OH, MOTHER OF ALL PINING!!

This book was a mix of a very soft Tales from Verania and The Adventure Zone. The angst and pining was all Verania and, if you know the first book, then you'll know what to expect here. All the pining, lack of communication, jumping to conclusions faster than lightning! But even with my heart screaming at them to JUST TALK, I was so much entertained at the hilarious banters and interactions.
This is an "oblivious to lovers" story about what happens after the prophecy is fulfilled. The bad dude has been killed; now what? The kingdom needs a new ruler, the new ruler needs a spouse, and there's a timeline with deadly consequences. So, the usual!
The found family that formed during the fulfilment of the prophecy put together a variety of individuals, each bringing something to the party. I loved them all, and I loved the situations they found themselves into and how they're choosing to live their "ever after".
Arek and Matt, the oblivious boys, were the joy and bane of my existence. Can two people be so frustratingly adorable? They sure can. I wanted to both slap and hug them. So much!! All the time!!
I won't tell you how long the pining lasts here, but it's definitely not the amount of time my heart is used to. For comparison, my last read was instalove.

I loved the RPG vibes of this book and I love how, like The Adventure Zone graphic novels, it defied a bit the reality they were in, with quotes and references that were in no way fitting their fantasy world. It was really so much fun to read! Heartache and all!!

What a fun read! I’d read about any adventures this gang goes on if it’s written by F.T. Lukens. This was a great friends to lovers fantasy comedy featuring a variety of sexual and gender representations. Super chaotic but in the best way!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this novel. 4/5 stars.

I was hooked from the first page. The writing style is absolute comedic gold, and it most definitely reminds me of Carry On with the humor, jokes, and the banter between the group of friends. You're dropped right into the action with the ending of the prophecy, but, alas, there's a part none of the teenagers expected...you know...what happens AFTER you kill the bad guy. Each of Arek's council is incredibly likable, and I wish there was more explored to each of their backstories. I kind of feel like it's a RenFaire Fest atmosphere too. It was SO enjoyable. Honestly, the whole book is about Arek pining toward his best friend who may or may not be pining after him, but they're both terrible at communication and LITERALLY everyone except them knows. Oh, and they're trying to figure out how to rule a kingdom. Oh, and there's a giant squid at some point.

If you're wanting to read this to experience some magical quest and the hero's journey - THIS IS NOT THE BOOK - and honestly the only reason I deducted it a star because it's a romcom. It's not an adventure or action book. It's a book of secondhand embarrassment for Arek and his miserable attempts to woo people.

But it was hilarious. And it's a real good, feel good read.

i love FT Lukens, and this book totally established them as an auto buy author for me. the magic! the writing! the romance! perfection.

The description of this book was “Dungeons and Dragons meets Carry On” and it is very apt! I love The Chosen One trope so much, and especially stories that deal with what happens after the journey is finished. ‘So This Is Ever After’ is exactly that. The romance is very sweet and full of misunderstandings and angst, which is always great.. What I especially liked was the friendship group, brought together by circumstance and a greater purpose, who now have to actually work on those relationships now that the journey is over. Absolutely wonderful!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've been a fan of F.T. Lukens since In Deeper Waters last year and I have quickly learned that they do not disappoint and So This Is Ever After definitely does not disappoint. Can we just take a moment to admire that gorgeous cover?

Arek has spent the last nine months of his life working to fulfill the prophecy given to him by a (maybe drunk) wizard. After defeating the Vile One with the friends he made along his journey and bringing peace to the land everything should go back to normal right? Wrong. After placing the crown on his head in the hopes of only temporarily ruling he learns that he's magically bound to the throne and what's more, he needs to find a spouse to be magically bound to before his eighteenth birthday in three months' time. It doesn't help that he's been pining for his best friend, his mage, Matt the whole time. Thus begins a series of shenanigans to try and woo his friends before time runs out and he fades from existence.

