Thank you so much to NetGalley for this advanced copy! This was one of my most wanted books of the year. 🥹
Lex never fails to impress me! Every book is such a different vibe, but always so good!! Clem and Mariel, and all of their group of found family - rope you in from the very beginning of the book. The banter is one of my favorite things throughout the novel! Can’t wait to read more from this author in the future, and will always support when the book officially cones out in the states!

Lex Croucher does it again in Not for the Faint of Heart! This book is geared to YA/New Adult readers and delivers a fresh take from Robin Hood's world! I look forward to this book hitting the stacks!!

Having enjoyed "Gwen And Art are Not In Love," I was ECSTATIC to receive the ARC of @lexcanroar’s latest YA romcom. Set a generation after Robin Hood led his Merry Men, this queer reimagining follows his granddaughter Mariel as she struggles to lead her small sub-group of Men (now a gender-free designation) and prove herself to her father (the current Merry Men leader). When Mariel’s group kidnaps a healer, Clem, in punishment for healing the Sheriff’s sympathizers, nobody, least of all Clem, realizes how quickly she’ll become part of their troop. Or how much the two young women will be drawn to each other. ❤️ With trans, non-binary, bisexual, and other normalized queer representation throughout the story, multi-racial representation, plus a generous helping of humor on every page, this book will delight many, many YA readers. Pub date Nov 26 2024. Thank you @netgalley and @wednesdaybooks for the ARC. #yabooks #yareads #robinhood #robinhoodretelling #yaqueerbooks #lgbtqya #yalgbtbooks #yaadventure #yahumor #youthlibrarian #schoollibrarian

I absolutely adored Gwen & Art Are Not In Love, and could not wait to get my hands on Not for the Faint of Heart! This was fan-freaking-tastic!

A fun YA historical romp with lots of action and heart. The best part was of course Lex Croucher's fantastic writing - all her books make me laugh out loud and this is a great addition to her work for teen readers. Check the author's website for content notes.

YA queer romance set in the world of Robin Hood.

Clem is a healer who is kidnapped by a group of Merry Men led by Mariel, the granddaughter of Robin Hood. Robin Hood has retired and the Merry Men are being run by his former son in law. Commander Hartley, however runs the group very different from the way that Robin Hood did.

When Clem is kidnapped, Mariel and her crew are skeptical of her but on different levels as some are more willing to show her mercy than others. As they travel, the Sheriff’s son attacks them, harms their crew and takes Mariel’s father hostage. When the other captains single out one of Mariel’s crew as the mole, they are forced to run. As they are on the run they begin to see that maybe the Merry Men of that day are causing harm and are actively different than that of Robin Hood’s day. As she begins to deconstruct and also lead her team on an adventure, allowing Clem to join more as a member of the team, she also finds herself having feelings for Clem.

I loved the amount of LGBTQIA+ representation in this book, I always enjoy books set in a world where there is no negative feelings or experiences to being queer, rather it’s just normal and accepted and no one has to come out. No labels are defined, but there is two MLM couples, one WLW and one character that uses they/them pronouns.

Overall, I liked this book but I didn’t love it. It was a bit of a slow start for me, which was surprising because I loved Gwen & Art, but this book was not as strong for me as that one. I would have loved a little more character introduction and I also would have loved a little more expansion on Clem and Mariel’s relationship at the very end of the book.

3/5 stars

This was an exciting read! It is well suited for the younger side of YA in terms of the themes present. The language would be a challenge in certain parts, but maybe that's just my American education talking! Lex did an amazing job writing unique queer characters in such a natural way. The first half was a bit of a struggle for me to get through, the pacing felt a bit off. However, I flew through the back half of this! I can't wait to read more from them.

This was 3.5 stars for me!

I loved the sapphic romance in this story and absolutely loved the overall feels of this but there was also something off for me.

Maybe I had high expectations for Not for the Faint of Heart, but this book did not work for me. I think I was expecting more of a Robin Hood stories vibe and this was the complete opposite. I do think this book will find its audience.

Thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for this ARC!

Not for the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher is a gripping and darkly comedic novel that dives into the chaotic and often brutal world of Victorian London. Croucher's sharp wit and vivid characterizations bring this historical setting to life, blending intrigue with a satirical edge. The narrative's exploration of power, morality, and survival makes for a compelling and thought-provoking read. If you enjoy historical fiction with a blend of humor and darkness, this book might be right up your alley

I truly enjoyed this book so much!!! I had me hooked from the very beginning and I couldn’t put it down! I highly recommend it!

Slow burn enemies to lovers! Sign me up! A fun and easy queer romcom. Not really plot heavy but very easy to follow.

Not for the Faint of Heart follows main protagonists Mariel, captain of the Merry Men and granddaughter of the legendary Robin Hood, and Clem, a healer. The story begins with Clem being kidnapped by Mariel and the rest of the Merry Men, kickstarting a tale of adventure, found family, and love. As a result, Mariel is forced to confront and doubt everything she once thought she knew about her blood family and the Merry Men, as well as her blossoming feelings for her kidnappee.

