Lady of Sherwood

Sherwood #2

by Jennifer Roberson

King Richard the Lion-Hearted lies dying in France. With his last breath, he bequeaths his kingdom to his brother, Prince John and his nephew, Prince Arthur. From this legacy comes a terrible war, as two men clash for what can only belong to the right to rule Britain. It is also these words that seal the destiny of Richard's young champion, Robert of Locksley. Robert, the handsome son of a respected earl, had long fought the tyranny of Prince John - a man as weak as he is cruel. Now that power has shifted even more firmly into John's hands, and Robert has no choice but to fight as an outlaw...as Robin Hood.
Lady Marian of Ravenskeep, her honor proving stronger than her desire, has forsaken a wedding to Robert of Locksley, since she fears she can never bear his child. It is with this knowledge that she makes an irrevocable choice - to flee into the depths of Sherwood Forest, where, amid wild tangled woods, she will be transformed from lady to warrior, as Robin Hood's partner in stealing John's gold, and as the woman who has captured his heart.
Pursued by the Sheriff's army, the hour soon approaches when Robin Hood, Marian, and their band of followers will wage a desperate fight for liberty and country.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Fiction, Historical, Historical Romance, Medieval

372 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Over a 40-year career (so far), Jennifer Roberson has published four fantasy series, including the Sword-Dancer Saga, Chronicles of the Cheysuli, the Karavans universe, and urban fantasy series Blood & Bone. Other novels include historicals LADY OF THE GLEN, plus two Robin Hood novels, LADY OF THE FOREST, and LADY OF SHERWOOD.

New novels are percolating in her always-active imagination.

Hobbies include showing dogs, and creating mosaic and resin artwork and jewelry.  She lives in Arizona with a collection of cats and Cardigan Welsh Corgis.

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite as fabulous as the first book, Lady of the Forest, but if you loved the characters in that book, you'll want to see what happens next.

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

How I love reading about Marian & Robin! Jennifer Roberson’s Lady of Sherwood is a delight! I truly enjoy reading various authors’ takes on this legendary twosome and their fellow ‘outlaws’. This author brings into play King Richard The Lionheart’s relationship with Robin as well as Robin and Marian’s. In addition she states quite firmly Robin’s lack of closeness with his father, The Earl of Huntington. Is this because of Marian or the fact that Robin (Robert) is a third son? Then there is the High Sheriff of Nottingham - a thoroughly despicable character and his seneshal, Guy of Gisbourne, an idiotic fool. I disliked both of them throughout the book. Thus, this author did a great job describing these characters and giving them abominable traits so readers would not like them. Of course, I have disliked them from my first exposure to Marian & Robin when I was a child, and I have continued to want to nail both of them with arrows (if only I was better with a bow & arrow) whether I am reading about them or watching a movie or series. Very enjoyable & great escapism! 5 stars.

[Miryam · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book - hey, a retelling of Robin Hood! With a strong Marian! What's not to like?
Unfortunately, it turns out it was awful. The plot, even in places where Roberson was being creative and not following the original story (Marian on trial for witchcraft) was totally predictable. The action scenes and the final denouement were extremely brief and very unsatisfying. She gets points for making Marian more of an active than a passive character, but some of her actions were really absurd (i.e., "The Sheriff wants to marry me and is clearly willing to force me against my will, as he has shown several times. He must be a nice guy; I'll go confront him alone without telling anyone where I'm going.").

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This massive Robin Hood story was obviously the product of much research and labor, and I had such high hopes for it. I LOVE Robin Hood stories (and movies) and so I was predisposed to like it already. However, despite some interesting choices (Roberson's Robert of Locksley comes home from the Crusades a broken man who favors Arabic when cursing, Marian of Ravenskeep is an orphan pursued by her father's dearest friend (the ambiguously evil Sheriff, etc.), I couldn't get attached to this retelling. Maybe I'm too in love with The Outlaws of Sherwood (one of my favorite books and favorite authors) and The Forestwife, but this retelling where everyone is noble and brave and rich just didn't grab me.

[Renee Darcy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this tale. I read Roberson's Lady of the Forest a good 15 years ago, and really enjoyed it. I loved Roberson's version of Marian - how competent she was, and how matter-of-factly she dealt with the unpleasant realities that beset her. I also like that Roberson didn't shrug away from the darkness in man - I found the characters really compelling, and the gritty story that resulted has stuck with me all this time. Her descriptions were great, the pacing was good, and it really made me feel for the characters.

So when I ran across this sequel a few weeks ago, I bought it and instantly launched into reading it.