I fell in love with this book fairly quickly. Arek (especially Arek) and his friends are filled with this alignment of Chaotic Stupid energy and it's just so enjoyable and loveable. Arek recognizes his faults, he never wanted to be king, but he still tries his best. The witty banter between the characters really shows that, even though they hadn't been together for long and were thrown together by prophecy, they really care about each other. I would read a prequel to this book of their adventures in a heartbeat. Once you realize the pattern of events it can be a little predictable but it's still just so heartwarming and laugh-out-loud amusing to see how Arek and Matt and the rest handle everything. This is easily added to my list of favorites.

<b> Fluffy, Happy Romance with A Loving Queer Found Family but not for me </b>
I will start by saying I was grateful for the ARC and think this book has a great potential target audience out there and it is very much not me. I saw the advertising relating it to Merlin and Arthur and thought that meant that it played with that mythology, which is wrong. The background set up for this is clearly more of the Dungeons and Dragons set up with clear classes, such as rouge, knight, etc. Also, again on me, I cannot stand books where the entire plot could be solved by a decent conversation. This entire plot revolves around the two MC being too oblivious to talk to each other about their feelings. Really, it gets so bad, I’m not sure how anyone can be that oblivious. Again, that is my least favorite plot arc and very common romance trope. However, there is no other parts of the book to set this up. On paper, we have an unprepared pheasant with some teenage friends taking over a country that has been ruled for 40 years by an evil mage and despot. The teens get made in charge of branches of the government and there is no real striving or conflict for what could be a very interesting set-up. It feels to me almost like a play somewhat. We have a very restricted cast of characters with two servants standing in for most of the castle staff and no real feel of a greater country, history or mythology around it. For me, it is way too shallow a book, but I am giving it a 3 star because my misunderstanding of what I was requesting as an ARC. However, I think there is a good market for a fluffy and light romance

Arek and his band of friends have fulfilled their mission. The evil king is dead and now all they need to do is restore the proper princess to her throne. What could go wrong? Everything could go wrong! The princess could be dead. Delcaring yourself king comes with a curse that won't let you abdicate without killing you. On top of that if you don't match with someone by your 18th birthday you could fade away. Either way your dead. So what is a guy to do? They only thing they can try to find a match and wish for the best. Being a king is pressure enough trying to find someone new to fall in love with within 3 months that just is just extra stress. So Arek turns to his group of friends to find a potential mate. His heart longs to be with his best friend, but he doesn't know if Matt feels the same way about him. Can Arek find love in his friend group before it is to late? Will he even make a good king?

To live in a world where no one questions who you love, or finds it odd that you are not limited by one sex is just so freeing and such a joy to read. I love how no one questions Arek outside of the fact that his plan is a little convoluted in the sense he tries to do it behind his friends backs. The support and love and fluidity in this text just fills my heart truly with such joy. Thank you for creating a world that is not so set on our current worlds standards. We need more books like this. Hopefully they will encourage people to be more open minded and more accepting.

Thank you so very much to Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book.

Arek has fulfilled the prophecy where he slays the Vile One ruling the kingdom. With his trusted friends by his side, he thinks the journey is done. That is, until he places the crown on his head and finds himself rooted in the position of king. Now Arek has to find a way to break a magical bond on being king that requires him to be soul bonded before his 18th birthday, lest he risk fading away into nothing. Oh, and he won't let his feelings for his best friend and mage Matt get in the way of it.

I was expecting a lot more worldbuilding with this story, especially since it's advertised as an Arthurian retelling. We get some nice worldbuilding about The Vile One and the magic system, which also wasn't explained very well, but that's about it? A lot of the "worldbuilding" comes near the end when the other kingdoms are invited to the castle for a feast and masquerade. But that's really it. It really didn't feel like there was much life outside of the castle that Arek and his friends live in, and we were just confined to castle life. In fact, I don't think the main cast even mentions any town names or gives any lore to the world, almost like they themselves aren't too aware of it. That's a bit unsettling since this world is a fantasy and we should know more about how the magic works and how different towns and kingdoms rule. It's almost like the world was an afterthought for the story.

