The Forest Queen
by Betsy Cornwell
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I bought The Forest Queen during my last trip to Barnes and Noble!ย My main goal was to find some cool Pride and Prejudice editions, but when I saw The Forest Queen I knew I had to get it too! I LOVE Robin Hood retellings and I especially LOVE female Robin Hoods!!!! The cover for this one is absolutely gorgeous.ย I knew immediately that it was a Female Robin Hood retelling and I didn’t even bother reading the synopsis.ย It was a straight-up cover buy!
I posted the above picture to Instagram and I used #betsycornwell but I didn’t specifically tag the author of The Forest Queen.ย But she still responded to my picture!!!!
Her response made my whole week!!! Since creating a blog, I have come to realize that most authors are just normal people like us, but its still hard to shake the feeling that authors are these untouchable beings much like celebrities and actors.ย When I get the chance to interact with an author I still find myself star struck and it always amazes me when they take the time to respond!
Thank you Betsy Cornwell for making my day!! You are amazing!!!
As I said above, I LOVE Robin Hood.ย I don’t know why, but I have a soft spot for anything Robin Hood related.ย This is my advanced warning to you – my review might be a little biased because I have a predisposition to love this book.
As I predicted in my First Impression post, I loved The Forest Queen!
The main character,ย Silviana (AKA the Robin Hood in the story) starts out completely sheltered and naive, but her heart is always in the right place.ย She tries to help the villagers, but she doesn’t realize how bad things really are.ย She honestly believes she is better off staying with her abusive brother than running off on her own.ย But, due to some unforeseen events, she finds herself leaving her home in order to save herself and Little Jane.
One of my favorite things aboutย Silviana is that she is incredibly strong, but she doesn’t know it.ย Instead, she learns how strong she is through her struggles.ย Throughout the story she thinks to herself (and I am badly paraphrasing) “This isn’t what I signed up for, this isn’t what I wanted, but, I can help these people, so I can’t turn them away, and I am going to make it work!”ย She is so determined and passionate and caring and I love her!
Betsy Cornwell did a great job of including all the traditional characters in nontraditional ways.ย It didn’t feel forced at all.ย It wasn’t like she was trying to name drop, but instead it was fun to see how she incorporated all the names! I thought it was very well done!
Overall I would highly suggest this book to any Robin Hood lover!! It is a fairly easy read but there was still a ton of emotion and depth to the story! I laughed and cried and worried and celebrated right along with the characters! I loved it!!!
Have you read any Robin Hood retellings? Do have a favorite? Or a favorite Robin Hood Movie? Let me know in the comments!!
*Disclaimer: All Amazon Links are affiliate links. If you purchase anything through one of my links I will get a small commission! All the thoughts and opinions in this post are mine and in no way influenced by Amazon.
Don’t forget to enter my giveawayย for a chance to win $20 worth of books!!!!
Holy crap, is that Taryn Egerton as Robin Hood?! Also, some of my favorite books were cover buys, so I trust your intuition.
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Yes!!!!! Its the new movie that is set to come out in November and I am beyond excited!!!!!
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Bah. Taron. Darn autocorrect!
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Oh, I have only seen The Adventures of Robin Hood, but I’ve read dozens of books when I was a child. I so crave this book (The Forest Queen), it’s on my TBR list. Thank you โค
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Yay! I hope you love it โค
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My favorite Robin Hood movie is the one with Kevin Costner. It’s so corny yes but Alan Rickman is a great villain in that (and I still loved him!) Really looking forward to reading this and it’s so cool Betsey Cornwall responded!
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I love the Kevin Costner one too! Tho I think Men in tights is my favorite so that one is even more corny ๐๐
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Same! And I really appreciate authors who interact with their readers. โค๏ธ Great review! ๐
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Thanks โค and its really exciting haha
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You convinced me Brittany! I told you I was awaiting your review well now I added this one on my wish list! Wonderful review ๐
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Yay! I hope you love it! ๐
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I LOVE Robin Hood! I had a massive crush on the fox robin hood of the cartoon version. ๐ I’ll add this to my TBR! I love genderbent retellings and Silviana sounds awesome!
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๐ Yay! That is awesome!! I didn’t watch that one till I was older for some reason. When I was little I was more into the princess Disney movies and didn’t discover Robin Hood till I was a little older! I hope you love it if you end up reading it!
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I admit I still get star struck by authors as well, even though I interact with some on a regular basis…lol
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Yay! Its good to know I am not the only one ๐ ๐
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Ahh I have this one on my TBR and makes me doubly excited to try it. Also ALL THE LOVE FOR THE ROBIN HOOD ANIMATED GIFS!! ๐ I loved that movie growing up.
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I didn’t see the animated Robin Hood till I was older for some reason but I still loved it!!! โค I hope you love it if you read it โค
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I have been watching for your review on this book since you featured it in one of your previous posts. It sound delightful. Wonderful post, and it looks good on you that the author responded to your tweet.
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Thank you ๐ ๐ I was so excited when she responded haha
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