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Scarlet (Scarlet #1)

Scarlet (Scarlet #1)

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4.06 of 5 stars 4.06  ·  rating details  ·  5,298 ratings  ·  1,141 reviews
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...more
Hardcover, 292 pages
Published February 14th 2012 by Walker Childrens
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Soumi(in love with Puck) Roy
Scarlet is wrenching and moving story of love and friendship, bravery and loyalty, a retelling of the legend of Robin Hood, only the voice of narration was Scarlet. Yes Will Scarlet, the most skilled knife- handling young fellow of Robin, in the traditional tales, famous for his hot temper. But he’s not actually what we think he is. He’s no lad; he’s a lass; a girl hiding her true identity in men’s cloth.

description

Being a part of the merry men, Scarlet was always successful to hide the truth from rest of...more
Kimberly Sabatini
OMG!!!! I loved this book. I'm going to start this review by announcing something that I NEVER expected to say (John--if you're reading this you should close your eyes and skip ahead) ROBIN HOOD IS MY NEW BOYFRIEND!!!! There, it's out in the open. Phew--I feel better now. I know that once you read this--you're going to want him too--but just remember I said it first and this post is time-stamped. But don't worry, you don't have to be turned away empty handed--Rob's band of Merry Men are pretty d...more
Claire
I don't know about anyone else but when I think of Robin Hood I think of this:
description
Wait, I'm the only one who pictured him like that? Huh. Blame my childhood.
Anyway, when I first started reading this book I admittedly imagined Robin Hood as being pretty hot. Like a total fox. (GET IT?!)
Granted, the Robin Hood in this story was not the main character. Rather, the main character was a young woman who everyone knew as Scarlet. Her identity is mysterious and only a few people know that she's secretly a...more
Jillian -always aspiring-
(Actual Rating: 3.5 stars)

"We do what we do because there's something we can do about it. Things like 'how long' and 'what if' aren't part of that. It's about the hope, not the horror."

Scarlet, 2012 debut novel fromA.C. Gaughen, takes the legends and characters associated with Robin Hood and spins them all into an engrossing story focusing on a secretive thief who's much more than meets the eye. The people of Nottinghamshire know the thief as Will Scarlet, knife-wielding companion to Robin Hood,...more
Ferdy
1.5 stars

A retelling of Robin Hood where Will Scarlet, a member of Robin's band is a actually girl in disguise.
-The storyline didn't really entertain me, it was boring and the real action only really kicked in towards the end.
-The narrative was strange, it was part present tense and part past tense, I couldn't get my head around it.
-The British-isms and British slang didn't read right AT ALL, it felt forced and it made me cringe at how hard it tried to sound authentically British.
-The love trian...more
Duckie
This is the first time I've read a version of the Robin Hood story where I wanted the sheriff to win. Flimsy characters, clunky writing and gaping plot holes mangle what otherwise might have been a decent YA novel.

The narrative is in Scarlet's voice but it's pretty hard to tell what that is, exactly. It's vaguely British and vaguely working-class but is rooted in neither Yorkshire nor London, where she claims to be from at different points in the novel. Like the plot, it also shows up when it fe...more
Sam
3.5 stars

A. C. Gaughen debuts with a historical re-telling of the renowned legend of Robin Hood - a legend of thievery, injustice, and the eminent bow and arrow that so many of us are familiar with in some form or another. What readers probably won’t be familiar with is the astonishing idea that Will Scarlet, a prominent member of Robin Hood’s band of Merry Men, is, in actual fact, a girl. Scarlet, this brilliantly clever idea of a story, turns the customary concepts of this English folklore on...more
Ashleigh Paige
Also appears on The Screaming Nitpicker. I received this book for review through NetGalley.

