Walk the Wild With Me

Walk the Wild With Me #1

by Rachel Atwood

In this new historical fantasy, a young man must use the power granted by a goddess to infiltrate the realm of Faery and save a kidnapped victim before the door is sealed once again.Orphaned when still a toddler, Nicholas Withybeck knows no other home than Locksley Abbey outside Nottingham, England. He works in the scriptorium embellishing illuminated manuscripts with hidden faces of the Wild Folk and whimsical creatures that he sees every time he ventures into the woods and fields. His curiosity leads him into forbidden nooks and crannies both inside and outside the abbey, and he becomes adept at hiding to stay out of trouble.On one of these forays Nick slips into the crypt beneath the abbey. There he finds an altar older than the abbey’s foundations, ancient when the Romans occupied England. Behind the bricks around the altar, he finds a palm-sized silver cup. The cup is embellished with the three figures of Elena, the Celtic goddess of crossroads, sorcery, and cemeteries.He carries the cup with him always, listening as the goddess whispers wisdom in the back of his mind. With Elena’s cup in his pocket, Nick can see that the masked dancers at the May Day celebration in the local village are actually the creatures of the The Green Man—known to mortals as Little John—and Robin Goodfellow, Herne the Huntsman, dryads, trolls, and water sprites. Theirs are the faces he’s seen and drawn into his illuminations.Guided by Elena along secret forest paths, Nick learns that Little John’s love has been kidnapped by Queen Mab of the Faeries. The door to the Faery mound will only open when the moons of the two realms align. That time is fast approaching. Nick must release Elena so that she can use sorcery to unlock that door, allowing Nick’s band of friends to try to rescue the girl. Will he have the courage to release her as his predecessor did not?

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Retellings, Fae, Mythology, Fairy Tales

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 3, 2019

About the author

Pseudonym of Irene Radford/C.F. Bentley.

Reviews

[Miranda Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Nick blinked again, and all the dancers reverted to their fae forms. Another blink and they resumed their humanity."

Nick Withybeck spent his entire life in Locksley Abby, surrounded by monks and raised to (potentially) be a priest.

However, he's always known, deep down, that he was something different. Something...other.

And after a hair-raising adventure...he finds out exactly how other he truly is.

"...the key to opening the Faery Mound on the night of Midsummer when moons aligned..."

With faery blood in his veins and a destiny on his shoulder, it's up to Nick to set things right and fix the wrongs of fifty years past.

"The bark shivered and rippled and the Green Man, bedecked in leaves and twigs, stepped forth."

Overall, this was a fun book but left me wanting more.

I loved the premise - Robin Hood re-imagined with the fair folk snapping at his heels...but it needed more oomph.

It felt like a lot of exposition and buildup...for not a lot of payoff.

We started to really get into the meat of the story around 3/4 through, but until then there was just too much detail and side story, and not enough action (which feels rather ironic for a...Robin Hood themed book).

I think if the author would've played up on the fairies a bit more (given them a little Holly Black twist) the story would've arced beautifully.

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[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to say first off that I am a Robin Hood nerd. I did an undergrad thesis on Robin Hood in ye olde days of 1989. Errol Flynn is responsible for my love of both Robin Hood and pirates. I am also very much a Celtic folklore nerd, especially when it comes to the fey folk. Have been since I was in my early teens. So when I saw this book, I obviously jumped on it. And it is so close to the story that I would have written if I had either the talent or the drive that I could cry with happiness.It's almost like the author was spying on my brain. :-) In fact, when I showed it to my husband, he responded with, "Are you sure you didn't write this book in secret?" This book has absolutely made my December and quite possibly more.

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF'd @ page 55

I wanted to love Walk the Wild With Me by Rachel Atwood, but unfortunately it just wasn't working at all for me. I mean, it's a historical fantasy retelling that combines Robin Hood with faeries. The potential for this is outstanding, but it was way too dull and boring for my tastes.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars rounded down. (The extra half star is for Leo Nickolls, who did the cover design, which is awesome.)

This book has a premise with a lot of potential, but it's poorly executed both in content and in the quality of the writing. In theory it's a retelling of the Robin Hood fable, but with a backdrop of faeries and dryads, except it doesn't really deliver on either.

