So This Is Ever After

I just recently read a book that I thought was a new favorite but apparently I didn't know the meaning of that word yet. This book is impossibly quotable, relatable, sad and funny. Arek is dramatic like me and I want to be friends with this entire friend group.

New law: Everyone read this book!!

It was alright. The main character knew exactly what he needed to do the whole time and took the whole book to do
it..

Arthurian Legend retelling with focus on the romance between Arthur and Merlin? Count me in. ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ If you're looking for a cozy fantasy book with magic and royalty as well as found family and endearing queer romance this is for you. ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ "So This Is Ever After" is about a group of teenagers/ young adults trying to navigate ruling a kingdom after defeating the evil king "the Vile One" who has been terrorizing their people for the past 40 years. ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Arek, the chosen one and the one whose POV we get in this book has been in love with his childhood best friend Matt for a while now. After completing their quest he wants nothing more than a quiet life with him by his side. But after he puts on the kingdom's crown, planning on giving it to a relative of the royal family that had been in place before the Vile One took over, everything goes wrong. There is a magical law in place that prevents him from giving up the throne and forces him to find a soulmate by his 18th birthday. If he doesn't, he'll die. ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ The other characters in their friend group include • Matt, the mage • Lila, the rogue • Bethany, the bard • Sionna, the soldier and Rion, the knight, the oldest of the six ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ A lot of the main conflict revolves around Arek and Matt not being able to communicate their feelings properly. There's a decent amount of miscommunication. However, surprisingly, it didn't bother me. I thought the gay pining was quite fun to read about and considering this is meant to be a more cozy and easy read it was the perfect amount of obliviousness and them being adorable. ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ If you find yourself getting easily frustrated by the miscommunication trope though, I'm not sure you'll enjoy it as much. You shouldn't go in expecting a complex plot and high stakes either because that's just not what this book is. And I don't mean this in a negative way at all. ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ The focus is in general more on the characters than the plot here, the most important aspects of the book being, of course, the romance as well as the found family between the six main characters. There's a lot of conversation about their places in their traditional roles, too. For example how maybe, being the chosen one doesn't mean you have to bear the whole responsibility on your own. ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Beside Matt and Arek, there are some other quite adorable romances between side characters and the other main characters: girl/boy and sapphic couples and there's even a polycule, including one of the six main characters, mentioned. There's one fairly important nonbinary side character as well. In fact, most characters seem to be on the multi-attraction spectrum, their world being entirely queer-normative and not a patriarchy either. ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ what I missed a little was the aroace and disability representation, which isn't really something I'd say makes the book worse, really, I just personally love seeing that. Despite one of the six main characters being Black there could have been a little more BIPOC characters too. ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ All in all this was one of my favourite reads of the year and I highly recommend it.

This book fills me with happiness and tears!

Very fun and whimsical and I don’t care that it wasn’t the most complex written thing in the world it was cute and gay and made fantasy fun, playing on popular tropes in both fantasy and rom coms that combined into a very fun story