One thing I really liked about the story was the inclusion and representation with the cast and the world. Arek is definitely bisexual or pansexual, I think Sionna is maybe lesbian, and Lila maybe polyamorous? Oh and there's a non-binary person towards the end. What I liked was that their sexualities are never defined and that's how it should really be. Like yeah, labels can be important for people when discovering their sexual orientation, but if people like who they like, that's cool!

The characters I'm very iffy on. All of the characters besides Rion had this quirky snarkness to their speech. Don't get me wrong, I really liked the banter. But when a majority of those characters share the same kind of speech pattern, it becomes really hard to discern them from each other, which is what really happened here. I never really bonded with any of the characters as a result since they all felt the same. Matt is maybe the one exception, but he was more grumpy than anything.

Speaking of characters, I really wish Arek was done better. The story is in his POV, and a majority of the time we got his thoughts about Matt and dedicated to this goal of finding someone to woo. But when it comes to the world around him, Arek has almost no thoughts, which also detracts from the worldbuilding. I was really expecting Arek to soften up to his role of king, at least even have him say in his internal dialogues that he was starting to warm up to it. But instead, all we get is him hating the role of king and at the very end make a proclamation that he actually likes it now. One thing I HATE as a reader is not getting a main character's thoughts even though it's from their point of view and then get a proclamation like that, because then as a reader you go "Huh, I never realized you thought that way." That puts a massive disconnect between the reader and the story, which is not what you want.

The one thing keeping me going in this story was the romance between Arek and Matt, but even then the miscommunication was SO BAD! Their feelings were so obvious for each other, and it was so awful reading it and Arek not being able to read the signs. Once we got to the end, it was fine. But the miscommunication made it so hard to read through.

So This Is Ever After is a good starter story for those wanting to get into fantasy, but even then has flaws that make the story difficult to stick to.

I received a copy of this story as an ARC from both NetGalley and the publisher. Any and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you so much, NetGalley, Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing and Margaret K. McElderry Books, for the chance to read this book in exchange of my honest opinion.

Arek didn't think of what would happen after he fulfilled the prophecy and defeat the evil ruler of the Kingdom of Ere. But when he's persuaded by his best friend and mage, Matt, to assume the throne until they find the rightful heir, Arek bound to the throne. Nothing goes as planned: the heir is dead and Arek discovers he has to choose a spouse by his eighteen birthday or he will fade and die. So he embarks on an desperate attempt to find his spouse, because his eighteen birthday is only three months away. Even though he starts with his quest companions, none is the right one and his attempts go hilariously wrong...until he discovers the right one may be in front of him since the very beginning.

So this is ever after answer the question of what happens after the hero defeats the evil ruler. Arek is a wonderful, funny and absolutely relatable companion, who finds himself following a prophecy, fulfilling it and now as a king who knows nothing about how to rule a kingdom. His ragtag group of quest companions are there for him and, mostly, Arek's best friend Matt, who is been with him even before the prophecy.
I loved reading this book! It was hilarious, so sweet and intense and the author did an outstanding job with the characterization. Arek is amazing and relatable, hilarious in his attempts of wooing, in love with Matt, afraid to lose him, suffering because he seems not to want him and desperate not to wither away and die in three months.
His companions are also a joy to read. Matt is introvert, cautious and I love his relationship with Arek, so pure and intense, bonded since their childhood in their village by love and affection.
Lila is witty and sarcastic, with her actions and snarky remarks, Sionna with her strength and badass attitude, Bethany with her power and sweetness and Rion, the knight and his inability to get jokes.
There are many things I loved about this book! One of them is the bond between this ragtag group of companions, made by love, inside jokes and teasing.
There's a wonderful queer cast and the bond between Arek and Matt is definitely one of my favourite, made by pining, teasing, love and there were some many times I wanted to yell at them to just talk about their own feelings and get together! I was laughing so hard when everytime Arek wanted to woo someone, ended up with Matt! It was so destined to be!
I loved everything! It was hilarious, sweet and so cute to read and enjoy! I can't wait to hug my physical copy.

I want to thank the author/publisher for the opportunity to read F.T. Luken's book <i>So This is Ever After</i> prior to publication. Although I am thankful for their generosity in letting me read this book before publication, the following review is completely mine.

