Gwen and Art Are Not in Love

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.