The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope

Reviewed by Sarah
Start date: May 1, 2009
Finish date: May 1, 2009
Star rating (out of 10): 8 stars (whenever I have to do a five star rating, I always find myself wanting to give half-stars. This is my solution.)
"Movie" rating: G or PG--there is a bit of violence, but overall this book is pretty kid-friendly

I'm currently 96 pages into Dandelion Wine, and though I have found dozens of marvellous similes, other figures of speech, and fun scenes and characters, I've yet to come upon anything that really resembles a plot. Unless you call "some things that happened in this one place that one summer" a plot.
I mean to press on, because I actually do kind of like it, in a sleepy plotless way.

I am 34 pages into The Poisonwood Bible. This one has a bit more plot to it than Dandelion Wine, and the individual voices of the narrators are really interesting so far. But it isn't one of those "grab you and carry you to the end before you know it" type books, more like a "hmm lets see what happense next" type.

So, not feeling any deep driving need to finish these books, yesterday I picked up, started, bought, finished, and shelved The Sherwood Ring.

I loved The Perilous Gard, the only other book by Elizabeth Marie Pope that I know of, so of course I had to give this one a try. I was not disappointed. Though I think I definitely prefer The Perilous Gard, I enjoyed this one for many differeny reasons. While tPG is more fantasy-ish, this one is kind of historical-fiction-and-romance-but-not-really-with-a-bit-of-fantasy-in-the-mix. Actually, tPG is kind of historical too (with more romance and fantasy of course) now that I come to think of it... but I digress.


SPOILER-FREE REVIEW: If you enjoy fantasy, historical fiction, romance, and general cleverness, give this book a try. Thoroughly enjoyable.

SPOILERS BEGIN HERE. PLEASE DON"T READ ON UNLESS YOU HAVE a) already read the book or b) don't intend to ever read the book or c)want to completely spoil yor reading experience.

I do think I would have liked it better had the two Romances been more than crushes-after-a-brief-acquantence-and-a-few-conversations. But that is what worked for the story, and I didn't mind it so much here as I have in other books (maybe because Pat and Peaceable are Clever English Gentleman rather than Sparkly Vampires--I mean, seriously, which is more attractive?--but again, I digress.) More than the brief-acquaintene-oh-we're-in-love, I was bothered by the "Oh by the way I've decided you're going to marry me, and I always get what I want. I am a stubborn, clever English Gentleman." I guess that makes it sound worse than it was--its not as if Barbara or Peggy didn't actually choose to marry their Clever English Gentleman--but I do wish Pat and Peaceable could have been a bit less cocky about it.

I did really like that Peaceable's proposal came just after Barbara had thorougly bested him in a Battle of Wits. (Princess Bride reference not intentional, but entirely appropriate). He may be a Vain, Clever English Gentleman, but Peaceable knows when he's met his match (in every sense of the word.) Bravo, Barbara!

It was fun to have some clever cipher-solving, something that hasn't been in many books I've read since the Redwalls in Jr. High. Had I wanted to I think at the time believe I could have stopped and solved the cipher myself--when I first read the note I knew that the capital letters had something to do with it, but I was more anxious to find out What Happened Next, rather than prove to myself that I posess elementary intelligence.

I was thoroughly amused by the house name, Rest-and-be-Thankful. Made me smile every time I saw it on the page :).

Good ending. Good book.