I really, really enjoyed this book. I don't read a lot of books targeted toward this age group, but as an adult, I had a great time with this book. The dialogue is enjoyably snarky and sarcastic. The author's writing style made the book move at a great pace. Sometimes I wished there was a bit more description or a few beats between some of the dialogue to break things up, but I think this book was a great read.

If asked to describe this book, I would say it's about what happens once the hero beats the bad guy in a fairytale, and someone then has to turn around and run the kingdom. From a practicality perspective, I wish there had been a few more realistic hurdles in running a kingdom. I just felt the book was devoid of the actual politics of running a kingdom in a few places that could have added a smidgeon of realism.

Again, with these small issues, I still found myself thoroughly enthralled with this book. I would highly, highly recommend.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry, the author, and NetGalley for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review. This book will release March 29, 2022.

After beheading the Vile One as the prophecy foretold, Arek assumes the throne of Ere—temporarily, he says, until the princess can assume her rightful place as ruler. Unfortunately, she’s dead. Now he’s king and bound to the land by a magical law that says he must bond his soul with someone before he turns eighteen or he will die. Fortunately, his quest companions are all very attractive and good friends, so Arek figures one of them will surely be the key to his salvation, right? Right.

There’s so much for me to love in this book. First, as you might be able to tell, the tone of SO THIS IS EVER AFTER is so full of humor. There were quite a few genuinely laugh out loud moments for me as I was reading, and most—if not all—of it was derived from Arek and the rest of the group’s banter. I adored Arek’s relationships with his friends and their dynamic; you could absolutely picture how they’ve spent the last several months getting into chaos together, setting aside that they’re still doing that with the silly courting escapades. They’re all so vibrant! This book also delivers some absolutely top tier pining and miscommunication, so if you love those tropes in your fiction, you’re in for a huge treat. The romance, when it happens, is very, very cute. Even better (for me), STIEA hits the progressive-fantasy-that-feels-contemporary vibe I like, much like THE AFTERWARD did, in how Arek chooses to handle the remaining servants of the Vile One and otherwise use his newfound kingship to improve the lives of those around him. He definitely earned his epithet! Finally, I loved how the deceased princess Arek expected to help him out by taking over the kingdom still managed to lend a hand, and the moment at the very end involving her journal actually made me cry, it was so sweet.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going on my own quest to steal a relative’s copy of F. T. Lukens’s previous book so I can feel this fun escapism all over again.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me this ARC. I really enjoyed reading it, and I love the characters and their diversity. The beginning was a bit weird for me- it was almost too slow and too fast at the same time, and most everything big happened towards the end, but overall a really good book, with amazing characters.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC of this!!

Also, my rating goes closer to 3.5 stars!

Honestly, this was fun. This was a very cute, very silly story about romance and pining, and getting it as a queer romance in a light fantasy setting was very fun. However, there is so much more I wanted out of this book, even within it being a exactly what it is: a lighthearted fantasy romance.

What I really wanted was more court drama and more from the supporting cast. While I loved Matt and Arek, we only got flashes of the people that are ostensibly their best friends and I really did want to know more about them! It was kind of a let down to only get these bits and pieces. Furthermore, the slice of life drama around court politics and the drama of setting up a new kingdom was a delight, and honestly getting more of that would have helped my other issue.

But! Had a good time reading this book, enjoyed it as a tropey comfort read, and also absolutely did almost shed a tear over the epilogue!

I received this as an ARC through NetGalley.

Let me start by saying, this book was incredible! It was fast paced, hilarious, and so sweet. Highly recommend. Now for the details...This book is like King Arthur met up with a ridiculous DnD party at a queer club. And I am all about it.

Arek and his band of ragtag adventurers have just completed a quest of defeating the evil king and are ready to usher in a thousand years of peace in the kingdom. But for that to happen, someone needs to be king. Might as well be Arek...but he didn't know what he was signing up for! He is bound to the throne and must choose a spouse before his 18th birthday or he will wither away to nothing! Thus begins all sorts of hijinks as Arek tries to woo various friends in an attempt to not die. But his heart's desire is right in front of him.

