Captain Wentworth's Diary - Amanda Grange

★★★★★★★★★★ (9/10)

Here we are, once again, with a diary of one of Jane Austen's under-appreciated male characters.  This time I went into the mind of Captain Wentworth, the estranged former suitor of Anne Elliot in Persuasion.  Captain Wentworth's Diary was one I was especially eager to read, as Persuasion is probably my favorite Jane Austen novel.  For the first time, I got to imagine what his own life was like, before he met Anne and to think about how Jane Austen would react to Grange's interpretation of Wentworth's adventures, follies, and hearbreak. 

I started reading this novel with no real thoughts on Captain Wentworth's time before and after meeting Anne Elliot.  I pitied him for most of Persuasion because of his shattered chance of happiness, and eight years of waiting and probably misery a lot of the time, but I hadn't given any thought to what kind of person he was before they had met and fallen in love.  I usually imagined Wentworth as the dashing naval officer, with gentle manners and a hearty laugh, but I had not ascribed any personality to him. After reading CWD, I feel I was remiss and haven't given Wentworth the credit that he deserves.  

So, with that, we begin CWD. I greatly appreciated that Grange started this novel a good deal before Wentworth's initial meeting with Anne, and their subsequent engagement.  Grange has the reader meet him, as well as Benwick and Harville, just when Wentworth is promoted to Commander, and has won a large prize from sinking/disabling a French warship.  Through his conversations and his own personal thoughts in the diary entries, I find that I agree with Grange when she makes him out to be a young, vibrant, easy-going man, who enjoys the world because he has found that his career is finally going somewhere, and he can afford to look forward to a promising future. During this portion of the novel, I finally got to meet the mysterious "Wentworth, the curate," Captain Wentworth's brother, who appears in name only in Persuasion.  He's mentioned multiple times, but Austen never introduces him in person.  I like Grange's take on the brothers' relationship as well.  They are wholly different, yet have a strong bond, and each looks out for the other.  Not only are their relationship and interactions interesting, but they pave the path for Wenthworth's meeting with Anne, which was a surprising meeting, yet satisfying, nonetheless.

I'm going to skip their meeting, engagement, un-engagement, and other bits that are easily inferred from reading Persuasion itself, and move on to Wentworth's reasoning behind flirting with the Misses Musgrove. I had originally thought that his attentions to Louisa and Henrietta stemmed partly from wanting to punish Anne, and partly from being a friendly human being.  I didn't expect Grange to interpret his actions as an intention to marry one or the other of these girls.  Thinking back to Persuasion, this conclusion makes sense: he is out of the navy and looking to marry, Louisa (who becomes a favorite) is young and pretty, and Wentworth has enough money to support himself and a wife.  He also spends a good deal of time with both girls, and I can remember a few scenes where it seems as though Louisa is enough in love with him to expect a proposal.  Whatever the case may be, whether Austen was encouraging Wentworth to fall in love with someone new, or if she just was using H & L to make Anne jealous, it doesn't truly matter.  It's an aspect of the book that can be read either way, and I'm still making up my mind as to which way I believe.  

Just as with the other diaries Grange has written, my favorite part of Wentworth's diary is seeing his reactions to scenes from Persuasion.  I know what Anne is thinking, but having Grange's imagination bring to life Wentworth's thoughts, emotions, internal conflicts, hopes, and plans gives the whole story more depth and I get a better sense of enjoyment from combining the two in my mind.  For instance, toward the end, Wentworth follows Anne to Bath with the hopes of talking to her about his own feelings, and to see if hers are still what they were eight years before.  From Anne's perspective, his arrival is a welcome shock.  She had believed him to be over her, and did not expect to see him in a place that she didn't think he particularly liked.  However, Wentworth finds himself in Bath with his good intentions, only to find that Anne's attention is being comandeered by Mr. Elliot. What is he to think but that Anne's affections have changed, and she now prefers this man who is next in line for her father's title.  Their situation was awkward enough in Persuasion because I could tell that Anne didn't know of Wentworth's assumptions, but to see Wentworth's reactions to Anne's conversations and actions toward Elliot, was more amusing and helped clarify a few things that used to puzzle me. 

