Clem is a healer and being held captive by the Mariel of the Merry Men as retribution for helping the Sheriff of Nottingham. Mariel is the granddaughter of Robin Hood, and trying to live up to his legacy. But many people in the wood no longer believe the Merry Men are looking out for them. As Mariel and Clem face adventures together, they become closer and Mariel starts learning some well kept secrets.

This was a cute and unique YA read that was really well written. The plot was engaging and entertaining with funny moments and tons of adventure. The romance was predictable, but sweet and appropriate for a YA audience. There was clearly found family in this book, but it didn’t feel strong enough for me to really embrace and enjoy.

I listened to the audio which was enjoyable. Kat Griffiths and Olivia Dowd did a nice job bringing the characters to life and spoke clearly even when the audio was sped up. It did take me a bit of time to get used to one of the narrators, but I quickly adjusted and found their voice perfect for the story.

Many thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the advance copy.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc!!

What a good book! I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I loved the main characters! They had great chemistry and worked so well together. I loved how the book just flowed. My first by this author but will not be my last!!!

I made it about halfway through of the audiobook. I really enjoy the narrators and feel they bring a life to the story.

My confusion and frustrations come from the fact I can barely tell you what is going on. I have been listening, rewinding, and trudging through so much and have the faintest clue. I had wanted to give the author a second chance after reading "Gwen & Art Are Not in Love" and finding that enjoyable.

I may not be the perfect reader for this book, and judging by other reviews, I see there is a loyal base already towards it, which is great.

I received an ARC from Netgalley for an honest review.
I do not know how to feel about this book. I read Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by the same author and really liked it, but this seemed a bit of a letdown. I don't know if it was due to the fact that I listened to the audio book instead this time or not, but I did not find myself enjoying it as much. I did not find myself enjoying the characters as much and I wasn't really invested in the relationships.

I really enjoyed this book so much!! It was a breath of fresh air in fantasy. I would highly recommend this if you love fantasy.

A rollicking good time! Robin Hood has retired and his granddaughter is desperately trying to make her way as a captain in the band of Merry Men. She accidentally kidnaps the wrong healer who decides to join her little band of queer found family fighters. And the adventures begin!

I loved this story. The dialogue was fun and snarky and the characters were adorable and I just wanted to adopt them all. The romance was sweet with just the right amount of heat for YA. And the setting was gorgeous. All my childhood Robin Hood fantasies come to life.

The plot was full of adventure with twists and turns I didn’t see coming. And I loved the ending.

This was a gorgeous historical fantasy with amazing queer characters that brought me back to my childhood dreams of following Robin Hood through the forest. I highly recommend it and am grateful to @netgalley as well as @stmartinspress and @macmillan.audio for my free ebook and audio copies to review.

Thank you netgalley for this advanced listening copy and thank you goodreads for advanced reader copy through giveaway, this is my honest review!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
💭My thoughts: The audiobook took me a bit to get used to at the beginning because the narrator had an accent but then I later adjusted and found it fitting considering the theme of the book.
Anyone who has been following along on my reading journey might be aware I’m not the type to enjoy historical fiction and YA that often either, but this YA historical romance was very enjoyable. I found myself laughing at the jokes and dialogue, especially with Clem. She has quite a personality and it really was brought to life. She really carried this story and might be why I stuck around for the ride this book took me on. Clem and Mariel are very much sunshine x grump through and through. They are the literal definition. I really liked the plot a lot. Mariel is Robin Hood’s grand daughter, her physically present, but emotionally distant parents are the sources of Mariel’s incapability of letting people in and trusting. Clem made her open up. The plot twist was perfect that once I got to it, I couldn’t put it down. I liked how the author wrapped it up and resolved it with a great ending for everyone, getting the happy ending they deserve. I definitely recommend this book!

