I had high expectations for this book and maybe that's the reason why I ended up not liking it. The cover is gorgeous and the story sounds exactly like some I'd love to read but this book fell flat for me.

The characters felt really flat and one dimensional. I did not care for any of them which is a huge problem. They just gave me nothing.

The relationships felt incredibly rushed and underexplained. They are just suddenly in love with each other even though we haven't had any scenes of them liking each other. I felt zero chemistry between any of them. Even the friendship between Gwen and Art came out of nowhere even though it's probably the one with the most focus on it and the most time together during the book.

The plot was basically non-existant. This book is a story about a group of people with crushes getting together. And that would be fine if I actually cared about them or felt any chemistry or tension, which I didn't. The setting of post-Arthurian legend could've been so cool but the only thing we get from it are the tournaments and feasts (which were both a bit boring). Also most actions just did not have proper consequences which is something that always annoys me

(Arthur being almost dead, just learning how to walk again and suddenly riding on the battlefield and fighting again?)

Also non of the big issues get resolved by the end of the book

- Gabriel still does not want to be King and is really unhappy and stressed because of this. I thought they would find some kind of solution so he could be actually happy but no, his father dies and he has to be King...

- Bridget does not want to stay at Court and Gwen is upset about this. They talk about it and then it is never mentioned again? We know she's still compeating in tournaments so did they ever find a solution for this? I don't think so.

- The whole issues with cultists which is one of the biggest things in the story also gets retconned by them saying that cultists actually are not an issue at all it was just this very specific group of people under the guise of religion..

Also the betrayal by the adviser person was not only so obvious that I knew almost the first time we meet him, it was also completely glanced over by the characters. They just mention it during the battle and then noone talks about it again? This is a huuge betrayal!??

So after hearing all these things that I disliked about this book you would probably think I hate everything about it but that is not true! Because this book made me laugh so much. I loved the humour and writing. Not always, because some parts of dialogue felt very strange but a lot of the times I was actually giggling about the banter and dialogue. Which is super hard because as said before, I did not really care about the characters OR story. But because of how much I enjoyed some parts of the writing I have been very split on what to think about this book.

I have come to the conclusion that I definitely want to read another book by the author. I think my biggest issues are probably with it being a not well done Fantasy story. So I think if I read a normal romance centered book I would probably enjoy it way more.