Jamie Pacton

Moxie meets A Knight’s Tale as Kit Sweetly slays sexism, bad bosses, and bad luck to become a knight at a medieval-themed restaurant. Working as a Wench—i.e. waitress—at a cheesy medieval-themed restaurant in the Chicago suburbs, Kit Sweetly dreams of being a Knight like her brother. She has the moves, is capable on a horse, and desperately needs the raise that comes with knighthood, so she can help her mom pay the mortgage and hold a spot at her dream college. Company policy allows only guys to be Knights. So when Kit takes her brother’s place, clobbers the Green Knight, and reveals her identity at the end of the show, she rockets into internet fame and a whole lot of trouble with the management. But this Girl Knight won’t go down without a fight. As other Wenches and cast members join her quest, a protest forms. In a joust before Castle executives, they’ll prove that gender restrictions should stay medieval—if they don’t get fired first.

The Life and Medieval Times of Kit Sweetly

allie

3 stars.

A cute and quick read, which is exactly what I needed to get me out of my reading slump.

Caitlyn DeRouin

Read my full review on teatimelit.com

I stumbled upon The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly by happy accident one night when I was searching Scribd for a new audiobook (I am in no way affiliated with Scribd, but they get a shoutout because they’ve gotten me through quarantine) and I’m so glad that I found it! This book has a lot of things I really like – a cheesy medieval-themed restaurant (how many books have that), an intelligent and hardworking MC who also is all about dismissing gender roles, a sweet friends to lovers story, and lots of fun pop culture references. 

I really enjoyed this book! I started the audiobook in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep, and maybe ended up staying awake and got through just under half of it before finally telling myself to go to sleep and continue listening in the morning. Which, I did, and yes, I finished the book that evening. I thought that the writing flowed really nicely and was easy to follow.

With a book that’s main focus is clearly centered on feminism and equality, I think it would’ve been easy to get very white feminist with Kit’s characterization. I personally felt that the author did a great job of avoiding that. While yes, Kit definitely has her struggles (single mom working multiple jobs, a dad who took off and cleaned out the college funds for Kit and her brother, sometimes skipping meals and stealing toilet paper from restaurants because they didn’t have food or toilet paper at home), Kit does recognize her privilege because she is an able-bodied, white, cisgender woman. I think that it was important that she still acknowledged that with the struggles that she faces, her race is not a factor in any of those things.

Overall, I thought that The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly was a really fun read with a great message of standing up for yourself and others and pursuing your goals. I’ll for sure be checking out more of Jamie Pacton’s work in the future. A solid 3.5 star read.

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received this arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: The Life and Medieval Times of Kit Sweetly

Author: Jamie Pacton

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 5/5

Diversity:f/f relationship, mixed race couple, bi character, non-binary character

Publication Date: May 5, 2020

Genre: YA Contemporary

Recommended Age: 16+ (underage smoking, underage drinking, drug abuse TW, child abuse TW, language)

Publisher: Page Street Kids

Pages: 384

Amazon Link

Synopsis: Working as a wench ― i.e. waitress ― at a cheesy medieval-themed restaurant in the Chicago suburbs, Kit Sweetly dreams of being a knight like her brother. She has the moves, is capable on a horse, and desperately needs the raise that comes with knighthood, so she can help her mom pay the mortgage and hold a spot at her dream college.

Company policy allows only guys to be knights. So when Kit takes her brother’s place and reveals her identity at the end of the show, she rockets into internet fame and a whole lot of trouble with the management. But the Girl Knight won’t go down without a fight. As other wenches join her quest, a protest forms. In a joust before Castle executives, they’ll prove that gender restrictions should stay medieval―if they don’t get fired first.

Moxie meets A Knight’s Tale as Kit Sweetly slays sexism, bad bosses, and bad luck to become a knight at a medieval-themed restaurant.

Review: Holy cow I absolutely love this book! It was fast paced and absolutely amazing! The writing was well done; the author was able to convey so much with showing rather than telling, especially with Alex who is a non-binary character. The characters were all well developed and I loved the back stories and world building the author wrote into this book. I expected it to be a simple story with an over-arching romance, but the main focal point was the knighthood and I really appreciated that in this novel, especially one making a point about gender norms and feminism (which argues equality for all, not just those who identify as female). I also want to brag about the romance, which is mixed race (some people are still against that in 2020, isn’t that wild?) and is very sweet. Jett doesn’t come to the rescue of Kit. While he’s a help and he definitely aides Kit and the others, he doesn’t steal the show from Kit. That’s something I don’t see a lot in YA books, from either side, and I really appreciated this change in the norm. This book is definitely one of my faves of 2020! Great job Jamie Pacton!

The only issue I would say that I had is that sometimes the time jumps were a bit disjointed. 99% of them were separated by a little icon in the book to symbolize time breaks, but there was one or two in there that wasn’t and vice versa there were one or two times where the book was separated but it was the next action right before the “time jump”. Also, there were little plot points that were kinda swept under the rug. I wish that Kit had invited Jett and Layla into her house and I kinda wish that Len didn’t have a “redeeming” arc but meh that’s life, men get all the credit -_-.

Verdict: I highly recommend this read!

