Audiobook ARC: Lock Up Your Dragons, It’s

Lady’s Knight by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Read by Helen Keely and Barbara Rosenblat

Publication Date: June 3, 2025

Summary from NetGalley:

Gwen is sick of hiding—hiding the fact that she’s taken over her father’s blacksmithing duties, hiding her attraction to girls, hiding her yearning for glory as a knight.

Meanwhile, Lady Isobelle of Avington, queen bee of the castle, has never once considered hiding who she is—until now. She’s been chosen as the grand prize in the Tournament of Dragonslayers, to be given to whichever knight can claim her hand. And for the first time in her life, she can’t talk her way out of trouble.

When Isobelle discovers Gwen’s knightly ambitions, they hatch a scheme together—Gwen will joust in the tournament, disguised as Sir Gawain. Winning means freedom for Isobelle, and glory for Gwen. Losing means… well, let’s not go there.

One thing’s for sure: Falling in love was never the plan.

But the best laid plans…are often trampled all over by dragons.

ARC provided by HarperAudio Children’s via Netgalley for an honest review.

Confession:

I really enjoyed this book. I found the characters endearing, the banter between the lady’s was hilarious, and the romance was very sweet. I also really liked the omniscient narrator’s chapters that was very tongue in cheek about the story.

Helen Keely does an excellent job with the main part of the story. She has a great voice and does accents well. I could tell the two main ladies apart quite easily even though Helen was narrating both of their chapters. Barbara Rosenblat does an excellent job of being the omniscient narrator’s voice and I found her rather drole attitude and voice very amusing for these chapters. I would listen to either of these two women again.

The story is told from both Gwen’s and Isobelle’s points of view, switching with each chapter. I really enjoyed both of these young ladies. Gwen is smart and strong and has a desire to prove herself to be just as good if not better than any man. Isobelle hides behind this image she has created that she is flighty and not very smart but she is crafty and devious and can manipulate the castle politics as well and any man. When these two meet it is the start of a beautiful friendship that grows into much more.

I liked the romance between these two quite a bit. Gwen is immediately attracted to Isobelle, but it does take Isobelle awhile to realize she has feelings for Gwen. I really appreciated that Gwen gave her space to figure out what Isobelle wanted and her feelings for Gwen. The romance grows out of the trust and friendship these two developed first which was nice to see. It is a pretty clean romance on page with only some steamy kisses, but there are hints that things heat up off page by the end of the book.

There are a lot of secondary characters that help to flesh out the story quite a bit. I really enjoyed Isobelle’s friends, Sophie, Hilda and Jane. They were hilarious and I loved that they had both Gwen’s and Isobelle’s backs when they figure out what is really going on. Isobelle’s maid, Olivia, was great and much more than a maid. I also really enjoyed Madame Dupont, the ‘dance instructor’ who coaches Gwen in jousting. Most of the men in the story were despicable, except for Gwen’s dad and Sir Orsin. I loved the relationship between Gwen and her dad. I really liked Sir Orsin up until he did what he did and if there is a sequel I still want to see him in it.

The setting was a pseudo medieval european setting. Think of a whitewashed Hollywood vision of what medieval times were like. It fit this modern fairy tale story and I really enjoyed it. The pacing was well done, although it did feel a little on the draggy side in the middle and the story on the whole was maybe a tad too long. The writing and the dialogue were also well done, and the few jousting scenes felt realistic. I also really liked the fight with the dragon.

As far as I know this is a stand alone novel, but the ending was left open enough that I am hoping that we might get a sequel at some point in the future. If you enjoy fun, romantic stories with a little bit of tongue in cheek attitude towards medieval society then this is a book I think you should give a chance. I highly recommend that you listen to the audiobook, as the readers really added to the story and very much made the characters come alive.