3.5⭐️

i like the premise and idea behind this book but it was a bit of a miss for me. however, i liked the writing style and will definitely be checking out lex croucher’s future ya books! i can also see a lot of people loving this one so i would definitely recommend it, specially to those who love ya romance books with queer characters.

more thoughts and ranting can be found on my goodreads🫶

"Heartstopper meets A Knight's Tale in this queer medieval rom com YA debut about love, friendship, and being brave enough to change the course of history.

It's been hundreds of years since King Arthur's reign. His descendant, Arthur, a future Lord and general gadabout, has been betrothed to Gwendoline, the quick-witted, short-tempered princess of England, since birth. The only thing they can agree on is that they despise each other.

They're forced to spend the summer together at Camelot in the run up to their nuptials, and within 24 hours, Gwen has discovered Arthur kissing a boy and Arthur has gone digging for Gwen's childhood diary and found confessions about her crush on the kingdom's only lady knight, Bridget Leclair.

Realizing they might make better allies than enemies, they make a reluctant pact to cover for each other, and as things heat up at the annual royal tournament, Gwen is swept off her feet by her knight and Arthur takes an interest in Gwen's royal brother. Lex Croucher's Gwen and Art Are Not in Love is chock full of sword-fighting, found family, and romantic shenanigans destined to make readers fall in love."

I am here for this swoony Arthurian tale!

This book was really good! I love how the author weaved arthurian legend in. The characters were really cute and I loved the ending!

A rollicking great YA reimagining of the King Arthur myth in which his descendant, a whole other, and very gay Prince Arthur, is betrothed to Princess Gwendoline even though she has a crush on the kingdom's only female knight and despises Arthur.

Forced to spend the summer together in Camelot, Arthur and Gwen go from enemies to reluctant allies as they help cover for each other as each pursues other romantic relationships while coups and unexpected deaths create extra drama.

Perfect for fans of the movie A knights tale and anyone who enjoys queer YA retellings. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

I love all things Arthurian legend so this title grabbed my attention right away. I wasn't fully sure what to expect, but I enjoyed it immensely. This book fully embraced the potential for queer jokes which I found hilarious and relatable as well.

Gwen was incredibly relatable for me and her and Bridget's relationship was my favorite in the book, but I enjoyed Arthur point of view and his relationship with Gabriel too. Gwen and Gabriel's sibling relationship was also great, I liked how much they were there for each other.

This is the third or fourth book I've read this year that's included periods and it's such a little thing but I can't really remember reading any books growing up that normalized periods in any regard, let alone in a historical (fantasy-ish?) kind of book.

Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 stars. Gwen and Art are Not in Love was a fun story about accepting one's self and others. I will say the pacing is fast and some parts in the plot are not needed but in all it good read.

Lex Croucher does it again and this time it's medieval and absolutely breath taking in story! I cannot recommend enough. The character development, friendships, love and coming of age put me right back into my high school self and send so much love and warmth to a younger me.

Thank you to Wednesday Books, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Gwen and Art are certainly not in love.

This book, a YA Arthurian romantasy, was very fun. I loved all the banter between the characters, and all the dynamics were so interesting. I loved our two main POV characters, Gwen and Arthur, very dearly. Gwen especially. Croucher can write a very lovable cast, I have to admit!

That being said, I struggled with a couple of things throughout the book. Characters, like our love interests Bridget and Gabriel, while still very distinct in personality, and equally lovable as their counterparts, seemed to stay extremely one note. I wish I could've seen more development and personality to them other than the charming rogueish knight and the bookworm prince.

I also found, at the 70% mark, there was a very large, sudden tonal shift in the story that, while being lightly hinted at in scattered bits throughout, completely changed the feeling of the book. Now, I loved the story that they were telling in the last portion. I felt the action was extremely well written, and it kept my captivated completely, but still, that doesn't take away how abrupt and odd it felt in what, to me, had been a romcom sort of novel.

Overall, I enjoyed my experience reading this book. Thank you again for my advanced reader's copy of this book.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Very cute reimagining of Author and his roundtable featuring the descendents of said mythical persons. This is a story of self discovery and self acceptance and learning to set healthy boundaries.

The dynamic between Gwen, Arthur, Gabriel, Bridget, and Co is endearing and funny. They really represent a Gen Z friend group of queer happy kids.

It took me about half the book to really get into it, and the middle was mostly teenage angst and romance, but the climax was INTENSE. I want an adult version of this with more political intrigue and subterfuge.

"Don't wink at him," Gwen said. "The point is to make it seem like we're getting together, not that this is some kind of ... mildly incestuous free-for-all."

"Gwen & Art Are Not in Love" by Lex Croucher is a delightful blend of wit and romance. The humor is well-timed, weaving through the story seamlessly, and I genuinely laughed several times throughout reading it. The relationships, especially Arthur & Gabriel, and Bridget & Gwen, are endearing and I could see their genuine connections. The book truly excels in combining a compelling storyline with a solid romantic element, offering a heartwarming and entertaining read. I thoroughly recommend this book to everyone and I'm glad I picked it up.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

GWEN AND ART ARE NOT IN LOVE follows royal siblings Gwen and Gabriel in a story that is equal parts charming coming-of-age and historical comedy, with just a sprinkle of tragedy thrown right on top. I found this to be completely compelling and to handle the reality of same-sex relationships in such an unforgiving time period in a way that felt (pretty) believable. This is not the book you are going to read if you are looking for a historically representation of any given time period. Gwen, Gabriel, Arthur, and Bridget all have a delightfully Gen Z-esque je ne sais quoi that makes this book completely approachable to teen readers of 2023.