Grace Emilia Machon

This book was really fun. I liked it a lot. It’s absolutely not everyone’s cup of tea but I wanted a quirky left wing romp with a likeable heroine and her friends overthrowing the patriarchy on a macro level and that’s exactly what I got

izzy

a review of the life and (medieval) times of kit sweetly by jaime pacton, which i finished reading in october, because i still haven't read anything this month yet. the book is a ya contemporary with feminism themes and a side of romance. the book follows kit, who works at a medieval themed restaurant dubbed the 'castle' and struggles to hide her financial difficulties while trying to be able to pay for college. at the castle, kit (and all non-men) are denied the opportunity to be 'knights' and are only allowed to work as 'serving wenches,' a lower-paying job. when kit masquerades as a knight in her brother's place, she goes viral online and sparks her to rally her coworkers to dismantle the gender barriers at the castle.

i appreciated how the book tackled feminism because it's inclusive even though the protagonist is a cishet white girl. kit's friends and allies in the quest to reform the sexist workplace rules are a diverse group of various genders (including trans and non-binary folks), sexualities, and ethnicities. kit is the main character, its not just about her but rather about opening up opportunities for everyone. kit also acknowledges her white privilege that aids her in being able to more easily speak out. in addition, the book does not draw on the trope of 'not like other girls' and paint it as feminism. 

i also enjoyed the romantic subplot between kit and her best friend jett, who was a genuinely supportive and sweet male character, plus the friends-to-lovers was really wholesome. although predictable, i ended up not minding that much since it wasn't the main source of conflict. i also liked reading layla, kit's other best friend, and chris sweetly, kit's brother. kit is also a history buff and there were references to it in her narration, which it seem real instead of slapped on, such as those ya protagonists who love painting but no one actually knows what they paint.

my main criticisms are that the ending was a little bit rushed, and some of the side characters could have used more page time. overall, it was still a good reading experience, and wonderfully illustrated feminism themes with modernity and inclusivity.

Sarah Williams

3/5 stars

I was so excited to get my hands on this book, which sounded so fun and looked like a young adult version of Jen DeLuca’s WELL MET. THE LIFE AND (MEDIEVAL) TIMES OF KIT SWEETLY is delightfully feminist and certainly cute, but is ultimately lacking in character growth and real conflict. 

Kit Sweetly works as a wench (a waitress) at the Castle, a medieval-themed restaurant, but she dreams of being a knight. Knights have the coolest job at the Castle; they get to fight and perform other tasks on horseback and are paid considerably more than the other roles at the Castle. Not only is Kit more than qualified for the job, but she also needs the raise—her single-mother is struggling to make ends meet and Kit has no idea how she’s going to pay for college next year. The Castle’s policy, however, only allows cis-men, like Kit’s older brother, Chris, to be knights.

When she steps in for Chris at a show—kicking ass and proving that she’s just as capable as any cis-man—and reveals her identity, she becomes an internet sensation. She decides to leverage this new-found internet fame and launches a campaign to convince the Castle’s management to change its policy. Enlisting the help of other non-cis-male employees at the Castle, Kit is determined to show the Castle’s management that it’s time to be on the right side of history. 

Starting with the good—

This book was full of delightful nuggets of feminist medieval history! I took a medieval women’s history class in my senior year of undergrad (one of the best classes I ever took) and so I loved the references that were familiar call-backs to that class. For example, when Kit talked about anchoresses, I felt so giddy as I remembered back to the classes where we discussed the incredibly important and often ignored role of women in medieval religious history. 

I loved the casual diversity in KIT SWEETLY. “Casual diversity” is kind of a weird phrase but it’s the best I could come up with. What I mean by that is that it features a cast of characters that are diverse and it’s not a big deal. It treats its trans characters, gender non-conforming characters, LGBT+ characters, characters of color, etc. as a given. Basically, it normalizes the wide spectrum of identities that exist in our world and I loved that SO MUCH because, hi, hello, it SHOULD be normalized. (Note: I apologize if, by calling this out, I am inadvertently perpetuating problematic erasure and marginalization.) 

Now, onto the not-so-good—the conflict in this felt incredible forced, the resolution felt rushed, and I didn’t feel as if the story adequately addressed Kit’s shortcomings. Yes, she’s our fearless heroine, but I agreed with her friends when they called her out about being too self-centered. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having imperfect characters—in fact, we need them. Perfect characters are boring. But I didn’t feel that there was any real growth on Kit’s part. Nor did I feel as if there was a meaningful resolution to the book’s conflict. I have a hard time caring about something if the characters in the book don’t even seem to care that much. 

I also didn’t feel as if we got a real sense of any of the other characters. They all seemed to exist in furtherance of Kit’s story without any real purpose. I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m someone who needs to have character-driven stories to enjoy a book, but I had a hard time with Kit Sweetly and wish we could’ve gotten to know each member of her support network better.

Overall, I thought this was a sweet debut and I look forward to seeing what Jamie Pacton has in store for us next!

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. This has not impacted or influenced my review or my opinions.

For more reviews, check out my Instagram and my Blog!

Manon van Heumen

This was such a lovely story! It was laced with nerdy, medieval quotes and references, which was probably my favourite thing. Overall, the story gave me a modern medieval vibe, and that worked really well! I enjoyed every second of it, and I can highly recommend this book.

The Life and Medieval Times of Kit Sweetly

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