Gwen & Art Are Not in Love: A Novel

Gwendoline and Arthur are the worst of enemies and, unfortunately for them, unhappily betrothed. It’s been centuries since King Arthur Pendragon ruled England and passed away, the legend being that one day he will return to reunite the country and bring peace to all. Nowadays, England is split between cultists, those who believe in King Arthur’s return, and Catholics, who don’t. His descendant, the reckless and witty Arthur (“Art”) Delacey, has grown up hating the stubborn and confident princess Gwen. When Art’s father forces him to spend the summer with Gwen, neither of them can imagine a worse fate until they both learn a secret about the other that changes everything.  

Gwen’s in love with the first-ever female knight, and Art kisses boys in dimly lit back alleys. So, they make a deal. If they fake liking each other, then maybe they could have the very thing neither thought they could have: true love. As the annual royal tournament unfolds, Art encourages Gwen into Lady Bridget’s arms. Unbeknownst to Gwen, Art takes an interest in her older brother, heir to the throne, Gabriel. Both are brave, optimistic characters anyone would want to root for, though things soon become more complicated as unrest stirs in the North and political conspiracy threads its way through the castle of Camelot. Gwen, Art, and their new group of friends must find the source of this new mystery before it’s too late.  

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love is immersed in Arthurian legend and English lore. While the history and details of many key figures and events are explained, they aren’t explained thoroughly, so it would be helpful for readers to have some knowledge of the Arthurian legend. At first, the novel gives the impression that the story is a retelling of King Arthur and Guinevere, which is not the case. Overall, the story is very endearing and well thought out, but there is an excessive reliance on the original stories of Arthur and Camelot.  

The novel playfully explores what queer teenage life would look like in medieval times, complete with fun characters that deliver powerful themes of acceptance and found family, in between petty feuds, stolen kisses, and witty repartees. Gwen & Art Are Not in Love sandwiches moments of relatable stupidity with the hope of true love beautifully and successfully. 

Readers who enjoyed Imogen, Obviously, What If It’s Us, and Cemetery Boys will love this queer adventure set in a post-Arthurian England, where swordfights, romantic antics, and growing to accept familial bonds abound. This novel is a feel-good story about embracing all kinds of love and learning to lead by gaining more confidence in oneself, even in the face of criticism. Gwen matures and teaches herself to take risks and find her voice. Art is a self-possessed character who knows who he loves but learns that he can be loved himself. Gwen & Art Are Not in Love is overwhelmingly positive and loving, re-imagining a world where everyone belongs, even among the knights and monarchs of Camelot itself.  

Sexual Content  

• During the description of the tournament, when Lady Bridget is first introduced, Gwen thinks about a dream she’d had, where Bridget “reached over with one gauntleted hand to tilt Gwen’s chin toward her, and then kissed her so hard.” 
• During one of the feasts, Gwen catches Art “pressing his mouth to Mark or Michael’s jaw while sliding one hand inside the other man’s tunic. The dog-boy closed his eyes and allowed his neck to be kissed, tilting his head back so that his hair fell away from his face, looking completely at ease.” Gwen is unsure who he’s kissing, but she recognizes him as someone who works in the palace. 
• In one of Gwen’s old diary entries, she writes, “I don’t know why, but I would like to kiss [Lady Bridget].” 
• Strolling in Camelot’s gardens, Art asks a statue, “Shagged any of your sisters lately?” 
• Talking about birds, one of Gabriel’s passions, Art “tilt[s] his head and look[s] quizzically at Gabriel, then [gives] a little shrug, leaned forward, and kiss[es] him.” 
• When Gabriel finds out about Art and Gwen’s arrangement, he confronts Art and kisses him. Art describes it as “extremely clumsy—he had approached with far too much speed, and practically knocked their heads together—but Arthur pressed a hand to Gabriel’s neck to steady him, feeling Gabriel’s curls brush against the tips of his fingers as he held him in place. Gabriel had the element of surprise this time, but if there was one thing Arthur knew he was good at, it was kissing; his eyes fluttered closed as Gabriel tentatively put a hand to his chest, and then Gabriel was moving more insistently, surprising Arthur with the urgent press of his mouth and the fact that his fingers were fisting in Arthur’s tunic.” 
• In a conversation with his friend, Art remembers his ex, “kissing him with spiced wine on his tongue at a Christmas feast and then throwing him out into the snow ten minutes later when they were almost discovered.” 
• To test whether they could feel anything for each other, Gwen and Art try kissing, though it doesn’t work for either of them. “So, Arthur rolled his eyes and grabbed her by the back of the head, pressing a kiss to her closed lips. Instinct took over as she opened her mouth; he leaned in, deepening the kiss, his hand slipping through her lightly perfumed hair.” 
• Art confronts Gabriel about running away from their relationship, and Gabriel “just kissed him back. It was gentle and uncertain at first, but then he seemed to relax into it, sighing into Arthur’s mouth in a way that made Arthur’s nerves sing.” 
• Bridget kills someone for the first time. To calm Bridget down, Gwen kissed her. “She followed through by leaning forward and kissing Gwen so fiercely that Gwen made a noise of surprise into her mouth. She had just recovered enough to reciprocate—to close her eyes and let her hand fall to clutch at Bridget’s shoulder, to taste salt on her tongue and go in search of more.” 
• When Art finds out that Gwen kissed Bridget, he tries to confirm by asking Gwen through innuendo, saying, “You—you got your lance wet, didn’t you? You gave her the green gown! You ground her corn!” Later, he thinks, “behold, kissing hath recently taken place betwixt this lusty knight and this passing good woman.” 
• During Gwen’s birthday party, Bridget kisses her again, and Gwen thinks that “she liked the way that Bridget seemed to smile into her mouth as she kissed, as if she were pleased to have discovered something; she liked the feeling of strong arms and sure hands pulling her closer; she especially liked the small, frustrated noise Bridget made in her throat when she reached for Gwen’s hair, which was carefully plaited away under her hat.” 
• After Art is severely beaten, he dreams “of golden-haired boys who kissed him hard and left him bleeding.” 
• To distract a guard, Art’s bodyguard Sidney asks “what sort of rash do you get if you have a lover’s disease?…oh, God, it’s gone such an unnatural color, I think it might be about to fall off—” 
• When Sidney survives the final, grand battle, Gwen observes that “Sidney had been kissing Agnes quite enthusiastically, both of them in tears.” 