So, again, Grange has done a fantastically excellent job bringing one of may favorite characters into the limelight in his own right.  Captain Wentworth now has a voice, and I like the words that Grange has put in his mouth.  Captain Wentworth's Diary is a wonderful addition to Grange's other diaries of Austen's men, and I can't wait to read more of them!

Mistress of the Art of Death Novels - Ariana Franklin

★★★★★★★★★★ (10/10)

I have finally finished all four novels in this series, and I must say that each one is fantastic, and I wish there were more novels to follow. (There may be, but I don't know...)  Ariana Franklin takes a period in history and delves into the superstitions, culture clashes, theories, prejudices, and assumptions that come with it.  While going through all of this, Franklin presents a character that I couldn't help but care about, and I continued to like her in each new novel, each new adventure in her life. The Mistress of the Art of Death novels are an amazing mix of a smattering of historical events with wonderfully imaginative fiction, lovable characters, clever villains, and landscapes that take your breath away. 

Mistress of the Art of Death
In this first novel, Franklin introduces Adelia, a doctor from a celebrated medical school in Salerno, who is forced to travel to England to solve a mystery for King Henry II.  Adelia is a unique woman for her time.  It's the 12th century, where men rule a woman from the day she is born, yet she is an independent person who has had the privilege to grow up in the tolerant city of Salerno.  Nowhere else in Europe are women allowed to practice medicine, and not only is Adelia an intelligent woman, but she is the best student in the art of death (today she would be a forensic scientist with the skills of a surgeon) that Salerno has ever produced.  

What got me hooked to this novel from the get-go was Adelia's way of thinking.  She sees everything from an objective point of view because it's necessary if she is to do her job properly.  She assumes everyone is a suspect until she can scientifically rule them out, and her impartiality is something I haven't really seen in a book before.  Adelia is also not your typical 12th century female; she is graceless, unselfconscious, and brutally honest.  In England, Adelia discovers the advantage of silence, prudence, and blending in, since she needs all three to solve the horrible crimes that have been plaguing Cambridge and King Henry.

This novel is both engrossing as well as a stepping stone to the other three novels in the series.  Here, Adelia must find the person behind the mutilation and murder of four Cambridgeshire children before another one is harmed, but she must do this while giving the impression that her eunuch bodyguard, Mansur, is actually the doctor.   During her time in this city, she makes friends who believe in her and her abilities, a lover who would defy the Church for her, a horrifically smelly dog, and the appreciation of a king who is using her for his own means without regard to her life or safety, all while discovering the monster than can live inside any human being.


The Serpent's Tale
Adelia is back, but this time, the trouble is closer to King Henry's heart.  His favorite mistress, Rosamund Clifford has been murdered by poison, and he sends Adelia to discover who was behind it.  Most of England believes that Henry's estranged wife Eleanor was behind it all, but if Adelia can, she must prove Eleanor innocent or risk another civil war that will tear the country apart.  The difference is that this time, Adelia has a daughter.  Her love affair since the end of the previous novel has given her the love of her infant daughter, Almeison (Allie for short).  

Things get more complicated in this novel because in addition to Adelia's own safety, she must now look to the safety of her baby, and more often than not, she wants to put Allie's comfort, safety, and health above her own, and most definitely above her duty to King Henry, who is forcibly preventing her from returning home to Salerno.  It's interesting to see Adelia's motivations change.  She first came to England with a scientific interest and the hope to stop the slaying of innocent children, and now has started to like the country for its own merits, yet she still cannot forgive Henry for keeping her there against her wishes.   There is more of an emotional struggle for Adelia here as well.  She refused to marry Allie's father, thinking that marriage would mean she would have to become someone else; it would mean that she would have to give up her profession, which was something she couldn't bear to part with.  During this whole novel, I can see Adelia's battle between her love for the man, and her hatred towards him for putting too obstacles between them.


