Much of the action takes place off-stage, and although the reader hears about the daring exploits of the outlaws, Marian herself is rarely involved directly. However, as the series unfolds, I found myself stuck at the hut with the Forestwife aspect of Marian, dealing with the broken families and wounded men from Robin Hood's exploits. Robin - or Robert in this trilogy - provides a gentle romance angle in keeping with the age of the readership, and the book seems set for plenty of exciting action featuring Marian and her longbow (see cover!) The story is certainly promising, with a young Maid Marian taking over the title of 'Forestwife' and making her home in a remote forest hut as a healer and mystical Green Lady of the wood, where she soon links up with the author's historical version of Robin Hood and his band of outlaws. I'm a great fan of Teresa Tomlinson's Moon Riders about the Amazon warriors and expected more of the same here. Vastly superior to the disappointing Moon Riders, and a book I will make sure my children read some day, both the boys and the girls.

Though I was not always entirely convinced by Tomlinson's style, as she does not explore the emotional development of character relationships in as much detail as I had hoped, I would thoughrily recommend this book. Instead, the fascinating descriptions of life in the forest bring the world of Marian and Magda life in vivid clarity, and make me long to go live in the woods myself. I was almost moved to tears by the quietly feminist presentation of the women in this book - this is something an awful lot of authours should take note of.īrilliantly, the book does not suffer for the lack of focus on the traditional male battles and adventures of Robin's life, and is arguably stronger for it. This was incredibly refreshing, as my preferred genre of fantasy is incredibly male heavy and full of female stereotypes. This book's female focus is immediately striking, with a huge cast of varied, realistic, well rounded and convincing female characters.

Tomlinson deserves major kudos for the concept behind this novel alone - and the convincing narrative she weaves, combining legend with legend and her own ideas - makes this one of the most satisfying versions of the Robin Hood story I've come across. A 'powerful retelling' this book certainly is.

The forestwife by theresa tomlinson