I thought there was some great LGBTQ+ representation in this. There is a sapphic romance at the heart of this story, and our immediate cast of characters also features a non-binary character, a trans character, and a gay character, among others. It’s probably the most amount of LGBTQ+ characters I’ve encountered in a single novel before, and I know that’s going to mean a lot to LGBTQ+ teen and young adult readers that come across this book. I appreciate Croucher including these characters in the story, especially in a time where backlash is so common when LGBTQ+ characters are featured in teen and YA novels. However, I believe LGBTQ+ characters’ inclusion in these genres are crucial, especially for LGBTQ+ youth.

I found the found family aspect of this book to be really fantastic. The chemistry between these characters, whether platonic or romantic, felt natural, and it really did feel like these characters had known each other for years and years. I also really enjoyed Croucher’a emphasis on the fact that family isn’t always our blood, it’s people we choose, too. I found that to be a beautiful message, and I believe it will impact and reach the right people in need of it.

However, I thought the pacing of this book was all over the place. The first half of the novel wasn’t really enticing, and I found it difficult to maintain my interest and keep reading. Even when things started to pick up, I couldn’t connect to these characters as much as I would’ve liked to. They came across as one-dimensional, with little to no character development across the arc of the story, apart from Mariel. Because of this, I found it difficult to care about what happened to these characters, even in moments when they were in copious amounts of danger. It made it difficult to keep reading, and for most of the novel, it felt like a drag to get through.

Although Not for the Faint of Heart didn’t speak to me the way I was hoping it would, I think this is a special and promising story that harbors potential to impact other readers in ways that it failed for me. It features escapades, romance, and the power in choosing a family of your own in a wonderful historical setting, one that I am sure many other readers will love.

I had high hopes as I love Gwen and art are not in love but I found this book much harder to get into and enjoy. The premise had promise but sadly didn’t live up to my expectations.

This was fun! A somewhat ridiculous adventure romp that also has some hard-hitting emotional moments and touches on darker topics like mental health (panic attacks) and overbearing parental expectations. I loved the queernormative take on Robin Hood.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! Opinions are my own.

This was a fun, easy read! The plot was interesting, the characters were good (although I did care more about the side characters than Mariel and Clem), and there were some pretty funny moments. I love anything that involves found family, especially if said found family is queer, and that trope was done beautifully in this book. The pacing was good, and I read the whole book in under 24 hours, which is a good sign.
However, there were a few elements that didn’t work for me. The main one was that this was marketed as a rom com, and although there was some comedy, the romance came out of nowhere. If Clem and Mariel hadn’t been on the cover then I would have been completely blindsided by them kissing, because they each had exactly the same amount of chemistry with every other character in the book. I don’t understand what they saw in each other, and I wasn’t convinced by any of their “romantic” scenes. Honestly, this book would have held up way better if they just cut the romance out entirely. I also didn’t like Mariel (I sympathized with her and was rooting for her, but could not bring myself to actually like her), so that probably took away from my enjoyment as well.
The other major thing I didn’t like about this book was actually the same complaint I had about Croucher’s other YA novel: the ending was far too abrupt. They had a major battle, and then everything just kinda… ended. Loose ends were tied up very quickly, and then the book just stops. I actually went back and checked the page count on Goodreads to see if my ARC was missing any pages.
So all in all this book had its moments, but to me, it was just okay. I would still recommend people give it a try though, because I had a good time despite all my gripes.

Everyone in the wood knows of Robin Hood and his Merry Men who steal from the rich, give to the poor, and fight the sheriff of Nottingham and his men. But now, decades later, the Merry Men are under new management. Instead of loveable rogues they are vigilantes, so wrapped up in their mission of retaking the wood for the people they forgotten about, well, the people. That is until Clem, the young healer in training, is kidnapped by the Merry Men and held as an example for treating one of the sheriff's men. A body is a body to Clem, so when her kidnapper Mariel is injured she treats her and then becomes involved in the politics of the wood. The Merry Men may not be the people she believed them to be, but maybe they could be with a new leader… I loved Lex Croucher’s take on Robin Hood full of queer characters, hijinks and found family.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were well developed and lovable. The pacing was perfect and left you wanting to read more. I can't wait to read more by this author!

This was a fun and chill read! I enjoyed "Gwen & Art Are Not in Love," but I liked this one better, so I would definitely recommend it for fans of Lex Croucher's other work. I know absolutely nothing about the Robin Hood universe, but this book filled me in on the context easily enough without being overly lore dump-y, which was nice. I also really liked the slow burn relationship between Mariel and Clem, which is hard to find in queer YA fiction which usually leans in the "love at first sight" direction. Their relationship felt a lot more natural, which was nice.

My only complaint would be the tonal shifts. The story is mostly fun and lighthearted, so it was kind of strange when sudden tragic events happen that totally throw off the tone. I felt like this was the sort of story where nothing really bad would happen, or anything bad that happened would be somehow magically reversed by the end, just because the first 3/4 of the book gave off that tone... but that was NOT the case!

I loved Lex's debut and this solidified her as a must read for me. The prose and voice are stunning and paint wonderful depictions of the characters and setting. Would recommend for those who enjoyed My Lady Jane!