3.5/5

I had really high hopes for this read but was let down. Basically, we have an Arthur and a Guinevere who are supposed to get married as a big deal to the kingdom and have them remember the original couple. Turns out both of them would rather not marry each other and have other love interests, that are their same gender. They both have romantic situations with their chosen lover but I feel like we do not truly get a real conclusion on the romance part in my opinion. <Spoiler> The book makes the point that the royal family is expected to get married and have children from that marriage, so how can they complete that 'requirement' if they marry someone of the same sex? I wish the ending was a bit more clear that we knew the individuals stayed with the person they wanted and were not

The best part of  “Gwen & Art Are Not In Love” by Lex Croucher are the beautiful relationships, especially the deep friendship that develops between Art and Gwen when they become allies. Part of what resonates with me is how each learns from the other, not how to be perfect but how to be brave in choosing what they want and standing strong against the ideas or people that would deny them love. This book is all about embracing your true self even when it is difficult to do so.

I love how deftly Lex Croucher weaves in the complicated relationships and the dynamics each has with their fathers. I also love the very real consequences, that none comes out unscathed but each chooses what is most important to them. The novel teaches us to love, not just those around us but also ourselves. 

If you love LGBTQ love stories, stories about family and love of all kinds, this is the novel for you. It has beautiful relationships, complex characters, complicated dynamics and is a completely glorious Arthurian story that feels like a cross between Heartstopper and A Knight’s Tale. And like both those stories, its very much about embracing your truth and loving yourself and those around you.

I received this ARC free from the publisher via NetGalley.

Did you love A Knight's Tale but thought "hey, this could be EVEN MORE queer?" (because A Knight's Tale is definitely a bit queer, let's be honest). Well, you'll love this book. There's jousting, secret kissing, sword play, character growth, silly side characters you fall in love with quickly, and the last 20% gets INTENSE. I cannot recommend this book enough. EASY 5 STARS! (And I'm not even a huge historical romance fan!)

This book was so fun and I found myself laughing so hard throughout the entire book. I loved the dynamic between Gwen and Art. Their whole betrothal since birth and dislike of each other reminded me of the Swan Princess (minus the falling in love at the end). I also really loved Gwen's personality, I defiantly related to it. I look forward to more books by Lex Croucher.

i dnf’d at 60%. I’m all here for books that focus on characters more than plot, but SOMETHING has to move the story along. There was no urgency to anything and it was really dragging for me.

Since the end of Merlin (BBC TV show) I have eagerly been seeking out Arthurian retelling without queerbaiting. This was a wonderful retelling and I appreciate that Gwen and Arthur (Art) are shown as not being at odds but rather desire to help each other achieve their own HEA/HFN.

What an absolute blessing to have been able to spend an entire lazy Sunday reading this delightful book! I have always had a fascination with Arthurian legends and have devoured many interpretations, but I have never read one quite so fun and heartwarming as Gwen & Art Are Not in Love. Technically I suppose I’m being a bit misleading in labelling this an interpretation of Arthurian legend; the names and the setting are unmistakeable callbacks, but the story takes place centuries after the reign of Arthur Pendragon. Featuring clever banter, lady knights, jousting, treason, and lots of queer angst, Lex Croucher has created the medieval YA romcom of my dreams.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy of this book.

I absolutely adored this one. It was fun, heartwarming, and adorable. The dialogue was really where the book shined. Gwen and Arthur are massive brats, but at least they're semi-self aware and Gwen's utilization of her royal powers to scare suitors made me laugh out loud.

The rom-com feel of the book was perfect. I've already pre-ordered a physical copy of it. Loved it.

Plot: 8/10

I really liked how this story took some fun, more contemporary romance tropes and put them into a historical setting. Historical romances can often be quite dramatic and perhaps not the best fit for the YA style, but Lex Croucher did a great job of creating a more lighthearted story that still didn't make me forget the setting. There was an unexpected bit of plot at the end; I certainly didn't anticipate it, and it felt a little out of left field, but I think it ultimately gave some good character development and provided a nice conclusion to the story.

There were some points where the actual situations the four main characters got into felt a little unrealistic. Like it was stretching my suspension of disbelief. However, that's pretty par for the course for romance. The worldbuilding was a lot more in-depth than I thought it would be. It was wildly historically inaccurate, but it brought a lot more diversity than is normally present in historical romances.

Characters: 10/10

I really liked the characters of this book, especially Gwen. The romance was great too, and I'll talk about that, but I appreciate that they all had their own arcs to follow and develop through outside their romantic attachments. Gwen has issues with her confidence, Arthur is the king of all daddy issues, Bridget struggles with her place in society as a female knight, and Gabriel has to come to terms with his sexuality. Them all having their own arcs really helps establish them as characters.