The main character is tween/teen Nick, who carts around a minor goddess, Elena, in tiny a silver cup (or maybe it's a pitcher, that's not consistent). Nick is in the care of the clergy at an Abbey just outside of Nottinghamshire and spends a lot of time reading the scrolls he's supposed to be embellishing, and we're initially led to believe this will be HIGHLY IMPORTANT, but it's not. He and his friends Dom and Henry sneak out of the abbey all the time under threat of punishment (that never happens) and are inexplicably afraid of and/or bored by the many named prefects, fathers, maesters, dungeon masters, and other titled men at the abbey who really serve no purpose. As it also turns out, Nick doesn't really serve much of a purpose either, except to cart Elena around.

The main merry-man is not Robin of Locksley, but instead Little John, who is a tree dwelling dryad and basically king of the forest. Cool, so far so good. He needs to get into a faery mound to save his human love, Jane, and he needs the de ex machina goddess living in Nick's cup to get Jane out, but Elena can only help Little John if Nick agrees to "let her go," even though Elena regularly peaces out and does her own thing without Nick's knowledge or consent. This rescue can ONLY happen on Midsummer Night's Eve under some super special set of confusing circumstances whence Elena can open the door to the "ensorcelled" faery mound (never mind that there are apparently lots of other entrances to the faery mound as it turns out, they are just, high up or something, and mortals would fall to their deaths - except, Little John isn't mortal...).

Jane meanwhile is enslaved by the faery Queen Mab, and is forced to scrub floors and embroider or mend clothing for all for all of the faeries. Time "works different" under the mound, and she'd not sure how long she's been down there. It's been decades (probably 50ish years) but she thinks it's maybe been a year. At one point, on May Day (?? maybe? I'm not sure exactly...) the faeries all leave the mound, bringing Jane with them, and go to a village celebration - WHICH LITTLE JOHN IS AT - but apparently he doesn't recognize her or realize she's there or something, and can't rescue her then.

Meanwhile, our other players:
Tuck, he's the head father of the Abbey and is supposed to be in exile, but instead has gone back to live with the forest folk and also as an itinerant priest. He actually has the most action and the most interesting story, and really all he does is wander around.

There's the Huntsman, and some sort of water sprite (goddess? she's also supposed to be St. Anne I think) whose name escapes me, and at first I thought they were Robin Hood and Maid Marian, except, they aren't. They are some other random characters/lovers but at one point I thought they were maybe brother and sister? Super confusing.

Robin Hood as it turns out is cursed, and sometimes he's tall handsome man, and sometimes he's grotesque bouncing gnome (this is not explained right away, I thought they were two different characters at first). Still a good archer though, and is apparently robbing the rich, but you don't ever see it, it's just mentioned in passing. Maid Marian is also cursed and hidden away somewhere, and they offer up not one, but two different places she might be locked away, and Tuck keeps telling Robin they'll find her, AND THEY NEVER DO. This plot point is just completely dropped.

Will Scarlett makes an appearance as a minstrel human / pretty red bird.

The Sheriff of Nottingham is apparently a jerk who hassles a dairy maid, and kidnaps the water sprite, but he's not even as big of an asshole as the sheriff in the Disney cartoon with the foxes. The kidnapped water sprite also does some things back at the castle that makes you think there will be a big battle to save Maid Marian, but, see above. Nope.

Lastly we have Hilde, Dom's twin sister. She's locked away in a convent behind another ensorcelled door and is being beaten by one of the nuns! Until, a friendlier nun is like, oh, you want to leave? It's not a prison. Here's your cloak and a bundle of cheese and bread. Bye! We never find out why the door is locked by sorcery.

Jane gets rescued (no surprise there), and the faeries are destroyed! Or not. Everything kind of collapses and Nick uses a sort of magic Elena has endowed him with to get out of the mound with Hilde and Tuck. Little John and Jane escape too, and I guess we are supposed to assume they live happily ever after - their story just stops abruptly after they get out of the collapsing mound (with ZERO THOUGHT about Tuck, Nick, or Hilde, which is a dick move on Little John's part BTW, given their relationship).

Anyway, I spent half the book thinking Robin Hood was a different person than he actually was, not really caring about most of the characters, and just generally being confused about WTF was going on. There were so many little thoughts that got started and were left unfinished, and instead I had to read about clergy in exile causing the bells to stop ringing, or other abbey minutia.

