Book Review: Everything I Do

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Genre: Historical Retellings

Publish Date: April 17, 2019

Synopsis (Goodreads):

Robin Hood is about to steal your heart.

A robber and a princess.
A girl disguised as a boy.
A medieval reimagining of the legend of Robin Hood packed with adventure, sacrifice and romance.

Robin Hood, hidden deep in the Sherwood Forest, is fighting to restore the crown to its rightful king, surrounded by faithful friends, green leaves and clear skies. Burdened with secrets, betrayal and an incredible responsibility, he struggles to stay alive and keep the starving people fed. One day, a boy saves him from the Sheriff’s poisoned arrows. Robin, impressed by the slender youth’s courage and skill, takes the boy with him to the forest. 

Only, the boy is not a boy.

In the castle of Nottingham, a maid who used to be a princess is forced to obey the wishes of a tyrannical Sheriff. She dons on male clothes and trains to become a fierce assassin, vowing to catch the greatest criminal in the kingdom. But when she saves Robin Hood’s life nearly losing her own, she is rescued by the outlaws.
When Robin and the “boy” meet, two worlds collide, resulting in unimaginable danger and intense romance. Who will survive when they learn each other’s secrets? What happens when the assassin falls in love with her victim?

Filled with danger, intrigue and slow-burn passion, this is a Robin Hood story unlike any you have ever read before!

Plot: I am a huge Robin Hood fan. My favorite book of all time is The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle. I love the BBC Robin Hood, Robin Hood Men in Tights, the OLD TV movies from when my mom was a little girl, I even had a crush on the Disney’s fox Robin. I watch these stories and read them. They are great! I’m sure you can imagine my excitement at a Robin Hood retelling. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed.

I normally read 2 books a week, but I had so much trouble getting into this one. I wanted to. The first part of the story dragged on so much. I read one thing from Robin’s POV and the same thing from Ru’s POV. The dialogue was even the same. I got bored. Robin’s men were at the camp through most of the book dealing with each other’s drama.

I read the ebook and when I was about 75% through, I finally got into it. Imagine my disappointment when it was beginning to entertain me and the author just stopped it – abruptly. Very abruptly.

I suddenly had flashbacks of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I know a lot of people LOVE this movie – my husband included. However, the ending is so abrupt that I refuse to watch it again. It was to get the reader to buy the next book which isn’t out yet. I don’t think I’ve ever ended on a cliff hanger that badly before — not even Catching Fire was this abrupt and that one had me stressed.

In all plots there’s a problem that is solved at the end of the book. Well, apparently I haven’t figured out what the problem was in this book because the problem I thought was there was not solved. In a series there’s often an overarching problem that stretches throughout the books, but this one…. I just don’t know.

Characters: Ru – the boy who saved Robin, but wasn’t really a boy. Well, I liked her, for the most part. She was a fun character. She could fight and the reader is able to see her character growth just from the flashbacks she has throughout the book.

Robin – I don’t even know where to begin. He is full of self-pity and self-hatred. He’s not a fun character to have around. This is very different from how I envision Robin. He’s always a jovial character and to have him be self condemning of himself is hard to read.

Writing: This was an ARC copy and the author requested this not to be reviewed yet. Hopefully all the errors have been corrected in the final copy.

Overall: I started off not liking it, but I thought it was finally going to pull it together at the end and then the writer just stopped. I don’t know how to explain how abruptly this was. Okay, we all know Robin and his men storm the castle at some point in all his books/tv shows/movies? Well, let’s just say they were FINALLY storming the castle and – THE END. If the main conflict of the story had been solved, I think this book would have 3 stars from me. I liked it. But, the lack of conflict solution brings it down. I have to give it two stars.

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Author:
Welcome to the engrossing world of M.C. FRANK’s books, where characters aren’t going to have an easy time of it: They will find themselves in icy-cold dystopian worlds where kissing is forbidden (among other things), or in green forests ruled by evil Sheriffs. If they’re in Jane Austen’s England, they have to be running away from a traumatic childhood, or if they are in our contemporary world, they’re scared they’ll die before they have finished high school. That sort of thing.
Don’t worry, though, she knows we all need a little hope and joy in our lives, so there’s a good dose of those as well in everything she writes.
M.C. Frank (writer, reader, designer, physicist and teacher, to name a few) has been living in a world of stories ever since she can remember (that’s before she knew how to write). She started writing them down when she could no longer stand the characters in her head screaming at her to give them life, and while those first scribblings weren’t exactly good (nor were they books, although she insisted on calling them that), they were enough for her to discover her passion in life.
She got her university degree in physics a few years ago (yes, she’s like Sheldon, only a bit crazier!) and is now free to pursue her love of reading and writing, as well her free-lance job as editor-in-chief. She lives with her ‘dude’ in a home filled with candles, laptops and notebooks, where she rearranges her overflowing bookshelves every time she feels stressed.
Which is often, since (as you might have noticed) she doesn’t pick the easiest subjects for her novels. 
Learn more about her and her New Adult, Young Adult, scifi, Greek mythology and historical novels at mcfrankauthor.com