⭐️ 4 1/2 stars

This book was super cute. Arthur and Gwen have such a fun dynamic. They’re annoying to each other and just have jabs at each other left and right. And of course their love interests are also amazing.

I think the main thing that made this book so wonderful was its humor. Plotwise it was very slow burn and not much was happening outside of politics and their love story (until the last quarter of the book). Its humor carried the book to the end but not in a bad way. The main reason this is 4 and a half stars is bc of the climax of the book. It salvages itself after the fact but the actual climax left like there wasn’t enough foreshadowing or build up to truly fit in. It makes sense in the world but not in with the vibes of the books.

Overall, though, it was a throughly enjoyable book, full of queer romantic goodness (and of the token straight couple). Would not mind if a sequel of fluff was made.

An enchanting tale of love and courage set in a time of knights and kings. Finally a cute LGBT book with renaissance flare! a heartwarming journey through a world of passion.

I want to thank netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review

This take on King Arthur and the knights of the round table was a fun fast paced read that I laughed a lot when I read it

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love was nothing like I expected in the best way! I love historical romance and contemporary rom coms, and this was a fresh, exciting mixture of both. I appreciate that the author kept the dialogue more modern, despite the historical setting. Art is hilarious, and it's so fun to see all of the other characters love to hate and then eventually love to love him. Gwen is complex and nuanced and relatable, despite being a princess in medieval England. I enjoyed the complexity with which the characters experience and share their sexuality, given the historical considerations. Despite the large cast of characters, each character is well-developed and unique. I was never confused, and enjoyed how each character jumped off the page in different ways. This book was fun and funny and heartfelt. Don't miss it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

If you like Arthurian lore, knights and assassins, queer love stories, and snarky narration, read this book!

Gwen and Art have been betrothed since they were born, but they loathe each other. At the start of the king’s tournament, their families begin to pressure them to mend their relationship. Happenstance presents them with an opportunity to find common ground and work together in pretending to be falling in love.

I loved this book! I’ve heard it described as A Knight’s Tale but queer, and that is pretty spot on. It is the perfect blend of action and romance, and the narration is hilarious, especially Art’s POV chapters. It is an original story, not a retelling of Arthurian lore, and I loved the characters and setting. While it is laugh-out-loud funny at times, it also delves into deeper and more emotional topics. It was so lovely to watch these characters grow and their relationships develop.

I also recommend the audiobook version! The narrators were great!

An enchanting tale of love and courage set in a time of knights and kings, this cute LGBT book is a heartwarming journey through a world of chivalry and passion

I want to thank netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review

This book has no reason to be as funny as it is. Because it's absolutely HILARIOUS. I laughed, I cried while laughing, and overall it was a wonderful experience for me. This is a medieval romcom in the best ways. Having never read Lex before, after this book, I am absolutely a fan.

Gwen and Art have been engaged since childhood, and neither one of them is happy about it. Gwen thinks Arthur is an annoying little shit and Arthur still hasn't forgiven Gwen for the time she broke his wrist when they were kids. But for the good of the kingdom they must wed. Despite neither one of them wanting it. But Gwen catches Art kissing a boy and Art find's Gwen's diary where she laments being in love with the dashing lady knight Bridget Le Clair. And a tentative alliance is born. After that, things start to go to shit but not before an assassin tries to kill Gwen's brother. Is this just a one off or are there more sinister things at play?

Despite the dip into the dark at the end this book just takes you by the arms and just keeps GOING. the shenanigans these characters get into makes this one of my favorite reads this year. Don't wait. Pick this up immediately!

I absolutely loved the premise of this story and had high hopes for it. After reading it, I can definitely say it lived up to the hype! I really liked the "retelling" (although not exactly retelling) feeling of King Arthur. Arthur, Gwendoline, Bridget and Gabriel (and let's be honest Sidney and Agnes too) were such dynamic and interesting characters. They each had their own voice and wants throughout the story. I loved seeing all of these characters form a friendship and support each other throughout the book. And to have the setting be similar to King Arthur's time period? It was fantastic.

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

I enjoyed this book so incredibly much! This is a story of found families and queer solidarity that hit the mark for me in every aspect. The growth and development throughout the book between the characters and their relationships with each other are beautiful. I can’t tell you how excited I was to read that Gwen’s love interest was a female knight, and really I thought that would be the main selling point for me, but the friendship and love between Gwen and Art as two queer people was my favorite thing about this book. Their entire arc from enemies to best friends warmed my heart. I need more of that gay and lesbian solidarity in books! Gwen and Bridget were adorable, and Art and Gabriel were equally as sweet. Overall, I cannot sing this book’s praises enough and I can’t wait to see what’s next from Lex Croucher!