The writing is also just... not great. For example, Atwood randomly throws in words to make it seem more "middle ages" but instead it just seems laughably out of place. I almost rounded my star rating up because I thought this was a debut, but it turns out Rachel Atwood is one of 2-3 pen names for another author and she's written a LOT of books. Hence, rounding down.

***

This book was part of my "Fantasy Grab Bag" selection. Grab bags are one of the things my library system is doing during Covid while they are closed and you can't go in and browse the shelves. You can pick from a couple of things and get a surprise bag of 5 books.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. I’m a little unsure why it has so many bad ratings. It was for that reason alone that it stood unread on my Robin Hood bookcase for months, and now I’m disappointed I didn’t read it sooner! I can’t wait for the sequel to arrive.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Woah I actually read this book in less than a week :D

I was really excited to read this book and, although it was fun, it didn't fully live up to my standards.
-1 star for not enough background information and character development. I was very confused at the start of the book and felt like I was reading a book that was the second book in a series, not a stand-alone book, because characters and settings were kind of thrown in with none to barely any background.

-1 star for contradictions in the story. This just added to the confusion. At one point, a character finds a pitcher and there's a goddess in it that starts talking to him in his mind and he's like "okay cool" but then when he sees a man come out of a tree he's surprised. I didn't think it would have made sense for him to be confused by one but not at the other. In another part, it is stated that Hilde can smell the pigs but can't hear them. A few lines later, the author writes that the sound of the pig continued. Not just started but continued. Either this was a bad transition or a mishap in the writing.

Besides these points that would sometimes make the book frustrating, I enjoyed the book and the adventures it entailed. It was fun to entertain the idea of a village of forest dwellers that also incorporated magic.

[Saga · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Magical and dreamy story

[Brittany Taft · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for granting me an ARC. Somewhere between 2 and 3 stars so I bumped it to a 3.

I’m in a Fae kick lately and it sounded like something I would like based on the synopsis, however reading it proved that it has elements of the Robin Hood folktale. I’m not all too familiar with the legend other than Disney’s animal animation rendition and have no great interest in it.

It was an interesting premise: Wild folk and the church at odds, the Faery mound, old England.

However I really didn’t have any special connection or fondness to any of the characters or the plot or conflict so I was slow to get through this and not very invested, to say the least. Nothing was wrong with it, exactly, but it just wasn’t for me after all.

[Peyton · Rating 2 out of 5]

You have been taught to be humble, and you are. But sometimes we need to take pride in ourselves so that we push through a problem and help others do the same.

Walk the Wild With Me is a fantasy novel set in Nottinghamshire, England, in the year 1208. When a young human woman named Jane is kidnapped by Queen Mab and forced to serve the faeries as a seamstress under the Faery Mound, various magical beings from the surrounding forest attempt to gather forces to rescue her. Their only opportunity to do so, however, is during the rare conjunction of the phases of the moon in the human and faery worlds, and an orphaned human boy named Nick who lives at the nearby abbey is central to their plans.

Atwood’s story draws upon faery lore, the lore surrounding the Green Man, the tales of Robin Hood and the Merry Men, and historical facts. This concept sounds incredibly compelling on the surface, but the characters and worldbuilding never truly come together into a cohesive whole. The narrative suffers both from plot holes and from unnecessary plot twists and red herrings. Repetitive and surface-level reflections on feudalism, the obligations set out in the Rule of Saint Benedict, and limited options for women in medieval society intertwine with lore-dumping about magic and faeries. The clumsy exposition of these details detracts from, instead of building, immersion in the historical setting. Moreover, the faeries and other magical beings are dreary to read about; they never sound beautiful or grotesque enough to do the original legends justice.

Walk the Wild With Me is marketed as adult fantasy, but I think this book would be more appropriately categorised as young adult fantasy. The protagonist of the story is twelve years old, and conflict with adult authority figures and the physical and emotional changes that come with puberty are central themes of the story. Violence and other mature themes are understated and much milder than what you would find in the average PG-13 movie. I actually can’t think of any specific reason why this book was marketed towards an adult audience.

