#REVIEW: The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest by Melanie Dickerson

Title: The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest

Series: A Medieval Fairytale

Author:  Melanie Dickerson

Published Date: May 12, 2015

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Format: paperback

Pages: 320

ISBN: 9780718026240

Genre: Christian fiction

Add to: Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon | Thomas Nelson

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: Swan Lake meets Robin Hood when the beautiful daughter of a wealthy merchant by day becomes the region's most notorious poacher by night, and falls in love with the gamekeeper.

Jorgen is the gamekeeper for the wealthy margrave, and he is in pursuit of the poacher who has been killing and stealing the margrave's game. When he meets the lovely and refined Odette at the festival and shares a connection during a dance, he has no idea that at night she is the one who has been poaching the margrave's game.

Odette is caught up in a ring of black market sellers of poached animals. She thinks the game is going to feed the poor, who are all but starving, both in the city and just outside its walls. However, most of the animals are being sold by the greedy leader of the ring-her stepfather. When Odette discovers what he is doing, she threatens to expose him, putting herself in great danger.

The gamekeeper finds her poaching one night and shoots her, wounding her. When he realizes who she is, he hides her to keep her from being executed by the margrave and also to protect her from her stepfather. Jorgen and Odette will band together to stop the black market poaching ring . . . as they fall in love. But what will the margrave do when he discovers his gamekeeper is protecting a notorious poacher?

My Review: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this retelling of Swan Lake. I have never read the actual fairy tale, only watched the animated movie with my children many, many, many times. I enjoyed the story itself, though I could have put it down a few times and walked away. It didn’t capture me so wholly that I couldn’t put it down.

As like the previous books from this collection, just because the protagonist happens to like to read the Bible, and calls on God a lot, I don’t see how this makes it into a Christian fiction book. It’s just part of the character make-up. I didn’t see a lot of inner character development of Odette or Jorgen. That disappointed me.

Overall, it was a nice book to read as a loose retelling of a fairytale, but it could have been better.