Violence  

• Thrown out of a tavern by the owner, Arthur is on the ground with the owner about “to kick Arthur’s skull in if he didn’t move in the next few seconds.” 
• During the first tournament, two knights fight. One of them, a vicious and bloodthirsty knight, has earned the nickname, the Knife. “The victorious knight had his sword at his competitor’s throat; he looked, for a moment, as if he might be considering using it to lethal effect.” When Bridget competed, she “tried to land a hit, the Knife stepped neatly to one side, hooked her leg, and sent her sprawling. She struggled to get up; he let her try for a few seconds before raising his sword and bringing it down on her helm with such force that many of the people in the crowd groaned.” 
• Later, as Gwen and Bridget watch another duel, one of the competitors almost kills another in cold blood. The knight, Sir Woolcott, “deliberately unsheath[s] his sword” and brings it down quickly. Bridget steps in to stop him, “her weapon [was] held above her head, Sir Woolcott’s pressing down against it and eliciting a tortuous, shrill squeal as steel met steel.” No one is hurt. 
• Gabriel describes an Arthurian legend at a feast, he mentions a landmark, saying, “it’s a stone block where Arthur Pendragon apparently beheaded one of his enemies. Cultists treat it as a sacred site.” 
• When Gwen’s pet bird attacks Bridget due to a lack of training and supervision, “there [is a] large scratch on Bridget’s right cheek, oozing a slow trail of blood down to her chin.” 
• Art is speaking to Gabriel in his bedroom when they hear a noise outside and find “Lady Bridget Leclair [standing] in the corridor, sword raised, shoulders heaving. On the floor at her feet lay a man who seemed to have recently been clutching a dagger. He had dropped it, largely due to the fact that he was dead.” 
• After Bridget kills the intruder, she copes with it by practicing her fighting skills. Concerned, Gwen “put herself squarely between Bridget and her target and clumsily raised the sword. The blow she caught seemed to vibrate all the way down to the base of her spine, but she managed to hold her ground.” 

