Elaine White's Life in Books

Book 2: Shirewode
POV: 3rd person, multi-character
Pages: 390
Star rating: ★★★★☆

To be quite honest, after the mixed-feelings book 1 left me with, I really wasn't sure I wanted to go ahead with this book. I mean, I've always been fascinated by the Templars, so that helped inspire me to keep going, but I just really didn't want to re-enter the whole “will-they-wont-they” drama that had the possibility to be a total rehash of book 1, just older, not-wiser and with new ego's and challenges to keep them apart. By the end of book 1, my only thought was “see if Gamelyn reunites with Rob and still has a crisis of religion/confidence and “I don't know”, I'm going to break something.”

Thankfully, this was the “Robin Hood” inspired story I was looking for with book 1, which actually is more like a “how Rob became Robin” story. The story in this book was much more original, much more what I'd expected of a book about Robin Hood and had more natural twists and turns.

There are some things that are the same as the previous book – inconsistent italics for dreams and present tense for dreams/prelude/postude etc; the timeline is confusing and inconsistent, as explained more below; there is a really badly placed short story that comes after the four pages of End Notes, which lasts from 95-98% and doesn't belong at the back of the story.

The story “Solus” should actually be at the start of the book or right at the end of book 1, while the story at the end of book 1 should have been at the start of this book, too. It can't be a matter of page/word count, because it's included regardless, only in the strangest place and where it makes no sense. In fact, the story doesn't give anything away that would ruin a shock in the novel of Shirewood, but actually makes sense of a lot and feels like it was added at the end as an after thought.

The characters were the same as before – I loved Rob and Gamelyn, like Marion and Will, loved John and Much. I want to see more of John and Much, would be intrigued to find out if Siham is staying with Gilbert and whether Will and Much will fight over Marion. I love that John doesn't say much, but that he and Rob understand each other anyway (and, in Solus, this is actually explained much more to my liking, though it would have been much better to have it within the actual story). Just as the cover tells us, Marion is now in the grip of the Abbess for most of the story and that was a great twist, however I still felt that she was the least interesting/important character of the whole story and has she only kept her trap shut, half of the awful things that happened would never have happened. Guy (Gamelyn, by his new name) is a lot more vicious than Gamelyn ever could have been and doesn't snivel nearly as much, but I much preferred the inbetween of who he became after being reunited with Robyn, than the purely empty, mechanical Guy he'd been before that. And, as ever, Robyn was even more cunning that before.

In the blurb (at the back of book 1, not the one on Goodreads) it says that Rob believes Gamelyn is dead, yet he acts as though he knows Gamelyn isn't dead for most of the book, bothers to ask Johan about him and gets an answer that isn't an outright “dead” and even his God doesn't say that he's dead. So, I felt a bit cheated by that, because if he was grieving for Gamelyn that would make sense of how he'd been behaving, but it was quite clear that he didn't believe Gamelyn had betrayed them, didn't believe him dead and this whole set up, from book 1 had me wondering what I was missing. And the answer? Solus. If that piece had just been at the beginning of the story like it should have been, or the ending of book 1, as it would probably fit there better, then none of that confusion would have been necessary.

However, it was really annoying and confusing to think of Gamelyn by another name; at least Rob's new name of Robyn is similar enough to avoid confusion. Though, instead of acting like horny teenagers, they act like 30 year old war-hardened men, when the reality is so different. They embrace their hate for each other, rather than admitting to what they really feel. Similarly, most of the characters are more mature, more forgiving of their sins, more accepting of who they really are, but Robyn and Gus still shy away from what they once were.

Once again, the timeline is confusing. In Chapter 1, we see Gamelyn taking up his place as a Templar squire, who claims that he's sixteen. He never disputes this and it's never implied in the story that it's wrong. So, for Gamelyn to be 16 now, he would have had to mean that Rob nor Gamelyn were only eleven years old at the beginning of Chapter 1 of that book. It doesn't explain to me why this wasn't clarified at the time, because back in the 1100's it was perfectly normal for people to have sex from thirteen and up, so the fact that these guys were sixteen when they were having sex is nothing to be squidgy about; it's still a legal age in countries nowadays. However, the fact that it was never clarified and the fact that there was no way to figure out the ages for ourselves until now, in book 2, left me with a whole lot of questions at the end of book 1 that could have easily been explained if I only knew what was happening with the timeline.

Overall, it was a much more well-rounded story, more consistent and intriguing than the disjointed storyline of book 1. The characters had evolved and, at times, I was able to actually enjoy the story rather than feeling bored by the predictability or caught up on the details that were never explained. I still find the timeline and consistency of “dreams” a real problem that I wish the author would decided one way or the other upon. It's one thing to switch POV's frequently, but it's another to switch between past and present tense, disorientating readers without any warning.
I cried, smiled and I loved the chemistry between John and Rob, Robyn and Guy, Marion and Much, Marion and Will, and the plot of this story was a vast improvement on the jumbled heap of twisted arcs that made up book 1. Though I love the premise of the story/series and characters, I find that the execution leaves a lot to be desired. By book 2, I'm willing to gauge that I won't be reading this author again, once the series is finished.

~

Favourite Quote

“Don't go there, Robyn Hood. You won't like what you see.”

“Say my name,” he pleaded. “Just tell me...tell me who I am.””

“Guy chuckled; it choked into a grimace. “I really am going to have to teach you how to use a sword some day.”
“I'll hold you to that, y' git. What were you thinking?”
“Not thinking. Like you,” Guy mumbled. His eyes rolled up in his head; he was shivering violently. “Guess was...my turn...to die...””