Reviews for The Sherwood Ring

The average rating for The Sherwood Ring based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-04-06 00:00:00 Rinat Shajachmetov About a thousand nostalgic hearts stars for this older YA novel, a delightful mix of exciting Revolutionary War stories and kindly ancestral spirits. Elizabeth Marie Pope wrote only two YA novels, this one and The Perilous Gard. They're both on my all-time favorites list, and I've read them both several times. I only wish she'd written more. Even though these books were written over fifty years ago, they have appealing heroines with a can-do attitude. The Sherwood Ring, written in 1958, is a jewel of a YA fantasy that deserves not to be forgotten. Peggy Grahame is a lonely 17 year old girl, orphaned by the recent death of her footloose and mildly neglectful father. She's sent to live in the ancestral home of her only relative, Uncle Enos, an aging and crotchety historian. Before he dies, Peggy's father tells her, very matter-of-factly, to keep an eye out for the family ghosts that live in the mansion. And in fact, on the way to her new home in New York state, Peggy meets one of these spirits, Barbara Grahame, who points her the way home and leads her to a young Englishman, Pat Thorne, who is visiting the area and hoping to meet with Uncle Enos. Uncle Enos forcefully (and mysteriously!) orders Pat off the property when they arrive, but Pat has no intentions of giving up so easily, especially since he's attracted to Peggy. As Peggy settles in to her new home, she meets a few more of her ancestral ghosts, who tell her very amusing and engaging stories about their lives during Revolutionary War times. These stories, not incidentally, help Peggy to solve the problems in her own life, including the mystery of Uncle Enos's antagonism toward Pat, and to find happiness and love. The Sherwood Ring is one of my very favorite youth/young adult reads, well-written with a dash of wit and humor. Peggy herself is (understandably, given her upbringing, and I think she's a little shell-shocked by the upheavals in her life) on the quiet and passive side, although she starts to outgrow that. But the characters from the past are really delightful, especially Barbara Grahame and Peaceable Sherwood, the English spy who's been driving the local patriots to distraction. There's one scene in the middle of the book where Barbara needs to outwit and escape Peaceable, with whom she is falling in love against her will, that I absolutely adore. Best. Proposal. Ever! This one bit makes the whole book worth reading all by itself, even if the rest weren't great. But it is. I love the unusual plot and setting of this book. Aside from having spirits from the past appearing to characters, it's written in a very realistic fashion (i.e., no magic), and it gives you a nice glimpse of life in Revolutionary War times. I highly recommend this one for readers who enjoy YA fantasies.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-08-27 00:00:00 Charlyne Blomberg [ you like Han/Leia or Kylo/Rey (hide spoiler)]