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3.44 AVERAGE
3.44 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book was fun retelling of the Robin Hood story but told from a women’s point of view. The side characters brought this story to life and balanced out the main characters.
The author tackles themes of leadership, loyalty, and betrayal throughout the book. I wish there were more clever heists and trickery and a little less on the tension between Jane and Robin.
This book was a fun read and you will want to add it to your TBR if you like classic retellings.
Thanks to @netgalley and @penguinrandomhouse for the advanced reader copy.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I’ve always been a fan of classic story retellings, and The Traitor of Sherwood Forest puts a fresh twist on the legendary tales of Robin Hood by centering a female protagonist. Seeing the familiar world of Sherwood through a different lens was a highlight—especially with a Robin Hood who isn’t quite the glorified hero we’ve grown used to. Amy Kaufman does a great job humanizing him, giving the story a more grounded, nuanced tone.
The strongest part of the novel for me was its character work. I appreciated how it didn’t fall into the trap of idolizing Robin, instead letting readers wrestle with the complexities of leadership, loyalty, and betrayal. The feminist perspective added depth, and I liked how it reframed the legends without feeling forced.
However, the pacing didn’t quite work for me. While the premise was promising, I found myself drifting at times, wishing for a little more momentum or tension to carry the plot forward. It’s one of those stories I wanted to love more than I actually did.
Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the gifted copy of this eBook. All opinions are my own.
The strongest part of the novel for me was its character work. I appreciated how it didn’t fall into the trap of idolizing Robin, instead letting readers wrestle with the complexities of leadership, loyalty, and betrayal. The feminist perspective added depth, and I liked how it reframed the legends without feeling forced.
However, the pacing didn’t quite work for me. While the premise was promising, I found myself drifting at times, wishing for a little more momentum or tension to carry the plot forward. It’s one of those stories I wanted to love more than I actually did.
Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the gifted copy of this eBook. All opinions are my own.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Other than the small fact that I wish I got more insight into Jane as a character beyond what happens to/around her, I really loved this book. [I will admit I know next to nothing about Robin Hood other than the classic “steal from the rich, give to the poor”, which I could attribute more to Shrek than anything else!] Every time I see a book that seeks to redefine folklore and stories from a woman’s perspective, you can count me all in. Because the emphasis was on the new center of the story I did want to feel closer to Jane, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the book. There might have been one or two times when I wanted to shake Jane and ask what the heck she sees in Robin Hood, but that was part of the fun! Personally the use of expletives didn’t take me out of the narrative. The f word specifically isn’t a modern word, in fact it’s origins date to well before 1475, so nothing about it screamed “21st century in a dated piece” to me. My favorite part of the book was the way the reader gets to see through Jane’s eyes how Robin Hood and his men aren’t exactly heroes in the perfect sense of the word, and how there’s more to their stories than most people know. I learned more about the story than I knew before, which was limited already, but I am glad I got to learn through the eyes of Jane Crowe, as Kaufman brought nuance to the story that I think she executed very well.
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love that Kaufman has PhD in medieval literature. The best part of the book was the historical note, which showed how much love the author has for the source material and the time period in general.
Unfortunately, the story comes off like an under-baked YA romance. The plot has potential, but the characters (particularly Jane) aren't explored enough to make their motivations make sense.
Unfortunately, the story comes off like an under-baked YA romance. The plot has potential, but the characters (particularly Jane) aren't explored enough to make their motivations make sense.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture
Moderate: Sexual content
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Retelling of the Robin Hood myths based on the medieval ballads. This is not your jovial cartoon fox!
I found myself not interested at all in what was going on so decided this perhaps was not the book for me
adventurous
dark
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Bravo! This Robinhood retelling genuinely surprised me all the way up until the very end. I also appreciated the side helping of medieval fact checking.
Audiobook narration: 5/5
CW: mentions of past and threatened SA, battle gore/blood, torture, starvation, poverty
In a Nutshell: A historical fiction retelling the story of Robinhood from the perspective of one of his female group members. Loved the intent, especially the idea of presenting the original picture of Robinhood from medieval ballads. However, the execution didn’t work for me. This felt more like YA fiction (except that it isn’t YA-friendly). Bland narrator, minimal character development, and a lot of needless focus on physical attraction (with an equally unnecessary romantic triangle.) It might work better for those who don’t read much historical fiction but are interested in a Robinhood retelling.
Plot Preview:
Jane is an ordinary peasant girl with an uncaring mother more interested in her own dalliances and elder brothers who don’t have much time for their only sister. So when her beau Bran suggests that she work for the infamous Lord of the Greenwood, Jane is taken aback but willing to give her new assignment a try. What initially seems to be a straightforward spy job soon turns into a challenging game of keeping ahead. Further complicating the matter is Jane’s attraction to Robinhood, whose behaviour doesn’t seem to match his reputation. When things escalate beyond control, Jane is forced to take some tough decisions.
The story comes to us mostly in Jane’s third-person perspective.
PSA: The blurb reveals too much, including an important spoiler from the final quarter.
