Not For the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher

I randomly stumbled upon Lex Croucher’s debut novel, Reputation, and quickly fell in love with their writing style. Not For The Faint of Heart is their second YA historical romance novel, a Robin Hood inspired sapphic love story between Robin Hood’s granddaughter and a country healer. The Merry Men cast of characters alongside our two main characters, Mariel and Clementine, are an absolutely wholesome found family group of misfits. This novel was fast-paced, action packed, inclusive and full of love, both romantic and familial. I adored the characters and appreciated the complexity and ambiguity in some of the character development.

This story did read as YA to me but was still well structured with a solid plot and romance byline. The spice was minimal and the love was inclusive and diverse. I really like Lex Croucher’s adult and YA books and can’t wait to see what they come out with next!

For fans of:
Robin Hood
Sapphic YA love stories
Strong LGBTQIA representation

Thank you to (Publisher) and Netgalley for my copy of this book; all opinions are my own.

Lex Croucher does it again! Not for the Faint of Heart is a very sweet and charming historical queer adventure romance set in the world of Robin Hood. Grumpy vs. Sunshine? Forced Proximity? ONE BED?!? Say less.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for an advanced electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.

I adored Lex Croucher's Gwen & Art are Not in Love, and that legacy carried through this novel.
With a very light grumpy/sunshine dynamic, Clem and Mariel leap off the page. The way they push and pull at each other reminds me of my own first girl on girl crush. I saw a bit of myself in each character, like Mariel's desperation for her Dad's approval.
Like Gwen& Art, it started out a bit slow, I'll admit. All banter not much action-until it picks up very quickly a little after halfway through. Like G&A, the conclusion felt a little quick and a little too tied up, but it didn't ruin my enjoyment of the book at all.
I adore Lex Croucher, I will read more of their books given half a chance, and I recommend their books to anyone and everyone who loves a goos LGBT YA slowburn!!
Thank you to netgalley and Croucher for a free copy in exchange for an honest review

3.5⭐️

Clem has worked as a healer apprentice for Rosie since she was orphaned at the age of ten. When the Merry Men come to take Rosie in for questioning for treating the Sherriff of Nottingham's men, Clem volunteers to take her place. That's where Clem meets Mariel, the granddaughter of the legendary Robin Hood and captain of a small group of Merry Men. The people of Sherwood Forest have started to suspect that the Merry Man, now under the command of Mariel's father, were no longer on the right side of the fight

This was a slow build and at times lost my attention. In the first half of the book, we met a lot of people but I never really felt like there was any real conflict or urgency to get anything done. And even though the readers are introduced to a whole bunch of people, I didn't feel like I really knew anything about any of them. Any attraction between Clem and Mariel wasn't obvious until they were literally kissing. Their relationship felt more like it was out of convince and proximity rather than a true great love.

I did really enjoy the found family aspect of this and that really always felt like an integral part of the The Merry Men. Robin Hood actually being featured in this and being progressive enough to agree that things don't always have to stay the same was a nice touch. I think Lex Croucher's way of expanding an old story that everyone knows is always a great premise, but this one just left something to be desired.

Thanks Netgalley and Wednesday for providing this ARC to me as well as a finished copy!

love, love, love, love, loved it - I love Lex's writing style and the story - I fell in love with the characters, and I'll be picking up every book Lex writes

I wanted to love this, but for whatever reason it just didn't hit for me the way Gwen and Art Are Not in Love did. I remain a fan of Lex Croucher, though, and hope I'll like their next book better!

Rounded up—true rating is 4.5 stars!

Oh, how I needed this book. I've been in such a reading slump for the past month and half but Not for the Faint of Heart brought me back.

One thing Lex Croucher is going to do is write a fantastic, whimsical story about a gang of queer misfits and found family—and I will gobble it up EVERY time. I was a little nervous going into this because I am not the most well-versed on the Robin Hood tale, but they did a great job of laying down the base while still keeping it unique to their own story.

I loved all of the characters, the adventure, and the sheer fun of it all. The banter, per usual, was also top-notch and had me giggling while I read it on my commute to and from work. And one of the things I absolutely loved is that it's not just our main two characters, Clem and Mariel, that you fall in love with. The ensemble characters are written with so much love and care as well.

My only two little hiccups that kept it from being a full five stars was that I thought it was a bit slow to start and the ending was a wee bit abrupt. I felt like we either needed just a little longer chapters on those last few or just another one or two. But other than that, I had a blast reading this and feel like I've been pulled from my slump.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Not for the Faint of Heart follows Mariel, granddaughter of the legendary Robin Hood, whose band of misfits mistakenly kidnap a girl named Clem.

