Published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Fiction / History / Romance / Retelling
The Tempest follows Guy of Gisborne, a popular Robin Hood character from many film, books, and television adaptations, and an original character, a healer named Cassia deWarren, and their growing relationship and romance.
This is a thinly veiled fanfiction of BBC's Robin Hood based on the dark, brooding, and haunted description of the main character, Guy of Gisborne, popularly played by Richard Armitage.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't attracted to this book based on that alone, like many other reviewers and readers of this book. That being said, if you know me at all then you know that I have no qualms with fanfiction. I actively read and write it myself. This was probably one of the more polished fanfictions I've encountered. Is it by no means perfect, and there were a few things that could have used some improvement.
From what I understand, this is the first book that the author has self-published. I believe that self-published fanfiction can only be so good but I like to give things a shot if there is a possibility I might like it. It wasn't very expensive on Kindle, so I knew it wouldn't hurt.
I feel like this review would be best organized by going over the aspects I did like and area that could have been improved upon.
Firstly, I loved the writing style. I thought it flowed well and the descriptions were strong enough for me to see it clearly in my head. I often found myself impressed with how lovely some of the sentences were. They were flowery without being too boring or oversaturated with too many pointless words or descriptors. I could tell each word had been carefully chosen.
This book was more character-driven than plot-driven. The characters were thought out, but I felt some were stronger and more developed than others, which I will go into later. One of these few was Cassia. She, to me, was the most alive out of these characters. I understood her personality, desires, frustrations, hobbies, and life. While I found several of her motivations and decisions questionable, which I will also go into later, she seemed to be the most interesting.
The other two character who I thought were interesting enough, were actually Robin Hood and Marian. Their characters were contrived, however, and made out to be unlikable so as to get the reader to like Guy of Gisborne more. The author took the cocky and shallowness of their characters to the next level, which made me actually want more of them in the story. Mostly because I've never really loved their characters despite me loving anything Robin Hood.
Guy of Gisborne is an in-between character for me. His inner conflict, demons, and desires were the most developed aspects of his character. I thought his transition from lust to love was seamless, I hardly noticed it. Which is both good and bad. It makes his arc seem weak and almost non-existent. It was good because making something seamless is impressive.
Now, what I thought could use some work.
The plot was the biggest issue with this book. More like lack of plot to put it plainly. Like I said earlier, this is a character-driven story. I don't say character-driven plot because they only go through the motions of their situations rather than drive their situations with their actions. Things happen to them, they don't make anything really happen for themselves. It seemed more like a character study in the format of a full-length novel. If I had to guess a vague 'maybe' plot it would be: Guy of Gisborne and Cassia struggle with familial and societal obstacles in order to be with each other.
If I have to guess what the plot is then you very likely don't have one.
This leads me into a few of my my other points that are related to each other.
While Cassia was the most interesting character, she had no character arc. There were no obstacles for her to overcome herself. Obstacles were overcome for her. She was more like an object placed into the story to create conflict for other characters.
This problem plays into a trope I have a huge problem with. And that trope is: the female character is only there to reform the bad boy. If I were to change my earlier attempt at explaining the plot, I would change it to just this trope. She was a well-fleshed out character but was only there for Guy to love and lust over. I think it did a huge disservice to her character. While they did have great chemistry, the stakes weren't high enough for them. The stakes that were there were not threatening enough and it prompted some very serious responses from Cassie.
At one point, she threatened suicide if her brother and husband did not go to Nottingham and save Guy.
Cassia is known as being very clever, which I like, but this is one way to get me turned off of any character. Threatening suicide to get what you want (even if it is for love) is nothing short of manipulative, whether or not she would have gone through with it. It would have been less damaging to her character if she had just gone and saved him herself. Then they would have had an awesome showdown with Robin and the Sheriff.
Like, boo-fucking-hoo, your brother and your husband suck because they don't give two shits about what you want and what would make you happy, so you just threaten to commit suicide?
Where the heck did that come from?
Here's an idea, sweetheart, do something about it yourself!
Oh! It would have been difficult for you to leave because the time period and your gender would have posed as too hard of an obstacle? Figure it out! I'd rather have it be a little historically inaccurate for the female character to leave France by herself and trek all the way back to Nottingham if it meant she took some initiative for once in her life to get what she wanted than have her just sit there and be a damsel thinking she can't do anything because she's a woman. She was far more independent throughout the book than for her to just do that.
As someone who has struggled with depression so severe that I have had suicidal ideation, I found this instance to be insulting. You know who threatens suicide to get what they want? Abusers. It's mental and emotional abuse. No one who has actually thought about committing suicide would ever threaten someone they loved that they would commit suicide because life wasn't going their way and they wanted them to fix it. There was no use for this. None at all. It could have been taken out and it wouldn't have made a difference to the story or her character moving forward. All it did was move this book down a peg due to how uncalled for it was. It didn't show off her mental instability or depression, it just showed manipulation on her part to get what she wanted, which is irresponsible.
Anyway, moving on.
Robin Hood. This story features Robin Hood characters, yet less than a handful are in it. This story focuses on Guy so if you are looking to have lots of interactions with other iconic characters, then you won't get it in this book. Robin Hood is Guy's enemy. So make him the enemy. I think there was a lot of opportunity with the plot that the author didn't take advantage of when it came to utilizing the actual main character of the source material she was pulling from.
I know it seems like there was a lot that I didn't like. But these were mostly things that I really only thought could have used improvements. Since this book is self-published, and the first the author has produced, I'm reviewing this at face value and basing it mostly on enjoyment. If this was a traditionally published book, then it would have been a different story.
I believe there are a few more books in this series. I'm still deciding whether or not I will read them since I'm unsure what else the author could do. Robin Hood and the Sheriff are both dead and the author tied everything up in a nice little bow.
Overall, I rate this book:
⭐⭐⭐
I really did enjoy this for what it was, aside from the suicide thing. I'm able to move past that one instance and flag it as a faux pas on the author's part so I can look at the rest of the book as it is. I think the author has a lot of potential to be a great writer. However, if you are looking for a solid read with Robin Hood characters, this is not for you. But if you are a bit of a fangirl for Richard Armitage's Guy of Gisborne and are looking for a decent romance that gives him the happy ending he deserved, then you'd probably enjoy this.
