Synopsis:
Gwen & Art Are Not in Love is a 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, Gwen and Art 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 & Art Are Not in Love is chock full of sword-fighting, found family, and romantic shenanigans destined to make readers fall in love.
Review:
Gwen & Art Are Not in Love is a fun queer rom-com inspired by Arhturian legend – it isn’t a retelling like I originally thought. It instead fits into the category of comedic story inspired by historic legend that takes many liberties but is a little bit funny. Just like My Lady Jane (which I haven’t read) or My Salty Mary (which I have read) . Unfortunately I do feel like the latter got the comedic timing and level of liberties more right, but neither are perfect.
I loved the queer representation, everyone’s a little bit fruity and that’s great. This is basically what everyone wanted from the BBC’s Merlin back in the 2000s, but they were too scared to make Arthur and Merlin gay despite the clear sexual tension. There is no Arthur and Merlin in Gwen & Art Are Not in Love though, as this isn’t a retelling. You do get a very interesting revelation about Arthur Pendragon near the end though.
I liked most of the characters, but as usual the side characters far outshone everyone else. Sidney in particular was an absolute gem. That man was loyal to a fault. He also had some of the funniest dialogue in the whole book, which I can’t include here as I didn’t take any notes (boo).
Gwen was, unfortunately, a bit meh. There wasn’t really much to her personality and her ‘relationship’ with Bridget felt a little off. She had her moments of greatness but Arthur was the more interesting main character. He was a little more complex and had more going on story-wise. It felt like Gwen was just along for the ride most of the time.
Arthur and Gabriel were definitely my favourite couple in the book but I really didn’t like that Arthur outed Gabriel to Sidney. They’d kissed once (technically twice) and Gabriel didn’t say anything about being attracted to men. Yes, he did instigate the second proper kiss but that doesn’t mean he knows how he feels. Arthur had no right to do that. They were pretty cute in the end though.
The change in pace and tone that came with the battle near the end was quite jarring. The first 80% or so of Gwen & Art Are Not in Love was leisurely (in a good way) and light-hearted. Then all of a sudden Arthur is attacked outside a pub, while kissing another man so it makes you think it’s a hate crime (it’s not), and then there’s the huge battle with people dying left, right and centre. These descriptions are pretty heavy and really changed the tone of the story. While I did like that there was a bit of action it felt a little strange to switch it up so quickly.
I’m not really sure what else I have to say about Gwen & Art Are Not in Love.The cast of characters were entertaining and it was a very enjoyable read but it did take a lot longer to finish than I thought.
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