She turned at the door, her face illuminated in the flickering torchlight, looking at him with utter disdain. “You can address me as Your Highness.”
“My apologies, Your f-ing Highness,” Arthur called after her, but the door had already slammed shut—he was shouting into an empty room.
-Gwen & Art are Not In Love (small edit to text by me to make this safer for work.)
It’s enemies not to lovers, but enemies to friends who become wingmen for each other.
It is late spring in England in … well I think it is best not to think too hard about it. I’m not a medieval historian, but I feel confident that liberties have been taken. The kingdom of England is in a bit of turmoil, a king sits in Camelot, but he is not of Arthur’s Line, and some question whether King Arthur was real or simply a fairytale. There are “cultists“ who believe in the stories of King Arthur, they are not pleased with the current ruling situation and are agitating for a change. With this simmering in the background, the majority of this book focuses on the relationships between four characters.
This is the story of Gwendoline (Gwen) Princess of Camelot, and her betrothed Arthur, who on his father’s side, is descended, allegedly from King Arthur himself. it is also the story of Gwen’s brother, Gideon and the female knight, Lady Bridget Leclair. Arthur was betrothed to Gwen to formialze an alliance between their families (as you do), and the two are – not friends. Arthur’s father has sent him to spend the summer in Camelot, while Lady Bridget Leclair is there because it is tourney season.
After forming a mutually assured destruction pact, Gwen (who has been having dreams about Lady Bridget) and Arthur (doing more than simply dreaming about other men) decide to act like they are enjoying courting each other. The hope is that this will keep respective parents off their backs, even if it will likely end in their nuptials happening sooner rather than later. Gwen and Arthur are the point-of-view characters, and the two of them spark off each other wonderfully. Their banter is anachronistic but I am here for the snark, which continues even as the relations thaw between the two.
For the majority of the book, the story is about relationships, that is the plot. Other things are happening (there are hints of political intrigue and a sense of faded Aruther legends hanging over the book) but that is ridding backseat and at a low simmer.
The last quarter of the book turns up the stakes a lot. It was exciting to read but there was some mental whiplash for me as we went from relationship drama to – conflict. A lot of conflict and things got a bit gruesome in a way that I was not expecting. I didn’t hate it, I want to be clear on that, but I did find it jarring compared to everything that came before.
I did find the book overall to be a delight, even if part of me kept going “When is this meant to be taking place?”. I appreciated the love stories being told and while the hook of it being vaguely Arthurian Legend lite drew me in, I really came to root for the characters.