The King's Weaver

by Novae Caelum

Bi king x genderfluid princess fantasy romance

When my mother betrothed me to a murderous tyrant, I used my magic to disguise myself as a man and run away to his court to prove he’s a monster.But instead, I found a broken king.

I didn’t expect him to fall for me as a man, and I’m falling for him, too.

He’s been betrayed before—should I tell him who I am and be his queen who broke his heart?

Or should I love him as his king?

The King’s Weaver is a bisexual mistaken identity fantasy romance with a genderfluid awakening.

Genres: Fantasy, Queer, Romance, Romantasy, LGBT, Fiction, Magic

366 pages, Paperback

Published December 24, 2024

About the author

Novae Caelum (he/they/starself) loves royalty, cloak and dagger, and sparkly queer magic, and will unapologetically write things with all three.

Reviews

[Erin Winans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love the concept of this book (which is why I gave it 2 stars), but I learned that the author uses AI after finishing which leaves a bad taste in my mouth…

[Ashleigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. Not my usual fare but I thought the concept was cool and unique. But then I found out that the author uses AI in their writing. And it made sense with some of the pacing feeling off among other things like the kings personality suddenly shifting and things being rushed and feeing unfinished. As a writer myself, I do not condone the use of AI in writing. It feels like cheating and honestly while I enjoyed the read I regret buying this book as it supports further use of AI in writing.

[Leaf · Rating 1 out of 5]

I came in for the bi-king, genderfluid princess, and weaving-magic elements, only to find out the author, unapologetically, uses AI (the capacity in which star use ai isn't the point, it's the fact it's used at all).

All my gripes about the poor pacing and flat storyline all make sense now. Sigh, a rough lesson to do research before impulsively buying a book I was put onto from a reel.

[Shannon]

This is another book I bought LATE at night from tiktok. I loved the premise and that it was an indie author, and there was an audiobook version. SOLD

I started reading it and finished more than half in one go. I was so excited. I loved the characters and the plot. Usually in romance books, and especially in enemies to lovers, I can not stand the female main character, but in this book, I absolutely loved her/him! I loved the bi king and the gender fluid "princess."

I noticed that the narrators sounded kind of funny, but it was very, very late at this point, so I chalked it up to lack of sleep and went to bed. In the morning, I realized what was wrong. The audiobook was a digital full cast, which means it was entirely AI generated.

I've been thinking a lot about this. The only reason I bought it was because there was an audio version. But, had I known this was the author I had been seeing all over my fyp with the AI generated art, I would never have bought it. I don't think it was a waste of my money, but I also don't feel right about it either.

AI should not be used to replace real artists. I'm not familiar with this author, but sense this book only had 33 reviews at the time on my review, I'm assuming they are small and just starting out. I hope that in the future they hire real artists. I'm disabled and have been using text to voice for a very long time, so how is this any different? But at the same time, voice actors are incredible artists and should be supported. If this was the only option for this authors book to be in audio form, is that so awful? I don't have the answer.

Trying to divorce the writing from the AI narration, I think the writing was very good. I didn't find any plot holes or weird character motivation. The ending was so uplifting and wrapped everything up so well. I love a stand-alone book. If there wasn't this AI issue in the mix, I would have easily given it 4.5 stars.

[dee ♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this read!!! I absolutely adored how Torovan and Valtair were so open and accepting to the existence of trans people and Valtair did his part in being accommodating for Caleb to the end. There were a few twists that even I wasn't expecting but in the end, this was a very easy, almost cozy, read with a few stressful points lol.

I updated my rating to 2 stars versus the previous 4 because while I enjoyed the book a decent amount, the more I thought about it the more holes I saw and I wished it were even a bit longer, and then I discovered that the author uses AI in their writing and that is a BIG no for me not only as a writer myself, but also as a consumer. It explains odd wordings and tones in the story a lot, actually.

[Jade · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really excited to read this book because of the LGBTQIA+ representation, but something felt off. There were a good number of events and details to move the plot forward and I didn’t feel rushed taking them all in, as if the author didn’t give enough time to process one thing before moving on to the next. It still read as shallow/not taking the time to build depth or complexity within the events and characters. Found out after spending more money on the special edition hardcover with swag that the author uses AI to write their books, which explains the dissonance in the writing.

