In Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher, newborn Princess Gwendoline (not Guinevere) was betrothed to two-year-old Arthur. Growing up, he teases her, and she breaks his wrist, but the primary obstacle to a royal wedding is that both are gay. The story is set in a post-Arthurian England where the king (Gwen’s father) represents the Catholics and Art’s family belongs to the cultists (followers of Arthur Pendragon, Lancelot, Guinevere, Morgana, and Merlin). Some hope/imagine the wedding might unite these two factions. Unfortunately for Gwen and Art, the two factions are already united by homophobia, and the royal couple is closeted. A delightful queer medieval rom-com for teens and young adults.
Other characters are Gabriel (Gwen’s older
brother and the future king), Lady Leclair (the sole female participant in the
tournaments), Agnes (Gwen's lady), and Sidney (Arthur’s man).
SEX. This book is packed with sexual
encounters mostly hidden and occasionally pretended, but the sex is always
kissing. Just kissing. No touching below the neck. There is a lot of kissing,
passionate kissing. Only once does any of the characters even suggest that anything
else exists. “I didn’t even—I never even slept with
her.”
Throughout the book, the characters struggle
with being gay in a homophobic society.
Gwen: Lady Leclair was a problem. Looking at
her felt a lot like wanting something.
Arthur glanced around the otherwise empty
courtyard, pulled the young man into the shadowy alcove between the stables and
the gate, and kissed him.
“How do you do it?” Gwen said. She was looking
at him like he was some sort of patron saint of same-sex kissing.
And you’re going to do exactly what everyone
expects, and never have anything for yourself. And you’re going to be
miserable.” “And I’m going to be miserable,” he repeated. “But—I was always
going to be miserable.”
“They think the first sign of civilization was a healed femur.” Paraphrase of Margaret Mead.
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