I enjoyed reading about the protagonist Nick as well as Hilde, the sister of Nick’s close friend Dom. I also enjoyed following the various threads of history and legend in this story, even though they didn’t quite find a satisfying conclusion. Generally speaking, I wouldn’t recommend this book to other adult readers, but you might enjoy it if you are a diehard fan of folktale retellings and find the concept intriguing.

[Samantha Matherne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A college literature class on W. B. Yeats turned me onto faerie stories and the strange myths that surround the creatures in the British Isles. In this enchanting novel Rachel Atwood spun a faerie tale that also invokes the legend of Robin Hood and some of his fellows from Nottingham with a dive into history. I really enjoyed Nick’s venture into the Wild and learning why the Wild Folk draw him in so easily. The perspective of storytelling jumps around often between multiple characters — Nick, Tuck. Little John, Hilde, and Jane — but each character feels to have his or her own voice. The chapters are even constructed with clear breaks to leave no doubt of scene or POV changes. Well done both in writing style and clear, visual chapter breaks. The narrative itself moves fluidly and left me feeling immersed in the Wild that Nick stumbles upon. Each time I opened the book I felt as if I dived into another time and place and stopping brought me a feeling of resurfacing. I love immersive reading like this. That Atwood included so many fantastical elements while staying true to core myths surrounding them gives me confidence in her as a writer and the desire to read more books with a similar ring. Sure, the ending is a little open-ended, but in a world of so many near immortal creatures, I honestly expect nothing less. Not all stories, especially those within fantasy, are meant to be tied up with pretty little bows and a “happily ever after”.

[Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the world-building. I could dally in the woods forever, sharing Nick’s wonder for it all. I wish the female characters could have been a bit more rounded though but Jane and Hilde were given a bit more agency by the end. Poor Robin’s story doesn’t get resolved in this but the ending does leave the options for many characters wide open. Maybe sequel? All in all, an enjoyable read for those who like mythology with a twist.

[Marian · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a disappointment. I love the concept of this book more than I liked anything about it. It's impressive in one aspect: I have never seen something have this much exposition and so little worldbuilding all at once. It just infodumps the entire plot and character motivations in ways that leave little room for storytelling at all.

[Maryann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this book solely because I loved the cover. Unfortunately it’s a mess of story and didn’t hold my interest.

[Tandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun story with a new twist to the Robin hood theme. A good clean adventure

[Rebekah Maciborsky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dull and hard to follow.

[Joy Pixley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was disappointing. I'm squarely in the target audience for this theme and was expecting to enjoy it. The cover looked so great – magical mystical forest! It combined a new take on the Robin Hood characters with Queen Mab of the Fairies, both of which I love. How great is that? So the premise was great, but the execution really failed for me.

For one thing, the promise of the Robin Hood theme wasn't paid off. Atwood went with the Robin Goodfellow fairy version, but even so we got very little of it: one scene of the classic marksmanship contest between Robin and the Sheriff and then he was gone. The rest of the Robin Hood characters were so changed from any familiar version that they might as well have been unrelated to it (Little John is actually the Green Man, for instance). We got more on the fairies and Mab, and I liked those parts.

The story starts by establishing that John's lady love Jane was kidnapped by Mab many years ago. Tuck had a chance to help John rescue Jane, but it would mean relinquishing his hold on the talisman of his goddess and he couldn't bring himself to do it, and the rescue failed. So Tuck has felt guilty all these years, waiting for the next time when the worlds will align and they can try again. That seemed really promising of a conflict – can Tuck do it this time? But no, the goddess has left him and instead is now carried by young Nick. We spend much of the story following Nick around, but I never learn what his plot or character arc is supposed to be. What is he trying to do? What does he care about? The main plot question/crisis seems to be whether Tuck and John can rescue Jane, and they talk a lot about whether Nick will help, but... they never actually talk to Nick about it. Instead we spend a lot of time on side issues. So what's Nick's goal here? My notes while listening to the audiobook start asking, "Wait, what is the plot supposed to be?!" about halfway through and continue until after the ending, when I was still left wondering what the point was.

