Gwen and Art Are Not in Love

Historisch angehauchte Jugendfantasy mit dem Drama Level von Trash TV, aber auf unterhaltsame Weise. Es geht um Gwen und Art, die einander bei ihrer Geburt versprochen wurden. Die beiden mögen sich nicht sonderlich und wollen einander absolut nicht heiraten. Nach vielen Jahren sehen sie sich zum Ritterturnier am Hof von Gwens Familie wieder. Ob das gut gehen kann? Hier findet man eine witzige, aber auch stellenweise ernstere, Geschichte, die beim Lesen Spaß macht. Besonders die Interaktionen der Charaktere untereinander hat mir gut gefallen. Es war einfach alles dabei: gute Geschwisterbeziehungen, Stänkern unter "Feinden" und auch das Knüpfen neuer Freundschaften. Wer hier aber historische Akkuratheit erwartet, wird schwer enttäuscht, denn diese geht asymptotisch gegen null. Lustig und gut für zwischendurch geeignet.

I was surprised how much I like it in the end. These characters just got to me, and I have a soft spot for friend groups that have that found family vibe 🥹❤️ The book gave me all emotions from giddy with happiness, to cackling laughter and tears running down my face 😭 I was just missing an epilogue. I wanted a bit more at the end, but other than that, I really have nothing to criticize. Gwen(doline) & Art(hur) are not in love, which is a shame since they are betrothed (since birth). In fact, they do hate each other, and after a childhood full of fighting each other, their parents thought I'd be a good idea to separate them until the wedding. Well, that day finally seems to be on the horizon, and Arthur gets sent to Camelot for the summer to get reacquainted with his financé. They are both not a fan of this idea, but soon realize they have more in common than they thought. Gwen sees Art kissing a boy, and Art notices that Gwen keeps staring at Bridget, the only female knight. So they promise to keep each other's secret and get along to get their parents off their back. Also important to mention: Gwen has a brother, Gabriel, who is the love interest for Art, and another main character. It is set in Camelot, but the speech isn't historically accurate, and therefore easy to read. There is also a lot about the story of King Arthur, cultists and such, which was an interesting "subplot" (more like the plot, but it wasn't the focus). The beginning was a bit slow, but that didn't bother me. It just takes a while until all main characters meet, but once they do (and before that as well), it's great. I just love the characters and their friendship ❤️ The love stories were also nice, but they weren't really the focus. It's more about self-discovery. Finding out who you are and how you want your life to be. Deciding between doing what you think you have to do and what you might want to do while finding parts of yourself you didn't know existed yet. I also really enjoyed the humor. It's been a while since a book got me cackling 😂 The epitome of that was Gwen's birthday. One of the best scenes. Followed by one of the saddest scenes, which I obviously won't spoil here (let's just say it took place in the mud and had me crying). There were a lot of great scenes around the end, which definitely didn't fit the RomCom tag anymore. It was grim but epic, and I hadn't expected some things, but other than the imo missing epilogue, I loved everything about it. A book I can totally recommend and would love to read a sequel about ❤️

war gut geschrieben und die charaktere sind ziemlich witzig vor allem arthur. Zum ende hin war die handlung überraschend düster aber alles in allem ein süßes buch, das einfach zu lesen und verstehen ist