OMG. This book. I am not a romantic comedy, or even romance girly. However, I do love Robin Hood and I love a good twist on the classics. This book is so fun and precious. I absolutely loved every second of it. The characters are immediately loveable, and you immediately ship Clem and Mariel. UGH. These two have my heart. The writing is witty, cozy, and makes me kick my feet in the air in happiness. If you're looking to add a quick, loveable, cozy read during the winter seasons. Run and pick up a copy of this. Lex Croucher may have just opened my eyes to a new genre. I can't wait to see what else she writes!

I love that this author writes stories that are based on fairytales! I really enjoyed her first one and I enjoyed this one just as much! I love how she makes the stories LGBTQ+ friendly. The way the characters interact is so enjoyable and that one scene near the end, the gasp I GASPED! I thoroughly enjoyed this one and I can’t wait to see what she’ll come up with next!

This is a good read, but could have been great if it had more room to breathe. I think it could have been a duology and then things wouldn't be so rushed. So many events had a very big "blink and you might miss it" vibe. The ending was especially rushed.

On the other end of things, I really enjoyed the characters and the witty banter. I think the banter is very easily made to be over the top in many other examples, but it was done well here. I also enjoyed how sexual and gender identity were represented as... normal. Because that's what it is. They didn't have to beat you over the head with it to make it clear how each person identified and I really appreciated it.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

A very enjoyable Robin Hood retelling! The plot was fun and adventurous, and I enjoyed the romance! It did feel a little more rushed towards the end, like the author was trying to tie up and any loose ends, but overall it was an enjoyable read!

I am really loving these new retellings of classic stories. This is another by a great author. I really loved these characters and this new look on this story.

Not for the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher is a ya Robin Hood retelling featuring the grumpy and sunshine
Clem is an apprentice healer with a strength of heart that is admirable. She is loyal to a fault and incredibly still sees the best in anyone despite being abducted and forced to heal for the enemy of the crown.
Mariel is grumpy and paranoid, rightfully so as she leads a group of the merry men. Sent to kidnap the village healer, she ends up coming back with Clem can her command survive?
Not for the Faint of Heart is a book that sits with you. Lex Croucher’s writing lingers in the back of your mind quietly and at rare moments pops up with fond remembrance. This has been true for both books I picked up. I believe anyone with a love for retellings can find a home for at least a while with in these pages.
I received an arc copy and have left this review of my own volition.

Not for the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher is a perfect fit for readers who crave a thrilling and romantic adventure with a strong, queer female lead, a dash of historical flair, and a swoon-worthy love story that reimagines the classic tale of Robin Hood with a sapphic twist.

“Not for the Faint of Heart” is strongly based on the lore and legend of Robin Hood, but very similarly to “Gwen and Art are Not In Love”, it has more modern and funny twist to the story we know. Retellings/re-imaginings of classic stories or legends always go one of two ways: either extremely well or extremely terribly. Luckily, this book is so, so fun and engaging. I loved that it was a dual POV and that we got both Clem and Mariel's perspectives. It makes it so much easier to see why they fell for each other when you can read from both views. Clem is a character that has quickly been added to my list of "characters I want to be friends with." An eternal optimist, ahead of her time and with a heart of gold, she faces everything that meets her with a warm smile. Mariel, is the yin to Clem's yang. A gruff, apparently emotionally stunted, captain in the Merry Men, tasked with kidnapping Clem. I loved seeing Mariel develop as I read the pages. She also has a heart of gold, even if it's buried, deep, deep, down in her armor. Every member of Mariel's band of Merry Men is distinct in their personality and just a joy to read on the page. The action scenes in this book were really well paced, and I enjoyed reading about the gang plotting and scheming before a raid or a rescue mission. The found family and the group dynamics in this book were so wholesome and lovely. Robin’s return at the end of the book was a nice surprise. However, I did suffer through the travelling, and well, there is A LOT of travelling. The parts I enjoyed the most were indeed the moments where they managed to settle for a bit. But, again, I found the pacing quite slow and the travelling just made it very difficult to hold my attention. I can't wait to see what Lex Croucher decides to tackle next. I'm sure whatever it will be, it will be spectacular! Overall this book is well written and a very pleasant, easy and cozy read. It ticks a lot of boxes for me, I loved the writing style, the characters’ development, the tropes and, the sense of humor. Thanks to Lex Croucher, Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press and Wednesday Books. I am so looking forward to reading the next book!