“To be truly brave, first you must be afraid–and to be afraid, you must have something you cannot bear to lose.”
~~~~
I thought this book was absolutely adorable. There is awesome representation here, and let’s not forget it’s a RomCom. Was it one of my top favorites, I won’t lie, it wasn’t. But it was cute and quirky. I love the idea for Gwen and King Arthur. Then with that there was all the different details that had to be just right. We also got some great action scenes in the book.
I can’t say too much cause I was given this as an eARC thanks to Lex Croucher,St. Martin’s Press, and Netgalley. So if you all want to know more about Gwen and Arthur in this twistful and representational tale, look for it 7/27/23!

Lex Croucher is a savant with characters. They create their characters so well that I feel like I have known them my whole life, as if I could run into Arthur and Gwen at the library.
The book felt a tad long but I enjoyed every moment reading it. The chemistry between characters, the handling of queerness, the atmosphere, all of it was such a delight.
Consistently enjoy Croucher’s work and will continue reading from them.

Gwen's parents are insisting she marry, because that's what princesses do to support their houses. Extra-unfortunately, they're insisting she marry Arthur, a lord she's known and hated since childhood. And the feeling is mutual. When Arthur arrives in Camelot, drunk and stumbling, he and Gwen will forge an unlikely alliance based on blackmail, pretending they're getting along in order to mollify their parents and pursue their actual love interests. But real danger is lurking in Camelot, and the two of them will need to band together to protect everyone they love.

A few caveats before my review:
1. I am not a romance reader — I read 1 romcom or so a month, maybe.
2. I adore Arthurian lore and am generally biased in favor of fiction around it.

All that to say, I loved this book. It made me laugh aloud several times. The banter between the characters (especially involving Sidney) is truly delightful, and I really enjoyed myself. Gwen's romance is a little more fleshed out than Arthur's, but I didn't mind that at all. I do, however, long to know how this little cadre of characters got along after the ending of the book. I miss them.

There is a shift from lighthearted romcom into dangerous skirmish (including some pretty severe injuries) in the last third of the book, so be prepared for that. I think it added a dose of reality and suspense to the plot, and I enjoyed it, but as I said before I'm not really a romance reader. I definitely recommend this book if you need a good laugh and you're into queer romance stories!!

Thank you to Lex Croucher, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for my advance digital copy.

This was a fun read. Quick and easy. It was entertaining and kept me interested through the whole story. Well written. Would recommend to others.

Gewn & Art Are Not in Love is a winking but genuine take on Arthurian legend with a queer romantic spin. Gwen and Art are betrothed from birth, absolutely hate each other, and both secretly queer - and have found out about each other, spurring a secret plot and eventually friendship. I already loved Lex Croucher's voice and writing style - sardonically funny, a bit silly and chaotic, very queer, with a fun modern sensibility - from their adult books, and Croucher translated this to young adult so well. Gwen, Arthur, and the cast of characters around them are so funny and delightful to follow as they figure themselves out, the lives they want to live, and get into some shenanigans along the way.

Despite the humor and generally light tone, Croucher is genuine and thoughtful when it comes to the leads' internal struggles and the nuances of identity. I just wish the romantic plotlines were actually stronger. Surprisingly, we didn't ultimately spend too much time on the development of Gwen and Art's respective relationships, which are quite charming but underdeveloped. The book ends on positive, hopeful notes for all involved, but it sometimes felt like the political elements getting them to the end overshadowed the relationships themselves.

https://lesbrary.com/gwen-and-art-are-not-in-love-by-lex-croucher/

Gwen and Art are Not in Love by Lex Croucher is not an Arthurian retelling, nor is it particularly converned with historical accuracy. What it is instead is a queer YA romcom set in a Camelot that is slightly obsessed with King Arthur several hundred years after his death, starring a princess (Gwen) and a noble (Art) who have been engaged since they were children, and who also can’t stand each other. Rather than fall for each other, as the romcom structure would typically dictate, they instead grow closer in the aftermath of Gwen catching Art kissing a stable boy and then Art finding Gwen’s diary, wherein she fantasizes about the kingdom’s only female knight. From there, they decide to more or less act as each other’s wing(wo)men for the summer, resulting in what may be the sweetest, funniest, and all-around most entertaining book I have read this year.

Reading this book felt like reading fanfiction, and I mean that as the highest compliment. When I stopped reading published books in my free time and switched over to fanfiction for years because it was the only place I could find what I was looking for, this book right here is exactly what I wish I had. These characters felt like old friends right from the beginning, and I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much at a book. Like, the dialogue in this book was impeccable.

I can’t gush enough about how much fun I had reading this book or all of the things I loved about it because it really was pretty much everything, so instead I’m just going to note the two things that kept sticking out at me that made me appreciate this book even more:

For one, I loved the way this book challenged the idea of being “not like other girls,” because yeah, as a queer nerdy teenager, I definitely could have related to Gwen’s assumption that all of the other girls were shallow stereotypes gossiping about her when she’s not listening, and I also could have used a reminder that other teenager girls aren’t the enemy just because they’re more comfortable making friends than you are. I thought this book incorporated that really nicely, without it feeling heavy-handed.