The people at large believe Will Scarlet is a boy, a thief, and a member of Robin Hood's band. Two of those descriptors are right, but one is not like the others: he is really a she, a girl named Scarlet--and she's on the run. As the thief taker Gisbourne is brought to Nottingham to help capture Robin Hood and his band, Scarlet could lose her life if she isn't careful. The truth about Scarlet, daring priso...more
Angie
I don't usually give star ratings for novels anymore, simply because I know how much soul goes into creating and publishing a book. But with SCARLET, I couldn't NOT give this debut 5 whopping stars. This is the BEST novel I've read in a very very long time. It had me completely sucked in from chapter one, and I didn't want it to end when the last page crept up.
Scarlet is a fabulously complex girl. I loved her so much--strong and independent, with demons in her past and a fearful secret revolvin...more
Joy
Recently a friend introduced me to the term "Mary Sue" or "Gary Stu" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue
I wasn't sure what that meant until I read Scarlet. A female character a "Mary Sue" or male "Gary Stu" is an impossible character. They can do no wrong, everyone loves them, everyone needs them, they know everything and can do it all better than anyone.
I'm a Robin Hood fan. I thought the idea behind Scarlet was promising. A different take on the legend. Will Scarlet actually being a female,...more
Trisha Wolfe
Oh, this so my kind of story. A stubborn, brash, get-out-of-my-way-and-let-me-do-my-thing lead character, who is flawed realistically, yet fierce, brave and determined—Scarlet is a strong lead who had me rooting for her the whole time. The only girl among Robin Hood’s band of thieves, she hides away, playing the role of a young boy, while her past is steadily sneaking up on her in the form of a Thief Taker named Lord Gisbourne.Though she doesn't let that hold her back from trying to help the cit...more
Maiya
I bound into this book with high hopes of adventure, action and suspense. Sadly I got a bummer. Sure there was action and adventure, but there was also deep emotional woes of poor Scarlet from her past that seemed to clog the books meaning of the whole 'Robin Hood' adventures, and made it more of depressing soap opera.
It seemed that Robin Hood's gang all evolved around Scarlet, and not the poor impoverished people of Nottinghamshire that they were 'supposed' to help out. It was Scarlet who fi...more
Allison (The Allure of Books)
Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen is the newest Robin Hood retelling. Y’all, I love the story of Robin Hood and I was extremely excited to pick this book up. I am happy to tell you that Scarlet more than lived up to my expectations! It has a comfortable spot on the list of best fantasy books I’ve ever read.

In Scarlet, the main character is a well known Robin Hood character re-imagined as a girl. She is fierce and loyal – such a fantastic character. But she definitely has some skeletons in her closet that...more
Erin
Find the enhanced version of this and other reviews at: http://flashlightcommentary.blogspot....

To sum up, Gaughen’s Scarlet is decent enough for those who aren’t particularly familiar with the Robin Hood story or have a distinct preference for female leads, but I think a significant number of readers will be disappointed with the liberties taken by the author and/or put off by the predictability of the piece (especially apparent to those who have seen the BBC series).

I had a lot of problems wit...more
Angie
Okay. You are all familiar with my . . . what's the word . . . thing . . . for thieves. And Robin is perhaps the thief I've loved the longest. So it should come as no surprise when I say that I was filled with glee when I first heard about A. C. Gaughen's upcoming retelling--SCARLET. I liked the cover and, without running down too many spoilery details, I looked forward to the focus on Will Scarlet and the fact that it hailed from a debut author. All of these things add up to that most wonderful...more
Kimmy
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Aisha
The reviews seem a bit polarized - you either love it or hate it, mostly.

I'm in the middle. I *love* thieves as protagonists! and female thieves, even beter. Will's always been the most intriguing member of Robin's band, moreso than Robin himself, for me - so when I found this book that depicts Will as a girl, I had to read it.

The premise, and plot, are solid. It's the actual writing and details, that I feel are weak and could use a lot of revision and re-working. Regarding Scarlet's use of 'p...more
Elena
Okay, so everyone agrees that Will Scarlet is the most badass and sexy of Robin Hood's Merry Men, right? He's a brooding, sneaky, sarcastic fighter who all the girls (and some of the guys) want to get with. The Scarlet depicted in this novel? Just as broodingly sexy and badass as most other depictions. Only in this book? Will Scarlet is a girl. (The premise alone makes me fistpump with glee.)

Robin and the rest of the band (in this story, the core group is just Robin, Scarlet, John Little, and vi...more
næntsi
Sigh. The more I think about this book, the less I like it. Warning, this review is really spoilerific, so I'd recommend that you not read it until after finishing the book. It's also very tl;dr.

I didn't grow up surrounded by Robin Hood stories, and was never too interested, so you can say that this is really my first full exposure to him. Relationships weren't immediately clear to me, but I think in this case I was able to enjoy this story fully without previous bias.

(view spoiler)[Long story l...more
Sadie
Sounds AMAZING! Have you any idea how much I have been obsessed Robin Hood? No? Well, I have and really, still am. Can't wait for this book... hoping main character will be kick-ass :)
Gillian Adams
Hear ye, hear ye, all ye notorious outlaws, thieves, poachers, and nefarious criminals in the shire, ye friends and fans of Robin Hood, any found reading this book shall most assuredly be hunted down by the Sheriff of Nottingham and the Lord Gisbourne, and hanged until dead...

Robin Hood has always been, and doubtless always will be, one of my favorite heroes! So, I'm always thrilled with the chance to read another Robin Hood book or watch another Robin hood movie, and Scarlet was no exception.