The romance itself was very sweet. Even if some of the situations were a bit unrealistic, the characters dealt with them very naturally and the build of both relationships felt well-paced. There was good conflict in both of them as well, ones where neither side was wrong or right and they had to come together to understand each other. By around halfway through the book if not sooner, I was wholeheartedly rooting for both Gwen and Arthur's happy endings with their love interests.

Writing Style: 8/10

Although this is a historical setting, the writing is quite modern (bonus points if you catch the Riverdale meme reference in the first few chapters). However, considering this is pitched as a romcom and makes no pretense of being historically accurate, I don't mind it. The tone and language is consistent throughout the book, and I really only think it's an issue if it changes between 'modern' and 'historical'. The writing itself isn't amazing, but it is still good and Croucher does a good job portraying emotion.

Overall: 9/10

This was a great historical romance. It was super sweet with a lot of great representation, even if it wasn't what most would consider historically accurate. Both relationships developed naturally with some pretty realistic bumps along the way. Some scenes felt a little forced, but more in the uncanny probability of the world, not the characters. Gwen was my favorite character, and I loved her arc of self-improvement. There was an unexpected bit of plot at the end, but I think it worked well in the context of how the characters were developing and what needed to occur for a happy ending.

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love was an absolute delight to read. I went into this book expecting witty humor and adorable romance, and that is exactly what the story delivered. I was surprised to find there was also a dash of court intrigue and some pretty brutal action at the end, which caused an odd tonal shift at times but made sense given the overarching plot.

I think reader expectations will be key to whether someone enjoys Gwen & Art Are Not in Love. If you are looking for historical fiction or an Arthurian re-telling, this probably isn't the book for you. This story reads like a YA rom-com that happens to have knights in it. It seems to happen outside of time almost, but the events of the story are impacted by the history and legends of King Arthur. The writing and dialogue were quite modern, and most of the time the story didn't seem to take itself very seriously. It created a fun tone to the storytelling that I enjoyed.

The characters and relationships in Gwen & Art Are Not in Love were all engaging and interesting to follow. The romantic partnerships were cute, and I adored all three of them. The real highlight for me, though, was the development of the friendship between Gwen and Arthur. They started out with a passionate hatred for one another, but they became very close over the course of the story as they slowly peeled away each others' layers of defense. The two of them had so many great scenes together that felt beautifully intimate. The supporting cast around them was fantastic, as well, leading to hilarious banter that had me cackling and heartfelt found family vibes that had me in my feelings.

Given the light tone of most of the story, I was not expecting Gwen & Art Are Not in Love to tackle heavy thematic content as hard as it did. Gwen and Gabriel dealt with a queer identity crisis and navigating whether to come out or continue to hide their true selves. Arthur struggled with core beliefs about worthlessness from a lifetime of abuse from his father, which also interacted with the way he viewed his sexual orientation and his ability to be loved. Bridget provided excellent commentary on gender roles and the struggle of being a woman in a male-dominated field. Each theme was explored in a way that made it accessible and entertaining while still being insightful.

All in all, Gwen & Art Are Not in Love was a great YA rom-com, with wonderful characters, side-splitting humor, and the exploration of important themes. I loved the way it linked to the Arthurian legends while still being entirely its own thing. I also really appreciated the 'queer was always here' message inherent within the story. Therefore, I rate this book 4.25 out of 5 stars.

This book is such a fun romp- As the reader, I felt like Gwen and Art are sibling-esque in that you want to both love and hate them at times. They drive you nuts but you want to see them succeed and have their "happily-ever-after". I adore the main love interests and a lot of the side characters are fun as well. The realism of Gwen's serving girl not wanting to be stuck with her at a party and her feelings of hurt during that scene were pretty much perfect. This book is absolutely worth the read!

Read if you like:
🏳️‍🌈 LGBTQ Romances
📚 YA Books
⚔️ Historical Romances
🗡️ Arthur & Guinevere Retellings
🐴 A Knights Tale
💋 First Love
2️⃣ Dual POV
💍 Arranged Marriages
😂 Humor

Overall, this wasn’t my favorite from Lex, but still very much worth a read! She is definitely my go to for lgbtq ya romances and historical romances especially where I don’t read/listen to a lot of YA or historical books, but for some reason Lex’s writing of these has me excited every time I see this combo coming from her.

What worked for me:
- I really enjoyed the relationship growth between Art and Gwen
- I liked the lighthearted feel and humor
- The narration
- The knights tale vibes
- The references to Arthur and Guineviere but making it lgbtqia+

What didn’t work for me:
- the darker aspects of the plot just didn’t work for me and fit the vibe, especially when I wasn't expecting it where Lex hasn’t really done this before
- The ending felt lackluster
- The pacing

Overall, I did enjoy this one even with it not being my fave, but I’ll def continue to read/listen to Lex’s books! Thanks so much to The Wednesday Books for my ARC in exchange for my review!