Most importantly, I loved how much love was in this book. Between Gwen and Art’s blossoming friendship, their respective blossoming romances, and Gwen’s close friendship with her brother, there really is no shortage of love of all kinds, something that I think is especially important in queer YA. It was a joy to watch these kids fall in love, and then also be able to talk about it with their outside support systems, or help each other work through their feelings, or go let loose together at a party on their birthday.

My only note, if you will, is I did feel like the sapphic relationship got the least pagetime, predominantly because Art’s love interest is also Gwen’s brother, which means that while Gabe is a major character in both Art and Gwen’s chapters, Bridget is mostly only in Gwen’s. I wouldn’t go so far as to say this was a failing on this book’s part, because I truly do mean it when I say I loved every page of this book, but I did wish I got as much of Bridget as I did of Gwen, Art, and Gabe.

From the very first page, I thought this was legitimately one of the funniest books I have ever read, but it did not take long for this book to prove itself full of just as much heart, as well as characters I would protect with my life. If I could give my teenage self just one book, it would almost certainly be this one.

A delightfully fun and queer historical Arthurian retelling that captured me on the first page! Lex Croucher’s writing was, as always, wonderful

One of the things about YA romances that can get tiring is the style they are written in. They aren't poorly written but there is a simplicity to them that can get boring. This novel did not have that problem. The writing was tight and impactful. It felt that it was written at the level of the characters age, which isn't always the case.

The characters are all three dimensional. It doesn't take long to understand the kind of people, Arthur, Gwen, Gabriel and the others are. Even characters with less page time, like Agnes, are well developed. I loved Arthur's wry voice and how his personality, in some many ways, is the exact opposite of what comes to mind when thinking about his namesake King Arthur.

The romance plots were nice slow burns that felt appropriate to the characters and their positions in society. There was the classic misinterpretation of a letter that occurs in so many romances but something has to create conflict and I think it was handled well.

Best of all the queer relationships didn't end in tragedy or even in bittersweet parting. They ended full of life and with the promise of pushing back against societal expectations.

DNF. This book starts with a teenage girl having a sex dream, immediately followed by her brother walking in on her naked. Admittedly, this is a YA book, so as an adult this probably makes me more uncomfortable than it would make a teenager. That being said, especially since this is YA, let’s just call this an odd way to start a story. Also worth noting that this YA book is filled with millennial humor and millennial pop culture references. I didn’t get a whole lot further in, but it didn’t seem like it was going to improve drastically enough for me to enjoy it and I have enough other books to read.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a ARC of this novel.

“I think it’s what you’ve told yourself you want, to make it hurt less when it’s all you get in the end. I think you’d rather try to make yourself into an ideal than accept that you are a real person, because it feels safe. You’ll still be you, even when you’re king. So what do you want to do with your one slightly dull but nonetheless precious life?”

I am a huge sucker for retellings. There is something about them that just scratch a small part of my brain. I think mainly it is because you are taking a classic story we all love and making it into something new. Now if you make a retelling queer then might as well just take all of my savings. While this isn't a true retelling it still has some of the same aspects.Gwen and Art is a scintillating queer tale that is a semi retelling of King Arthur. Our two main characters named after two famous characters in history King Arthur and Gwendoline. This novel gives a new spin on the well known world and showcases what happens many years after the time of magic and King Arthur =.

The first 30-40% of this book to me was somewhat slow but when I got over that hump man was it worth it. It turned thrilling and swoon-worthy. My favorite thing about this novel was the characters. Each character was fully fleshed out and had their own characteristics and personality. They each had their own time to shine. We really got to know about each character and get to know them personally. In relation to that the characters all complemented each other, Each one was unique but they. came together wonderfully.

This review will also be posted on Goodreads and Instagram.

This was (mostly) cute and fluffy. I liked the dual narrators - one for Arthur and one for Gwen. Both were wonderful!

Overall, the plot of this book was a little thin... but it was cute. I wish there had been a little more focus on the relationships, as at times things felt a little lacking, but I did think all of the couples were sweet. The dialogue was fun.

This wasn't just romance. This also had wonderful moments of friendship, family dynamics, and character development. The friendships in this were so so sweet and wholesome.

While this wasn't a romance between the main characters, the relationship between Arthur and Gwen was by far my favorite (and the most fleshed out imo). Their development over the course of the novel was so cute. I love seeing books where a man and a woman are truly just friends!!

I will say that the ending section felt a little out of place, as it was kind of a big tone shift! Up until ~70/75% this is lighthearted and happy and cute, and then something "bad" happens and things take a bit of a turn. I wasn't really expecting it - but it resolved well and I liked it overall. I actually wish there had been a bit more "serious" stuff in the earlier sections.