I suppose Lex Croucher just isn’t for me. I really liked Gwen & Art, but have been rather mixed on her adult books. This one was deathly slow, and I checked out at around 13%.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book!

Not for the Faint of Heart is a charming rom-com/found family story that feels like a warm hug (after all the sword fighting, of course). It is set in the world of Robin Hood, though the main characters are his descendants and a new band of Merry Men. The story is funny and I loved all the positive representation of the LGBTQ+ community. I did struggle with the pacing of the first quarter or so, as it felt a tad slow and I had a hard time connecting to the characters. But, as the story progressed the pacing settled into a good rhythm.

I love Lex Croucher's writing so it was no surprise how much I loved Not for the Faint of Heart! The modern references and language were so on point, enough that they made me laugh but not too many that it took me out of it. And of course, I absolutely loved Mariel and Clem!

I was so ready for a fun, light-hearted-until-it's-not romp in the same vein of Gwen and Art, this time using Robin Hood as the legendary inspiration. And at times, that's what we get, but for the most part, there's just something that doesn't quite fit. Maybe it's due to making Mariel Robin Hood's granddaughter, and thus much closer to the original tales and characters, or maybe it has more to do with the way the setting feels like it's modern kids LARPing medieval England or the main characters got transmigrated from modern times (the phrase "fuck the fascists" appears, along with everyone having last names, modern military structure, etc.) in such a way that kept throwing me out of the story.

I also never quite clicked with Mariel - she's supposed to be the archetypical grumpy, uptight perfectionist, angling for respect, but we never really get a sense of /why/ she's that way, and all the attempts to explain her devotion to her father fall short (I also never bought her mother's excuses, not to mention they sort of came out of nowhere). This was especially a problem because it meant she felt out of place as a love interest for Clem, who has much better chemistry with everyone else in the crew.

That said, great found family vibes overall.

A creative, original, and deeply enjoyable Robin Hood retelling that takes a well-known, popular tale and gives it a refreshing spin. Though the plot is recognizably Robin Hood, Croucher takes just enough liberties to make the world feel entirely new. It's a fun jaunt of a book overall with a lighthearted enemies-to-lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romance, but in Croucher's interpretation is an unexpectedly poignant and grounded commentary on social movements and the struggles and pitfalls of organizations fighting for change. Action-packed, difficult to put down, and utterly captivating.

Lex Croucher is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors for their brilliant characterizations and hilarious dialog. If you’ve ever wondered what happened to the Merry Men after Robin Hood retired, Not for the Faint of Heart offers a satisfying story of what might have come next. It’s an exciting adventure filled with an admirably diverse group of flawed yet lovable characters, many of whom are queer in one way or another.

One aspect of the story is a slow-burn grumpy/sunshine Sapphic romance between obstinate Captain Mariel Hartley-Hood (granddaughter of Robin Hood), and Clem, the irrepressibly cheerful healer that Mariel and her little troop of Merry Men kidnap. I absolutely adored Clem from the moment I met her. Mariel could be frustrating, but as I got to know her better, it was easy to understand why she acted the way she did. And to her credit, she goes through a wonderful growth ARC by the story’s end.

The secondary characters were well developed and memorable, and there’s a strong sense of found family.

I loved the very matter of fact queer representation. This is a world where I did not notice any assumptions about or limitations based on gender or sexual orientation. People simply are who they are and love who they love.