The lack of clear plot is exacerbated by tons of detailed descriptions of other characters and unrelated actions. It felt like the author had constructed in-depth backstories for all the main and secondary characters, and did a lot of research about the political situation with the church and the King, and decided to fill in the middle 80% of the book with flashbacks and expositions to explain these things to us. These are cool backstories and interesting history, but the dry "tell not show" descriptions are boring, and they aren't clearly tied to any current conflict that I'm engaged with. Sometimes they're explained repeatedly. For instance, Nick's friend was given to the monks by his mother the same time the friend's sister was given to the nunnery; the same backstory for that was explained multiple times, giving the distinct impression that the book was given only cursory editing. There's a melodramatically drawn-out death scene of an old man who hasn't been part of the story so far, who I have no idea why I should care about, that seems included just so the author can describe the wild folk rituals surrounding death.

In short, there were many potentially interesting elements to this story, but they weren't tied together into a plot that made sense or to character conflicts that were engaging. It felt like a rough-but-promising early draft from a beginning author, which is tragic since this author has written dozens of books and should have known this needed more editing.

[Rebecca Vidal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I can see the criticisms that other readers have given it, and they are valid, but for me they didn't distract. This book and story feels exactly like the title. It's a meandering, slow story that skips around, but in a unhurried, relaxed way. A genuine "Walk in the Wild."

Like a relaxing walk through a forest, where you stop and look at the different mushrooms, marvel at the endless shades of green and stay still to listen to the birds twittering, little creatures scurrying about, and take a few moments to appreciate the sound of the trickling creeks and tiny waterfalls along the way. Maybe the people who want to hike for the destinationnornthe view and walk as fast as they can to the top don't enjoy the aforementioned kind of hike, and maybe they don't like this book either. It's maybe not for everybody.

This is, however, exactly what *I* was looking for. Something that feels unrushed and whimsical, with little hints about characters that we know from elsewhere. We don't have all of the details, we already know much of the backstory, and we get a bit more of the specific details to this world, but we have to fill in the rest of the background ourselves. It's not difficult, these are cultural references that have crossed the Atlantic and are easily identified even to Americans who have even limited exposure to English myths and folklore. There are certainly plot holes and probably some inconsistencies, but I don't have a spreadsheet tracking them, so I just figured maybe I didn't understand clearly the first time something was described.

I enjoyed this book and hope that the second one is on audiobook soon so I can listen to it and take a few minutes pause as I rush off to my next destination in our modern world. This felt like a step back in time, maybe the ramblings of one's grandparent telling a tale mixed with classic folktale characters, but they sometimes forget the details or add their own, and that's ok, we step away from our modern life for a short time, slow down and just enjoy the journey

[Bonnie_lemonpie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started my reading full of hopes but it quickly deflated like a bad soufflé...

One star out of respect for the work it is to write a book and one for a good idea at the core (even if badly executed).

The story was a very unique and a really nice idea, with a plot full of potential. Unfortunately, the speed is so slow that these 300 pages feel like 800. NOTHING happens before 3/4 of the book and when finally - finally - the rescue mission is on, it's pretty anticlimactic despite an attempt to make it sound like there is action.

The writing was also problematic for me: it is messy with too many inconsistencies (is it a pictcher or is it a cup? Please decide), and unnecessarily confusing.
Some characters pop in the scene out of nowhere, others are not named when they appear so you are left guessing who they are. They are sometimes overly concerned about trivial matters and are at other times completely unfazed by suprising elements, leaving us wondering what the hell is going on.

WARNING - SPOILERS!
I am particularly mad at the scene of Dom death, when Tuck insist that Little john leave the massive tree trunk to be carried by the villagers so they feel useful. Then Dom dies under the cart because of the tree weight and Tuck is in utter shock, like "how did this happens? He was so young... The lord decided to call him back".
No, what happened is that YOU decided to have a 13 year old carry a tree trunk in an old cart.
This, to me, felt mostly like Tuck's fault. Or like the author needed this character to die and made something up.

Overall I was pretty disappointed. I feel like this could have been great if better revised.

[Susannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting concept but woof the editor needs to be fired for letting this be published as is. Some revisions to the plot, pacing, and writing style would make it much nicer to read. One of my main complaints is that there's a lot of telling through the characters' dialogues rather than showing through action. The lore of the story is fascinating to me because of the mix of fantasy and history and I'd like to see stories like this with the revisions it deserves.