The mystery in this one is also a little more complex.  There are two murders, seemingly unconnected, that need to be solved, and Adelia has to deal with mercenaries who have the abbey where she is staying under a lockdown, an insane housekeeper who wishes to kill anyone associated with Rosamund's death, and a girl who is about to be married against her will, among other things.  Luckily she has all of her close friends on the journey with her, so she does not have to do all of this alone. Still, she has to trust that Henry will save the day, and listen to her report about what actually went on.


Grave Goods
This is probably my favorite of the novels because it covers more than just history.  Franklin incorporates a deeply rooted legend into this novel of mystery, murder, abduction, and a deplorable English winter.  In this novel, Adelia is sent to Glastonbury to see whether a newly unearthed coffin contains the remains of King Arthur and Guinevere.  King Henry is hopeful that if he can convince the Welsh rebels that Arthur is truly dead, they would be more willing to negotiate with him and stop all of the fighting.  Once again, Adelia, Mansur, Allie, and their friend Gyltha are on the case, while accompanying Emma, Lady Wolvercote (who we met in the previous novel) to one of her estates.  


I think that this novel is too good to summarize, and anything I say won't really do it justice. I'd rather that you read it to see what kind of marvels Franklin can unravel for you while trying to keep Adelia and her friends alive.


A Murderous Procession
Here we have another assignment for Adelia that will take her home to Salerno, though she won't be allowed to stay.  Henry has sent for Adelia so that she can, under the guise of being Mansur's assistant again, accompany Henry's daughter, Princess Joanna, on her trip to Palermo, where she will be married to William, King of Sicily.  He doesn't trust Joanna's private physician, Dr. Arnulf, to keep to healthy, and wants Adelia to be there to use scientific medicine, and not just the home remedy crap that Arnulf would prescribe.  The worst part for Adelia is that Henry is holding her daughter hostage to ensure her return to England. Allie has been put in the care of the "imprisoned" Queen Eleanor, where she'll be taken care of until Adelia returns from a trip that may last a year or more.  

What Adelia doesn't realize is that one of the members of the gigantic party going with Joanna is a man who wants her dead more than he wants anything else in the world.  Adelia accidentally killed his life mate, and this man wants revenge, which will only be satisfied with Adelia's own death.  "Accidental deaths" follow Adelia at every turn, where superstitious people, including some of the high clergy, start accusing her of being a witch, that if they prove it, could mean she would be burned at the stake. Oddly enough, that is a fate that she narrowly escapes, but for an entirely different reason.  First, her horse dies, and people blame her for wishing its death after the horse made if difficult for her to dismount the day before.  Then, a high ranking member of the envoy dies, and Adelia is blamed because someone said she cursed him for assaulting her maid.  Then, the head laundress is found drowned a laundry vat, and, again, Adelia is accused of contriving her death because they'd had a quarrel earlier.  Circumstances keep cropping up where the party's logical choice to blame things on is Adelia: she is a foreigner, a woman, and a loose woman as far as they're concerned, and keeping company with a Saracen doctor doesn't help her any either.  She must trust what friends she can, as well as the Princess, to make it through the journey, and live long enough to get back to Allie.  Exciting or what?


I gave these novels 10/10 stars because that are astonishingly well-crafted, and the characters are so unique and believable, that I wish I could know them for myself.  Ariana Franklin is an excellent author, and I can only hope that she finds it meet to continue writing novels of her little Mistress of the Art of Death.

Daughter of the Blood - Anne Bishop

★★★★★★★★★★ (10/10)

This book is awesome! I think that's enough to say about it, but I'll write more just because I loved it so much! Anne Bishop may just be my new favorite author if the rest of this series is even half as good as Daughter of the Blood.  There is a combination of magic, mystery, intrigue, and ambitious courage in this novel that kept me reading, and made me anxious to read the other novels in this series (I know that there are at least 7 altogether).