I would recommend this book for fans of queer young adult historical romances, romantic comedies, and adventures. If you enjoy books by T. Kingfisher, Alexis Hall, or Casey McQuiston, you should definitely give this a try.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Wednesday Books for providing me with a free advanced review copy through NetGalley. I volunteered to provide an honest review.

I've loved all of Lex Croucher's books so far and I'm so honoured to be getting them as advanced copies but this one was a total miss for me. I found it really hard to connect with any of the characters or the plot at all. I don't mind diving straight into the action but this one just seemed really weirdly paced for me and I couldn't get into a flow with it at all. Unfortunately not my favourite!

Lex Croucher absolutely has a talent for queer historical romance and I'm so happy to see that Not for the Faint of Heart is every bit as much fun as Gwen & Art Are Not In Love. This was a delightful twisting book full of intriguing side characters and a unique plot that takes a story you thought you knew and turns it on its head.

Clem has made a life for herself working with the local healer after being orphaned at the age of ten, and everything is going well for her helping the villagers and causing misery among the local wildlife (via attempts to put them in tiny hats). At least, until she's kidnapped by the Merry Men as revenge for her guardian helping the Sheriff of Nottingham. Except, these Merry Men are nothing like the stories that Clem grew up dreaming of; they're fighting wars against the Sheriff and kidnapping folks, after all, which is a far cry from what Robin Hood used to be about. Her kidnapper, Mariel, just so happens to be the granddaughter of Robin Hood, and while she's grown used to following the orders of her father, Clem's doubts might start to take hold.

The slow-burn romance between Clem and Mariel is so trope-y and fun. There's only one horse! There's only one bed! Grumpy X Sunshine! Genuinely, Clem's perky optimism in the face of being kidnapped is just SO funny and plays well with Mariel's permanent grumpiness. But where this book truly seemed to shine was in the secondary characters, especially Mariel's team. Baxter and Kit had my whole heart and I would love to see more of this team in a future book!

This is my second book that I’ve read by Lex Croucher and I enjoyed it! Lex always has a fun writing style.

A lively retelling of Robin Hood and the Merry Men that sees some of it turned on its head and a very eclectic cast. I suspect many YA readers won't know the original story and those won't be hampered by making comparisons and linking characters - they'll just enjoy it. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good found family tale.

I love a good re-telling / reimagined story and this one had me laughing, cheering, and feeling sappy the entire way through. I enjoyed Gwen and Art are not in lover by this author as well. This book is pretty light hearted, funny, and face paced and I think anyone looking for an easy read or a read to get out of a slump should check this one out.

The mostly delightful and only sometime heartbreaking story of Robin Hood’s granddaughter, the sparkling genius of a healer she kidnapped, and their journey to a happy life they can be proud of.

There’s so much in this book that made me laugh out loud, from Clem’s constant stream of cheerful chatter to Mariel’s inability to remain uncharmed by her to their little gang’s friendship and camaraderie. It’s full of moments that made me smile and sigh with happiness, like every time Mariel admitted by word or deed that she had a heart that was slowly opening up and letting people in, and when Baxter and Kit danced close and whispered in each other ears, and when Josey and Morgan joked and and supported one another.

Of course, there’s also so much sadness. For Mariel, her crappy parents left her with a lifetime of insecurities, always making her feel like she’d never be good enough, no matter how hard she tried. To find out that everything she thought was true was a lie was both a shock and betrayal. And then there was Clem, with her PTSD after the death of her parents and her panic disorder, trying to find a place in this world that would let her do what she does best: heal everyone, no matter who they are, to the best of her abilities.

There’s more sadness that I won’t spoil here, but if nothing else, that sadness shines a spotlight on the happy moments, and the need for love, community, fairness, and thoughtful care, and at the end, I’m left with an overwhelming feeling of hope. This is one I can wholeheartedly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy of this book. It will be available in stores and your local library on November 25.