[Chrissy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this book last month after seeing it on socials and was excited they had an audiobook so I got that too. Started the audiobook, realized it was an AI voice (apparently it said so on the website and I missed it, I took it as human error). Since then I have learned they used AI to write the novel too and am disgusted. I was so looking forward to this book too. :(

[Gray Hopkins · Rating 1 out of 5]

Edit: oh, the author uses AI. That explains why the story was so inconsistent with what it sold itself to be: queer friendly, compassionate romance. Instead it was a general distillment of every fantasy romance out there. Steeped in traditional gender roles, rage filled masculine stereotypes, and generally uninspiring. Im genuinely so disappointed. If this was actually sorteen by star, I’d be so more willing to read another thing stars written, but I’m just left wondering what stories were used to make this one. I’m also assuming the heteronormative relationships aren’t what the author wanted in stars book, since stars promotes starself as a very queer person. I don’t know, just write your own shit.

An interesting concept, but a very odd read. It often reinforced heteronormative gender roles in the characters/relationships in ways I would never expect from the advertising of the book. The MC often becomes Caleb when he needs to be strong, and becomes Irava when she needs to be compassionate. There’s a whole section where he physically becomes Caleb so that how tightly the King is gripping his arm doesn’t hurt. It just reinforces the idea that women are weak and empathetic, while men are strong and capable, in this case magically.

Plus, the women in the story are shallow and two demential (Mc is kinda shallow too, but less so) in a really frustrating way. I couldn’t list a single hobby or interest most of the characters have outside of the main base plot. The king has a sister who is supposed to be the same age as him, but except for one moment at the very end of the book, she reads like a literal child. She has no interests or thoughts, outside of how the king and general family want for her.
I also found the love interest to be extremely boring. He’s prone to intense, terrifying anger at the drop of a hat, then randomly becomes a super compassionate man with seemingly no switch. It would make sense if we didn’t have his point of view from the start, and thought that maybe he was misunderstood, but we see him become irrationally angry and childish at the drop of a hat. Constantly! And Caleb is forced to fix all of his problems because for some completely unknowable reason, he loves the king. I didn’t feel the relationship of any of the characters, and it was pretty disappointing.
Finally the prose often forgot that the characters existed at all, and just talked about their thoughts, then suddenly remembered they should be in a room, and made them do things. If this wasn’t already published, and 500 some odd pages, I would think this is a first draft of a novel.

[Kylie Whalen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Plot: awesome. Loved the queer representation. But the whole time I was reading it I kept wondering why the grammatical, punctuation, and wording choices felt so odd. Almost like it wasn’t originally written in English. After I finished it I discovered the author used AI to write this book which explains a LOT. I really liked the concept, but I do feel betrayed, and also validated that I wasn’t imagining how weird reading this book felt. As a writer myself, I can’t approve of a book that is ultimately a cheap impersonation of one.

[Annika S · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the concept! I mean, genderfluid princess who uses her magic to go undercover and the loveinterest who falls for both versions/parts of her/him equally? Fantastic!
Sadly, there were some holes in the plot, or parts of the worldbuilding that I simply didn't understand. Why aren't all weavers using their magic to shapeshift? What can be done to protect yourself from a weavers magic except to keep them unconscious? Why did Caleb keep Ivaras glasses, even though he knew, he might have to return as Ivara in a few month time? Why did no-one miss princess Ivara in her homeland? How can Caleb be a better weaver than the master, if the extend of your magical core is something you simply have to train? Why do Caleb and Torovan trust so easily, eventhough they should both know better?

[Shae · Rating 1 out of 5]

Saw 12 million ads for this book and finally caved once it was on sale. The writing was sub par which prompted an investigation only to result in this being AI.

This could have been a good book. It’s a shame greed took over and ruined it.

[Jillian Ferretti · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very excited about the premise of this book, but was extremely disappointed to learn that AI was used in its creation.

[China Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit disappointing

One star for cool magical theory
One star for interesting premise
Minus one for whiny, bad communication that is NOT a good foundation for love
Minus one for sexist plot holes and poorly represented gender issues
Minus one for bad writing style

The characters do not feel like adults who should be ruling kingdoms, and there was far too much internal angst for the lack of genuine introspection and growth. The main character felt like a teen with poor logical reasoning, bad communication, and no long-term vision. Not someone who should be in charge. Their gender identity discovery felt like more of a coping mechanism for sexist issues than a true discovery of self. Why did they have two 'personalities'? Having multiple gender identities doesn't actually mean you have to take a vow twice or BE two different people, that just seems unnecessary and a bit unserious. Needing two personas to cope with life is a separate issue, and needs its own tag, not to be lumped together with gender discovery.
The king felt like a whiny middle manager, NOT a king who had been raised to rule. He kept internalizing other people's actions, and refusing to take meaningful action of his own. The whole plot falls apart if he had actually started arresting people and holding trials, not just asking questions in hallways. And HOW did the rumor that he killed his father even start? Why would they assume it was him, who then refused to rule or hold court, rather than the queen with differing political stances? Kind of thin exposition there.
Together, there was attraction, and a bit of romance, but they were barely friends, And only had a few moments of trauma-bonding. It didn't feel like they actually fell in love, it felt like it was rushed, and a little forced into a short timeline.