Daughter of the Blood is a book that changes perspective multiple times in each chapter, but the characters are so intertwined that it just makes the plot more interesting.  The main people of note are Saetan, Daemon, Jaenelle, Surreal, and Lucivar.  Jaenelle is the real star of the story.  She is the girl that the rest of the main characters have been waiting for for 700 years. Jaenelle is Witch; she is the most powerful person in Terreille, and will grow up to rule the entire realm, which is currently run by a corrupt priestess bent on world domination.  Unfortunately, Jaenelle is still just a young girl. She has not grown into her power, and she is subject to the horrors inflicted on her because her family thinks that she is mentally or emotionally disturbed. Saetan and Daemon and determined to keep her safe because, without her, the world will basically destroy itself. 

Daemon is possibly my favorite character just because of how twisted he is.  He is Saetan's biological son, but grew up not knowing who his true parents were.  He assumed that he'd been abandoned by his father to grow up as a bastard to a mother who didn't care about him.  Because of the society of Terreille, Daemon's illegitimacy denied him any social status, despite his innate power, and he is put into slavery.  The interesting this about this society is that it is entirely matriarchal; men have little if any political power, and are meant to serve the women in charge.  Makes me feel a little bad that the men have no other option, but it's a nice change that women are in power for once.  But back to Daemon.  Due to his ill treatment by the corrupt priestess, Dorothea, Daemon has a deep hatred of all women.  The power he possesses from his Black Jewels (I'm not even going to try to explain that, it'll take too long) means that if he loses his temper, he could level an entire city.  Whenever a queen he's been sent to serve angers him, she tends to end up dead, or worse. Yet, he has a soft spot for Jaenelle and her sister, Wilhelmina, as well as a select few other women who have been kind to him over the years.  I feel that, if I were his therapist, I would go insane myself trying to sort out the inner workings of Daemon's mind.  There are dark secrets that don't come out in this novel, but I'm sure that there are complicated reasons behind the way he behaves.

I don't want to go into deep detail about every major character, so I'll stop with those two.  I think that if I talk about anyone else, I'll be giving too much of the plot away, so I'll move away from character description. :)

The novel itself is so easy to fall into.  There are a lot of things that need to be explained to the reader about the society and the history of its people, but Bishop does this so smoothly and cleanly, without interrupting the plot line, that I hardly noticed when I learned a new tidbit of necessary information about this world.  It's obvious that Bishop put a lot of thought into how the three Realms interact (or don't interact) and what Terreille was like before the overarching corruption took over the Blood.  Every new detail Bishop introduces about the people of this world blends in with what she's already told you, and I enjoy the fact that I found no contradictions that have a habit of happening in novels like Daughter of the Blood.  Kudos to Bishop for taking so much care in the building of this world, and the characters in it!

I'm going to stop there before I just start recounting the entire plot and leave you with no reason to read it for yourself.  I am in love with this series and this author already, and I have already borrowed the next two novels from the library, so it's only a matter of time before I get to find out what happens next.  They will not be the next book on my reading list, but they'll be close.  Please read books by Anne Bishop.  She is a fantastic author, whose writing style can't fail to pull you into the novels that she writes.  So exciting!

The Montefeltro Conspiracy - Marcello Simonetta

★★★★★★★★★★ (4/10)

So this is why I don't usually read non-fiction. It takes way too long to get through, and half of the time, I'm not really interested in what the author is talking about.  That was the case in The Montefeltro Conspiracy. When I purchased this book (for a whopping $1.00), I initially thought it was a work of fiction based on the jacket description and the cover art. Little did I know that 211 pages of research and a grueling week of reading awaited me. While this book may be a gripping read for someone doing post-doctoral research on Italian Renaissance politics, it was not interesting for a casual reader hoping to be a part of the discovery of a dastardly plot. 