"GWEN AND ART ARE NOT IN LOVE" is a whimsical adventure set in a fantasy Medieval England, where the princess and her betrothed despise each other and have feelings for other people. The book is packed with tropes, but in a positive manner. The story takes place in a "vague medieval" alternate England, where Arthur existed centuries ago. I especially liked the hints about how history has changed since then, especially in eras I'm familiar with!

I really enjoyed this book. Gwen and Art were both so funny and I loved getting to see how they came together to help each other find who they were truly meant to be with. I would definitely recommend this book.

A charmingly sweet queer romcom revolving around the young and distant relatives of the players of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. They navigate young love, coming to terms with your sexuality, identity, and more.

Very fun, clever, and fun from start to finish.

Gwen and Art are most decidedly NOT in love. In fact, they mostly hate each other. At first. Enemies to lovers...but not quite in the way you imagine. Childhood rivals to arranged marriage to reluctantly covering for each other's romantic escapades, to genuine love and caring, but in a platonic way! This queer rom-com with an Arthurian backdrop explores bravery, love of all kinds, and the confidence to be who you are.

This was such a cozy read! I absolutely loved the slice-of-life look at these characters' lives, and the Arthurian landscape is one of my favorites!

I loved each and every one of these characters. Gwen was adorably shy and naive, Gabriel was the cutest little nerd you'll ever meet, Arthur was hilarious and beautifully vulnerable and brave, Sidney was rambunctious and oh-so loyal, and Bridget stood up for herself like no one's business! There was also SO MUCH character growth for every single one of these characters! I loved that so much! The banter was also top-notch. Arthur and Gwen's interactions were hilarious, as were Arthur and Sid's conversations.

While the blurb for this book does not portend any big serious plot points, at around 70% the overarching plot of this book does really pick up. If you are purely here for slice-of-life queer love, you may not appreciate the ending plot points, but as a reader who appreciates some extra plot with the romance, I did appreciate this. <spoiler>There is an attack (off-screen) of one of the main characters and specifics given of the injuries caused. There is also a major battle sequence</spoiler>near the end that solidifies what I believe to be what the book was leading up to the whole time. I did not find this to come out of nowhere, there were major clues throughout the book that hinted at this, but just be warned that there are some more serious parts to this book and it isn't all "romantic shenanigans."

The worldbuilding was minimal but enough to provide a believable backdrop, especially given the numerous Arthurian stories out there. The writing was fantastic, very easy to read with top-notch banter and familiar romantic comedy vibes. I absolutely loved the ending, it was extremely fitting.

Overall, I loved this and will definitely be looking to read more of Lex Croucher's work!

*I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

This was a fun and cooky take on the Arthurian legend. Art and Gwen are the distant ancestors of the original Arthur and Guinevere, and they are definitely not in love 😝

I enjoyed the writing style. It was a very tongue in cheek interpretation of King Arthur. I also liked that Croucher wrote it from a dual perspective. Getting to see the story from both sides helped to fully flesh it out and give important detail.

It was LGBTQ+ on both sides, which was something I haven’t encountered before. I enjoyed seeing the coming of age struggles that their sexuality elicited. It was a tough subject matter of being closeted and feeling like they had to hide their true selves, but it was handled with a kind and light-hearted hand.

The tone of the story very much reminded me of the Lady Janies series. It was zany and very self aware. If you enjoy retellings with humor and a healthy suspension of disbelief, then this will be a slam dunk for you!

My Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I gave Gwen & Art Are Not in Love 4 Stars!

So, I didn't read anything about this book beyond the title and the keyword of "LGBT+" before clicking request and therefore did not realize it wasn't exactly a retelling until I was actually reading it. That's a good thing, though, because I actually ended up loving the fact it was more of a story that weaves Arthurian legend into the time that the story actually takes place, which is a few hundred (? right? I think that's right) years after the events of the actual Arthur Pendragon, making him a bit of a legend to our main characters, Arthur and Gwen(doline), who are definitely not in love. They actually hate each other when the book opens, which is something I love to see myself. We love relationship growth around here.

I also adored the characters. All of them, which is pretty rare for me. Usually I'm okay with some and loving others, but this time I genuinely loved all of them. Even Arthur, who I started out disliking quite a bit. (I love Gwen, okay, I was siding with her the whole time, and therefore was siding against Arthur, who she hated.)

Bridget, though? Best character. Her character arc was, by far, my favorite of the whole story. Every time she popped in I was over here borderline kicking my feet because I knew that meant we might get some more interaction with her. Thanks, Gwen, for picking an awesome crush. I appreciate that very much.

