Tag / A.C. Gaughen

by PerfectlyTolerable

Lady Thief

***** (5 out of 5)

Lady Thief by A.C. Gaughen

Thief

Disclaimer: All Amazon Links are affiliate links. That means if you purchase any of these books through one of my links I will get a small commission! All the thoughts/opinions in my posts are mine and in no way influenced by Amazon.

Scarlet Series:

I love Robin Hood.  Not specifically the Robin Hood in this book, but Robin Hood in general.  I have read a TON of Robin Hood related books and watched at least 7 of the Robin Hood movies plus the 2006 BBC TV series.  I don’t know what it is about the rapscallion, but I just can’t resist him.  As a result this review might be a little tiny bit biased.

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I liked this book almost as much as I liked Scarlet. I really enjoyed how the story is told through Scarlet’s POV.  You still get some of her slang and odd way of talking, but it isn’t as noticeable in this one.  For the most part she just replaces “was” with “were.”

Side story time! I accidentally said “were” instead of “was” in a sentence today when talking with my friend.  I corrected myself immediately, and I don’t think he noticed, but I was surprised and knew exactly where it came from.  Sometimes if I get super engrossed in a book I will catch myself talking like the character.  Thanks to Pinterest I actually have a name for it! Experience-taking:

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Since I don’t believe everything I read on the internet I googled it (yes I see the irony), and it seems to be an actual thing.  There is an article by Medical Daily that explains it really well and provides background into actual studies that have been conducted. It is not unusual for this phenomenon to happen to me, and its usually not concerning, but it sucks when the character’s grammar is so bad and I have to make an effort not to talk like her.

Alright, enough about me.  Back the the review:  Its a Robin Hood story so its awesome.  I love all the characters and I think its super clever to make Will Scarlet a girl.  (not a spoiler! Its in the synopsis of the first book)  The characters are so real and each have their own personalities and I even started to like one of the bad guys (gasp! I know its awful).  Though this bad guy has some irredeemable qualities, he isn’t 100% awful like you are originally led to believe.  Though it is a little frustrating to start to feel bad for someone you are sworn to hate! And then to top it off one of the good guys has some bad qualities too!  His aren’t his fault (PTSD) but the way Scarlet handles them is stupid and just puts herself in danger without actually fixing anything.  I didn’t like that.

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Since Robin Hood is such a well known story there isn’t a whole lot you can do to change up the plot.  There were some big things that happened that were totally predictable.

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But there were a lot of smaller things that were total surprises and there were still some large plot twists.  So it stayed captivating and exciting.

It did end on a cliff hanger and I HATE cliffhangers, but the third and final book has been published so at least I don’t have to wait long to find out what happens!

Overall this is a great book and I can’t wait to read the next one!

Bonus content:  I am definitely not a stickler for correct grammar and punctuation (I’m sure you could find tons of errors in my posts) but I get really excited and proud of myself when I find errors in books.  I don’t know what it is, maybe just knowing that I saw something that editors, and computers, and who knows how many other people missed.  Or maybe its those stupid memes where they hide duplicate words and I always fall for it.

The

Drum-roll please … I would like to point out that location 2601 in the kindle edition says “but not the the dais”  The word “the” is written twice in a row!

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Yay me! Okay that was it.  Not super exciting bonus content but it made me happy.

by PerfectlyTolerable

Scarlet

***** (5 out of 5)

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

scarlet

Disclaimer: All Amazon Links are affiliate links. That means if you purchase any of these books through one of my links I will get a small commission! All the thoughts/opinions in my posts are mine and in no way influenced by Amazon.

Scarlet Series:

Completely random intro:  I have noticed on a couple other book blogs that the blogger keeps a “review notebook” close by when they read so they can write stuff down.  I thought this was a brilliant idea because I am always telling myself I will remember something to add to the review and then forgetting it. So I stole borrowed a notepad from work and gave it a shot:

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As you can see, I failed.  (and yes, I know I spelled “grammer” wrong) I wrote a comment about the very first sentence of the book and then didn’t write anything else.  I’ll come back to my comment later, but the fact that I had only one, speaks volumes to how awesome this book was.  I couldn’t even remember that I was supposed to be reviewing things.  I was so completely engrossed in the story that it never once occurred to me to write anything down.  I read the book in two sittings and only stopped because I had a volleyball game.

I will warn you there is a love triangle.

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If you read my last couple book reviews you might have noticed that I really really didn’t like the love triangle and I reviewed the series harshly because of it.  In general I think love triangles are overused and abused.  However, in Scarlet I didn’t mind it.  I don’t want to give anything away so I won’t go into details, but the love triangle actually helped the story and was fine.  It was also not overdone.

Alright so back to the first and only comment in my review notebook.  The writing is a little bit different.  Here are a couple random sentences from the first page of the book:

  • No one really knows ’bout me
  • It were too hot and stank of beer and men
  • It were heaving with bodies, laughs, and mugs slinging ’bout
  • that I’m none too pleased ’bout

It is written through the eyes of Will Scarlet so its written like he talks.  And he talks like a peasant in Medieval times.

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Halfway through the first page I wasn’t sure I’d be able to finish the whole book if it stayed like that.  (it did)  But after a couple pages I didn’t even notice it anymore and it didn’t bother me at all.  I actually kind of liked it.  However, when I came back from my volleyball game, I had forgotten how bad it was and it took me a couple pages to re-adjust but then I was fine again.  It reminded me of Pudd’nhead Wilson (Amazon) by Mark Twain. There were certain characters in that story that were hard to understand.  Scarlet wasn’t nearly as bad as Pudd’nhead Wilson .  Also, as an added bonus, the way Will talks comes into play later in the book, so its not completely pointless.  Don’t let the grammar scare you! Its worth it.  Just try and get through the first couple pages and hopefully you will get used to it like I did!

I went through a Robin Hood phase in middle school where I read every single Robin Hood re-telling I could find.

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Because of that I will always have a soft spot for Robin Hood books, especially ones where the girls are not just love interests but part of the band.  My favorite from before, was one where Robin was a girl.  Since then there have been a lot more re-tellings with female Robins, but this is the first with a female Will Scarlet. (not a spoiler, it says Will is a girl in the synopsis)  It was super creative.

The plot was great too.  It kept all the Robin Hood vibes but was unique enough that it kept me on my toes.  There were some really great twists and turns.

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Like I mentioned before I was completely engrossed in the book!  It was awesome.  (I also enjoyed the chance to use Robin Hood gifs)  There is a very real chance this book may re-start my Robin Hood obsession, but at least there are two more books in the series to keep me satisfied!