First, I bought the ebook on Amazon for my Kindle and there was a formatting issue that really interfered with my ability to read the story: there was no line break or visual indicator between POV switches. I'd be reading about Marian, and a few paragraphs later I'd realize I was reading about a completely different character at a different physical location, but there was nothing to signal a change of context. This was really jarring to have to do the mental shifting myself - several paragraphs after the fact - based on what's unfolding.

Second, and perhaps more tragically - this book lacked the certain something that really made Lady of the Forest compelling to me. None of the characters really seemed as well fleshed-out this time around. The storyline itself was very 'meh' by comparison, too. I liked aspects of it - the family drama that played out with Robin and his father, and some of the individual plot points were amusing to me - but for the most part, this book just felt 'flat' to me.

Some of my favorite bits from the first book were the interactions between Robin and Marian, but those interactions here were, for the most part, lacking. I liked how well developed the band of Merry Men was in the first story, but here each of those characters was very one-note - there wasn't the sense of development and the slow unfolding as we got into their psyches that we got in the first book.

In fact, overall, there was a lot of "telling, not showing" in this book - which compares negatively to the "showing, not telling" that Roberson did so well in Lady of the Forest.

I was very disappointed that I couldn't like this sequel more, because I really enjoyed the first one. But this story just gets a resounding 'meh.'

[Misfit · Rating 3 out of 5]

A So-so follow up to Lady of the Forest. This book opens five years after the close of Lady Of The Forest and Robin is still estranged from his father and living with Marian at Ravenswood (that's a bit of a stretch, openly living in sin in the 13C). Richard The Lion Heart is wounded and dying and the evil Prince John prepares to take the throne, the always over the top evil Sheriff of Nottingham is thrilled as now Richard once Richard is dead he can prosecute Robin and his not-so-merry band of men.

I have to admit this book just didn't sing for me, nor was the story enough to keep me enthralled. If you loved LOTF and are dying to read the rest of the story, you might enjoy this, but not as a stand alone book. Not great, but not bad either. Three stars.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

It felt really long and a bit tedious to get through.

[Noël · Rating 5 out of 5]

My only complaint is that the sequel to Lady of the Forest wasn't longer! I loved it, I love Robin and Marian, and I love bad guys getting their comeuppance.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has been sitting on my bookshelf for longer than I can remember. I read Lady of the Forest when I was a teenager, and now 20 years later I've finally read the sequel. I love a Robin Hood re-telling, and this was probably great in the 90's, but some things didn't age so well. Marian was a not as empowered as we're used to these days, quite capable in her own way but clearly still relegated to her socially-acceptable place. She also punched a horse at one point just to anger the rider, which didn't make me love her. As for the enemies, Gisbourne and DeLacey were hard to tell apart. They were both sexists motivated by revenge for humiliation and blinded by their own arrogance. One of them reported to the other one, but through most of the story I was confused by which was which because their characters were so similar. Admittedly made worse by the fact that the plot was pretty boring up until about 3 quarters into the story. That's when the robbing from the rich started and about 2 chapters later ended. The ending was also really unsatisfying. There was a major plot point about property ownership, and I hated how that was resolved. To the point where it seemed like there should be another book to resolve it ... but there's not.

[Melinda Borie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is... fine? It lacks the unevenness of the much longer and more difficult book to which it is a sequel, but unfortunately some of the parts it’s missing are what made that book so exciting to read, as I did repeatedly in my youth. This book I... definitely have read at least once, perhaps as many as two times before this occasion? And yet I remembered nothing about it. There was no feeling of “oh, yes, this is when the French mercenary shows up” or “aww yeah she’s going into the forest”; nothing that happens here has any resonance whatsoever.

In the first book, the stakes were higher, and clearer, and the character dynamics were building and escalating. This book is five years later but the relationships don’t feel lived in so much as frozen in place; it’s more like a fanfiction epilogue than its own novel. The one thing I thought I remembered— a resolution to the infertility plotline— I appear to have invented out of whole cloth in my imagined memory of this book, and while as an adult I kind of like the way that non-ending plays out, I don’t think it carries narrative heft, which is probably why I made something up.

[LibraryCin · Rating 4 out of 5]

King Richard the Lionheart has died and his brother John is now king. The Sheriff of Nottingham is desperate to be sure he is still employed. Robin Hood and his friends, once pardoned by King Richard, are now outlaws once again, and must hide in Sherwood Forest. The Sheriff is upset with Marian and wants revenge. Robin’s father is not healthy, but the two don’t see eye-to-eye on anything.

