Review of Scarlet by AC Gaughen

Release Date: February 14, 2012

Publisher: Walker Childrens

Page Count: 292

Format: Hardcover

Genre: YA/Fantasy

Many readers know the tale of Robin Hood, but they will be swept away by this new version full of action, secrets, and romance. 
Posing as one of Robin Hood’s thieves to avoid the wrath of the evil Thief Taker Lord Gisbourne, Scarlet has kept her identity secret from all of Nottinghamshire. Only the Hood and his band know the truth: the agile thief posing as a whip of a boy is actually a fearless young woman with a secret past. Helping the people of Nottingham outwit the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham could cost Scarlet her life as Gisbourne closes in.
It’s only her fierce loyalty to Robin—whose quick smiles and sharp temper have the rare power to unsettle her—that keeps Scarlet going and makes this fight worth dying for.

As you may have guessed from the description, Scarlet is a retelling of the traditional Robin Hood. This was the first retelling of Robin Hood I've ever read and it was very good. There were parts that bugged me like the romance but overall it was very well-written and enjoyable.

The world and settings in Scarlet had similarities to Robin Hood and I personally enjoyed reading and comparing the two similar settings between the two books. There were also new and slightly different settings that differed from Robin Hood and made the story more unique. The world ranged from several town to prisons and the woods. I would have enjoyed a larger world but AC Gaughen already provides you with a substantially sized one. Scarlet also incorporates a number of new and old characters from Robin Hood, some of the main characters include Robin Hood, John, and Will Scarlet. I enjoyed reading about them and even in the beginning of the book wanted Robin and Will Scarlet to get together. Even though they did in the end I got sick of waiting, their romance was just too stretched out. It was like a game of cat and mouse and took way longer than it should have been. On top of that, THERE WAS A LOVE TRIANGLE, between Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John. This also got me pretty annoyed, it was obvious Scarlet liked Robin but she still fooled around with John. And don't even get me started with all the miscommunications and coincidences between the three. Robin always just coincidentally seemed to appear just as John made a move on Scarlet and there were numerous occasions where Robin misunderstood the situation and Scarlet didn't explain it to him. However, other than that the character and setting portion of the book was fairly good. There was a good amount of settings to read about and an ample number of main and secondary characters.

Scarlet was a fairly short read (I finished it in a couple of hours) that was well-written and enjoyable. I had some qualms with it like the character relationships but overall I enjoyed it. I would recommend Scarlet to people who enjoyed Robin Hood and/or like YA retellings. Book two (Lady Thief) is currently out and I will be reviewing it as well once I have read it.

4/5 - Good book