[Lisa Tollefson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable. Not great, and I'm not left wanting to find more by her, but I wouldn't turn one down either. It's an interesting take on the Robin Hood tales, mixed with some possible history of the wood folk and the fairies being pushed out by the ongoing infestation of humans. Some intriguing ideas, and the story help together pretty well. Thank you for timelines in the chapters. I would have been lost else

[A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Walk The Wild With me is about a boy named Nick, who finds the vessel of an ancient goddess in a secret room of the abbey in which he lives and learns. With the help of this goddess, Nick learns about the magic of the Woodwose, the forest folk, and of his true heritage. He joins up with the members of Robin Hood's men of Sherwood, turned into fae folk by Atwood's imagination. Little John is the Green Man; Tuck is an abbot turned wild; Will Scarlett is a magical songbird; and Robin Goodfellow himself is a man turned Woodwose. Atwood weaves together a story of magic, folklore, and the yearning of our hero, Nick, to find out the truth of the world.

This is a novel for people who loved The Fellowship of the Ring, with all of its folklore and earthly magic. This is what first drew me to this novel. That, and how could I resist the premise of a fae version of Robin Hood? However, the wonderful aspects of this book are indeed balanced by some choices I would not have made.

Things I liked:

Atwood's writing style is absolutely gorgeous. The writing flows easily, and her descriptions are so vivid, I could imagine myself in the forest together with the Woodwose. I so wish I could go there myself! Thankfully, I have a vivid imagination to go along with her vivid writing.

Again, I love the premise of Robin Hood and his men as the fair folk. I've never seen this take on the story before, and Atwood succeeded pretty well in making this take convincing. I'm not surprised at her choice of having Little John as the Green Man, though I was a little surprised at the fact that the Robin Hood character doesn't have a very prominent role in this story. I don't mind this choice at all, it's just one that I didn't expect.

Things I didn't like:

Unfortunately, I think the story tried so hard to do many things with its plot and characters, that it ended up not doing much at all.

Every new plot device is readily accepted by the characters, making these devices unbelievable to me as a reader. When Nick finds and bonds with the goddess, he doesn't question anything about it, he just accepts it as normal. We don't get any explanation for this. We don't actually get a lot of explanation for a lot of things. There's very little background into the history of the Woodwose in this version of England; there are mentions of a conflict between the pope and the magical folk, but no background is actually given to explain why the Woodwose have to hide.

I think if the story had fewer plotlines, or perhaps if the book was a little longer, there would be more space for explanation and exposition to be given, but it didn't work out that way.

The ending of the story was rushed, which makes more my case that the book should have been longer, or more managed than it was.

I realize I am making a lot of criticisms, but really this was a very enjoyable read, and the favorable points for this book are very strong. I would like to read more of Atwood's work, and get more of that beautiful writing style.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes fae stories, folklore, and a new take on a classic story.

[Darri Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ll have to agree with those that rated this book 3 stars.

Why?
Well, the book was slow to start. Then it felt slow towards the middle. Then boom, last 20 pages in the book went through the rising action and climax in a blur. The plot hardly resolved itself and the end was abrupt and made a poor attempt at being heart warming. I’m honestly glad where Nick decided to go. Although it was slow, I honestly found the slice of life at the monastery between Nick and Hilde to be relaxing. Then of course we have the wild folk interactions with the adventure that felt thrown in randomly. It felt like a desperate attempt to remind the readers that yes, this is in-fact a fantasy novel with magic and fairies and pagan deities. The action felt more like unnecessary filler than anything important. Lastly, the characters. There were very few characters in this book that I felt a connection to, or had any feelings towards them. Nick felt like some child plopped into the hands of a few deities. He didn’t really do much else. I found myself more interested in Hilde’s story than the whole book. I feel as though Atwood did not put much effort into making me root for these character, or care for them for that matter. That said and minor spoiler, some character deaths did feel like unnecessary filler. Honestly, nobody had to die and the plot to remain unchanged. That being said, I picked up this book because I saw Herne was in it. He was not a major character in the plot at all, he was mostly in the background complaining over nonsense. He felt the most strayed from his original lore, being a huntsman of a king who nearly died to a wild stag. A sorcerer saves his life by mending the antlers of the stag to his own head. Upon his return to the court his mates reject and bully him into hanging himself from an oak tree. He was once a renowned hunter with a story of hardship lost to his own depression, and Atwood takes this lore and crumples it up and tosses it in the bin. She made him into a whining man child. She states at the start of her book in her acknowledgment that she references many upon many folklore to bring about the characters of the Wildwood to their most original form. If this is true, I’d like to see her sources for Herne.