In...more
Three
I was so looking forward to reading this! Then I read the first paragraph, and my heart sank.

Another first person narrative. Not just first person, but mangled first person. 'Accented' first person. If first person is difficult to do well, accented is even worse.

Still, my bad, right? I should've read the sample rather than jumping at it because it was a Robin Hood story. So I carried on. I still only made it to chapter three before the narration was too much.

It's not that it's first person, rea...more
Christianna Marks
"Scarlet" was a book that is a hard cookie to crack for me. Things started out a little rough for us in the beginning as I was having a hard time connecting with the writing style of the novel, but once I got into it and figured out the rhythm of the prose we started getting along quite well. You see, A.C. Gaughen gives Scarlet/Will and the rest of the well known characters a form of broken medieval English, and once we became pals the book was pulling ahead and taking me on a rather epic ride....more
Allison
Scarlet tells a tale of Robin Hood from the point of view of Will Scarlet, who in this case happens to be a girl and a thief. I really enjoyed the twist. It was easy to get into, a fun read with plenty of the adventure you would expect from Robin Hood. And the twist only added to it while staying mostly true to the most recognizable aspects of the legend, I believe.

There a couple of things that got in the way of my enjoyment. For some reason, the author chose to write in first person using a dia...more
cubierocks
This novel takes the story of robin hood, and uses Scarlet, one of robin hood's 'Merry Men' as the main character. When I first read the description of the book, I was really excited, a kick-but girl AND the dashing Robin Hood?
I think YES.

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Things I Liked

A girl who could defend herself
The legit Robin Hood
When the action finally started.
Romance that wasn't gushy
Sort-of romantic triangle with John
How the author acknowledges Robin's past
Much (That kid rocked my socks)


Things I didn't Like

Scarlet...more
Melodramaticfool
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Hannah Cobb
I just re-read Scarlet (I've read it twice in six months now!), and I don't know what I was thinking, giving it only four stars. This is definitely a five star YA novel. See my original review below.

Scarlet fights alongside Rob, John, and Much to protect the people suffering under the lawless rule of King John and the Sheriff of Nottingham. For Robin, once an earl and now an outlaw, the fight means protecting his people. For Scarlet--a girl in disguise, hiding layers of secrets even from the res...more
Margo Berendsen
I LOVED Scarlet's voice and her fierce vulnerability - and Robin!!!! Oh, oh, oh, I need more of him.

Scarlet's tough voice grabs you right away. From the first page:

I opened the door to Friar Tuck's and the air fair slapped me across the face. It were too hot and stank of beer and men, and I smiled. It were rough, but none here would turn me out for being a thief and a liar.


In this version, Will Scarlet is actually a girl in disguise. And by page 4, you already know that her relationship with Ro...more
Mundie Moms & Mundie Kids
I didn't think I could love Robin Hood or the legend of Robin Hood any more than I already have, but I'm totally in love with A.C. Gaughen's verion of this historical hero. Her writing is flawless! She not vividly describes what it was like to live during this time period, she also captures the feelings of the people, and the hope Robin Hood and his band of thieves brought to them. I felt like she perfectly crafted together a story of how I envision a younger version of Robin Hood. I absolutely...more
Suz
Scarlet is an amazingly well written, action packed, captivating debut novel from author, A.C. Gaughen. It's a cleverly written modernized spin on a beloved classic legend handed down for centuries. Sometimes dark and gritty, yet full of so much hope and compassion Scarlet will leave readers breathless with anticipation. It's chalked full of wonder and love and redemption and the social injustices of what's right and wrong. Gaughen puts readers right into the story with her beautiful scenery a...more
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Any books similar to this? 1 10 May 17, 2013 07:02pm  
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Is there going to be a sequel???? 26 126 Apr 24, 2013 01:10pm  
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Scarlet

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I am shamelessly addicted to staying up far too late (it feels like stealing time), diet coke (it burns so good), Scotland (stupid country stole my heart and won't give it back. Interpol has been ineffective for prosecution) and thieves (so I guess I'm not that mad at Scotland).

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“You are my whole heart, Scarlet. And this is breaking it.'

My heart cracked open and clear dropped out of me. My mouth opened, and I looked round me and stamped my foot. 'Does this look like a good time to tell me that, you damn stupid boy?' I meant to sound mean but my voice wobbled. 'Now?'

He gave a little smile. 'My foul-mouthed warrior.”
112 people liked it
“I know what it's like when you can't get no one to listen to you. When what you say don't matter. I half think every girl knows what it's like to be silenced.” 97 people liked it
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