TITLE: Gwen & Art Are Not in Love
AUTHOR: Lex Croucher
410 pages, Wednesday Books, ISBN 9781250847218 (hardcover, also e-book and audio)
MY RATING: 4 stars out of 5
I am sucker for anything Arthurian, and especially these days for anything that tweaks the Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot triangle, so a title like Gwen & Art Are Not in Love, with appropriate medieval dress characters on the cover, was bound to attract my attention. Especially so if the book posits queer relationships for the titular king and queen. I somehow missed the part of the book description that says this novel takes place “hundreds of years after King Arthur’s reign.” And you know what? I’m not disappointed at all.
In college, as part of a course on science fiction, I created my version of a world in which Camelot never fell. It was very different from the world Lex Croucher created for Gwen & Art Are Not in Love, but that didn’t stop me from really enjoying the world Croucher did create, and the characters they populated that world with.
In the present day of the novel, Arthur’s descendant line no longer rules Britain, and the city of Camelot is a shadow of its former self even though it is still the capital. King Arthur’s descendant Arthur is well known as a womanizer and gadabout. He’s also engaged to the current Princess of England, Gwendolyn, and neither of them is happy about it. Especially not when they’re forced to spend the summer together as a lead-up to their nuptials, where they quickly discover that Arthur likes men, and Gwen has a crush on the only female knight of the realm, Lady Bridget. Add in Bridget’s bookish brother Gabriel, next in line for the throne, Arthur’s man-at-arms and confidante, Sidney, and Gwen’s lady-in-waiting Agnes, and you have a fine group of main characters with sometimes-competing agendas and interests who find they have to work together to survive not just the summer tournaments but bigger problems.
Because there is also political upheaval across the land. A group of cultists who want a return to the “pure” ways of King Arthur are making increasingly bold moves against Gwen’s father, the current King. This starts as background world-building but slowly builds to being a major part of the book’s climax. Croucher seeds this development well. Near the end, I found myself thinking back and going “Oh, that’s what that was about...” a couple of times.
All the main characters are well-developed. The book is not in alternating first-person (as so many queer romances seem to be), but the primary points-of-view are Gwen and Art’s, allowing us to see events through both their eyes (sometimes, the same event). Even with chapters focused on the two of them, I felt like we got to also see complexities in the personalities of Bridget, Gabriel, Sidney, and Agnes that fleshed them out as real people rather than love interests and sidekicks. I can’t say the same is true for the older adults of the book – Gwen and Gabriel’s parents, Arthur’s father, and the other members of the King’s Court that we see are for the most part one-note. But that’s okay. They perform the function tertiary characters are supposed to perform and don’t necessarily need to have deeper inner lives in an alternate-historical romance like this. (I hesitate to call the book a fantasy romance (or “romantasy”) because other than the difference in history, I don’t recall any truly “fantasy” elements in the world-building.)
In addition to characters I cared about, the book was paced well. There are just enough sub-plots and side-encounters to keep the ultimate outcome of the romances and the political intrigue delayed without feeling like they are just delaying tactics. The book is just the right length for the story Croucher wants to tell, neither too short nor too long.
If you’re looking for an Arthurian romance that takes place outside of, and builds on, the known Arthurian lore, with queer protagonists and plenty of swordfights and happy endings all around (well, except for the bad guys), then Gwen & Art Are Not in Love is for you. Check it out.
I received an electronic advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. I received the e-ARC well before publication date but never posted the review. Gwen & Art Are Not in Love is available now wherever books are sold.