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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
Oh God. I wanted to like this SO. MUCH. I mean, I really did. I LOVE Robin Hood stories. I'm a sucker for them; I always have been, so when I heard YA Robin Hood with a female main character, man was I excited.
Alas, it was oh-so-disappointing. First of all, there was the terrible writing. Here are a few examples:
“He looked at me, his eyes running over my face. He came closer, and I were against the wall, so my heart started to flutter-beat in my chest.”
What the hell is a flutter-beat? What, indeed? I mean, WHO SAYS THAT?
“He were wrapped in violence as if it were clothes, his cloak like death, his armor like blades.”
That's about the bad guy. Did you get it yet? He's bad. He's violent.
“She kind of looked like the sun in the day and the moon after night fell."
“He’d say such things that made my chest feel like porridge instead of a heart.”
Frowns roll over faces, hearts are porridge, and oh yeah, you can be knifed in the stomach with a hot axe of emotion.
I just don't even know.
Then there was the oh-so-predictable love triangle. Oh my God. Love triangles can be done well, but this was not. It wasn't necessary to the story really, and so much of the time was spent on it, and it was SO FREAKING ANNOYING. Little John was kind of a womanizer, but oh my God, he wants to change for Scarlet because she's so "special". He goes after her again and again, even when she says she doesn't want a relationship with him, and tells her "she really does want it". OH THAT'S JUST GREAT THEN. Robin is okay, I guess. Oh yeah, up until he I DON'T EVEN KNOW. Not to mention, the "romantic" scenes were so ridiculous, and of course Scarlet is all "Oh my God, of course he doesn't love me" even though its SO FREAKING OBVIOUS. Its like she's continually being hit in the head with a two-by-four and going, what? that's nothing. Nothing at all.
UGHHH. Not to mention this also fell prey to the extremely obvious twist-itis, and our heroine was sooo different from all the other girls. Dude, authors, can't you make a female character strong without putting down all other females? Scarlet bemoans other females' stupidity multiple times, and of course, the guys love her because she is so "different" from anyone else. Can I get a special snowflake award? I'm handing it right to Scarlet. There you go, buddy. I get it. You're the best female in all of creation.
Not to mention the problematic part of the story where the heroine consistently decides not to eat, and its argued about, but never really dealt with in a meaningful way. I'm just exhausted from shittily done love triangles, and the idea that for your female main character to be awesome, she has to constantly talk about how all other females are stupid. No thank you.
If you want a Robin Hood retelling that is interesting, check out Outlaws of Sherwood. This one was full of moody navel-gazing, ridiculous writing, and really problematic elements. The only reason it got two stars was there were a couple of interesting fight scenes, and its not quite as bad as some of the stuff on my one-star shelf.
*ETA* Oh my God, the British "slang" this was written in was so annoying. I were doing this; I were doing that. It didn't add to the story in any meaningful way, it was overused, and it just irked me.
Alas, it was oh-so-disappointing. First of all, there was the terrible writing. Here are a few examples:
“He looked at me, his eyes running over my face. He came closer, and I were against the wall, so my heart started to flutter-beat in my chest.”
What the hell is a flutter-beat? What, indeed? I mean, WHO SAYS THAT?
“He were wrapped in violence as if it were clothes, his cloak like death, his armor like blades.”
That's about the bad guy. Did you get it yet? He's bad. He's violent.
“She kind of looked like the sun in the day and the moon after night fell."
“He’d say such things that made my chest feel like porridge instead of a heart.”
Frowns roll over faces, hearts are porridge, and oh yeah, you can be knifed in the stomach with a hot axe of emotion.
I just don't even know.