This book excelled at humor, action, romance, and magic. Found family, miscommunication, vast queer representation, and fated mates are all a part of this story and really mesh well together. The characters are all so endearing and interesting as well. The growth Arek does throughout the book makes this accessible even to older adults. It was a fun, light fantasy that I think would appeal to a wide audience. Also, the epilogue was so sweet! No spoilers but the scene with Lady Loren! Ugly cried.

I will be posting a review on Amazon as soon as its available. A tiktok review will be posted on 3/12/2022.

FT Lukens brings readers to an Arthurian-like world in So This is Ever After, complete with Arek the Chosen One, Matt the mage, and the rest of their questing band. After nine months, the heroes have just victoriously chopped the head off the evil one but then face a throne without a king and a crown without a head…well, actually, the crown didn’t go anywhere when the head was chopped off, so forget that second metaphor. With such a situation, what is the Chosen One to do but become king? Doing so traps Arek in magic, making it so that he’ll have to find a spouse by his next birthday or fade away into nothingness so another might take his place.

From the description alone, readers know that Matt returns Arek’s feelings, so it was a bit frustrating that they didn’t get on the same page until the end of the book. It created space for a wonderful comedy of errors as Arek tried to woo his other friends, but allowing some mystery as to Matt’s feelings would’ve been nice.

The comedy of the story was fantastic, and each side character played to both their roles and their strengths. The plot was fun and the pace quick-moving. I really enjoyed this one.

As soon as I saw So This Is Ever After, I knew that I had to read it. The book was marketed as “Carry On meets Arthurian legend,” and if there’s one book people can name drop that will get me to read something, it’s Carry On. I will say, because of that comparison, I kind of assumed this would be an enemies to lovers story. I even read the synopsis, but clearly I wasn’t paying much attention, because that should have dissuaded that notion. However! I was so excited to find out that this was not an enemies to lovers but a friends to lovers story! If there’s one thing I enjoy more than the former trope, it's the latter. I know that’s probably an unpopular opinion, but that’s how it is for me. So, imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered that Arek had been secretly pining over Matt for a long time. And it was so obvious (to everyone but Arek that is) that Matt returned his feelings. I was sold instantly.

From the very beginning, it was clear that this group of characters was super chaotic (in the best way possible). We have Arek, “The Chosen One,” who’s kind of oblivious, a bit of a mess, but totally loveable. He adores his friends and would do anything for them. Then we have Matt, Arek’s best friend and the mage; Lila, the rogue who’s very clever, but you should also watch your pockets when she’s around or else she’ll steal your things; Bethany, the bard who is the only reason the group was able to get out of many of the messes they created; Sionna, the warrior who while she seemed stoic at times, could be really funny and sweet, but could also cut you down if need be; and then there’s Rion, the sarcastic and witty knight. This story would not have worked if it wasn’t for these characters, because while it is a love story between Arek and Matt, it’s also a story of friends and found family, of characters who are hurting, but work together to heal each other.

Throughout the course of the story, Arek must find someone to soul bond to, or else he’ll wither away despite having finally completed his prophecy. Because of this, he plans to try to woo all of his friends, and it was absolutely hysterical. Even though Matt was assisting him, nothing ever went right. If Arek tried to woo Sionna by trapping the two of them into a tower together to talk things out, he somehow ended up smacking his head and getting trapped with Matt. The universe was so clearly pointing Arek towards Matt and Matt towards Arek, but they were both so unaware of this that it was kind of painful at times. This was definitely what I would consider a slow burn, but it was done so well. Usually I prefer for the romantic leads to get together sooner, but this one didn’t feel unnecessarily drawn out. Arek and Matt’s hesitance felt authentic, and it made sense to me that neither would be willing to risk their friendship for only the possibility of more.