The cover is smashing as well :)

“Gwen and Art Are Not in Love” follows Gwendoline and her brother Gabriel, the children of the new royal family of England during an ambiguous number of years after the rule of Arther Pendragon. Gwendoline is engaged to (you guessed it) Arthur, a descendant of the once and future king himself, but they despise each other. It turns out they have more than mutual hatred in common: Gwen has long harbored feelings for Britain’s only female knight, Lady Bridget; and Arthur recently had his heart broken by another man. Gabriel, meanwhile, copes with the pressures of being the heir to the throne as well as his own growing attraction to Arthur.
This book was on the whole very cute and very nice. It gives some nice representation of LGBTQ teens in historical fiction. However, I think it struggled from a fairly common issue in YA literature that goes like this: at the beginning, there is Plot. Then 85% of the story is romance. Then for the last 50 pages Plot returns and we are supposed to care about it. We are reminded of the tiny seeds of Plot that have been scattered throughout the Romance. Then after the Plot has concluded the Romance is tied up with a bow and we are supposed to care about that again. I also felt that a lot of the characterization was inconsistent and the pacing wasn’t very effective. On the whole, this book just didn’t leave much of an impression.

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love is an amazing queer YA retelling. Of a Knight's Talle.

This was such a great book, I laughed so much and there were some tears too!

I love Sidney and Gwen the main characters, and the secondary characters were anything but!

Excellent!

I loved how this flipped the legend for Gwen and Arthur but it felt just a little too long for me. The drama towards the end also hindered my overall enjoyment but I still had a good time and highly recommend especially for those that are fans of Arthurian legend.

OH MY GODDDDDDD! This is going to be the most incoherent review I have ever written because THIS BOOK WAS INSANE! I was literally reading this book while actively doing a show and everyone around me was concerned. The writing 10/10! The plot 10/10! The romance 1000/10!!! I can’t wait for it to come out so I can force everyone I know to read it!

It was so fun to read about LGBTQ characters in a medieval setting! It was refreshing to see Gwen and Art struggle in that context. It made me root for their happiness all the more. I wish I had this book when I was younger.
The banter and eventual friendship between Gwen and Art were a delight to watch develop. I like that they still have each other in the end, just not as betrothed, and they picked up their own love interests on the way!

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for allowing me to read this early!

This is the kind of book that I wish I had when I was younger. The rep in this is beyond amazing, and the story telling it great. All the characters are very well developed and made the book one I couldn’t put down. This is a must read for everyone!

Gwen and Art are not in Love by Lex Croucher is a fun and somewhat comedic historical romance with incredibly well done queer representation. This will be a fun read for fans of king Arthur myth inspired fiction such as the other Merlin.

I REALLY wanted to love this. Gwen & Art Are Not in Love was one of my most anticipated YA books of the year, but sadly, it just wasn’t for me. I could not get behind either of the characters, and I just was not into the medieval/formal prose. I was basically force reading until I finally gave up at 42%. I loved the idea, but the execution wasn’t there for me. It was a very slow moving plot (at 42%, I feel like we barely made it past the exposition). I will not rate this book on Goodreads or my blog since I did not finish, but for Netgalley purposes, I’ll give it 2 stars.

I don’t even know what to say about this book or where to start. I know it was a highly coveted book. I heard good things about it. But then I read it and I was BLOWN away.

The story follows Gwendoline and Arthur, Princess and a noble respectively. They’re betrothed and they absolutely hate each other and find no attraction in the other, but for completely different reasons. They both find themselves attracted to the same sex. As they forge a truce and navigate their situation, they find themselves growing as close friends and initiating ill-fitting romances.

Again, how do I start? It’s just…so fun. It’s a historical fiction with modern day colloquialisms which I actually really enjoy. Sometimes it’s hard for me to get into historical novels because the language feels stilted? Like, I get it, but I like my 21st century phrases.

Besides that, I loved the characters and their development. I liked how we watched every single one of them break out of the chrysalises of their past selves and truly flourish. Gwen learns to speak up. Bridget learns to compromise. Arthur learns to truly be brave. Gabriel learns to let himself be himself. I was rooting for the characters every single step of the way and damn it’s Arthur is a charmer. He’s my favorite.

The pacing was also really nice and from the writing side, I loved how they used the dual point of view and the twist at the end had me voracious!

The only thing that kind of made me go ??? was that why was Gabriel in the castle when he was supposed to be hunting after Gwen went back with Bridget? It’s the tiniest plot hole, but I still picked up on it.

Otherwise, it’s another one of my favorite reads and I’m glad I picked it up! I can’t wait to get a physical copy and be a menace to my co-workers by making them read it too.