Book Review: Dauntless

Book: Dauntless (Valiant Hearts book #1) by Dina Sleiman

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Publisher: Bethany House Publishers

Description:

Though once a baron's daughter, Lady Merry Ellison is willing to go to any lengths to protect the orphaned children of her former village. Dubbed "The Ghosts of Farthingale Forest," her band of followers soon become enemies of the throne when they hijack ill-gotten gold meant for the king.

Timothy Grey, ninth child of the Baron of Greyham, longs to perform some feat so legendary that he will rise from obscurity and earn a title of his own. When the Ghosts of Farthingale Forest are spotted in Wyndeshire, where he serves as assistant to the local earl, he might have found his chance. But when he comes face-to-face with the leader of the thieves, will he choose fame or love?



Rating: 5 stars

Review:

Dauntless = Robin Hood meets Maid Marian. No longer of nobility, the former Lady Merry Ellison now lives in the forest doing her best to care for and train many of the orphaned children to further their survival. She would love for them all to be able to be free again but with them considered enemies of the King that doesn't look possible.

Merry and the children are the last of the remaining citizen of Ellsworth following King John's order to kill everyone in the village. Since then 17 years old Merry and the other children have lived in various forests for two years transforming themselves into the legendary "The Ghosts of Farthingale Forest" stealing items for their survival. However, they only steal from the rich like a certain archer.

Yet, their antics have not gone unnoticed, Lord Wyndemere has tasked his assistant 19 years old Timothy Grey to find "The Ghosts" and bring them to justice.

I really like this, it was full of action and adventure and drama and heart. It had a very good story. Merry and Timothy have a bit of a past which could either make things either easy or very difficult for Merry and the children. With Timothy's ambition in overdrive will he forgo all that to help Merry or is his job more important to him.

Timothy's job might be even more troublesome when he has someone in the castle working against him trying to seek revenge.

The writing for this was really good, I was completely swept into this story. The author never made the story feel as if it was anything but set during the early times of England. Love the characters and the story. This is a faith based story but the spirituality is weaved perfectly throughout the story without it feeling too in your face. Again a very good story, and now I'm really looking forward to reading the second book in this series.