Happy publication day to Lex Croucher’s Bridget & Gabe Are Not Okay, the sequel to 2023’s Gwen & Art Are Not in Love. The sequel picks up about a year after the events of the first book, following our band of chaotic Arthurian royals and friends as they navigate love, loss and leading a country. 

Like the title suggests, the story centers Gabriel and Bridget as we learn more about the fallout from the attempted coup that killed Gabriel and Gwendoline’s father and led to Gabriel’s ascension to the throne. While book one ended on a hopeful note for our queer couples – with Gabriel making same-sex relationships legal across the country as one of his first royal acts – our lovers are not quite living happily ever after. 

Both couples are on the outs. Gabriel dumped Arthur months prior out of fear of being a burden as his panic attacks increased in frequency, but gazes at him longingly out of his window daily. Bridget is ignoring Gwen’s letters while competing on the tourney circuit because she’s struggling with PTSD after killing the treacherous Lord Willard during the coup attempt. 

“…Gabriel actually wanted to be in the council meetings, in theory; he wanted to be on top of everything, to have something wise and clever to add to every discussion, to solve the problems that felt unsolvable. For a while, he’d felt good at it. Getting on with things. Making decisions. The aftermath of his father’s death had filled him with a strange sense of calm – the worst had happened, and here he still was, running a country. Putting one foot in front of the other, one matter of state after the next. Whatever that strange magic had been – shock, or perhaps denial – it hadn’t lasted. Lately, it often felt like his head was full of flies, and his tongue was the apple they were filling with worms.” 

“What could Bridget say? My hands aren’t connected to my brain any more. Things that were once as easy to me as breathing are like another language. My horse seems to hate me. I can’t stand the sight of sunlight glinting off a helm. It distracts me. Everything distracts me; the world is made up of too many sounds, too many colors. I used to know exactly who I was and what I was for, but now that’s all gone.” 

The bulk of the story focuses on Gabriel and Bridget’s responses to their trauma and their parallel struggles to face their demons, communicate their pain to their loved ones and grow beyond their challenges so they can look to the future. 

Their emotional journeys unfold in tandem with a real journey across England and Wales as Gabriel and his newly formed Round Table, composed of friends old and new, trek across the region to investigate reports of Arthurian-related sightings i.e. the Lady of the Lake, the Holy Grail, etc. The trip serves the dual purpose of building goodwill for Gabe and his reign among skeptical subjects wary of Gabriel’s Lancelot Laws and edicts about universal education. 

Like its predecessor, Bridget & Gabe Are Not Okay is funny, delightfully chaotic at times, warm and loving, with a beautiful found family group and characters who are well-intentioned even when struggling. To me, book two strikes a naturally more mature tone as the characters grapple with mental health issues in the wake of trauma and dramatic change. I do think the overall plot arc, and the climactic confrontation in this book, are quieter and less surprising than in book one; book one’s attempted coup left me gasping in surprise, while the events in book two were less dramatic and I felt carried less pressing danger and stakes. 

The climactic scene in this book involves a confrontation between the Round Table knights and bigoted men in a seaside village who aim to kill one of our protagonists to express their opposition to the monarchy’s embrace of same-sex love. Gabriel makes perhaps his strongest public statement as king during the battle, sticking to his convictions, but later questions whether his advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community is moving too quickly for the kingdom. His knights encourage him to continue forging ahead. 

It struck me while reading how similarly this exchange mirrors recent discourse among the Democratic Party in the United States as some party leaders and consultants debate whether abandonment of support for trans rights, or at least deemphasizing support, could improve Democratic electability. While Croucher is British, I don’t think it’s an accident that the issues in the book parallel the current political moment in the U.S. and in the author’s country. 

In true Camelot Disasters series fashion, the heavy topics are balanced with ample humor. One of my favorite moments from the book is when they confront the “Green Knight.” The scene is reminiscent of both Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the “Game of Wits” in The Princess Bride. 

One of my favorite quotes on love from the book comes from Bridget, in her final declaration to Gwen:

“But knight or not, whether I’m a noble, a mercenary, a thief, a damned monk…I swear myself in service to you. I will protect you, speak the truth to you always, honor you with my life and deeds. I will shield you with my body and keep you with my heart. My sword is yours. I don’t know if you meant it when you said you loved me the other day – but I love you.” 

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan and Wednesday Books for the advanced reader copy of Bridget & Gabe Are Not Okay!