Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher

42 reviews

sapphic_antiquarian's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted 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

5.0

This book is so fun, I found myself smiling throughout. Such an entertaining read, a really lovable cast of characters with an array of tropes used in ways which still felt fresh, though the book is right up my alley, especially as I've been undergoing a Merlin rewatch. The ending felt a bit rushed, but given how enjoyable the rest of the book was, this was easily forgiveable. 
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emmatee_'s review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes

3.5

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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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vaguely_pink's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted 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

4.0

**Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review eARC**

This was real cute. I'm not the biggest historical fiction reader, but this queer Arthurian reimagining with just the most delightful cast of characters had just enough magic and fantasy vibes to keep me hooked start to finish. The whole ensemble cast is wonderfully written. The banter? Amazing. I loved them all from the jump. Gwen & Art Are Not in Love is a masterclass in how to write all the kinds of representation. (The scene where
Gwen sticks up for Bridget when her pelvic pain is dismissed by the royal physician
??? My heart is healed even if my uterus isn't.) While I agree with many of the reviews that the latter 30ish% is a major tone shift and a bit jarring, it didn't impact my enjoyment of this book, especially since I'm much more of a fantasy reader than a romcom reader. Highly recommend!
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efsimpkin's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny 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

4.25

I haven’t yet checked other reviews but my main flaw with this book was that it felt like it wanted to be two different books. On one hand you’ve got two lovely romances (I so wished we had seen more of Art and Gabe, I feel like Bridget and Gwen got a lot more screen time) that aren’t given enough room to breathe. On the other hand you’ve got a fantasy-typical political intrigue that also doesn’t really make much sense until it suddenly does, catastrophically changing the tone of what had been a cute and hilarious book to something with teeth. 

I loved the glance of the epilogue we had and wish that would become a sequel, just to see how all the characters continue after the events of the book, but idk I feel like the marketing and cute cover and blurb completely missold me on this
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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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grets_reads's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing 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

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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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shaipanda's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

I absolutely loved this and desperately need to read the other books in Lex Croucher's backlist. The characters and story were incredibly well crafted, the character development was really well done and I felt the chemistry between the characters. As I go into more in the spoiler section, the only issue I had with this book was that there were some plot threads that didn't seem to really come to fruition which was a bit frustrating but overall this was an amazing read and definitely still a 5 star read for me :)
The only issue I had with this book is that there were a few details that were mentioned (especially regarding Merlin and Morgana which were never explained or really brought into the story. With the way they were being written about, I thought they were going to end up being shapeshifters or some significant part of the story but then that never really came to fruition.
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dhritigupta's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

4.0

this was a fun romp!! there was endless banter, found family shenanigans, lesbian knights (😳) — everything you’d want in a queer medieval rom com!! i think the pacing was a bit off though, and one of the relationships felt underdeveloped. and while the ending was sweet, it could have been more grounded

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