Then there was the oh-so-predictable love triangle. Oh my God. Love triangles can be done well, but this was not. It wasn't necessary to the story really, and so much of the time was spent on it, and it was SO FREAKING ANNOYING. Little John was kind of a womanizer, but oh my God, he wants to change for Scarlet because she's so "special". He goes after her again and again, even when she says she doesn't want a relationship with him, and tells her "she really does want it". OH THAT'S JUST GREAT THEN. Robin is okay, I guess. Oh yeah, up until he
Spoiler
CALLS HER A WHORE and gets ridiculously jealous even though he refuses to act on it. And oh yeah, when he finds out she is engaged to a horrible man who did horrible things, he gets upset at HER for not telling him she's engaged, because she's a taken woman. EVEN THOUGH she ran away from the man. But oh yeah, she still belongs to him, I guess. And he gets mad at her for "leading little John on" even though John is the one who CONTINUALLY pursues Scarlet.UGHHH. Not to mention this also fell prey to the extremely obvious twist-itis, and our heroine was sooo different from all the other girls. Dude, authors, can't you make a female character strong without putting down all other females? Scarlet bemoans other females' stupidity multiple times, and of course, the guys love her because she is so "different" from anyone else. Can I get a special snowflake award? I'm handing it right to Scarlet. There you go, buddy. I get it. You're the best female in all of creation.
Not to mention the problematic part of the story where the heroine consistently decides not to eat, and its argued about, but never really dealt with in a meaningful way. I'm just exhausted from shittily done love triangles, and the idea that for your female main character to be awesome, she has to constantly talk about how all other females are stupid. No thank you.
If you want a Robin Hood retelling that is interesting, check out Outlaws of Sherwood. This one was full of moody navel-gazing, ridiculous writing, and really problematic elements. The only reason it got two stars was there were a couple of interesting fight scenes, and its not quite as bad as some of the stuff on my one-star shelf.
*ETA* Oh my God, the British "slang" this was written in was so annoying. I were doing this; I were doing that. It didn't add to the story in any meaningful way, it was overused, and it just irked me.
I liked this different take on the legend of Robin Hood. I do really like Scarlet but it seemed like an incredibly long and drawn out book. I did read it in a day but not a single sitting so that could have contributed to it. It did seem a bit predictable as far as who betrayed who and who liked who (although I was rooting for John until I found out Scarlet was Marian and then of course she just HAS to be with Robin, *eyeroll* whatever). I'll probably read other books the author writes because the writing style is pretty easy to read.
Note: Advance Reader Copy provided by Netgalley.
Although the premise of the story and the storyline itself was interesting, Gaughen's timing in revealing certain information from the reader was a bit off and the repetition of the words "mug" and "were" made it a bit jarring to read. Had Gaughen limited the usage of "were" to Scarlet's speech it would have achieved the same affect she was going for without being distracting to the reader, especially once we learned (relatively early) of Scarlet's noble upbringing. Once this occurred, it was even more distracting to me because I couldn't figure out why she spoke so roughly when even John Little used "was". Perhaps if Gaughen had gone even further with the common English of the time and varied Scarlet's vocabulary I would have found it more enjoyable.
I did enjoy the complexity of Scarlet's relationship with Gisbourne, but again the timing was off with this and too much was revealed too early. I suppose this gave more for Scarlet to whine/angst about, but it just made the final pay off seem a bit overwrought and anticlimactic at the same time. Meanwhile the love triangle with John Little/Scarlet/Robin Hood felt pretty weak as the characters felt like carbon copies of each other with slight differences in how and why they were moody. John Little was likable, except his flirtation bordered on handsy creepster, but then Robin Hood came off as a sanctimonious victim blamer.
Having said all that, this novel will certainly have its readers and was not a bad first attempt. Gaughen has the makings of a strong storyteller if she can just work a bit more on the timing so that the payoff actually feels like a payoff.
Although the premise of the story and the storyline itself was interesting, Gaughen's timing in revealing certain information from the reader was a bit off and the repetition of the words "mug" and "were" made it a bit jarring to read. Had Gaughen limited the usage of "were" to Scarlet's speech it would have achieved the same affect she was going for without being distracting to the reader, especially once we learned (relatively early) of Scarlet's noble upbringing. Once this occurred, it was even more distracting to me because I couldn't figure out why she spoke so roughly when even John Little used "was". Perhaps if Gaughen had gone even further with the common English of the time and varied Scarlet's vocabulary I would have found it more enjoyable.
