So This Is Ever After

An instant New York Time bestseller!\nCarry On meets Arthurian legend in this subversive, “delightfully original and whimsical” (Kirkus Reviews) young adult fantasy about what happens after the chosen one wins the kingdom and has to get married to keep it…and to stay alive.\nArek hadn’t thought much about what would happen after he completed the prophecy that said he was destined to save the Kingdom of Ere from its evil ruler. So now that he’s finally managed to (somewhat clumsily) behead the evil king (turns out magical swords yanked from bogs don’t come pre-sharpened), he and his rag-tag group of quest companions are at a bit of a loss for what to do next.\nAs a temporary safeguard, Arek’s best friend and mage, Matt, convinces him to assume the throne until the true heir can be rescued from her tower. Except that she’s dead. Now Arek is stuck as king, a role that comes with a magical catch: choose a spouse by your eighteenth birthday, or wither away into nothing.\nWith his eighteenth birthday only three months away, and only Matt in on the secret, Arek embarks on a desperate bid to find a spouse to save his life—starting with his quest companions. But his attempts at wooing his friends go painfully and hilariously wrong…until he discovers that love might have been in front of him all along.\nFrom School Library Journal\nGr 8 Up-After defeating the evil usurper of the throne of Ere in the land of Chickpea, Arek agrees to temporarily become king while he and his party search for the true living heir to the throne. Unfortunately for him, the heir perished while locked in a tower, and Arek finds himself magically bound to the crown. Incidentally, the person who holds the throne of Ere must marry before their 18th birthday-and Arek turns 18 in just three months. Not wanting to pressure his best friend, whom Arek is in love with, the new king instead sets out to casually woo every other member of the party in turn, following the guidance of the long-dead princess's journal. Much in the way that TJ Klune's The Extraordinaries plays off superhero tropes, Lukens relies on the audience's knowledge of and expectations for fantasy to fill in much of the worldbuilding, orienting the story firmly around Arek's attempts to find a spouse. The attempts themselves are humorous, and since the plot is structured like a fairy tale, the ending is satisfying but unsurprising. Similarly, the characters have the same dynamic as a well-organized Dungeons & Dragons party and are well rounded and easy to root for. Most characters are queer, and there is no homophobia in the land of Chickpea. VERDICT Purchase for tabletop RPG fans and where fantasy titles are popular.-Austin Ferraro, Brambleton Lib./Loudoun County P.L., Brambleton, VAα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.