Lex Croucher is good at writing a lighthearted romance, and Not for the Faint of Heart is no exception. This book was cozy (despite some decent stakes) and funny, and left me feeling sunny by the end. There wasn't an incredibly substantial amount of plot, and older readers might find the romance rather light, but this book has that vibrant joyousness that I love from a good light YA queer romance. The whole thing was adorable, and I'll definitely continue to reach for Lex Croucher whenever I want some light, romantic fantasy,

I just couldn’t get into this one. I came back to it several times but for some reason I didn’t enjoy the style of writing. This book was drastically different from the author’s first book. While I’m all for switching up styles I didn’t care for this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc

Lex Croucher does it again! One thing I love to read in a romance is banter and boy do we get some incredible banter in this book. Clem and Mariel are at odds from the jump and are forced into close proximity when Clem is kidnapped by Mariel's Merry Men and are forced to share a horse (gasp!) and a bed (double gasp!). An incredible journey with real stakes and a satisfying payoff, but really, our protagonists are the real shining stars of this work.

I was super intrigued by the idea of a Robin Hood retelling that focuses mainly on his granddaughter, Mariel. I will say that I found the plot and romance aspects to be introduced at a slower pace and by the time we got to a romance aspects, it felt slightly forced on Clem and Mariel. The book, however, did get super engaging and fast-paced in the last third of it. The support characters added so much charm to the story and I was really drawn to Clem’s role as a healer, especially because she doesn’t want to be stuck in the healers dated ways and is constantly trying to create new ways of helping her patients.

This book is perfection. As a child of the 90’s I’ve always been obsessed with Robin Hood lore, and this is such a fun twist (not a retelling) putting Robin Hood’s granddaughter together with the girl she is supposed to kidnap. Hilarity, so much heart, found family, adventure, and swoony moments make this a fun romantic YA five star read. I hate to admit, but this was my first Lex Croucher book, and it will absolutely not be my last. I plan to immediately read Gwen and Art Are Not in Love, and cannot wait to see what they write next. If you are searching for a book that will fly by, yet with characters that will linger in your mind, pick up this one next.

Thank you to Wednesday books for my gifted copy and to MacMillan audio for my audiobook. Narrators, Kat Griffiths & Olivia Dowd, slayed the performance, bringing out the grumpy and sunshiny characteristics of our leads will delivering comedic timing and tension.

First of all, Clem was really annoying and that's actually the most charming part about her, like she could never shut up I absolutely loved her, yapping queen.

I really liked the little found family that this book has, I did really get attached to them, even more so to them than to Mariel at some points, they really fit together and it was clear that they loved each other, I love to see that in a book. The romance felt a little fast but admist everything else that was happening it didn't really matter much, it was just one more element to the story instead of being front and center, which is for me, in this case, a really good thing.

Overall I really enjoyed it, it took me a little to get into it but as it moved forward I got more invested into the story and the fun little twists in Robin Hood's story

Thanks to NetGally and the publisher for giving me an arc in exchange of a review.

In this you can find…
- Slow Burn
- Enemies to Lovers
- Robin Hood vibes
- FMC’s

The story has great premise, but it is so so so slow. The pacing is incredibly off. It took forever to get into this & by the time it took off, it ended super quickly. I enjoyed the LGBTQ representation, I just wish there was more to the story…
Thank you to the author, the publishers & to netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Lex Croucher does it again! an engaging romance that is also packed with adventure, Not for the Faint of Heart makes slow burn a brilliantly good time and packs in cute amounts of quirk. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

This book was both better and worse than I expected. Going in, I had high hopes, as I thoroughly enjoyed this author's previous young adult novel, especially the unique and witty sense of humor and found family elements. Immediately upon starting this one I could see it had a similar wit and humor to it but it really fell flat for me, and it felt quite forced and off. This made the start of the novel a bit of a slog, and I was quite worried I wouldn't enjoy the rest, but the flat humor got better from there. There were still a number of things that I didn't like throughout, but it was less pressing and I was able to not dislike my time reading this novel. The found family element was decent enough - nothing to write home about but it was okay. I think I enjoyed the side characters more than the main characters overall - they brought some nice comedic relief and sweet moments throughout. It is worth noting that YA is a hit-or-miss genre for me, so that no doubt played into my enjoyment. When I don't like YA, I really don't like it. Overall, this read felt very middle of the road for me

One thing that bothered me was the start of the novel and the plot setup. For context, when I requested this book, I'd had it on my list for a while and had genuinely forgetten what it was about - most importantly that it's a Robin Hood retelling of sorts. So at the start when they're talking about the Merry Men as if that's supposed to mean something to me, it was very confusing. To be fair, even if I had rememebered that it was a Robin Hood story, this still wouldn't have made sense as I know basically nothing about that tale. The setup throughout the first 15% in terms of world-building and terms like the Merry Men really relied on you to know the story, and while I think it's totally ok to not explain things and build them up as you go, it mostly left me scratching my head. Just one sentence giving a little more detail or context would have been immensely helpful. The lore of Robin Hood and his men was explained later, but it was pretty far in, and I definitely wish that had been provided much sooner.

