Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

Scarlet.

A retelling of Robin Hood.

Sounds awesome right?

Hmmmm...

It wasn't bad, so I won't say that it was, but there were things that did annoy me.

Let's just skip my normal small summary and go straight into the spoilers for this, so if you don't any please please please go away and read that book and judge for yourself.

Okay.

So.

In general, I enjoyed the story of the book.  You follow a young girl named Scarlet who is the Will Scarlet of Robin Hood's merry men, and yes, she's a GIRL.

So she's in hiding.

Of course.

And there is a (slight) love triangle between her and John Little (AKA Little John) and Robin Hood himself.  Which made me soooooo angry because I'm like "no, I cannot accept that."

It's okay because the big secret of the book - which I figured out wayyyyyyyy before they dropped the ball on it - is that Scarlet is actually Marion in hiding.

However, the writing threw me off.  Her language is just so... meh.  Like, she talks in an uneducated way, and also thinks like that.  So it pissed me off.  I was ready to put the book down, and then they explained why and I was able to accept that reason.  So that fixed that problem.

But my major problem was in the interactions between John and Scarlet and Robin.  They were so frustrating.  "Be with him."  "Are you in love with him?"  "I ain't with anyone."  "Kiss me."  "No."  BLAH BLAH BLAH

But then the last third of the book was like BAM all in your face and dragging me in until I was finished with it.  And of course I want more.

Why?

It was actually really well thought out.  The world was well written, and in the department of originality, the idea that Scarlet was actually Marion was kind of awesome.  I treated this more as an origins story rather than a retelling, but I think that either way it would work.

Truly, this book was interesting.

I very rarely see Robin Hood retellings, and when I do it's usually the same old story except maybe Little John wasn't so little, or the Sheriff was something or this was that.  But NEVER had I seen Marion as a disguised thief.  That was clever and amazing and I couldn't help myself but feel drawn to her character.

She cussed almost as much as I used to when I was eighteen - which was how old she is in this book.  I loved it.

Unfortunately, I can only give this one a 3.5 star rating, but I was told the sequels get better and I can't wait for it to come in!

Well, this was short and to the point, but that's only because I honestly find myself drawn to the idea of watching one of my favorite Robin Hood movies now - "Robin Hood Men in Tights."  A classic, I know.

So please join me for my next read: "Monstrous Beauty" by Elizabeth Fama.

Until next time!