Gwen and Art Are Not In Love

by Lex Croucher

Genres: Arthuriana, Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 419
Rating:

Synopsis:

Gwen, the quick-witted Princess of England, and Arthur, future duke and general gadabout, have been betrothed since birth. Unfortunately, the only thing they can agree on is that they hate each other.

When Gwen catches Art kissing a boy and Art discovers where Gwen hides her diary (complete with racy entries about Bridget Leclair, the kingdom's only female knight), they become reluctant allies. By pretending to fall for each other, their mutual protection will be assured.

But how long can they keep up the ruse? With Gwen growing closer to Bridget, and Art becoming unaccountably fond of Gabriel, Gwen's infuriatingly serious, bookish brother, the path to true love is looking far from straight...

I found Lex Croucher’s Gwen & Art Are Not In Love a bit… frustrating. The Arthurian references are a bit all over the place, and how it fits into a post-Arthurian world is very non-obvious (any explanation of the Catholics vs cultists thing takes forever, and also makes no real sense with most versions of the Arthurian legends). Gwen and Arthur are not that Gwen and Arthur, they’ve just been saddled with being named after them and engaged from a very young age to get married. Why you’d do that and not think about the mixed messages of naming a child very obviously after a very famously unfaithful wife, I don’t know.

There are aspects of the story I enjoyed, with Gwen and Arthur’s slowly evolving dynamic (and also Arthur’s friendship with Sidney), but I felt the actual romances were a little undercooked (particularly Arthur’s) compared to that friendship, and actual communication would really have benefitted everyone a very great deal, which… is always a frustrating read for me, personally.

It’s not that I’m a purist about Arthuriana, or at least I try not  to be, but I like to understand what an author is doing, and, well, this really wasn’t clear. It sort of relied on “ambient knowledge that King Arthur is a thing, but I hope you don’t care about details”, and well, I do.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)