I liked this much better than the first one. It took a short bit at the start to get “into” it, but once I did, I really liked this one.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like series. I started “Lady of the Forest” and had to see what happened next. The villain was truly a character you do not like at all, I found myself hoping they defeated him. I need to familiarize myself with the story of Robin Hood, because I really only know the Disney Cartoon version of story line. The author does give a list of books she referenced to write this book so maybe I will read some of those to answer the questions I was left with when this book ended.

[Janine Matsko-Bolacker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed Lady of the Forest so much I immediately picked up the sequel Lady of Sherwood! It was a much quicker read as I was already familiar with the characters. Again it truly illustrated that the lives of the people living at the end of the 12th century, be they rich or poor, were often times not their own. This novel brought the legend of Robin and Maid Marion to conclusion.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

We all know the stories about Maid Marian and Robin Hood. Most end near the return of Richard, with grateful royal pardons and a happily ever after.

But what happens to royal favour when the king dies, and there is no clear successor? What happened to the outlaws of Sherwood Forest and Marian?

I enjoyed reading this tale, which sought to provide some answers and tie up other loose ends.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so good. Where "Lady of the Forest" was more preoccupied with Robin and his recovery after his return home, this one is about their romance, about their relationship, and about how amazing Marian is. I love it.

[ainsley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was going to round 2.5 stars to 3, but the ending sapped me of all sense of generosity.

[Christena Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second book of the 2 part series was ok. It did not have the same thrills as the first, unfortunately.

[Arwen Mellor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it. There are two books in this series and yes, they can be read independently but I recommend just going for it. Read both, it is richer and more enjoyable.

[Stacy Koster · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The writing and story telling are great. I liked seeing how Marion grew into being herself, and rescued Robin as many times as he rescued her.

[Mary Hassan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was better than the first. Some people really enjoyed this series. For a Robin Hood book, I feel it was way too much dialogue and not nearly enough swordplay.

[Caren · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very different take on the Robin Hood legend, from the perspective of Maid Marian, and with a Robin Hood who suffers from PTSD.

[Morning Glory]

Very meh… had some great moments, such as robin’s reaction to Richard Coeur de Lyon’s death and when he realized Marian had similar PTSD, but too bogged in details for my taste. Ended up skimming.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lesser than the first book. Too many scenes left without resolution and obviously there is no sequel. Unfortunate as the first book was very good

[Teri Heyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great sequel to Lady of the Forest. I loved it.

[Terry (Ter05 TwiMoms/ MundieMoms) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars and my third five star read by this author. This is the sequel to Lady of the Forest and a retelling of the story of Robin Hood. The previous book is almost a prequel as it is of the time leading up to Sir Robert Locksley being outlawed and becoming Robin. The previous book was amazing, and this author takes the reader into the minds and lives of the characters as well as painting a clear and real picture of what is happening in their lives. In Lady of the Forest we were introduced to all of the characters of Robin's so called Merry Men and the realism of the story makes it apparent it was not a very merry time at all. In reality it was a very brutal time in history and one where women had no rights at all.

The author in her notes in the previous book explained how the legend began as British folklore handed down for centuries before it was written down by various people. It is unclear whether Robin really existed or perhaps his story is a combination of several different stories. Much like King Arthur's legend, it takes on a life of it's own every time it is retold. It is also unclear just when it happened and who was King at the time, but the author chose Richard the Lionhearted to be the ruler. and Sir Robert Locksley was knighted on the field of battle during the Crusades in the Holy Land by non other than King Richard. At the end of the first book, Richard lies dying without an heir which can and will change the lives of Robert, Marian and all of their friends.

I almost hated to start this book knowing the good things that had happened to these wonderful people were soon to end. And end they did. This sequel is, as the other book is, full of political intrigue and maneuvering of real people of the time and how it influenced our "merry band" to flee to Sherwood Forest and begin a life that none of them want and some are not prepared for. I love the way this author has shown the love, the companionship, and the hatred between the players of the legend. The Sheriff of Nottingham is as evil as ever, but I've never seen so clearly into his motives before.

One of the characters that was so interesting in this book is the knight, Mercardier, who really was a war leader of King Richard's and a figure from history. He is not usually in Robin Hood's story and there is no history that he was in England at this time, but after all - he could have been. He is a very well written character who is fearsome, bad (but how bad), obviously does not like Sir Robert at all and rightfully is jealous of him. Mercardier is a mercenary but devoted to King Richard and fought at his side for many years. Robert is an Earl's son, the Crusades being his first war experience, and becomes a favorite of the King and is knighted while that could never happen to Mercardier, a commoner. The relationship between the two when Mercardier comes to guard and transport the tax money from the Sheriff to the new King is not a huge part of the story, but one of the most interesting.

