Scarlet

This just isn't my species of book. Don't get me wrong, I love Robin Hood as much as the next girl, but I'm more into the fantasy sort.

No one really knows 'bout me. I'm Rob's secret, I'm his informant, I'm his shadow in dark places.

This is just another of those books I can eat up in a day. I was gripped while I was reading it. Right from the start to the end. But I won't be gushing about it for a year, or giving it more stars, cause frankly I've come across too many rare gems of books to just freely throw my stars about.

But to be fair to A. C. Gaughen, she has pulled of quite a dishy Robin Hood.

“You are my whole heart, Scarlet. And this is breaking it.”“Let me heal up a bit, and we'll see if we can make his part of ‘so long as ye both shall live' a little shorter.”“I'll keep your heart, Scar,” he whispered. “If you keep mine.”

And Scarlet herself is fierce. “I'm saying that some girls slap, but I have knives.”

And wise. “I know what it's like when you can't get no one to listen to you. When what you say don't matter. I half think every girl knows what it's like to be silenced.”

And sometimes she just breaks my heart. “He takes the guilt and responsibility that others can't. John takes the punches. I just take the hunger, and most times it feels like awful little.”

Having said that, this just hasn't met my expectations. It felt too forced, too strained and stilted at times. Scarlet was unconvincing now and then, and she is too much of a martyr, she keeps relentlessly punishing herself, and I've honestly read enough about tortured souls to last me a life time. It was just plain annoying at times. Rob's merry men John and Much also felt too hackneyed every so often. Even Rob himself was typecast once in a while.

I was keen on the story line, a merry woman is fresh and revolutionary. That is a redeeming facet of this book. And all in all, it was a good debut, but unfortunately not the unforgettable sort.