My only qualm was it felt a little long, and I could feel myself getting a little bored somewhere around the 60% mark. Shit hit the fan at some point, helping with that incoming boredom, but I stand by the fact I think it could have been a little shorter. Just a little.

But, beyond that? My favorite book from Croucher so far. I may have only read two so far, but I'll be lining up for more, no questions asked.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Wednesday Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I tell you the amount I times I said to myself “This is SO reminiscent of A Knight’s Tale” while reading this book…like it’s almost embarrassing but I digress since I spent 70% of the book kicking my feet.

Inspired by an Arthurian legend, we follow Gwen and Arthur who are most definitely NOT in love because one is in love with a hot lady knight and the other is in love with the former’s brother. When I say I found these characters incredibly likeable like how can you not?? They’re queer and they’re in love, how can you not root for them?? This book almost read like a romantic comedy at the beginning because it was very fluffy and there was this loose element of “fake dating” if we can even call it that since Gwen and Arthur are quite literally betrothed to one another but hate the other’s guts. However, I felt like that fake dating trope went completely out of the window and it was casted off to the side.

One of the highlights for me is seeing Arthur trying his hardest to be a wingman for Gwen…the comedy is just a running stream throughout this book. I have to say this book has some of the strongest dialogue I have read in a while. It doesn’t take itself seriously and again, like in A Knight’s Tale, merges modern language in a medieval setting expertly. I found myself audibly laughing out loud, mostly because of Arthur’s shenanigans and quibs.

I will say from the romantic side of things, I do wish we got to see more of that with Arthur and Gabriel as I feel like Gwen and Bridget definitely took the spotlight when it came to romance (definitely not mad about that tho!). However, considering the circumstances outlined in the story it makes sense as to why there wasn’t as much romance between Arthur and Gabriel but it still made the story feel a bit empty. I wish the book hadn’t ended where it did because again, I feel like things were a bit unresolved in the romance department for both couples.

Also I felt as though the ending felt a bit rushed, the last 20% of the book there is this complete shift in tone and mood that I didn’t see coming. I don’t mind gruesome or gory details but oof! How did we go from “we’re queer and we’re panicking but we can be cute sometimes” to “blood! swords clanging! more blood”.

I will say though, I really enjoyed this book and I would highly recommend it if you want to read a queer historical YA romance set in the medieval period written in a modern tone! If you’ll excuse me, I think I need to go rewatch A Knight’s Tale now.

Recommended: eh, if you are really excited by the synopsis
Not for likeable characters. Come to this for a whole lot of story that happens with some relatable personal conflict, though

Thoughts:
Look, if we weighed the quantity of things I liked versus didn't you'd think this would be a five star book. Unfortunately the one thing I didn't like tarnished everything else, and that made the whole experience lackluster overall for me.

So what was the issue?

Y'all, I HATED both these main characters. We get perspectives from both sides, but even knowing each of their own thoughts and motivations behind their actions, they were just so unlikable. He's obviously a prick, insensitive and dickish and making "jokes" so often I wanted to punch him in the throat. She's barely better with her insufferable prissiness and complete lack of humor. I've also rarely encountered someone I would straight up identify as a coward but well, here she is. Strangely, their love interests were excellent and way more likable, so it's a shame the stories weren't told by them. If they had been though, I'd have seen Gwen and Art and been like "why tf are they even bothering with these crappy people?" So maybe it's better off.

So look, if you can read the first few chapters and not be completely sick of them both, then this will probably go over much better for you. Like I said, there's a quantity of good things in this, if they can outweigh the annoyance of the people telling the story.

First up is just the sheer scope of this story because holy shit does it escalate. This isn't "just" a cutesy romance with forbidden gayness. I mean yeah that's there, and there's a ton of discourse about the struggles and pressures the characters have with their identities in conjunction with their public positions and cultural attitudes. But holy damn y'all, this really ramps up in the second half so if you make it there you are in for a banger of an ending.

And while the characters are annoying, the personal conflicts all four of them face are very relatable. Impressive considering they're fake royalty in medieval times. As with any romance, there's some kind of barrier to the lovers getting together. In this case it's a mix of internal and external issues, and the way both sides were handled was great. There's actually a good amount of honest conversation in this, just... not between the two main-main characters. The way Bridget responded to one of the crux moments between her and Gwen was admirable and I was so happy with it. I know that's super vague, but just trust that it's a good vibe and I supported it.

As is common with stories featuring "enemies" the reason for their animosity is incredibly stupid and could've been solved with a conversation basically ever. That said, I also don't like either of them, so maybe it's not surprising they don't like each other, either. 🤷‍♀️

Overall, eh. I didn't love this book which was a shame, but if you can get behind the characters despite how super annoying they are (see: dickish petty jokes / prissy bossy coward) then you might have better luck.

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for a free advanced copy. This is my honest review.