I really liked the weaving reality aspect of the story, it was a cool idea, and explained really well, with good visualization.

Grammatically, it was mostly fine, but I felt there were FAR too many parenthetical expressions. It started to get irritating to read so many multi-thought sentences, and some parts were straight up written with poor clarity for the reader, causing interruptions in flow and having to go back a re-read to find out which one subject of several mentioned was the confusing statement at the end referring to.

Had elements of a good book, but was overall a little disappointing.

If you like fast-paced, teen-level novels, and don't look deeper than surface level exposition, this book is for you.
If you've taken college-level writing classes, or read more mature novels often, this book may not be as fun to read, but still has some interesting elements that are worthwhile.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

automatic 2-star deduction from my base rating for being written with ai!! only read it bc i’d already purchased a physical copy & didnt want to have straight up wasted my $$. the author describes themself as an “author, illustrator, & designer” but are you really those things if you’re using ai to do them?? (the character art, cover design, and social media promos are all ai as well😭)

I was so excited about this book, the queer rep sounded really good and i was very interested in the story. it has good bones, but you can totally tell that this was written using ai and the story is worse for it. the use of ai cheapens both the story and the representation- why would i want to read a queer story written by a computer?? if you can write a good enough prompt to use ai to write a story like this, you can write the story yourself. very disappointing.

edit (additional comments): ai does not experience gender!! why would u use ai to write a story about gender fluidity!! i just don’t understand!!!

the introduction of the main characters’ identity as a man happens bc she needs to hide her identity and escape from gender roles and that’s all it ever is until the very end when they’re like “no i’m both [male self] and [female self], i need both of them to be whole” bro literally how. there is no exploration of the Mc’s experience with gender outside of them pretending to be a man. would have loved to have some kind of human emotion/experience there but again computers don’t experience gender so obviously ai was unable to write about it meaningfully. i’m not even genderqueer and i am offended by this representation of queerness as a consequence of convenience.

[Adrian Grey Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was cute

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Use of AI notwithstanding, this story had promise, if only it had been gone through by an editor or two. a lot of sloppy errors and jarring sentences.

[That Chick · Rating 1 out of 5]

UPDATE: The use of AI explains... so much. i was too nice.



Old review:

Although less explicitly queer, (and with more tall ships and cocked hats) the plot of my own WIP is at its core EXTREMELY similar to this, and I wanted to see how another author would handle some of these concepts. This felt like fanfiction tee bee aitch, which means that I was able to ignore a lot of the flaws of the writing and just be entertained. I wish the author had described more things and filled the story out better; lots of telling and not showing; but the plot itself wasn't too poor and I feel a lot more political detail would not have caused it to unravel, nor would some more detail on the magic system, which had enormous potential. This felt like a first draft. I think it might have been interesting if irava created a new caleb at the end that looked like a male version of her, and picked a name, as a symbol of her two identities uniting. I'd have liked a prologue with Tor's father, as well, and perhaps more implicit evidence that aldric is manipulative. Again, great elements of a story, but this yarn is a little limp. Wink. Also again the POLITICS, I wanted to know how their government worked and what tor's dad was doing! What do you mean give the people power! Magna carta style?

[Gabria · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a story. I finished this book in one day and I loved everything about it. I love it to learn different perspectives and I adored Ivara and Caleb from page 1. This was not the typical “prince rescues poor little princess” and that alone was very refreshing.

The only other character in books I read who was genderfluid was Alex from the Magnus Chase-books by Rick Riordan. And reading about that characters helped so much in understanding them. So thanks to the author for creating Ivara and Caleb (even if it was with AI support 🙄). And also thanks for Torovan, for showing us how support and understanding and accepting should look like. 🥰 Looking forward to reading part two. 🤗

[Jessamyn Kennedy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the Green Magics series which was well thought out and had characters with depth. This book turned me off because of the repetitive obsessiveness in the romance. It made no sense. A king that obsesses over his father’s death and then obsesses over someone he barely knows? The obsession romance trope disturbs me a lot. I wanted more about the interesting magic, and the characters, with the same depth as the other series. It just wasn’t there. I’m disappointed to learn that it’s likely because AI was used, allegedly. I listened to the audiobook and the AI voices are incredibly off putting. Very disappointed. I wanted to love this book.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was completely engolfed in this book. The farther in I got the more I had to know. The writing of the characters is so interesting and it plays to this idea that we are who we are and just want to be accepted as a whole. It was just such a lovely, exciting, thrilling book. I'm already recommending it to people ♡
Update: I have come to find out this book has AI used to write it. I'm distraught by this knowledge and can't in good faith recommend this book anymore. I really liked the premise but will not support AI in writing or art.

