Daughter of Sherwood (Guardians of Sherwood Trilogy, #1)

by Laura Strickland

[tellemonstar]

Cross-posted at Book Reviews With The Blogmonstar

I really enjoyed this. More than I thought I would actually. I got quite sucked in and read most of it in one day. Laura Strickland obviously knows her medieval English history quite well, and the use of the Robin Hood mythos as a base for the storyline was really well done.

Whilst the legend of Robin Hood is used as the basis of Daughter of Sherwood’s storyling, it wasn’t a retelling. It was a wonderfully crafted story set in the same world, only a few decade’s later. Laura Strickland was true to Robin’s story, but has created her own world within that mythology, full of earth-magic and intrigue.

The battle against King John and the tryanny of the Normans is still as strong as it ever was. In order for Sherwood Forest to maintain it’s vitality and magic, a new triad must be formed. The three who form the newest triad are Wren Wolfshead (daughter of Robin Hood & Maid Marion) as well as Sparrow Little and Martin Scarlett, the sons of ‘Little’ John and Will Scarlett respectively. They must form the next triad in order to keep the magic of Sherwood Forest alive.

The romance in Daughter of Sherwood was part of the plot, but it didn’t overwhelm it. I figured out who Wren (or Rennie as she was called) would wind up with quite early on, even if she was unsure at first. It added another layer to the magic side of things, and certainly the bond between Wren, Sparrow and Martin. I think she loves them both equally, but in different ways.

The fighting was not heavily detailed, so if you don’t particularly likee blood and gore then you should be okay, although it was detailed enough to get you a sense of the brutality of fighting with swords and arrows. It also gave you the sense of how very different tending wounds and other injuries was back then, without the help of modern technology.

In all this was a good read, especially if you don’t want something that is really long, but something that will whisk you off somewhere interesting for a few hours.