This of course is a love story too, and the development of Lady Marian from innocence and vulnerability to strong and capable is a slow process and done very logically. Either a person gives up or they do what they have to in order to survive. If one is looking for a torrid romantic noel, this is not it, but the love story of these two winds throughout both books and is well done. I originally bought these books in paperback but since have purchased the beautiful hardback versions. They are keepers and will be re-read.

[Kara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing happens.

The story picks up a few years after the first book in which we find out all of the heroes and villains have done very little.

The book opens with the death of King Richard, which puts everyone right back to where they were in the second to last chapter of the first book, namely, Robin and the gang are outlaws again, and the sheriff is free to do whatever he wants.

Marian and Robin have spent the past few years living together at her place, but are not married, which is really odd for the late 12th century.

Marian has discovered in the years between the two books that she can't have children, while the sheriff's daughter has discovered, to her disgust, that she's stuck with too many kids, hair color coyly hinting at which ones were fathered by Allan A Dale and which ones by Sir Guy. Sadly, we only get the one Desperate Housewives, Middle Ages style, scene, which is too bad, becuase its one of the few scenes that sparks an interest in the characters.

Meanwhile, Marian has hidden her miscarriages from Robin, because she doesn't want to worry him, which only ends up making them both look clueless. Also, the person she decides to tell is his father, rather than him, offering to let Robin go in hopes of him fathering an heir with someone else, both her and the father overlooking the fact they'll need Robin to consent to this plan for it too work. Its sad and and desperate and silly and hopelessly romantic on Marian's part. It makes Robin's father look like a horse breeder.

And after a a lot of pages go by, Robin and Marian and the rest of the protagonists retreat to the woods for a permanent outlaw camp, having officially lost everything legitimate, and Robin and Marian finally tie the knot.

In short - not worth the time.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Richard the Lionheart has just died, and for his subjects, the world has turned upside down. Richard's nefarious brother, John, is his likely successor, a situation that is treacherous for many of Richard's favorites. Five years earlier, Lord Robert of Locksley in the shire of Nottingham, infuriated the dastardly Sheriff DeLacey by absconding with the money meant for John to use in his plot to supplant his as king. Richard pardoned Robert, but all deals are off.

Jennifer Roberson has spun out a romantic, adventure filled tale about how Robert of Locksley became Robin Hood. We are all familiar with his Merry Men and with the love of his life, Marian, and now new life has been breathed into their ancient legend. This is an exciting, suspenseful tale marred only by the author's propensity for making "types" of her characters, and for revisiting the reasons for their behavior over and over again. Archetypes are great for legends but not so great for historical novels. Nonetheless, Lady of Sherwood makes for great escapist reading.

[Althea Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sequel to Roberson's "Lady of the Forest," her retelling of the Robin Hood legend.
I enjoyed the first one enough to pick this one up... though the first one pretty much seemed to have it covered; as far as the original story. Where was she going to go from there?
The outlaws were pardoned by the king himself, Marian had inherited her manor house and was living in bliss with Robin, everything was going well and all our heroes were seemingly enjoying their happy ending.

Well - King John bites it, refusing to name an heir, leaving the land in a state of unrest. The nasty Sheriff of Nottingham takes this opportunity to rescind the pardon and persecute Marian; threatening to take all her property and execute all of her friends.

So - we're basically back to square one, and we can re-run the story... while there's a bit of a sense of deja vu, it's still enjoyably written, and recommended for any fans of the Robin Hood legends...

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading Lady of the Forest (prequel to this book and I highly recommend you read before this one), I was happy to start right into Lady of Sherwood. I really enjoy Roberson's writing style from the annoyance Marian displayed as she waited for Robin and men to come to supper while the food turned cold (what woman couldn't empathize with that!)to all the political machinations of the Sheriff which make you simply hate him! Why not five stars? I wished for a more complete ending to make the bad guys lose all and the good guys win so to speak. Still a very good book.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story was okay, but predictable. King Richard dies, Robin and his men become outlaws again, and the sheriff of Nottingham plots to seize Marian's manor and lands. The story centers on Marian and Robin and their battle with the sheriff of Nottingham. The only really interesting character in the book was Mercardier, the mercenary who believes in honor yet claims he has no conscience. I would have liked to have read more about him and less about the thoughts and motivations of the sheriff and Robin's father.