[Tausha Harris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnfd at 11% the writing was very juvenile. The internal dialogue of "I'm the best their just scared of me" both characters had was annoying. I couldn't tell whose perspective I was reading at any point without going to the chapter header. The characters barely had personalities or differences in personality to each other.

I don't normally dnf books, but this was awful.

[Reese · Rating 1 out of 5]

I loved this book, read it in one go. I love the representation, the twists and turns, the love story, pretty much everything. And then I heard that star uses AI to write, create cover art, and voice characters. I am gutted and don't want to believe it.

[Kaith Karishma · Rating 1 out of 5]

Listening to the audiobook and I can just tell it’s written by AI. The word choice, the phrasing, the lack of emotional depth. I was super excited to see a book with trans rep but I can’t support AI “art”.

[Nati · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book had so many flaws and was apparently brainstormed with the help of AI. Im not surprise nor disappointed.
the idea was good, the ending was really bad. besides the AI I still wouldn't recommend

[Gabby · Rating 1 out of 5]

I learned the author uses AI to write their books. It certainly explains why the writing felt soulless.

[Jay Marie · Rating 1 out of 5]

if i had known the author wrote with AI i wouldn’t have bought it. very disappointed. now all the weird/unanswered parts of the book make sense. lots of typos, too.

[Lola · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free copy from the author and voluntarily reviewed it.

The King's Weaver was one that had me super excited to read it. The premise sounded so fun and I really enjoyed reading this one. Princess Irava gets betrothed to a king of another land, she wants to know who he is and find out whether he is a murderer. She disguises herself as a man and becomes Caleb a mage candidate at the king's court. The king is bisexual and falls for her as a man.

The premise is what grabbed my attention and I really liked reading this story and seeing it all play out. I've really enjoyed the Star and Green Magics series by this author and it was fun to try another book and see some similarities like the political intrigue and some of the writing style. This series has more focus on the romance, but there's still plenty going on story wise with a mystery surrounding who killed the previous king and a mage candidate who is causing some troubles.

I really liked both Irava and Tor. They are interesting characters and I liked reading about them. I liked seeing them grow closer and there is some conflict as Irava is pretending to be a man and Tor doesn't know who she really is, so he's conflicted falling for Caleb while he needs to marry for the stability of his kingdom. And Irava for her part feels bad about lying to him especially as they grow closer. I liked seeing Irava figure out being genderfluid at the end. And I liked seeing the king figure out how he wanted to rule and grow into the role throughout the story.

I also really liked some of the secondary characters especially Tor's best friend Valtair. I think the author is planning to write a sequel and I hope to see more of those characters as well as the political situation and world. Maybe more of the other types of magic as well.

The focus of this book does stay mostly on the romance and the immediately situation at the palace, but I liked getting a glimpse of the larger world and political situation. There isn't a whole lot of world building, but that didn't bother me too much. The weaver magic is unique and interesting with how it works on will power and was fun to read about. There isn't as much about the elemental magic as tho two main characters don't use that, but there are some mentions of it.

I really liked the ending and how things got wrapped up, but just wished some of the secrets had come to light and some realizations earlier. I thought it was so fun to see how Irava/ Caleb handled being genderfluid and wished there had been more of that earlier so there would've been more of that. Story wise it did make sense why that only really got incorporated at the end.

To summarize: This was a great read and I liked the genderfluid princess falls for a bi king concept. The premise was worked out well. The focus is on the romance, but there's some mystery and political intrigue going on as well. I liked reading about these characters and seeing them fall in love with each other. There are some interesting side character as well. The magic system is unique and interesting, although I would've loved to know even more about it. The world building is pretty limited and focuses mostly on what's directly relevant to the plot. All in al I had a great time reading this one and look forward to more books in this universe.

[Trina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay I gave in to the instagram reels that first introduced this book to me. I did really enjoy it and loved the concept. A quick read that didn’t require much thinking. A few qualms - didn’t feel like there were any strong character arcs; went into excessive and repetitive detail about how the characters were feeling and in almost constant states of insanely intense emotion (dragged on); pretty stereotypical gender roles and themes despite gender being a main component; and a very quick-to-fall love story that felt a bit disconnected in the timeline. Apparently the author used AI to write some of it too? Regardless, I liked the idea, the magic, and of course the love, but not the book to read if you’re looking for complex characters and a smooth storyline. A guilty pleasure. 3.5 stars

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story. I loved it so much. The audiobook narration could have been better, but the story and themes were delicious. This would make an amazing Graphic Audio…

[Lex Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was a fun story! I loved the gender fluid rep!