I almost think that it's needless to say that summarizing this book is impossible.  Simonetta includes so many details (which are useful) and covers so many events and situations that I would have to write 30 pages to summarize the conspiracy he uncovered.  This being the case, I'm just going to gloss over the summary in a few sentences.

There was a conspiracy to kill Lorenzo de' Medici (The Magnificent) that has been historically proved, but Simonetta discovered (from letters in a family archive?) that the structure of this conspiracy was developed and masterminded in part by the Duke of Urbino, Federico de Montefeltro (thus the title).  Simonetta covers a period of around six years, where he explains the plots, letters, wars, political tricks, and money exchanges that took place to bring about the conspiracy as well as its aftermath.  By the end of the novel, everyone is dead, and life moves on for the rest of Italy.

I liked all of the art included as visual aids, but I think that was about it.

So, this is a warning to me to not read non-fiction unless I have to.  Things like biographies or something may not be too bad, but The Montefeltro Conspiracy was much too involved for the type of reading that I like to do.  I don't want to talk about this book anymore. :(

The Juliet Club - Suzanne Harper

★★★★★★★★★★ (8/10)

 What happens when you combine Romeo and Juliet, a seminar on Shakespeare, six teenagers, and a villa in Verona? You get The Juliet Club, but this novel is more than just the things I listed. It takes Shakespeare's plays and brings them, in funny ways, into the lives of the characters as they spend a month in Verona.  It's a very fast-paced novel, that I enjoyed from start to finish.

A group of six teenagers, along with a handful of college undergraduates, have all won a place in the first annual Shakespeare Seminar in Verona, Italy.  Three of the teenagers, Tom, Lucy, and Kate (automatic pun for Taming of the Shrew), are Americans and submitted an essay about their thoughts on Shakespeare for their competition entries.  The other three, Giacomo, Silvia, and Benno, got in through other means.  They are all good scholars, but were either asked or pushed into attending the four-week seminar.  I thought that having dual cultures in this novel was an interesting idea. It points out that there are many people from foreign countries that speak English very, very well, while Americans tend to know only their own language.  It gives a slight advantage to the Italian students, but the bonds that form are not the ones you'd expect.

When the story got to Verona, and the seminar was explained, it sounded like the beginning of Letters to Juliet, and in a way, these two do share the common bond of a group writing letters to people who have written to Juliet asking for advice.  Considering the film just came out recently, I wondered if that's where Harper got the idea, then decided that I didn't care.  The whole seminar sounded like a great experience (that I wish I could have had), and being able to answer letters while imaging what advice Juliet would give, sounds even better.  Then there's the question of "do I write as Juliet in the play, or do I write as the historical Juliet (even though there's no proof she existed", along with various other problems I'd have to sort out first, but whatever. That's not important at all for this novel. That's just me thinking too much.

Something that I very much liked about The Juliet Club were all of the references to various Shakespeare plays and sonnets.  Obviously, the seminar focuses on Romeo and Juliet, but at one point, Tom reads Henry V, Giacomo and Benno use sonnets to help write a love letter, Kate uses Much Ado About Nothing to explain the prank that is trying to be pulled, etc.  Shakespeare isn't merely the ploy needed to kickstart the plot.  The plays are an integral part of how the story unfolds, and help to explain certain characters personalities and actions.  I don't know where most of the in-dialogue quotes are from, unless another characters says it, but I like that there is a smattering of quotes used to both express feeling and to just have something to say.

I was a little confused about how Harper didn't say much about what went on in the seminar.  It felt like the Professoressa explained the theory of the course on the first day, and then left the students to their own devices, hoping that they'd learn what was expected.  There were quite a few scenes when I read about the kids learning fight choreography, rehearsing scenes, making mistakes in the Elizabethan dance, and writing letters for the Juliet Club, but I didn't see them learn anything from their teacher. That was weird to me, but I think that may have ONLY bother ME.  I can't imagine that other readers would be picky about this point.  It didn't distract me too much from the plot, but I would have liked some more scenes with the teens learning about the play, or doing something with the the professoressa in a group environment. 