Robins merry men didn’t have the half of it. Join a live wire, rang tag group of scoundrels. As the fly by the seats of their pants. Our main character is spirited away on an exciting adventure, with the merry men. Finding out for themselves, what’s “good for the wood.”

Legacy doesn’t make you who you are, you write your own story. Squirrel.

LGBTQ, some cussing, kissing, injuries and wound descriptions. Overall a clean and intriguing read.

Thanks to NetGalley for the Audio ARC!

4.25/5 stars

Narrators - fantastic. I love how they bring not only their primary characters to life but also the rest of the cast - wonderful!

This was absolutely adorable, just as you would expect from Lex Croucher! I love how she flips Robin Hood on it's head, making it slightly more modern and queer normative but still holding true to the original heart of the story. Never in a million years did I expect to read a queer romcom based on Robin Hood….but my life is so much more complete for having it.

This was just fluffy and adorable and wholesome, while also being reflective, encouraging, and funny. The story and characters will make you smile and also make you think - about how expectations (of ourselves, from others, from society…) have impact on our mental and emotional health; how first impressions and attitudes about a situation impact our relationships; about how we see ourselves, especially through the lens of legacy; about PTSD and the way trauma-responses hit us at unexpected times; and how never taking a stand on anything can be more dangerous than taking a stand on the important things.

This is a great fluffy romcom, but I love the importance of its message too. This book made me smile, laugh, and think - exactly what I wanted. Highly recommend!

This is a grumpy/sunshine enemies-to-lovers LGBTQ historical romance.

Healer Clem is kidnapped by Mariel's band of bandits when she volunteers to be a hostage in place of her elderly mentor. Clem is annoyingly cheerful and unperturbed about her predicament. There are some skirmishes, deaths, and political machinations but ultimately this is about the group of bandits and their growth in their romances and as people. Diverse LGBTQ representation.

So far, I have enjoyed every single one of Lex Croucher's books.

Good audio narration.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this eARC!
This was such a wild ride! I loved the lightness of the story and it made me laugh out loud several times!!

The chemistry between Clem and Mauriel is *chef's kiss*
I love the grumpy/sunshine trope and Lex Croucher is the master of this trope. Also one bed trope?? NAILED IT. The queernormative world, especially in a Robin Hood world, was so fun and refreshing to read.

As someone that grew up with Robin Hood stories, especially with Keira Knightly's movie Princess of Thieves, this was such a fun book to read and several details coming from Robin Hood stories while making them new and unique,
The narration of this book was also very good. I loved the voices, emotions expressed, and also how each character stood out. The side characters were also loveable and there was not a dull moment at all.

Highly recommend this book for anyone that's a fan of parody-like stories, fun, and, of course, some amazingly written romance!!!

How dare you 😭 I was lulled into a false sense of security by the banter, by the general sense of tomfoolery, by the sheer joy of learning the ins and out of these characters. Then BLAMMO! A death that absolutely rocked me 😫 I’m devastated. I should have known better, it’s not like this is my first book from this author!!! But alas, I was blindsided. Yes, there was healing, but I don’t accept it. I’m not ready to let go.
The characters were so loveable. I mean, a band of merry men?! Er, teens? A collection of merry teenagers lol. They were so much fun, even when they were being arses. The banter had me roaring at times, and what more could you ask for? A little romance maybe? Well, we’ve got that too! So cute. I just want to squish them all!
The narrators were excellent! Tone, inflection, pacing, it all worked beautifully for me.
Highly recommend if you love a little historical romance with a lot of comedic relief, and a bunch of tension, both between characters and in the plot. It’s a win!

Lex Croucher truly never misses with their books. This was the follow up I didn't know to hope for after their incredible work on Gwen and Art are Not in Love. I absolutely can't wait to see what they do next! I absolutely loved the characters and their journeys. Falling in love, realizing their parents aren't always right, learning to be adults and dealing with grief - this book has it all.

