I loved this book. (As I usually do with Melanie Dickerson’s books! See my reviews for her other books: The Captive Maiden and The Princess Spy.) I won it in a giveaway on Goodreads way back in May, but it took me a while to read it. The back of the book sounded really familiar; it sounded a lot like Dauntless, and other books in the Christian fiction genre. I just wasn’t ready for a plot I’d read before, and quite honestly, I was nervous The Huntress Of Thornbeck Forest wouldn’t meet the high standards I had for Melanie’s other books in the Fairy Tales series. (This book is the start of a new series, Medieval Fairy Tale Romance.) But I finally got to it, and I have to say, I was so wrong, and it was so good!

Title: The Huntress Of Thornbeck Forest

Author: Melanie Dickerson

Series: Medieval Fairy Tale Romance #1

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Publishing Date: May 12, 2015

Source: won in a Goodreads giveaway

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 forester.

Jorgen is the forester for the wealthy margrave, and must find and capture 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 she is the one who has been poaching the margrave’s game.

Odette justifies her crime of poaching because she thinks the game is going to feed the poor, who are all but starving, both in the city and just outside its walls. But will the discovery of a local poaching ring reveal a terrible secret? Has the meat she thought she was providing for the poor actually been sold on the black market, profiting no one except the ring of black market sellers?

The one person Odette knows can help her could also find out her own secret and turn her over to the margrave, but she has no choice. Jorgen and Odette will band together to stop the dangerous poaching ring . . . and fall in love. But what will the margrave do when he discovers his forester is protecting a notorious poacher?

Right when you start the book, the two main characters are established: Odette, who is secretly poaching the king’s deer to feed the poor, and Jorgen, the margrave’s forester in charge of catching the poacher. Both are falling in love with each other, but know they can’t marry each other. Thus, the plot thickens.

I really liked Odette, but she seemed a little dull to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of Melanie Dickerson’s books, but Odette seemed to blend together with all of her other characters. There wasn’t anything very unique about her that stood out to me; she was a brave young woman far ahead of her time who was in love with someone who she couldn’t possibly marry. Jorgen was much the same, and yet I absolutely shipped the two, and you know me! I’m such a romantic, and they absolutely had to be together. So I kept reading.

As I read in-between that space where I wasn’t quite in the beginning, but not the middle of the book, either, Odette’s love triangle was a tough one. Jorgen was so sweet, and Odette clearly had feelings for him, but he wasn’t exactly a possible suitor. Mathis, however, the burgomeister’s son, treated Odette well and indulged her interests in reading and learning, and helping the poor. I really liked both of them! Then I got farther in, and soon a mystery unfolded that totally took me by surprise! I was not expecting it! And by the time I got to the last thirty or forty pages, I was thinking, “There’s no way all these problems can be solved in what’s left of the book!”

Of course, the ending was great. I was a little disappointed about who the “bad guy” turned out to be. Although, I wasn’t even sure who the bad guy was throughout the book. In his search for the poacher, Jorgen did find that venison was being sold on the black market, but obviously I knew that Odette was selling the meat, since she was giving the deer she poached to the poor. So yes, very confused Emily! 😉 That is to say, I was a little taken back at how it ended… but it was good!

I give The Huntress Of Thornbeck Forest by Melanie Dickerson four stars!

SO! ARE YOU READY FOR A GIVEAWAY??!

Please read these guidelines:

I’ll  be choosing ONE winner to give a paperback copy of The Huntress Of Thornbeck Forest by Melanie Dickerson to. You have two weeks to enter, so get going! The contest ends on August 31, and I will announce the winner on that same day. I can only ship to the US (sorry!), so please only enter if you live in the states. When the contest is over, I’ll announce the winner on my blog and then email the winner; you have 48 hours to respond, but if you don’t answer within that time, I’ll have to pick another winner. So go enter! ENJOY!

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