I did enjoy the complexity of Scarlet's relationship with Gisbourne, but again the timing was off with this and too much was revealed too early. I suppose this gave more for Scarlet to whine/angst about, but it just made the final pay off seem a bit overwrought and anticlimactic at the same time. Meanwhile the love triangle with John Little/Scarlet/Robin Hood felt pretty weak as the characters felt like carbon copies of each other with slight differences in how and why they were moody. John Little was likable, except his flirtation bordered on handsy creepster, but then Robin Hood came off as a sanctimonious victim blamer.
Having said all that, this novel will certainly have its readers and was not a bad first attempt. Gaughen has the makings of a strong storyteller if she can just work a bit more on the timing so that the payoff actually feels like a payoff.
I think I'll always be a sucker for classic fair tales retold. This was a solid Robin Hood retelling.
I was surprised at how much I ended up loving this. I had picked it up, read about 10 pages, then put it down because I found the dialect/language...annoying.
So glad I picked it up again a few days later, I read it in almost one sitting.
This is a reimaginging of Robin Hood; one in which Will Scarlet is secretly a girl, a fact only known by Robin, John Little, and Much. She fights with them, but keeps her dark past a secret. When the Sheriff of Nottingham hired a new thief tracker, Scarlet finds her life in danger.
Action, romance, intrigue...this kind of has it all. It's a new take, but maintains the familiarity of the original Robin Hood legends. I also greatly appreciated the author's note and recommended Robin Hood resource list at the end.
So glad I picked it up again a few days later, I read it in almost one sitting.
This is a reimaginging of Robin Hood; one in which Will Scarlet is secretly a girl, a fact only known by Robin, John Little, and Much. She fights with them, but keeps her dark past a secret. When the Sheriff of Nottingham hired a new thief tracker, Scarlet finds her life in danger.
Action, romance, intrigue...this kind of has it all. It's a new take, but maintains the familiarity of the original Robin Hood legends. I also greatly appreciated the author's note and recommended Robin Hood resource list at the end.
LOVED the premise of this book and due to this I found myself tearing through it wanting to find out what happened. I loved the ending so much and I think it fit perfectly however there were aspects that made me have to ding the rating. For one the writing was really simple and it really bothered me that the author replaced the "was" with "were". While I understood by the end of the book why she did that it frustrated while I read the book. I also was NOT a fan of the love triangle. I found it annoying and unneeded. On the whole though I loved this book and still tore through, no matter what issues I had because I wanted to find out what happened.
I am so glad I finally got to this book!
I've always loved Robin Hood and I read the original story back in February. I wish that the Merry Men had more members. There was only Robin, Will, Little John, and Much. A few extra men would've made the story feel fuller. And when the love triangle happened, Much wouldn't've been a fourth wheel.
I have to say that once Scarlet's real identity is revealed, I was a little peeved. I didn't see it coming, but it messed with my ship. Although later I was okay with it and was able to be all gun-ho for the romance.
I've always loved Robin Hood and I read the original story back in February. I wish that the Merry Men had more members. There was only Robin, Will, Little John, and Much. A few extra men would've made the story feel fuller. And when the love triangle happened, Much wouldn't've been a fourth wheel.
I have to say that once Scarlet's real identity is revealed, I was a little peeved. I didn't see it coming, but it messed with my ship. Although later I was okay with it and was able to be all gun-ho for the romance.
I would have liked this book but I couldn't stand the grammer. I am sure the story is great but there is no way I will ever finish it and get past the horrible use of were for was!! AWFUL!!!
So - first things first, I loved the premise and was super excited. I wanted Scarlet's character to be tough and independent and fierce before I even made it two pages in. In essence, I wanted her to be WORTHY of being in Robin Freakin' Hood's band of merry men. Turns out - she is fierce. And tough. And independent. But in all the wrong ways...(insert melodramatic tears). She was an excellent fighter - but how/where did come about these skills? She was independent but tended to run away like an immature child. Like, girl, stahhhhp. I suppose I was just flustered about halfway through with all the contradictory incidents. And I didn't sign up to read about the badassery that is Hood and Little John fighting over a chick who ain't all that and a bag of chips. Ifyouknowwhatimsaying. Sigh..