I sat down with this book expecting a queer Arthurian retelling and was met instead with a (Netflix) Bridgerton-esque medieval England, where witches aren't burned at the stake but believers in the Arthurian legends and magic - called cultists - still clash with the Catholic Church, and where homophobia exists but also the gay teens are *very* bad at hiding how gay they are. 

It was a delightful world to live in. 

Croucher's loose historical fiction - their bio calls it "historical(ish)" - is anachronistic in all the best ways, pulling my 21st century heart into their world by making it like mine. Their characters are funny, brave, kind, good, messy, and confused in all the same ways I was as a late teenager. The found family trope goes HARD in this one, but it doesn't do so lazily; each pairing of characters (among six) is different and has its own arc. 

The romance is lovely - from sapphic pining to drunk make out sessions, there's something for everyone. It's not a spicy book, which is a nice reminder that not everything has to be. 

Being a YA novel, it had a few plot elements that weren't designed for my fully developed frontal lobe. I saw a twist in the ending from a mile away, and there were times when I felt the explanations a little heavy-handed. That said, I still enjoyed reading it, and would have absolutely devoured this book as a high schooler.