Reviews tagging 'Death'

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher

55 reviews

bookobsessedmommy's review

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adventurous funny lighthearted relaxing sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Gwen and Art are betrothed, but neither is the least bit interested in the other romantically, bit quickly realize they have more in common than they realized. The romance in this is all very sweet and innocent, but it just didn't strike the right chord for me. I'm not sure if it was a lack of chemistry or something else. The story is set during a jousting tournament, so I expected a bit of gore, but there was quite a bit more than I expected. This book is mostly vibes, and minimal plot until it's almost over, and then you get drowned in it. Not my favorite Lex Croucher novel. 
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asipofcozy's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I wanted to love this so bad.

An Arthurian re-telling with queer characters and lots of representation, I thought YES sign me up! What I got instead was two characters hating each other for 70% of the book, making a pact to save-face, and the rest of the book was them having a horrible time dealing with their feelings on their crushes. It was the last 10 pages of the book that only made me happy.

Where was the medieval rom-com I was promised? I felt like this book was angst and anger.

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cassielaj's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Easy 5 stars. Love love love this book. The story is new and exciting with enough references to Arthurian legend to make it somewhat familiar. It’s queer and lovely and wonderful, full of hilarious banter and mysterious court intrigue and the most delightful cast of central characters. I laughed. I cried. I was on the edge of my seat. I want to read it again. 
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booksandteatime's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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aelis_'s review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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tofugal's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This books defied my expectations in the best possible way. Based on the title, I’d expected this to be a queer Arthurian legend retelling. It’s not. Gwen and Art aren’t THAT Gwen and Art, though Gwen lives in Camelot and this Arthur is a descendant of Arthur Pendragon. Also, many hilarious Arthurian legend references are included throughout. 
 
Gwen has been betrothed to Arthur since the moment she was born. They can’t stand each other, something probably not helped by the fact they’re both gay and therefore immune to each others romantic charms. This Arthur is an even bigger prat than his namesake on the BBC show Merlin. Plus, he has a bad habit of drowning his sorrows in wine. Gwen, on the other hand, is everything she’s been raised to be: prim, proper, and powerless (or so she thinks). However, she’s quite taken with Lady Knight Bridget Leclair. 
 
To get their parents off their back, and keep their true infatuations secret, Gwen and Art agree to a fake courtship. The result is a banter-filled enemies-to-reluctant friendship that I didn’t want to put down. While it’s not all lighthearted—there’s some quite impressive action toward the end—it’s still an entertaining romp from start to finish. Highly recommended to anyone who loves swoony sword sapphics and/or wished Merlin and Arthur would kiss. 
 
Lex Croucher is quickly becoming a must-read author for me since I also thoroughly enjoyed and recommend Infamous. 
 
I received an advanced copy from the publisher and am voluntarily leaving this review.
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caseythereader's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Thanks to Macmillan for the free copy of this book.

 - GWEN AND ART ARE NOT IN LOVE is everything I hoped it would be. Queerness and silliness and strong personalities and deep emotions, what else could you want?
- I loved that both Arthur and Gwen got to have unlikable characteristics but were still granted full humanity by the others.
- For all the shenanigans in this book, there is still a layer of darkness as well. The crown weighs heavy on all of them in different ways, and each character needs to figure out how they will approach the life they've been dealt. 
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ezwolf's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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!
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sammy_nor's review against another edition

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emotional funny
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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bubbles_ishere's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

While I did really enjoy the book and the way the characters developed, I felt like it rushed at parts in order to have a lot of things happen. 

I would have preferred further introspection from the characters before acting, but for people who like to read books where things "happen", this is a good choice. 

The book very much feels like a romance that decides half way through that other plot events are more relevant and then decides to change genre. 

Spoiler for how plot/character focused the book was during certain events:
At first it felt like the book would focus further on the interpersonal relationships of the characters. In the beginning, a lot of time was spent on the characters panicking over being in situations. The first kisses of the couples got portrayed, after which the characters had to face various challenges to come to terms with their feelings. However, when it came to actually getting into a relationship or showing the conversations needed for that to happen the author skipped forward and just told the audience that the couples were now in functioning relationships, caused by a major plot event. 

Personally, I would've preferred to see how the characters got to where they are, instead of being told that the threat of death made them realise their priorities and then see them kiss.


I really liked how the characters developed and got more loveable to the reader; their actions seemed to make sense in the context of their character, and the development of their actions made sense. 

The romance itself felt a bit rushed to me, but it is still enjoyable, if somewhat frustrating because it doesn't go very in-depth and fails to resolve or address certain topics.

The book mentions a few tidbits that fans of Arthurian legends will recognise, which I thought was very nice. 

All in all an enjoyable read, in my opinion this book would've been 5/5 stars had it been 200 pages longer and actually explored the relationships and worldbuilding further. But then again I really like high-fantasy and worldbuilding.
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