Betsy Cornwell

From a New York Times bestselling author, a fresh, female-centered take on “Robin Hood” in which a young noblewoman, like the legendary hero, becomes an outlaw fighting for social justice. Perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer and Sarah J. Maas. When sixteen-year-old Silvie’s brother takes over management of their family’s vast estates, Silvie feels powerless to stop his abuse of the local commoners. Her dearest friend asks her to run away to the woods with him, and soon a host of other villagers join them. Together, they form their own community and fight to right the wrongs perpetrated by the king and his noblemen. Perfect for fans of fairy tale retellings or anyone who loves a strong female lead, this gorgeously written take on the Robin Hood tale goes beyond the original's focus on economic justice to explore love, gender, the healing power of nature, and what it means to be a family.

The Forest Queen

Sofia Pereira

Its a beautiful and hopeful story with its own flaws making it perfection

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I bought my own copy but then got a copy on Netgalley. Yay me! All opinions are my own.

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 2/5

Publication Date: August 7, 2018

Genre: YA Fantasy

Recommended Age: 17+ (suicide TW, dark themes, and violence)

Publisher: Clarion Books

Synopsis: When sixteen-year-old Sylvie’s brother takes over management of their family’s vast estates, Sylvie feels powerless to stop his abuse of the local commoners. Her dearest friend asks her to run away to the woods with him, and soon a host of other villagers join them. Together, they form their own community and fight to right the wrongs perpetrated by the king and his noblemen.

Review: I thought this book was.... Not for me. The book did have some good points, the nature scenes were gorgeous and the survival techniques were pretty spot on from what I know.

However, that's where the good points ended for me. For the most part I was bored with this book and i fell asleep like 4 times reading it. The pace is so slow it was agonizing. There was suicide in the book. While there's nothing wrong with that, it was just badly written and I can see where this can be harmful for some. It was very insensitive in my opinion. The writing is not well done. It reads like it would be for younger kids but it doesn't deal with dark topics well at all. Telling rather than showing the character development. Lastly the book just wasn't a robin hood retelling. The book told me about some thieving, but some of it was for personal gain and in my opinion the best part of robin hood is how he evades the law, so why avoid that?

Verdict: Not my thing.

Heather Solov

CW: rape, incest, animal violence/cruelty

This book was a decent read. Well written and got pretty good by the end. I thoroughly enjoyed the feminist retelling of peter pan. I also appreciated the author's note at the end, explaining her thought process and that regardless of whether you believe the story of robin hood is real, the ideals are what matters: that it's important to reject the systems in the world that perpetuate injustice and inequity and radically work to change them. A very apt story for the state of the world right now, particularly in the US.

Cecilia Giordano

Lauren James

Full review on my blog, Storied Adventures

*I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

This was short and cute. I liked the characters and the story. The writing style wasn't my favorite. I had to re-read paragraphs a few times because they skipped around so much. There was even one character (minor character) at the end, and Sylvie was wondering where she was. We never get to know what happened to this girl. Not a plot point. Just, I think, an oversight. I also thought the LGBT characters were random. It seemed as though they were thrown in at the last second to make it a diverse seeming book. 

Now, with that being said, I almost gave this 3 stars but this book gave me such nostalgic feelings from reading things like this as a child, I bumped it up to 4. And I loved the ending! So sweet!

The Forest Queen

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