Additionally, I cannot praise the world-building and plot development enough. In terms of setting and world, it was actually rather simple, but I preferred that over a super complex world that would have taken chapters and chapters of set up, when that wasn’t even necessary here. Because this book wasn’t trying to be a high fantasy, and was just having some fun, it made sense for the world to be more simplistic. Still, there were enough details for me to grasp how the world functioned and what each person’s role was, and I really appreciated this. There were no needless paragraphs of info-dumps that would have me falling asleep. Instead, the pace was quick, fun, and fit the theme of the book so well. The plot was also great. I was a little worried in the beginning because I wasn’t sure how it was going to be drawn out over a whole book, but I shouldn’t have been nervous, because the way the events unfolded was spectacular and engaging.

If I had to find one thing about this book to complain about, it would have been the lack of a prologue describing their quest to fulfill the prophecy. As it happens, So This is Ever After opens right as Arek is gearing up to finish his adventure, and the rest of the book follows Arek and friends as they try to navigate this new and uncertain world without a prophecy to guide them any longer. There were a few mentions to the quest here and there throughout the story, but I would’ve liked just a little bit more. It sounded like it would have been so much fun to read about, so even if we’d gotten a really watered-down version in a prologue, I would’ve appreciated that. Still, this didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book. I was wary it would in the beginning, because so many characters already had an established relationship with Arek, and I was uncertain I’d be able to keep them all straight, but because each character had such a unique and sparkling personality, it was much easier to remember all of them than I thought it would be.

This book was just so much fun! It’s everything I love reading about in stories, and the cast of loveable and memorable characters really added to it. I devoured this book as quickly as I could. Every minute of my free time was spent reading So This Is Ever After because I was so desperate to learn how it ended. I’m so glad I picked this one up. In Deeper Waters, FT Luken’s first book, was not my favorite, but after reading the synopsis for this one and seeing that stunning cover, I knew I had to give it a chance, and I am so grateful I did.

Thank you to the publisher for giving me this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a YA fantasy that follows the premise of what happens AFTER you complete the quest? That, along with the cover, is what initially drew me to this book. It's a quick read with likable characters although I wished their development had been fleshed out a little more. The opening few chapters felt a little disjointed since we were joining characters mid-battle and trying to discern who they are. If you are looking for a lot of action in your fantasy, be warned this leans heavily towards romance.

Overall, I would recommend this as a fun summer read.

3.5/5

Unfortunately, this book was not at all what I was expecting. I requested it because it was supposed to be inspired by the legend of King Arthur, and knowing the author, I thought I would be getting a YA Arthurian remix. However, it read like it was meant for middle schoolers and had absolutely nothing at all to do with the Arthur tale (apart from one instance in which the author must have suddenly remembered they sold the concept as Arthur-related and quickly mentioned a sword found in a swamp). The naming conventions were ridiculous, the plot was obvious, and the characters were boring. I didn't think it was possible to make a boring LGBTQ-filled story, but this is it.

I wanted this book to be cuter and more clever than it actually is. My friend Kelsey can tell you that when I first started this book I was, to be quite honest, completely unimpressed. For the first handful of chapters, this book has no idea who it’s audience is. It reads like middle grade fiction for a good long while, but then one of the characters drops an f-bomb, and suddenly who knows?? The beginning needs some serious reworking so it’s a bit more clear who this book is for.

Once the book hits its stride, though, it gets pretty damn cute. However, besides the mention of getting a sword from a bog, there is NOT A SINGLE PIECE of this story that has anything to do with the Arthurian legend. Color me completely disappointed. I wanted some mention of Merlin, or Morgana, or hell, even a Lancelot. Nothing. I got over it though, because Arek and his friends are all rather fun. Though I do have another minor complaint — how come literally every other member of the friend group has a cool fantasy name, but Arek’s love interest is just…Matt? Lame. Oh yeah — this book is rather gay. There’s all sorts of representation in both the foreground and background of the story. It’s done in a subtle way, not overly in your face about it, which is nice.

The basic gist of the story is what happens after the main bad guy is defeated and the kingdom is saved? It’s a cute concept! The tone was off for a bit, but the book settles into itself close to around halfway through. I’d have given up if it took longer, but thankfully the book is short and it was worth it. If you’re looking for something fun and lighthearted, I recommend So This is Ever After. I give it a good three and a half stars.