I was very much impressed wtih The Juliet Club, despite the fact that Harper wrote the novelizations for High School Musical and Hannah Montana (I can't stand either of these, and think that novels for them are a bit of a joke, since the shows/films are insults to the human mind).  I'm glad that Harper can add this fantastic novel to her repertoire, and I'm glad that I read it.  What's even better is that I happened to pick up a signed copy of The Juliet Club from the bargain section of the bookstore.  I seem to be having a lot of luck with that lately.  So, read this book if you can.  I can almost guarantee that if you have been agreeing with the majority of my blog posts, you will like this novel.

Envy - Anna Godbersen

★★★★★★★★★★ (9/10)

Envy, the third novel in Godbersen's Luxe series, is quite possibly the most captivating in the series so far (I haven't read Splendor yet, so I may prove myself wrong later).  This novel takes the characters introduced in the last two novels and creates a whole new world of betrayal, blackmail, and confusion.  I flew through this novel, and I am eagerly awaiting the purchase of Splendor to see where everyone ends up. The Hollands, Hayeses. Schoonmakers, and Lina all come together again to treat me to another dose of -gasp- "oh, no!" and nearly non-stop laughter.


Penelope Hayes has successfully forced Henry Schoonmaker into marrying her, regardless of his feelings for Diana Holland. Penelope blackmailed Henry by threatening to ruin Diana's reputation unless he married her.  So, at the beginning of Envy, Henry has become a drunk trying to avoid accepting the fate he was suckered into, and Penelope is gloating over her success and new social status.  I can't help but feel sorry for Henry, while at the same time, I want to kick him in the balls for being such an idiot. Penelope, on the other hand, is thoroughly despicable, as usual.  I understand her desire for wealth and power, given that she's a bit of a social climber, bent on selfishly getting whatever her cruel hands decide to sink their claws into.  Though Henry gave in and married Penelope, he has staunchly refused to be her husband in anything but name: they sleep in separate rooms, and he spends as much time away from her as possible. I'd like to give him some kudos for this, but somehow, I can't do that.


Meanwhile, poor, stupid Diana (who let her virginity go just a few weeks before Henry married Penelope) sits at home with her newly bereaved sister, debating whether she should forget Henry or not.  The acrobatics Diana's mind goes through throughout the novel are mind boggling, but I can imagine that a girl in her position at the turn of the century (around 1900) would be thinking the same things. Just as in Jane Austen's 19th century England, young women depend on good marriage to see them safely settled in life.  Love is great if they can find someone to love who has a lot of money, but, often, money is the more important factor.  Diana, however, having lost her love, is at a point where it seems as though she doesn't want to be married, ever. Still, her actions at the end of the novel make me curious as to what she intends to get out of her next adventure.

Elizabeth Holland's life is in complete disarray, so I don't really want to get into that.  I will say that I do pity her, and wish her the best of luck in Splendor, not that I have very high hopes for her happiness.  Lina, on the other hand, has a series of ups and downs in Envy, and I want to see how much longer she can pull of her act. 

There is so much packed into this novel that I'm not going to try to condense it here.  Again, I feel like this series is just getting better and better, with more twists, heartbreak, and interesting circumstances, that I can't wait to read Splendor. It's just sad to know that after that novel, Luxe is over, and I'll have to find a new book or series to capture my interest.  I love this series not only for the dramatic society, but for the characters, and how getting what you want is never easy, and Godbersen proves that sometimes you have to settle for what you can get instead.  There is a great deal of LIFE in these novels, not just a bunch of fluff and happy endings.  How their stories will end is a mystery to me now, but I look forward to discovering what will happen next.

