Book Description 

‘You aren’t merry,’ Clem said to her captor. ‘And you aren’t all men. So there’s been some marketing confusion somewhere along the line.’

Mariel, a newly blooded and perpetually grumpy captain of the Merry Men, is desperate to live up to the legacy of her grandfather, the legendary Robin Hood. Clem, a too-perky backwoods healer known for her new-fangled cures, just wants to help people.

When Mariel’s ramshackle band of bandits kidnap Clem as retribution for her guardian helping the Sheriff of Nottingham, all seems to be going (sort of) to plan … until Jack Hartley, Mariel’s father and Commander of the Merry Men, is captured in a deadly ambush. Determined to prove herself, Mariel sets out to get him back – with her annoyingly cheerful kidnappee in tow.

But the wood is at war. Many believe the Merry Men are no longer on the right side of history. Watching Clem tend the party’s wounds and crack relentlessly terrible jokes, Mariel begins to doubt the noble cause to which she has devoted her life. As the two of them grow closer, forced by circumstances to share a single horse and bed, one thing is clear. They must prepare to fight for their lives and for those of everyone they’ve sworn to protect.

Lex Croucher’s Not for the Faint of Heart is a thrilling adventure full of hijinks, found family, and romance destined to change the lives of the inhabitants of the Greenwood Forest forever.

My Review 

I loved Croucher’s three Regency-era novels as well as their queer YA take on King Arthur, so I was excited about the opportunity to read their interpretation of Robin Hood. 

This delightful grumpy/sunshine book brought me so much joy. Robin Hood has always been one of my favorite stories, so it was fascinating to see what happens to the Merry Men after Robin Hood. Clem’s hilarious asides kept me smiling and since I grew up on various iterations of Robin Hood, Mariel’s frustrations with the direction of her beloved band were easy to empathize with. 

Clem and Mariel do become more than friends, but I appreciated that romance was a side effect of the plot rather than the main plot. There’s much more of an emphasis on found family and camaraderie and that’s just so nice. 

I would absolutely recommend Not for the Faint of Heart. Lex Croucher is such a word wizard and I’ll read anything they write. This is just such a feel-good book and it makes me so happy. 

I received a digital ARC of this book from St. Martin’s/NetGalley.