Besides these critiques, I did find himself enjoying the slice of life at the monastery between Nick and Hilde. It was well written and it often felt like I was at the monastery with Nick and Hilde. This was not true for the forest, which felt necessary for a wildwood fantasy. I enjoyed her writing style as well, I didn’t find it hard to read as I often do with many authors.

I rate this a 3 out of 5 stars.

[Anne - Books of My Heart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart
 

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Walk the Wild with Me is one of my older ARCs.   I don't remember what happened exactly but I had a lot happening in my life and didn't get to it.   I'd say it is kind of a mash up of Robin Hood and Celtic fae folk.  It is set in the "Robin Hood" time frame with King John and the Sheriff making life miserable for many and not respecting the religious folk.  The most learned priests and sisters have been banished.

Our main point of view is Nick, who as a toddler was the sole survivor on marauders who murdered his family.  He was found by the head Abbot and taken to the Abbey.  He along with his two friends Dom and Henry, are the older boys now.  The Abbot has been banished but he stayed with the wood folk and is now known as Tuck.

Dom's twin sister, Hilde is in a convent and is not happy there. Dom wants to get her free.  Little John is trying to get back his love, Jane who was captured and enslaved by Queen Mab.  Robin Hood is cursed and also pines for a lost love.  The story is full of women in bad situations that Nick, Dom, Tuck, Robin and Little John are trying to help.  There are also ordinary people, who need help and are hungry.

Nick turns out to have some fae blood, so he can see more than most.  He is almost at a point where he will have to decide if he will take vows and serve the Abbey or go out into the world.   In protecting Hilde, he becomes attached to her.   The story ends with no final decisions made by Nick, staying in the Abbey for now.  There are several storylines left open and I see now there will be a follow up book in January 2022, Outcasts of the Wildwood to move forward with Robin's story.

The reviews were medium for Walk the Wild with Me so I was worried about starting to read.  I seem to be having trouble starting everything at this time.  But once I get reading, it's all fine. I enjoyed this more than I expected.  As with any first book, there is world building about the politics, the magics, and the characters, which can be too much.  The reveal here was comfortable but there is still some character development and much more to know about the magic in this world.

[TinySalutations · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5* I liked this book a lot more when it started out, but less as it went on. First, to be clear, I would not describe this as a Robin Hood retelling. It is more a story using the characters of Robin Hood (I presumed set after his tale), but where the Merry Men are fae. There are new main characters- a teenage boy and a tiny goddess- and some new side characters that you won’t have seen in Robin Hood.

I think the biggest disappointment about this book is that it starts out so strong, then fizzles out. The story doesn’t move forward until the last 15% and by the time it does, it has lost me. I loved the idea of combining faeries and Robin Hood. I mean, how cool is it to think that maybe Robin Hood and his Merry Men blend into the woods to evade detection not purely out of skill, but out of fae magic (okay they don’t really say this in the book, which is a missed opportunity, but that’s where my mind goes)? The IDEA is seriously cool. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t fully develop in this book and it definitely doesn’t fulfill on a good conclusion. I felt like I didn’t want to put it down at first though, so it would’ve had potential with a better story arc.

The main character of this story is supposed to be a teenage boy who is living in an abbey and enjoys the woods in Nottingham. However, Friar Tuck features just as prominently, and his story is more interesting, so I considered him the main character. I wished for more Robin Hood, because his time probably adds up to 2 pages. There was one sentence that he said that felt perfectly like Robin Hood (from the tales), and then never again, so that was a bummer.

It actually wasn’t clear to me whether Robin Hood, Little John, and Friar Tuck were all supposed to be fae or different magical beings (this was one of the many unclear things in this book). The plot of this book was to fight against the faerie folk with Queen Mab who all lived in the faerie mound, so I think not. I think either Robin Hood or Little John was The Woodwose, so they are likely all magical beings aside from fae.

[Kiri Alvarado · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book had so much potential. Robin Hood, faeries, the Green Man, monasticism vs. pagan ... it all sounded so awesome and right up my alley when I pulled it off the shelf at the library.