The Outlaws of Sherwood - Robin McKinley

★★★★★★★★★★ (8/10)

I wanted to read this again because I just watched the BBC TV series Robin Hood, and I was in a "rob from the rich, give to the poor" type of mood.  This is a bit of an oddity for Robin McKinley, since she usually sticks to off-the-wall versions of fairy tales, but I think that she can do just as well with legendary figures as she does with fabled heroines. This tale features a reluctant Robin, goaded by his friends into accepting others to form an outlaw band, and a Marian who is one of the boys. There's more danger here, and less glamor than the "classic" versions (I'm thinking Errol Flynn in tights...), but it feels more true to life, and I applaud McKinley for that. I also enjoy the fact that I have an autographed copy of this book (one of only two signed books I own).

McKinley's version of Robin Hood starts with an accident. Unlike most tales, Robin is just a forester, not a noble, and he becomes an outlaw after accidentally shooting an arrow into the heart of a man that was trying to kill him.  He was being bullied, and, as he was escaping an ambush of people who just didn't like him, he fired off an arrow hoping to give him some time; Robin didn't think it would actually hit anything.  I like the idea of a Robin who is mostly a nobody: he isn't particularly good with a bow, he's not a skilled fighter, and he'd rather spend his days with his friends than plotting against the sheriff.  

Reading a book like this, with more practical scenes, also makes me think that McKinley really thought about what outlaws do once they have to leave their homes.  I would imagine that most people wouldn't know the first thing about living out of doors, without camping equipment, money, or a clue as to how to stay dry if it rains.  Robin is luckier than most in this respect because he worked in Sherwood, and knew a lot about the forest and the protection if could offer. Still, the people who joined him faced damp beds, hard work, and never knowing where the next meal might come from.  These outlaws have to deal with figuring out how to live, and stay alive, while battling the elements and the sheriff's men who want them brought to justice.


I also appreciate that McKinley didn't bring Prince John into the story. She kept it simple by making the outlaws the focus of the story, instead of the injustices of the Prince Regent.  The sheriff, though corrupt, is mostly out for his own glory, and just wants Robin brought in to save his own reputation.  While Robin and his men (and women) do believe that Richard needs to return to England and BE the king, they are more concerned about keeping themselves alive so that they might help the people of Nottinghamshire.  They use the money they steal to help people who have been evicted or maimed to start a new life somewhere else, and if they happen to like the outlaw life, they stay and help the outlaws.  Cecil is a very interesting case, but I'll let you discover why on your own.

The relationship between Robin and Marian remains the same, for which I'm grateful.  Robin is in love with Marian, but because she is nobly born, and he is not, he doesn't want to say anything.  His becoming an outlaw also makes it even less likely that they would be able to marry. Marian, on the other hand, loves Robin, and doesn't care a whit about their class difference. The two of them had been friends since childhood, and Marian was more at home in boys clothes in the forest that she was at home with her gowns and embroidery.  As usual, they take forever to realize how the other feels, and there are arguments and loud differences of opinion that make each of them think the wrong things about the other.  Still, Robin and Marian figure out what they want together, and it's a lovely scene.

The King Richard ending, I thought, was interestingly appropriate. Richard, who is French, has become king of England through his father, Henry II and Queen Eleanor of Aquitane.  The English people have no reason to love a French king, but they do because Richard is uncommonly kind and just for a monarch (even if he spends too much of his reign in the Holy Lands).  Having Richard come to Nottingham to resolve Robin's situation stays in line with the tradional story, even if the resolution is a bit strange to me. 

I like this novel, and not just because I found a signed copy.  It's enjoyable overall, and there are enough differences between it and "traditional" Robin Hood narratives to make it interesting and endearing.  I took off one star (since I can't figure out how to do half) because it got a little slow at parts, but if I could find a way to give it 8.5, I would.  Robin McKinley is still a fantastic author (see my other R.M. posts), and The Outlaws of Sherwood is a great addition to a collection of her literary works.