No Good Deed
Kara Connolly
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Ellie Hudson is the front-runner on the road to gold for the U.S. Olympic archery team. All she has to do is qualify at the trials in jolly old England. When Ellie makes some kind of crazy wrong turn in the caverns under Nottingham Castle—yes, that Nottingham—she ends up in medieval England.
Ellie doesn’t care how she got to the Middle Ages; she just wants to go home before she gets the plague. But people are suffering in Nottingham, and Ellie has the skills to make it better. What’s an ace archer to do while she’s stuck in Sherwood Forest but make like Robin Hood?
Pulled into a past life as an outlaw, Ellie feels her present fading away next to daring do-gooding and a devilishly handsome knight. Only, Ellie is on the brink of rewriting history, and when she picks up her bow and arrow, her next shot could save her past—or doom civilization’s future.
No Good Deed is a different take on the tale of Robin Hood which includes the element of Time Travel. Think Outlander, but… less sex and less Scottish. Oh, and it’s also YA. It’s a nice, quick read that is enjoyable however there are some aspects which can be annoying which I’ll talk about later.
I did like that it was a Robin Hood retelling as I don’t think you see these as often. As with most retellings, you know the main plot of what’s going to happen, but No Good Deed did alter and change expectations. First up is that Robin Hood is a female and that she really shouldn’t be in Nottingham Forest.
Our main character, Ellie Hudson, is a competitive archer and just happens upon a time travel hole. The time travel bit isn’t really explained but it happens. Luckily Ellie runs into multiple people who want to help her stay alive, as well unluckily some people who want to put her in prison as she arrived in the middle of a secure castle. Overall, Ellie isn’t the strongest character and seems to be very similar to other YA female protagonists – a lot of things happen to her, not because of her.
You can’t have a tale of Robin Hood without Little John, Will Scarlett and Friar Tuck as well as Maid Marian and this book delivers. They’re not exactly how they were portrayed in the classic tale, but a key theme from this book is that stories can change and be exaggerated over time. Whilst the tale of Robin Hood is supposed to based in fact, a lot of facts have been altered to create a different story.
There’s a sub-plot about Ellie’s brother which I guess is a nice addition to her motivations and what guides her as a person. However, I found it was focused on so much as a present part of the story that I’m surprised it wasn’t more attached to the main story. It was basically a very expanded backstory to Ellie that we get reminded of over and over.
The main story was fast paced, Ellie and her Merry Men always seemed to be up to something. Even in sections where it’s slowed down – you can see the thought process around what they’ll do next. This pacing helped it be such a quick read.
For me, the most annoying part is that despite taking place in the UK, near Nottingham (which I don’t believe is a big tourist place anyway? At least it wasn’t somewhere I wanted to visit when I lived near there) – the main character just had to be American. Being American didn’t do anything to the story, so the character could have been English! But it’s odd that the author just had to make a very English story, with an English protagonist into an American… just because.
The world building was also not the best. Whilst this is set in a real place and we’ve read and watched the story multiple times before, the world specifically in this book just didn’t feel alive enough. The focus was very character driven, which is a shame as Nottingham Forest has always been a key part of the Robin Hood story.
The ending of the book wraps everything up into a very neat package. As with most classic tails, Robin Hood finds a happy ending – however it’s not quite what you expected.
Positives of No Good Deed
- Robin Hood retelling
- Merry Men characters
Negatives of No Good Deed
- Lacks depth in some areas
I received No Good Deed by Kara Connolly from the publisher. This is an unbiased and honest review