I’ve never read a Robinhood retelling, and I’ve not read the original ballads. What I know of this legendary character is limited to what I have watched in a couple of Hollywood movies, which are obviously not historically accurate, and a children’s abridged storybook. As such, I had been looking forward to this novel with great anticipation. I still remember how happy I had been when my request for this book had been approved. Unfortunately, the writing style, the plot development, and the characters didn’t click for me at all.
Bookish Yays:
🎯 The author’s note. Brilliant in every way, this note explains her writing choices and offers insight into the legend. Had the writing actually matched up to the thoughts expressed here, the novel would have easily crossed 4 stars for me.
🎯 I like the intent of representing the original portrayal of Robinhood from the medieval ballads, which doesn't match his modern-day image of a hero. Was he written well? No. But I appreciated the less-idealised and supposedly authentic take, and learnt a lot about some of his beliefs and controversies.
Bookish Mixed Bags:
🏹 Ibota, the prioress – the only character written well, but in a relatively limited role. I might even have liked hearing this story from her perspective.
🏹 The ending. Faithful to the legends, but abrupt in its execution.
Bookish Nays:
➴ A wavering tempo, with the proceedings either being too slow (especially at the start with each event going on for an overly long time) or too rushed (especially in the final section.) The action is meagre at the start and overloaded at the end.
➴ Jane as a narrator – so bland! She is sometimes observational, but her perspective includes a lot of ‘telling’, which is difficult to accept considering her ignorance. (Some of the telling is just unbelievable. How the heck would you see “healthy thighs” under medieval gowns?) There’s also a lot of repetition in her narration. Multiple times, she's surprised to find that characters are taller than she thought they were.
➴ All the scenes of longing and lust! I missed seeing the word ‘sultry’ in the blurb, but even if I had, I wouldn’t have thought that it would be so dominant in a historical retelling. Even in between serious discussions, we get information about the salacious stirrings Jane feels at Robin's sight. Ugh!
➴ To make it worse, there’s a partial romantic triangle, with Jane constantly swerving between Bran and Robinhood. This is the worst-written of the subplots. When Jane is with Bran, she wants Robin, and when she’s with Robin, she longs for Bran. That’s it. No logic or depth to it.
➴ The minimal character development. Characters contradict their own statements and beliefs all the time. Robinhood should have been a grey character, given the intent expressed in the author’s note, but he turns out to be mostly dark and manipulative. Jane is naïve and wilful, and seems to be more dominated by her lust than by her mind. It is weird how Jane suddenly knows Robinhood better than all the men who've been with him for far longer. Robin’s not-so-merry men also have an appearance in this book, with most of them not having well-sketched portrayals.
➴ Thanks to the above, the connection between the characters never feels organic. We see them having feelings for each other, but never understand the hows and whys. The relationships hence feel surface-level. Jane’s attraction towards Robinhood is the least convincing.
➴ The dialogues are somewhat movie-like in their extravagance, making the book feel like a screenplay at times. This might be entertaining for some readers, but the unrealistic tone of the conversations pulled me out of the narrative. It’s annoying to see historical characters use interjections such as “Shit!”, “My arse!” or the F word. There are a few other anachronistic phrases such as someone “having a tell.” This negated the effect of the few instances where genuine medieval spellings have been used, which I had appreciated.
➴ I didn’t expect a strong literary feel anyway from such a plotline, but I did expect a stronger historical feel. There IS historical content but the characters’ thoughts and actions feel more modern. (Not 21st-century-modern, but definitely not 12-13th century.) The least convincing is the idea of Jane and a couple of other ladies spouting modern feminist thoughts about women’s emancipation and freedom of choice. Hah!
All in all, I had expected to love this book, especially as a lover of historical fiction and atypical retellings. However the overall book reads like a YA work (except for the adult content such as cuss words, lewd thoughts, and gruesome action.) It’s very lightweight as a historical novel. I cannot deny the potential of this idea of showing the negative shades of Robinhood’s character, but the execution leaves much to be desired.
This is the author’s debut novel, and her prior works have been scholarly nonfiction. A part of me feels like this book too would have worked better as a nonfiction, offering us the truth about Robinhood’s character as portrayed in the medieval ballads, and cutting out the ignorant Jane as the narrator. As a historical fiction, it just doesn’t hit the bullseye.
I’m not sure whom to recommend this to as it was a below-average experience for me. However, no two readers read the same book. Perhaps this might work better for readers who don’t read historical fiction often and are open to a novel view into the medieval hero’s life.
1.5 stars, rounding up for the intent.
My thanks to Penguin Group - Viking for providing the DRC of “The Traitor of Sherwood Forest” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn’t work out better.
Plot Preview:
Jane is an ordinary peasant girl with an uncaring mother more interested in her own dalliances and elder brothers who don’t have much time for their only sister. So when her beau Bran suggests that she work for the infamous Lord of the Greenwood, Jane is taken aback but willing to give her new assignment a try. What initially seems to be a straightforward spy job soon turns into a challenging game of keeping ahead. Further complicating the matter is Jane’s attraction to Robinhood, whose behaviour doesn’t seem to match his reputation. When things escalate beyond control, Jane is forced to take some tough decisions.
