An Interesting Story

The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest - Melanie Dickerson

This was by and large an impulse buy in a set on my Nook because the plots of many of her books sounded interesting, and I'm a sucker for a good fractured fairy tale. While this one isn't a fractured fairy tale in the sense that the source material (Robin Hood) is not a fairy tale, it was still a solid story.

 

I liked the more feminist aspects of this story; a woman who is opinionated, educated, intelligent, and pretty independent in a historical setting is a pretty big deal to me. The setting was rich and very interesting, and the main character, Odette, was relatable in that she was well-meaning, but a lot of her actions had some pretty major consequences and she was pretty naive about much of the world.

 

I didn't realize this author was specifically a Christian fiction author, and normally I don't like the preachy nature the genre often features as an atheist, but I'll make an exception for her works, if they all follow this same pattern. The elements of Christianity in this story was pretty mild and actually made sense to me, since they are in the Holy Roman Empire pre-Reformation. The fact that Odette even studies the Bible under a local priest in secret makes it historically accurate, as does the occasionally sexist behavior exhibited by said priest.