This book is well written in the way that waffle maker manuals are well written. Apart from a few continuity errors, everything was fine, just boring. So boring it was infuriating, as this book SHOULD have been so much more interesting. This book is a good example of the reason why people say "show, don't tell." It told me everything, and therefore did not emotionally engage me in the slightest.

I'm a romantic. I adore long-lost loves and slow, pining love stories. The love between Little John and Jane should have been (in my opinion) the main focus of the book. Again, it had the potential to be so gorgeous and beautiful, but ... it just couldn't make me care about any of the characters. I'm also a super nerd about medieval monasticism and Celtic mythology, and this just ... made me so sad because I couldn't like it. It gets a star for having such unique subject matter, but it doesn't get a second one because I had to finish it and had no emotion other than anger that this book completely fell short of its potential.

[Danielle C. · Rating 2 out of 5]

A reimagining of 'Robin Hood' era England, the story follows a boy being raised in an abbey who comes across the Wild Folk of the woods and a pagan goddess. There was nothing wrong with the storylines per say, but they all just seems uninspired and not fully fleshed out. There was a bit too much of jumping between narrators, given the shortness of this book. It just left me feeling that I did not really know any characters and moments which should be poignant just fell flat. Even the climax of the book, where the reader should have really felt something, a boy overcoming his past, rising above his ancestors, took but a half of a page. I actually went back and re-read it to make sure that was it since this moment had been built up as something monumental and it completely left me shrugging my shoulders instead of cheering along. Even the powerful characters just felt kind of like cardboard cutouts representing people whose names I knew. I really can't recommend this book, even to those who like the setting.

[Deborah Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rachel Atwood offers a delightful mash-up between the Robin Hood legends, Faerie, the Wild Folk, and characters from British and Celtic pagan folklore. While there are occasional nods to the well-known tales, such as the archery contest between Robin and the Sheriff of Nottingham, the story line is for the most part original. As an example, Little John is anything but human, being an incarnation of the Green Man who lives most of his near-immortal life in tree form.

The story begins slowly, which allows the reader to settle in to a world that defies some but not all assumptions. Each of the many viewpoint characters has his or her own backstory and goals. Yet even when the pace seems slow, the intricate connections between the ordinary world, Faerie, and the world of magic unfold like a tapestry. Characters grow and change, secrets are revealed, and the wonderful way in which Atwood upends expectations all create a personal and unique approach to the stories we thought we knew.

[Zahra · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book… was disappointing compared to its premise. the big takeaway is: you need to explain concepts to your readers. just because you’ve studied it for years doesn’t mean anyone else has. it feels like a first draft was polished up on a line-level and then published





SPOILERS AFTER THIS LINE

- the climax is given away by the synopsis
- what was the point of that long description of a girl peeing?
- the author’s view on medieval treatment of women and cleanliness was clearly influenced by the renaissance. (aka it was actually pretty good until the renaissance came along and took several steps back)
- the author is constantly using archaic words And their modern equivalents
- consistency where? (cup vs pitcher)
- lack of transitions (it gets Bad at some point. I have no idea who these people are)

[Sonny Br · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice read for fantasy fans, followers of folklore and Anglophiles (all of which include me, for what it's worth). Mortals, aided by Robin Goodfellow, The Green Man and Father Tuck, try to defeat cruel faerie Queen Mab. In this telling, certain characters are magical creatures who can take the form of humans. For example, Robin Hood is the human form of the gnomish Robin Goodfellow, Little John is The Green Man (and also a tree) and so on. Herne the Huntsman makes a few brief appearances as well, although that character is curiously underdeveloped.

I thoroughly enjoyed Walk the Wild With Me and was sorry to see it end. A sequel is planned. Rachel Atwood is one of the pen names of prolific author Phyllis Irene Radford.

[Hildie Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm, I don't know if I liked this book or not. It was slow and, in multiple instances, quite repetitive, but I did like the historical lifestyles presented (monastic life in the 1200's) mixed in with the mythology used (the Green man and world the Fairy - though not the good kind of Fairy you may be used to reading about). The Robin Hood spin on all of the forest folk was an interesting take, as well.
Though this book also ended rather quickly, almost abruptly, which makes me think that despite this being a complete story, there is another book that is more of this tale. I don't know that I will read that, though. I'm just left feeling weird after reading this book. Good thing I borrowed this at the library!