The story comes to us mostly in Jane’s third-person perspective.
PSA: The blurb reveals too much, including an important spoiler from the final quarter.
I’ve never read a Robinhood retelling, and I’ve not read the original ballads. What I know of this legendary character is limited to what I have watched in a couple of Hollywood movies, which are obviously not historically accurate, and a children’s abridged storybook. As such, I had been looking forward to this novel with great anticipation. I still remember how happy I had been when my request for this book had been approved. Unfortunately, the writing style, the plot development, and the characters didn’t click for me at all.
Bookish Yays:
🎯 The author’s note. Brilliant in every way, this note explains her writing choices and offers insight into the legend. Had the writing actually matched up to the thoughts expressed here, the novel would have easily crossed 4 stars for me.
🎯 I like the intent of representing the original portrayal of Robinhood from the medieval ballads, which doesn't match his modern-day image of a hero. Was he written well? No. But I appreciated the less-idealised and supposedly authentic take, and learnt a lot about some of his beliefs and controversies.
Bookish Mixed Bags:
🏹 Ibota, the prioress – the only character written well, but in a relatively limited role. I might even have liked hearing this story from her perspective.
🏹 The ending. Faithful to the legends, but abrupt in its execution.
Bookish Nays:
➴ A wavering tempo, with the proceedings either being too slow (especially at the start with each event going on for an overly long time) or too rushed (especially in the final section.) The action is meagre at the start and overloaded at the end.
➴ Jane as a narrator – so bland! She is sometimes observational, but her perspective includes a lot of ‘telling’, which is difficult to accept considering her ignorance. (Some of the telling is just unbelievable. How the heck would you see “healthy thighs” under medieval gowns?) There’s also a lot of repetition in her narration. Multiple times, she's surprised to find that characters are taller than she thought they were.
➴ All the scenes of longing and lust! I missed seeing the word ‘sultry’ in the blurb, but even if I had, I wouldn’t have thought that it would be so dominant in a historical retelling. Even in between serious discussions, we get information about the salacious stirrings Jane feels at Robin's sight. Ugh!
➴ To make it worse, there’s a partial romantic triangle, with Jane constantly swerving between Bran and Robinhood. This is the worst-written of the subplots. When Jane is with Bran, she wants Robin, and when she’s with Robin, she longs for Bran. That’s it. No logic or depth to it.
➴ The minimal character development. Characters contradict their own statements and beliefs all the time. Robinhood should have been a grey character, given the intent expressed in the author’s note, but he turns out to be mostly dark and manipulative. Jane is naïve and wilful, and seems to be more dominated by her lust than by her mind. It is weird how Jane suddenly knows Robinhood better than all the men who've been with him for far longer. Robin’s not-so-merry men also have an appearance in this book, with most of them not having well-sketched portrayals.
➴ Thanks to the above, the connection between the characters never feels organic. We see them having feelings for each other, but never understand the hows and whys. The relationships hence feel surface-level. Jane’s attraction towards Robinhood is the least convincing.
➴ The dialogues are somewhat movie-like in their extravagance, making the book feel like a screenplay at times. This might be entertaining for some readers, but the unrealistic tone of the conversations pulled me out of the narrative. It’s annoying to see historical characters use interjections such as “Shit!”, “My arse!” or the F word. There are a few other anachronistic phrases such as someone “having a tell.” This negated the effect of the few instances where genuine medieval spellings have been used, which I had appreciated.
➴ I didn’t expect a strong literary feel anyway from such a plotline, but I did expect a stronger historical feel. There IS historical content but the characters’ thoughts and actions feel more modern. (Not 21st-century-modern, but definitely not 12-13th century.) The least convincing is the idea of Jane and a couple of other ladies spouting modern feminist thoughts about women’s emancipation and freedom of choice. Hah!
All in all, I had expected to love this book, especially as a lover of historical fiction and atypical retellings. However the overall book reads like a YA work (except for the adult content such as cuss words, lewd thoughts, and gruesome action.) It’s very lightweight as a historical novel. I cannot deny the potential of this idea of showing the negative shades of Robinhood’s character, but the execution leaves much to be desired.
This is the author’s debut novel, and her prior works have been scholarly nonfiction. A part of me feels like this book too would have worked better as a nonfiction, offering us the truth about Robinhood’s character as portrayed in the medieval ballads, and cutting out the ignorant Jane as the narrator. As a historical fiction, it just doesn’t hit the bullseye.
I’m not sure whom to recommend this to as it was a below-average experience for me. However, no two readers read the same book. Perhaps this might work better for readers who don’t read historical fiction often and are open to a novel view into the medieval hero’s life.
1.5 stars, rounding up for the intent.
My thanks to Penguin Group - Viking for providing the DRC of “The Traitor of Sherwood Forest” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn’t work out better.