Book Review :: Lady’s Knight by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Lady’s Knight by Amie Kaufman, Meagan Spooner
ISBN: 0008714061
Published by Electric Monkey
on 5 June 2025
Genres: Medieval, Young Adult
Pages: 528
Source: Allen & Unwin NZ
Goodreads

A blacksmith’s daughter with a secret.

A lady with a plan.

We’re in for one unforgettable knight…

Gwen has spent the past several years manning the blacksmith’s in place of her father, an open secret in the village in which she lives. A much more covert secret, however, is that she knows not only how to craft but also how to wield a sword, and an incognito stunt at the local jousting tournament manages to catch the eye of the wily Lady Isobelle.
Isobelle has secret dreams too, but she’s been promised in marriage to the winner of the whole stupid tournament, which means an end to any freedom or choices for her.

Desperate to avoid this fate, when she connects the newcomer knight to the female smithy she saw earlier that day, she begins to hatch a scheme…

Petty knights. Backstabbing noblemen. A prison breakout. Cheesecake-on-a-stick. One particularly large and angry dragon.

Will our ladies survive the night? And can our knight save the day?

Last updated on 27 June 2025

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What is Lady’s Knight by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner about?

Lady’s Knight by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner is the story of Gwen, a blacksmith in the village (though most people think it’s just her father making all the armour and other metal items in their store), who dreams of being a knight. There’s just one problem: she’s a girl, and girls aren’t knights.

But then she meets Lady Isobelle, who comes up with a scheme to get Gwen into the jousting competition that is coming to the land. If Gwen enters and wins, then Lady Isobelle doesn’t have to marry the victor – it’s a win for them both. Lady Isobelle avoids being married off to some knight she doesn’t know, and Gwen gets the chance to prove to herself (and the region) that she can be a knight.

While it takes some persuading from Lady Isobelle’s end, the two finally put their plan into motion, with only a handful of people knowing Gwen’s true identity. As the tournament starts, Gwen joins Isboelle at the castle, posing as Celine, sister to Sir Gawain, who is Gwen’s Gwen enters the arena as Sir Gawain, and immediately becomes a mystery to the crowds.

As the story goes on, Gwen and Isobelle’s relationship grows into something potentially more, all while trying to joust against these ‘proper’ knights and not get caught.

My thoughts on Lady’s Knight

Lady’s Knight was a lot of fun! It was very A Knight’s Tale-esque (one of my favourite movies), with a touch of My Lady Jane vibes. Very Arthurian, too. All good things!

The plot on the whole was predictable, but it was predictable in a nice way. You knew that the main character wasn’t suddenly going to plunge to her death or something drastic like that. The book felt light, funny, almost bouncy – Isboelle is quite bubbly, a bit of a contrast to Gwen’s more serious side.

One of the really fun aspects of the story was that every few chapters, there’s a pause, and we get a bit of backstory or comment from ‘The Narrator’. The Narrator commented on things like scenes that weren’t necessarily in the book, at one stage it walked us through a montage which made me immediately think of A Knight’s Tale again, but also for some reason the montage in St Trinian’s. You know the one.

So that was another fun addition to the story. A little interruption here and there.

I will say that even though I did really enjoy this book, I think it was a bit long. There were parts of the story that could have been a lot shorter. We didn’t really get to the end of the tournament until right at the end, which is to be expected but the lead-up felt a bit draggy.

And then there’s almost a subplot which gets thrown in at the end – dragons – and while they had been mentioned and talked about through the book a little bit, it was a bit random how they went from tournament to dragon chasing at the end. Don’t get me wrong – big dragon fan over here. But I don’t think it was needed at all. If it was more of a theme throughout, and it made more sense to do so, then brilliant, pop some dragons in there. I just don’t think it was that necessary.

So, the length and addition of the dragon brought it down a star rating for me.

However, this was a really fun book – it’s lighthearted, full of fun characters, and felt somewhat nostalgic, too, due to the vibe of A Knight’s Tale, and I had a good time reading it.

If you loved A Knight’s Tale, My Lady Jane (book or the TV adaptation, which deserved at least another season!), the legend of Arthur, or other medieval stories … then Lady’s Knight is the book for you!

If you’ve read it already, what did you think? I’d love to know. Drop it in the comments and let’s chat about it!

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Thank you to Allen & Unwin NZ for providing me with a free copy of this book. This does not affect my opinion, and all thoughts are my own.