• During the jousting part of the tourney, “Bridget’s aim [doesn’t] waver; her lance splinter[s], and the crowd roar[s]. The man she [is] competing against [hasn’t] even managed to strike a blow.” Then, later, Bridget has “to duck to avoid the risk of decapitation as the end of her competitor’s lance snap[s] almost completely in half against her shield.” 
• After a night out, Gwen finds Art severely beaten. “She had assumed Arthur drunk, but as his hat fell from his head, she saw in the torchlight that he was hurt. There were dark bruises blooming on his face, gashes where the skin had split open, and there was a terrifying amount of blood splattered down the front of his shirt under his jacket.” 
• Several guards try to kidnap Art. “One of the men toward the back of the group let[s] out an extremely loud grunt as something in his body [makes] the sort of cracking noise that healthy bodies shouldn’t, on the whole—and then he [is] toppling sideways; another manage[s] to turn and raise his sword just in time as Lady Leclair, wielding only a dagger, [brings] her arm up to meet him.” 
• During another tournament, someone tries to kill the king. At one point, a “knife that had been thrown with deadly precision from the arena [strikes] the wooden post just above the throne—and chaos [is] unleashed from all directions.” 
• After being kidnapped, Art wakes up near horses, worried that “the horses with the very large hoofs were going to kick Arthur’s skull in if he didn’t move in the next few seconds.” 
• At the end of the novel, there’s a very graphic, eight-chapter-long battle. Among these bloody moments, the king dies. One of the tournament contestants’ “sword slipped up under the king’s armor almost casually, as if he hadn’t quite made up his mind to do it until the last second.”  
• When trying to save Gabriel, “a spray of mud and blood hit Arthur full in the face as [a] man toppled heavily down beside him.” He later finds Gabriel, and “one of [his] arms was so mangled beneath his crumpled armor that it barely looked like a limb at all. The other was theoretically still clutching his sword, but his grip had gone slack around the pommel.” 
• The heroes finally win when “Lady Bridget Leclair, caked in mud from head to toe, [launches] herself at Lord Willard, with [a sword] raised high above her head.” She kills Lord Willard, the man who initiated a coup against the king, and his armies soon lose organization, allowing the good forces to overtake them and win. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

• Before leaving for Camelot, Arthur asks his bodyguard, Sidney, to “Bring as much wine as [he] can carry.” And later, while they’re traveling, they both drink some of the wine.  
• When touring the castle, Art inquires about the wine cellar. When Gwen asks him why, he responds, “It’s where the wine lives.” 
• Visiting Gwen’s room, Arthur greets Gwen by saying, “Evening. Wine?” and offering her some.  
• While visiting Camelot’s drinking establishment, Art observes that “Sidney kept fetching him drinks, and he kept knocking them back.” 
• Art describes his hangover, thinking about how “a night of drinking, for example, usually precipitated an extremely gloomy morning, punctuated by roiling nausea and waves of self-hatred that left him dour and sullen and utterly useless to absolutely everybody, himself included.” 
• Climbing into Gwen’s room after a late night out, Art claims that he’s “over. [He’s] done. And [he’s] drunk—[he’s] drunk all the wine.” 
• Gwen describes Art as “the man with the suspected alcohol problem.” Later, Art finds “himself looking at an unattended cup of wine” and hesitates while thinking about Gwen’s disapproval of his drinking. He abstains for part of the night but succumbs eventually.  

Language  

• Foul language such as shit, hell, and damn are used very frequently. 
• Bitch and fuck are used infrequently. 
• Since the main characters are British, they also say bloody and arse frequently. 

Supernatural  

• Art describes that the cultists in England “believe wholeheartedly in real magic—the type that could turn back armies, transform people into birds, and heal the sick.” However, they had their limits, as “even they had to admit that nobody had exhibited that sort of power since the days of Merlin and Morgana (and that was if you believed the legends, which Arthur decidedly did not).” 
• Gwen attends a pagan celebration for the witch, Morgana. Gabriel explains: “The more progressive Arthurians celebrate the duality of her spirit. Her capacity for kindness and evil,” and calls the birthday party “a sort of ritual.” 
• One of Bridget’s friends makes necklaces that are implied to have supernatural healing powers. Bridget says, “Elaine gave [one] to [her]. For protection. Apparently, it’s magic.” Bridget’s friend says that “it’s a spell. Or—[she] think[s] it is, anyway.” 

Spiritual Content  

• The story describes a religious conflict between Catholics and those who believe in King Arthur instead, implying that people are either one or the other. The book eventually attempts to convey that religious beliefs are distinct from the relevant political power struggles. 
• During a tournament, Gwen thinks that her father’s cousin “Willard had been bolstered by the backing of many Arthurian cultists—those who believed wholeheartedly in the magic of King Arthur and his enchanted sidekicks, the stories that good Christians had long decided were simply fables and legends.” 
• Art mentions to Gwen that his “mother was Muslim, and [Gwen’s] father is Catholic.” Arthur says, “that spiritually, [England’s] cup overflowth.”  
• Contextualizing the history of religion in their version of England, Gabriel explains that “after the Saxons invaded, there was a bit of a muddle with lots of old gods in the mix, and then the country was Catholicized very rapidly.” 

by Kate Schuyler