Not for the Faint of Heart
Clem, a healer working to perfect her cures in Sherwood Forest, is abducted by a small group of Merry Men in Lincoln green cloaks. She finds they are led by the young granddaughter of Robin Hood, but the fine principles of the original Merry Men have been distorted to resemble, to the modern eye, those of a hierarchical business organization. Now several groups of Merry Men, each led by a commander, compete for supremacy.
This group, whose members quickly relax with Clem and include her as a quasi-member, maintains the vendetta with the Sheriff of Nottingham’s family. Clem takes part in their raid on a large house and then—far more seriously—on a castle. The novel is full of fights, attacks, and ambushes, so Clem’s services as a healer are in demand. Along the way she and Mariel, the commander of the group, find themselves in several erotic situations.
The strength and pleasure of this novel lie in the author’s delightful (and often unexpected) humor and in the absurdly anachronistic language. Twenty-first century business-speak adroitly meets the Merry Men and the Sheriff of Nottingham. The characters are strongly portrayed, from the big, beloved Baxter to the effete son of the sheriff. All are convincingly shown in their forested medieval world with spears and arrows for weapons but with ideas and emotions that the present-day reader can fully identify with.
This is a novel full of action and surprises, yet it speaks strongly to the importance of friendship and loyalty. Commander Mariel’s need to prove herself within her family leads the ragtag group to one adventure after another, keeping the reader enthralled and emotionally invested—and, oh yes—laughing. Young adult.
