Cute and entertaining YA romcom.
Loved the characters and snappy pacing. Humor is light and gives the story life. Will definitely add the next book to my tbr.

“Nobody else is ever going to care as much as you do about the things you want, Gwendoline. So it’s up to you — you can put them aside forever, if you can live with that, or you can put on your big-girl girdle and demand more for yourself.”

I don’t know what possessed me to request this book on NetGalley back in 2023 besides the pitch of Heartstopper meeting A Knight’s Tale. I mean, based on those two titles alone, I should love this book! I… did not.

Things I Liked —
Did LGBTQ+ folks exist in medieval times? Of course, only it wasn’t as open as this book makes it appear. But do we need fiction books that show characters of this group during historical time periods where they are severely underrepresented? Absolutely.
There was some good banter. This book wasn’t a total bore.

Things That Didn’t Work For Me —
I think this is a classic case of fun book/wrong reader. For whatever reason, I could not get attached to any of the characters in this book. I just did not care. That makes for a super long 400+ pages to get through. Not sure why I felt compelled to continue but I did. This is one that is easily forgettable for me.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

I wanted to loooove this book but unfortunately the first 20% dragged so heavily for me that it was hard to really get into the rest of the book without forcing myself to pick the book up. While I agree it was a cute twist to the fake dating trope and a great way to bring the alternate love interests in, I felt like the exposition of these characters was dragged in misery and groveling. I felt like Gwen was so hard to want to like, which made it hard for me to root for her until I got WAYYYY further into the book. All in all, I liked it, didn't love it, but felt it was a refreshing take on a commonly overplayed trope.

I really enjoyed this book! Croucher's depiction of rivals to lovers was sooooo fun and readable. I loved my time with these characters!

A fresh take on a favorite myth. Some parts of this initially reminded me of the Swan Princess, and that kept me going until the story picked up. There was a level of anxiety that was propulsive and gripped me through every page.

Lex Croucher is the absolute master of complex queer romance. This was in all ways absolutely hilarious, deeply romantic, and pulled no bunches when plucking my heartstrings. I highly recommend!

Art and Gwen Are Not in Love has a fun premise and a unique alternate history setting, blending medieval traditions with a modern sensibility. The humor and lighthearted moments were enjoyable, and I appreciated the emphasis on friendship alongside romance. Gwen’s storyline, in particular, kept me engaged—I loved watching her grow and navigate her feelings for Bridget.

Unfortunately, I found Art incredibly annoying and a frustrating character to follow. His antics often overshadowed the story, and I struggled to connect with him. The pacing also felt uneven, with a slow start and a jarring shift in tone later on. While there were entertaining moments, I was left wanting more from the plot and especially from the sapphic romance.

Overall, this was a decent read, but it didn’t fully deliver on its potential. Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I just adore reading queer historical romance reads in the young adult genre. It gives a refresh storyline that keeps you interesting. Plus, the representation was top tier to read through.

So so cute!!!!! The characters were well fleshed out and the writing style was very easy to get through. Lex Crouched always writes the sweetest and most whimsical romances ever, I’m so happy I was able to read this

I am very thankful to have been gifted a copy of this book; however, at this point this book will be moving to my DNF shelf. It sounds like something I would have really enjoyed, and will happily come back and re-review once I am in a better mindset for the book.

This was very cute! I am not a romance reader, but I really enjoyed reading this. It's funny but heartfelt. I loved the setting and the characters, the author did a great job.

3.5 Stars

This was so much fun to read. I would definitely describe it as a “romp.” For the most part, it’s just like cheeky queer vibes in an Arthurian setting, which was great for me, and I definitely enjoyed it.

In terms of character dynamics and humor, this definitely reminded me a lot of something like “In Other Lands” by Sarah Rees Brennan. Even though the characters eventually come to form a found family of sorts, they definitely have very strong, competing personalities. So they’re definitely big on that kind of snark and biting wit. They get on each other’s nerves. They’re constantly giving each other a hard time. I would say banter makes up like a good 80% of the story, and honestly I wouldn’t have it any other way.

To me, this is a good sort of escapist story. It’s humor-forward, it’s friendship-forward, and it’s just fun to watch these characters stage all these half-baked schemes so that they can secretly enjoy their gay shenanigans while still putting on this facade of being perfect royals so that no one suspects. I would say a majority of this story is just that element of self-discovery. Both of the siblings, Gwen and Gabriel, have to accept their queerness, which is very new for them, and they go about it in two very different ways.

What took this from being a potentially four-, four-and-a-half star read is that the final act is the story trying to be something it’s not. I think you can tell from the synopsis that this premise is not very plot-heavy, and more importantly it doesn’t have to be, because it already has a lot of things going on. There’s self-discovery, there’s coming to terms with queerness, there’s coming-of-age as the characters face down the reality and responsibility of being royalty, there’s budding queer romance that the characters are trying to keep under wraps for their own safety. Just trying to navigate queerness and figure out what a fulfilling queer future looks like for these characters in this Medieval society is a rich and worthwhile plot in and of itself.

But for some reason, in the final act, the story feels the need to shoehorn in this subplot that’s kind of been intermittently info-dumped throughout. So I’m not gonna say it came as a surprise, but this subplot was nowhere near engaging as the main plot, and it forces the story to shift from being light-hearted and comedic to being intensely dramatic, which feels out of character.

But up to that point, I found it to be delightful and heart-warming. I think it’s a fun story that plays with the concept of queer romance and found family in a fairly unique setting.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book follows two points of view, Gwen and Arthur, after being forced to spend the summer together. They find that they would make better allies than being at each other's throats.

It has been so long since I have read this, so there are details that I am forgetting about this book. Overall, I really truly liked this book and think that it is such an important story. It has queer representation that I think that a lot of people, especially young queer kids, will find themselves relating to. It had humor, it had drama, it was messy, what more could a person want?

Eeep, I adored this! Love the spin on the Arthurian legend and nice to see queer relationships and characters well-represented in those older legends.

I really enjoyed the book for the most part. It was entertaining and up my alley. The characters are nicely written and very lovable. The banter was fun and witty. The last bit of the book was a bit surprising. We definitely need more queer books set in medieval times. Thank you NetGalley for the chance to review this.

A fun Arthurian retelling with a queer twist; we love Croucher's style as well as the inversion of the classics with more modern sensibilities and tropes.

This title was so much fun and super engaging. I love this author's style, and I thought this book was just so much fun. Can't wait to recommend this one to youth at the library.

DNF Chapter 2

Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing me an arc.

I have retried this one multiple times since I got the arc and I just can't get into it. This one may work for a lot but I just am no longer someone who loves YA and I am very picky which this just didn't work for me.

I really enjoyed the period setting! The characters were fun and the story flowed well! Would absolutely recommend to my teen customers looking for queer romance!

I thought I left a review for this but it turns out I didn’t! This was so much fun- I loved it. My first book from this author and I was pleasantly surprised, I’ve even read the second book in this fun series.