Scarlet (A.C. Gaughen)

Title: Scarlet

Author: A.C. Gaughen

Publisher: Walker & Company (Bloomsbury)

Length: 292 pages

Rating: 5/5

Will Scarlet is Robin Hood’s greatest thief, a necessary asset as they struggle to protect the people of Nottingham from the evil sheriff. When the sheriff hires the thief taker Gisbourne to hunt them down, Scarlet’s deepest secrets are threatened to be exposed. Not only is she secretly a girl, but she also has a past with the evil Gisbourne, and he’ll stop at nothing to take her, and Robin Hood, down.

It took me a couple chapters to really get into this book, but once I did, I didn’t want to put it down. Scarlet is everything you want in a kick-butt heroine: smart, quick, good with daggers, full of secrets, and hopelessly bad at romance. She gets struck by arrows, fists, and mean words, and while her first instinct might be to run away, she always gets back up, no matter how bruised she might be.

As someone who loves the Robin Hood story, I thought this was a very clever retelling. While the gist of the legend is the same, it made me think of all of the characters in new and unexpected ways.

While it was written to be a stand-alone book, I was excited to hear that there will be a sequel coming in 2014. I can’t wait!

Scarlet (Marissa Meyer)

Title: Scarlet

Author: Marissa Meyer

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends (Macmillan)

Length: 452 pages

Rating: 5/5

While Cinder tries to break out of prison and remain invisible to the entire Commonwealth, over in France, Scarlet is trying to find her missing grandmother.  Desperate, Scarlet teams up with Wolf, a mysterious street fighter. Their paths collide as their missions intertwine, and it’ll take both Cinder and Scarlet to stop the evil Lunar Queen Levana from taking over the globe.

I really liked Cinder, but I liked this installment even more. In fact, I’m throwing a small tantrum right now that I have to wait another year for the next book (there will be four all together- the last pair are called Cress and Winter). Such brilliant fairy-tale retelling! I love how the elements of the stories we love are reimagined and interwoven into the great story against the evil (ugh I hate her!) Queen Levana. The story gets deeper, the characters get better, and the world gets put in even more peril. What’s not to love?

Not to mention how much cute guy action we get in these books- a definite plus. Wolf is dangerously dreamy. The guy Cinder teams up with to break out of jail, Captain Carswell Thorne, doesn’t get to romance much, but he’s hilarious as he tries in his attempting-to-be-suave ways. And we could never forget about Prince Kai, who we get to see as he’s left with the mess Cinder leaves.

I’d eat this book up if the ravenous Wolf hadn’t gotten to it first!