The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly by Jamie Pacton | ARC Review

This Girl Knight is Bringing the Castle Out of the Dark Ages

It takes a certain sort of contemporary to win me over, especially when it’s not a romance, but The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly truly won the day! I had so much fun reading about Kit, the Girl Knight, and her fight against the patriarchal ideals of the Castle, the restaurant she works at as a “Serving Wench.”

I think the part that won me over the most was simply Kit. Here you have a teen who has seen hardship but still has big dreams and a plan to achieve them. Her continued drive and optimism, even when things didn’t work out how she hoped, was contagious. And I think there was a lesson in her story too, of trust and friendship, of overthrowing an outdated and misogynistic mindset, and of accepting mistakes and trying to do better the next time. Because yeah, Kit messes up. Big time. But that’s okay and she learns from it and I think this book sends a lot of great messages through Kit’s eyes.

But it wasn’t just about Kit. We’re introduced to the Castle, a medieval-style restaurant still caught up in the Dark Ages where only men can be (performing) knights and the women are delegated to wenches or princesses, stereotypical roles. This includes Kit’s friends and this is where I started to get bogged down with the book.

I loved how diverse the secondary characters were as a cast, it’s one of the highlights of the book. That said, I felt that they didn’t get quite the same attention that Kit did and I don’t mean page time so much as goals, motivations, the illusion that they’re more fleshed out than names on the page to fulfill the protagonist’s character growth. I’d say Jett and Layla, Kit’s closest friends, were the most fleshed out but still felt lacking at times.

The story itself is lighthearted (mostly) and quite entertaining. There’s a good mix of humor, sweet romance, and “adventure” or at least as much as one can have at a medieval-themed restaurant. I wouldn’t consider the writing amazing and I think we went too in depth in Kit’s head or daily routine at times that slowed the pacing, but for the most part I didn’t care too much.

If I’m being completely honest, the main reason I wanted to pick this book up in the first place was the comparison to the movie A Knight’s Tale, which happens to be a favorite of mine. And I think it’s pretty accurate with this modern story (in case you’re also a fan of A Knight’s Tale and thinking about picking up Kit Sweetly).

The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly isn’t the perfect book, nor my favorite YA contemporary BUT I thought it was a lot of fun to read and barely put it down. I can definitely see it appealing to both teen and adult readers looking for a story about the power of friendship and seeking change in the world.