Absolutely loved it. Loved the slightly alternative world setting, adored the cast of characters. The romance was really well-developed, especially for YA. Pacing was great. It's definitely going on my Best Of 2024 display.

The audiobook production was solid. I enjoyed both narrators. Clem's narrator was often a little harder to understand at my usual listening speed, and I had to slow it down sometimes, but that happens sometimes. It just tripped me up sometimes when switching between the two. Overall, really good listening experience - the intro and outro music was fun. Very jaunty.

Not for the Faint of Heart is a Robin Hood retelling with queer characters and a queer romance. I appreciated the representation across the characters and the way that they were just part of who the characters were -- it wasn't about their struggles as LGBTQIA characters; they just existed as part of the story. Furthermore, strong, capable female and LGBTQIA characters who are leads and not side characters was exciting to read. For these reasons, I think this one is worth adding to any library. I enjoyed the dual POV and the ways the characters, especially the main characters, played off of each other. I would recommend it to anyone who likes retellings, myths, the story of Robinhood, or the time period.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this advanced copy! You can pick up Not for the Faint of Heart on November 26, 2024.

I love how Lex Croucher continues to turn classic tales on their heads and explore how we can retell these stories in 2024. I haven't read a Robin Hood retelling before, but I appreciated the abundance of queer people and relationships, the hilarious tone, and how the characters' journeys help us resonate with the story. Mariel and Clem were fantastic protagonists, helping each other break down walls and confront what they thought they knew about the world (and those closest to them).

While I do wish the middle had been a bit more exciting, the ending was a nonstop emotional rollercoaster. I didn't expect certain character deaths to hit so hard, and the conflict afterward really amped up the stakes in the story. I'm looking forward to seeing what story Lex Croucher reinterprets next!

This had soooo much potential, but it sadly it fell short for me.

I really wanted to love it, but it felt never ending.

I did really liked the narration on the audiobook it made the book better in my opinion.

But the story itself was lackluster, in the blurb one of its biggest plot points is the romance but once you get into the book there is barely any, the love interests kiss until the 60% percent mark and I’m all for slow burns, I love them actually. Even if it is a YA romance there could have been a lot more interactions between them. But there was no interaction, no inner monologue that made you believe they were even interested in each other.

The adventure part lacked as well, I don’t know but something was missing and whatever it was made this book feel eternal.


Thank you to NetGalley for this arc.

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Not For the Faint of Heart is a fun, sweet story with a lovely sapphic romance and an intriguing plot.

After devouring Gwen & Art Are Not in Love, I wanted to love this one, but it fell flat for me. The characters were fun and witty, and I really enjoyed the sapphic romance (Lex Croucher writes phenomenal romances). Though the story's plot was interesting, I felt there wasn’t much happening throughout the read, and it did not hook me the way Gwen & Art did. The story felt like it fell in an odd space between a character-driven story and a plot-driven story, where the character and world development did not fit either type of story and also did not fit the book itself. The pacing felt slow at times, and while I love Lex Croucher’s writing, this story did not hold my attention.

The narrators for this story did a great job. Though I did not love one of the narrators at first, I found I enjoyed her voice by the end and that it fit her designated character well. Both narrators presented the story with energy and emotion that helped make it an enjoyable read. Though I did not love this book, I loved the narrators and look forward to hearing more of their narrations.

Thank you to the publisher for the free ALC!

Loved the characters had me feeling every possible emotion which may sound bad but it was actually the best! I highly recommend it to anyone who loves adventure

Thank you to Macmillian Audio and Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book I've been able to finish after being in a several month (nearly a year) reading slump. It was fun, relatable, and queer as hell. All the things that I adore in a book. I really appreciated that a classic trope of grumpy and sunshine came together in such a fun way. Clem's struggle with panic attacks and an uncompromising moral compass to help others coupled with Mariel's militaristic grumpy monster vibes were perfect. I also loved every single side character with Kit and Josie obviously being my ultimate favorites. I'd recommend this one to anyone.