So, yeah, yikes. This book. I knew it was going to be bad, but I was curious as to just how bad. So like a sucker, I read it. 
 This is a Robin Hood retelling with a twist: Will Scarlet is a girl. Technically, this is her story, not Robin's. Okay, sure, whatever. But dear god, what an awful story it is. With a few major tweaks, this could have been good. Instead, this is what we got. 
 Will Scarlet is (oh god, I hate saying this, but it's true) a Mary Sue. She now joins the ranks of Liara T'Soni from Mass Effect, Lana Lang from Smallville, and Sydney Sage from Vampire Academy/Bloodlines in my Mary Sue list. She's super pretty, (all guys and girls want her), a superior fighter, has precise aim with throwing daggers, is a master strategist, a stealthy pickpocket, and extremely agile and nimble because she can climb and swing through trees with ease. And that's just off the top of my head. No mention of where she learned all of this, by the way, just that she can do it. Even if we overlooked all of that nonsense, her attitude stinks. She is rude and abrasive, constantly screaming and hurling insults at people, even Robin and John. Basically, this book is awful because she is awful. 
 I can't get past the "girl pretends to be a boy" bit because apparently she is so pretty. She keeps her hair long and flowing, hiding all of it under her cap instead of being sensible and chopping it off. Her eyes are like moonstones. This isn't one or two people thinking this, everyone does. It's how Gisborne finds out who she actually is, based on one random guy's description of her eyes. Wow. Anyway, super pretty girls in the real world wouldn't pass for being male. She could if she 1) was androgynous looking 2) was very young or 3) had masculine features. Maybe today she could pull it off with a ton of makeup, but this is... some vague historical time period. So yes, I do not buy that other villagers think she's a guy (one girl even kisses her). 
 Scarlet (oh yes, everyone calls her Scarlet or Scar, despite calling everyone else by their first name. That's because Scarlet sounds soft and feminine, Will doesn't), is a mess with her contradictory attitude. She claims she doesn't care about the people of the villages and only steals because Robin blackmails her. Yet she is an extreme martyr. When people make bad choices and she can't save them, she blames herself. If she can't get anyone out of prison (even if they want to stay), somehow that's her fault. A boy dies: her fault. A woman is taken by guards and her inn is burned down: Scarlet's fault. Gisborne is hired to catch Robin Hood, somehow she is to blame. And only Scarlet can fix it. Everyone else is too incompetent. If she can't fix it (usually for reasons outside of her control), she breaks down. She volunteers several times to turn herself over to save Robin from Gisborne. She spends so much time throwing all of this unnecessary weight on her shoulders without a good reason. It's obnoxious to read. 
 Speaking of obnoxious, let's talk about the love triangle! That's right, no young adult book aimed at a female audience is complete without a forced, unnecessary, fake love triangle. We have Robin Hood, obviously (who Scarlet calls Rob. I refuse) and Little John Little, both of whom are apparently very good looking. John was very one note: loves Scarlet, supposedly, but indulges himself with the tavern wenches and village girls. He's very pushy with Scarlet to accept his affections and once in a while she cracks, even though it's clearly portrayed and stated that she's in love with Robin and doesn't like John all that much. Robin was pretty bland, a huge do-gooder (though not a massive martyr like Scarlet), until John starts trying to grind on her and she reveals her past. (view spoiler)[She's actually Maid Marian and is engaged to Gisborne. (hide spoiler)] Then he becomes a mean, mopey child, threatening to toss Scarlet out of the merry band of men for messing around with John when they're not even together. Ever. And the big kicker is that Robin calls her a whore because she's engaged against her will yet attracted to someone else who is not her intended. Yep, you heard that right. Scarlet is a whore because John and Robin are attracted to her while she's engaged. I think Gaughen was going for some kind of proper, noble "I can't ask you to break your oath for me" thing, but he comes off as a slut shaming douchebag. I basically despised everyone in this book except Much, because he's inoffensive and only around when the plot calls for it. 
 Lastly, Scarlet's narrative is terrible. I weren't. It weren't. He weren't. After reading for a while, you can block it out, but it's still ridiculous. And knowing who she is, there isn't a good reason for why she does it. Everyone else speaks English just fine. There's a hand-wavy reason that she did it to annoy her mother, and later it got her in the common folks' good graces, except, once again no one talks like that except Scarlet. 
 If you take out the love triangle, rework Scarlet's character, and burn Scarlet's ridiculous dialect, this could be a good book. So do yourself a favour and find something better to read.