The other part that irked me was the grumpy sunshine dynamic. I don't feel super strongly about this trope, but I generally enjoy it, and I am always game for queer romances incorporating dominant tropes from straight romances. However, Mariel on a number of occasions was quite demeaning and invalidating the Clem and I really couldn't get past it. The worst was when Clem got upset about the fire - which was later revealed to be a pretty big trigger for her because of her history - and Mariel basically told her to suck it up and stop being emotional. Mind you, Clem has been nothing but kind, good-spirited and cooperative throughout the tale which is quite a feat given she was literally kidnapped. I get that they're teenagers and Mariel's default is to be a hard-ass leader, but that was out of line. Then adding the context of Clem's backstory it really rubbed me the wrong way. Mariel does some vague apologizing I believe, but never really addresses that moment in particular. If she had, it might have made up for the moment a bit, but nonetheless, I could have done without.

Overall, I would sum this book up as a bit of a rollercoaster in terms of enjoyment and not my favorite but I also didn't hate it either. If you enjoy the tale of Robin Hood and want a queer spin on it, grumpy sunshine sapphic dynamics, a ragtag found family going on epic quests together, running through the woods causing chaos with your friends, or stories with a fast plot with lots of action, this one might be a good fit for you!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press | Wednesday Books and Netgalley for this ARC. I liked this book, but also felt like it was slow. I would still recommend this book.

Had really high hopes for this since I adored the authors other book and I’m happy to say it did not disappoint! This book was so FUN! Croucher knows how to write characters that I absolutely love and want to protect at all costs.

“Mariel had kidnapped her–three times, if anybody was counting–sent her away, shouted at her, handed her over to her father, and still she was pushing her way towards Mariel determinedly like she was trying to part the sea.”

The Merry Men used to be the heroes of the less fortunate, but that was back before Robin Hood retired. Now with Jack Hartley in control, their only priority seems to be a territory war against the Sheriff, occasionally utilizing the common folk as extra fighters in exchange for false promises of protection. When the Merry Men discover a healer who is rumored to be treating the enemy, Captain Mariel Hartley-Hood, daughter of Jack Hartley and Regan Hood, is sent to detain the traitor, but comes away with the healer’s willing assistant, Clem, instead. Kidnapped and stuck with a band of not-so-merry mercenaries, Clem finds herself wrapped up in the fight against corruption alongside a captain that she cannot resist and friends she refuses to abandon.

Robin Hood’s tale is one that has been done a hundred times, but I myself have never experienced it like this. While I expected a more traditional twist on the famous character, I was instead met with a protagonist who is a descendant of him, which I thought added even more charm to Not for the Faint of Heart. I enjoyed all of Croucher’s plot elements, especially the way that they turned a small fairytale feud into a full-blown war between the Sheriff and the Merry Men. I also loved how seamlessly Croucher included several queer elements into the medieval setting without drawing too much attention to what may have otherwise seemed out of place for the time period. The relationship between Mariel and Clem was your typical grumpy-sunshine trope, and I found it to be perfectly paced and pleasantly fulfilling without taking away from the rest of the story. Not for the Faint of Heart started off strong and only became more intriguing as I struggled to put it down. It pulled at my heartstrings and left me feeling like I was a member of Captain Hartley-Hood’s troop, and that speaks volumes to the author’s abilities. It’s not often that I find a book with an ending that is more powerful than the beginning and with such diverse and wonderful characters, but Lex Croucher managed to pull it off perfectly.

This book was an absolute delight.

From the get go I loved quirky, bigmouthed Clem, prickly, stubborn Mariel and their ragtag team of Merry Men. I was impressed with how go go go the plot was without feeling oversaturated with action. The banter was immaculate and the bits of tension and romance were just the sweetest.

I loved the themes this story explored of loyalty and grace, holding and sure ending power, and sacrifice of oneself (whether it be the physical self or ego) for the wellbeing of others.

I had so much fun with this one and will absolutely be recommending it to my friends.