3 stars (KU)

Salt Kiss: 4 stars (ebook)

Wayward: 3 stars (KU)

American Queen: 3 stars (ebook)

American Prince: 2 stars (ebook)

The Fractured Dark: 3 stars (NetGalley, my review)

I read seven books in September which is actually way more than I thought I had read, considering how busy I was. All of them were ebooks, though, so no checking any off my physical TBR. Sigh. Three of the books were Kindle Unlimited downloads: The Tragedy of Felix and Jake by J. Daniels, Gravity by Tal Bauer, and Wayward by Mary Calmes. Three others were ones I bought on Kindle: Salt Kiss, American Queen, and American Prince by Sierra Simone. And the final read of the month was completed right before I left on my trip so I could squeak in a review last minute. That was my NetGalley ARC read of The Fractured Dark by Megan E. O'Keefe.

Books Bought/Received in September

September had a lot of special edition preorders come in. And I was too busy to really appreciate them all. But they're all very nice looking. I also bought too much. Big surprise there. Not. Anyway, I bought 21 books and received a total of 13 books in the month, but while I say I "bought" 21 books, a lot of them were free.

The 21 books I bought include seven preorders that haven't arrived yet or just haven't received yet. Those include the September FairyLoot adult book, a special edition preorder of the Lux series (five books), and the Bookish Box edition of ASOAAB. Oh, and I also didn't technically receive The Scarlet Veil until October, so it falls into this category as well. The other other 13 books include three editions of Fall of Ruin and Wrath (regular, BN, and Indigo), A Fire Endless paperback from BN, and Salt Kiss from Amazon Kindle. Now, the remaining books were all free for a variety of reasons. I got three books for free using Amazon return/reward money. Those include American Queen, American Prince, and Slippery Creatures. I also downloaded four ebooks during the Stuff Your Kindle freebie sale and got Blood Price, On These Black Sands, Kingdoms of Shadow and Ash, and Moon Touched. I also got Immortal Reign from Amazon for free since my physical paperback came damaged. They didn't make me return it. In total, I received 26 books in the month of September.

 Now, I also received 13 books, either from preorders or review copies. They include seven FairyLoot editions: Fourth Wing, the Poison Study trilogy, and The Drowning Empire trilogy. I also received my Owlcrate copy of FORAW and my Russian edition of AKOFAF. I even had a BN August order come in September, so it doesn't count towards the September "bought" category. That order had A Restless Truth, the RWRB movie edition, and Captive in it. And lastly, I had a surprise ARC of Sword Catcher show up.

Currently Obsessed With

Last month, I had a lot going on, so I mostly mindlessly scrolled through videos on TikTok. I did manage to squeeze in a few shows though.

Okay, so I've been unhealthily obsessed with the T&T relationship. It's just so romance-book coded! I'm not even a KC Chiefs fan, though I do live in the same state. And I'm probably an average Taylor Swift fan. I don't know all her albums and songs (though that's changing in October, as I've been watching her various tour documentaries on streaming). But I've been watching TikTok videos of the couple like crazy! Ugh! I'm also rewatching Schitt's Creek when I eat or work, and I started The Wheel of Time season two in September (I finished it in October), and I'm making my way through season five of What We Do in the Shadows.

October TBR

Since it's already mid-October, I don't have a lot of time left to read everything, but there are a couple of review books I'd like to start/finish this month. They include Calamity by Constance Fay, Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare, and The Fall of the Orc by Finley Fenn, which I'm about 70% through right now. I also want to finish Charm by Tracy Wolff. I'm only 200 pages into that one, and it's been rough trying to get through it.

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Okay, well, that's the month of September, plus some October 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 Return 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, I'm back in the US, which sadly means I went back to work this week. Boo... But I had fun on a 10-day trip around Iceland (the whole vacation was a little longer, but it's hard to count the travel days since those are just spent in airports and on the road). My friends and I hiked a glacier, explored a lava tunnel, and spent a lot of money on food and activities. I might share some pics later, but for now, on to the books.

My Barnes & Noble edition of The Scarlet Veil by Shelby Mahurin arrived when I was about three days into my Iceland trip, so I had my sister come get it. Or, well, she was supposed to. Turns out, she forgot about it and didn't tell me until I got back that she only picked it up when she picked up another package for me later on. I'm just glad it didn't rain since it was left on the front porch that whole time. And, after driving four hours from my friend's place at four a.m., I also stopped by my local Walmart to check if they had the new FBAA edition. They did! Success! It was the last one there. Whew! I was so upset that JLA announced this edition's release the day before I left on my vacation, but everything worked out. Thank goodness.

And next up is the other package I had my sister pick up for me, the Fall of Ruin and Wrath JLA Shop box. It came with a blanket, shirt, mug, some prints and character cards, a reading light, sticky tabs, a standee, and a necklace. Overall, I'm happy with the contents. I didn't buy the A Fire in the Flesh box though, I just don't love the F&F series as much as the B&A one, so I couldn't justify spending the money right before my trip. Hopefully if there's anything cool I miss out on, it's available later.

And lastly for physical books, I have my big Iceland souvenir, other than rocks, chocolate bars, and a shirt. I got this very pretty illustrated fairy book from a Christmas store on Reykjavik's Rainbow Street, and, surprisingly, it held up through two plane rides without any major damage. Success again!

 As for ebooks, I downloaded two books in the Rebel Kings series by Garrett Leigh on Kindle Unlimited. While I read the second book, Saint's Song, I'm currently in the middle of Forgive Me Father, book three, and I think I might DNF the series. I'm not feeling the relationship in this one and the politics of the Russian and Italian mafia combined with the UK Biker gangs is a little too much for me when I just really want more of the romance. I like romances with plot, but this one is a bit too much plot, too little smooshy stuff.

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