Monday, July 20, 2015

Review: Lion Heart by A.C. Gaughen

Lion Heart
(Scarlet #3)
Publication Date: May 19, 2015
Hardcover, 348 pages, Bloomsbury USA
Genres: YA, Historical

The eagerly-awaited conclusion to the Scarlet trilogy delivers another action-packed and romance-filled adventure.

Scarlet has captured the hearts of readers as well as the heart of Robin Hood, and after ceaseless obstacles and countless threats, readers will finally find out the fate of the Lady Thief.

Imprisoned by Prince John for months, Scarlet finds herself a long way from Nottinghamshire. After a daring escape from the Prince's clutches, she learns that King Richard’s life is in jeopardy, and Eleanor of Aquitaine demands a service Scarlet can’t refuse: spy for her and help bring Richard home safe. But fate—and her heart—won’t allow her to stay away from Nottinghamshire for long, and together, Scarlet and Rob must stop Prince John from going through with his dark plans for England. They can not rest until he’s stopped, but will their love be enough to save them once and for all?

My Review

It’s over! This trilogy about Robin Hood and Maid Marian is over! Why?! I only started it last year…

As you can see, I’m a little sad that this series has come to an end. I really enjoyed reading about Scarlet and her escapades with the dreamy Robin Hood. (I mean, who doesn’t enjoy reading about anything Robin Hood related?) However much I enjoyed the series though, it still didn’t have as great of a series-ender as I was hoping for.

Scarlet is still the same old Scarlet. She’s putting herself in danger, standing up for people, and just generally being a head-strong young girl. In a good way. But I noticed with this book, that Scarlet just puts herself in danger too much, especially given the revelations we learned about in books one and two. I also noticed that her fellow guards, knights, friends, etc. never seemed around when she actually needed them, so she’d end up doing the fighting by herself. While I am all for girl-power and being able to fight someone with just a pair of daggers in my hand, I didn’t like how Gaughen made the other characters seem by having Scarlet rush into danger. It made them seem incompetent with their jobs. And this brings me to Robin. Robin Hood was a soldier in the Crusades and he’s the original Katniss Everdeen—his arrows fly like nobody’s business! Yet Gaughen doesn’t portray Robin as someone who is capable of ruling a land or as someone who can take care of himself. This disappointed me just because I didn’t want my idea of Robin Hood to be tarnished. He’s still a good character to read about, he just needs to be a little bit more fangirl-worthy (does that make sense?), in my opinion.

The plot of the story didn’t really connect with me at first. I couldn’t remember what happened at the end of Lady Thief, so I was scratching my head when it came to the start of the book and the characters I was re-introduced to. Once I got into it, though, I didn’t mind all that much. The storyline was fast, maybe too fast, but I liked it. However, the ending just didn’t feel like a real ending. It was so abrupt. I was kind of hoping for an epilogue of some sort. Boo…

All in all, Lion Heart is a good addition to a good historical series. If you want to read about a girl kicking butt in the sixteenth century, I would definitely suggest picking up this fast-paced trilogy.


*Note: I purchased a copy of this book for myself.

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