** spoiler alert ** 
 I'm taking a break from dying a slow death of possible consumption to write this review. *coughs* 
 Robin Hood/Mulan/a little Graceling thrown in for good measure. 
 I want to take a star off because Robin and Scarlet never kiss. Yeah, I'm that immature. But she kisses the second-string love interest and the villain before Robin Friggin' Hood? I won't take the star away. I read this book in like, a day. So much love. Soooooo much love for this book. 
 It's really fun because you have the amazing Robin Hood mythology and it's morals and legends. So you have a great amount of action and scheming, but also Robin is shown as this selfless but flawed hero. He really cares about taking care of people. He's enough of a martyr to make him recognizable as Robin Hood, but he has awesome moments where he's just a 21 year old guy who's lost everything. It felt like a book about Robin Hood, not some crappy fanfiction by someone who hasn't done their research. 
 I was in Nottingham a few years ago and it was easy to picture the setting of the book based on that, and the forest was a blast. This book is a lot of fun and adventure, which was just what I needed to distract me from my deathly illness. 
 And this is the best interpretation of Maid Marian. Even if she just smooshed her with one of the Merry Men. At least now she really seems like she deserves to be with Robin and isn't just some pretty, mute prize. Now she's cross dressing as Will Scarlet, though most of the team know she's a chick, which works for the book's favor. They protect her and tease her at the same time, so it's an interesting dynamic, she's fighting to be considered one of them. And I hate the typical moment of "You're actually a woman? Yee gads, my attraction to this small boy is actually heterosexual? I don't know how to feel about this!" the male love interest goes through when he figures out HE's a SHE- and that never happens in this book. It works really well. 
 Scarlet is a really fun character, edgy and resourceful. She does fall into that Katniss Everdeen "Every boy loves me and I don't get it" trope which drives me crazy, but the author did a good job of making John flawed enough to not have me falling all over myself trying to telepathically make her choose him. Robin was the clear choice. Oh god. Robin. He made my fever return in full force. Did I mention I'm sick right now? 
 This book is fun, fun in the way I wasn't reading into to anything that bothered me, because I was immediately sucked into the characters and the plot. So for those who do take issue and question my rating, yes, I was not being nit-picky towards this book if only because it sucked in my attention all day. It had all the fun camping scenes of Graceling and the typical band-of-thieves closeness and jokes. It had it's really funny moments and tense, scary moments. 
 Anywho, this book is a fun, fast, exciting read full of romantic tension and wayward glances- and that's all the transpires between our love interests. The story itself isn't too prude-ish, the merry men are certainly merry and Scarlet gets plenty groped and tongue-kissed by other characters. It just would have been a little more satisfying to have that put towards Robin. So most of their love is expressed through dialogue, which honestly, I am more than happy with. full of tension and fun characters. They better kiss in the next book or I shall scream.