An adorable will-they-won't-they dressed up in a magical time and place. I think we all have a group of friends where each of us plays a role, and through that we balance each other out. That is this book and its characters with a sweet story of pinning for a person and a hopeful happily ever after. I would definitely keep reading about Arek, Matt, and company if there were additional tales to tell.

Thank you to NetGalley for an early copy of this book! Loved the characters, loved the humour, and enjoyed this King Arthur remix!

I got this arc from NetGalley and these opinions are my own. This book was so excellent! I’m a big fan of fantasy novels and I found this one to be so unique in that the story takes place after evil has been thwarted! Arek was received prophecy that he would stop The Vile One, he along with his best friend Matt and various other characters have managed to do so! But what do they do now? Someone has to rule, his friends all encourage Arek to take up the crown at least until the rightful princess is released from her tower but when complications arise Arek is stuck being king. And worse then that he has to be bound to someone by his 18th birthday or else! In just 3 months can Arek find love? Can he be a good King when he comes from a humble background? Can he get people to trust him after the reign of The Vile One? To me this book at its core is a rom com but told through the lens of a fantasy novel! Reading about how Arek, with the help of Matt, Sionna, Lila, Bethany, and Rion, adapts to being King and really goes on this quest to find a bond mate with the hopes that it might be one of his friends! I loved the sarcasticy wittiness of pretty much all of the main characters! The slow burn was perfect and agonizing with the obliviousness of two characters! And the time frame in which Arek has to find a bond mate adds a little bit of intrigue and thrill to the book! I’ve enjoyed many of F.T. Lukens’ books and this is no different! If you enjoy LGTBQ+ YA, rom coms, fantasy then you’ll love this book! I can’t wait to read it again!

This book has the three key YA expectations - representation, teenaged humor and adventure. Overall, this is a fun read, but, if I'm being honest, the name of the realm - Chickpea - was so out of place, that every time it appeared in the book it was jarring and brought me out of the story. Also, the "romance" was told more than shown - no real attraction between the "love interests".

There are hints of Jennifer Nielsen's Ascendance series throughout - the language, the scheming and plotting - but without the creative twists and intelligence that Nielsen brings to her books.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I very excitedly described this book to my friend as “the chaotic aftermath of a D&D campaign where all the characters are queer and the two main idiots are obviously in love but won’t admit it to each other” and I stand firmly by that. And for those reasons alone, I must say that I am in love with this book and it has cemented this author’s position on my favorites list (in Deeper Waters, the other book by them I have read, is also amazing and well worth a read if you’re into queer YA fantasy).

I can’t wait until this book comes out and I can start recommending it to everyone by shoving it at them and going “HERE. Read this one!”

Oh to be a king who needs to marry by his eighteenth birthday not knowing if his best friend feels the same way about him and wanting to marry him but not knowing if he's doing it platonically or not

So This Is Ever After begins with Arek, the chosen one, defeating the big bad and fulfilling the prophecy that's been ruling his and his friends' lives for the past year. All that's left to do is temporarily rule as king until they can rescue the princess and sole heir from her tower prison. But because things are never that easy, the princess is dead and Arek is now left with a throne he never wanted and a deadline to get married before the magical pact he took when becoming king kills him. The plot is simple but effective, and I ended up liking how things played out. There's plenty of humor and the cast of characters are interesting and feel like a cohesive, close friend group. I did think some of the dialogue's tone didn't really suit the story, and the romance aspect wasn't always strong, but this was a fun read.

This book was so cute and sweet and lovely and nice and all the good things. I read most of it in a day because I genuinely couldn't put it down. I loved the characters and I love how the plot starts after a prophecy ends (that's always one of my favorite things in writing) and I just loved all the cute hijinks and found family. I'm a sucker for found family, seriously. Also, best friends to lovers? Yes, give me all of that. I will never understand why people don't like best friends to lovers because it is so sweet and heartwarming and just yes.

This book is incredible. If you want a book to make you laugh then break your heart then put it back together again, I highly recommend reading this when it comes out.