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A Daring Sacrifice Jody Hedlund Books

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A Daring Sacrifice Jody Hedlund Books

Completely delightful! This spin on the Robin Hood fable brings us into the life of Juliana Wessex, a medieval maiden who moonlights as the Cloaked Bandit. Juliana is of the nobility but has been ousted by her cruel Uncle; fearing for her life she hides with others in the woods of her family's land. Much like Robin Hood she takes from the rich to feed the poor. Things take a turn when she runs into a wealthy and noble knight.

While there are aspects to the story that mimic the Robin Hood tale, Hedlund makes it her own and does a wonderful job of winnowing out truths, as well as a delightful tale. This story engaged me early on but really wowed me in the last half of the story. The romance was sweet and clean, and without giving too much away, a wonderful example of true love. There are a few kisses but nothing inappropriate for the age level. And while young adults will enjoy this story, I believe adults will be equally swept up into the tale.

This novel can be read as a stand alone, however, it does have characters from Hedlund's previous novel, An Uncertain Choice. My recommendation would be to read them in order, but as I said you do not have too! For those of you who did read the previous novel, you will be delighted to know that the noble night in this story is Collin or Lord Goodrich! Yay! Not only that but it looks like there is in the works a 3rd novel for Sir Bennet!

To wrap it all up, this one is definitely worth the read! It left me with some good truths to chew on, a grin on my face and a smile in my heart!
4.5 Stars


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A Daring Sacrifice Jody Hedlund Books Reviews

This story would have been more believable if the writing hadn’t been so contemporary. I get that authors may not want to have their stories steeped in medieval prose, but lines like “I’m relieved to know you like me,” are completely out of place. And, “Hi there, sweetheart.” Really . . .? It’s supposed to be 1390. Sayings like, “You’re crazy,” wouldn’t have happened. “You are mad,” perhaps. Again, it doesn’t have to be stiff medieval language. In fact, we probably wouldn’t understand true dialogue from that time without a college lit professor helping us decipher it. But all the modern language was too anachronistic, making for a distracting read.

The plot, too, was a bit formulaic and predictable. All in all, this story fell short to even be an okay read.
Juliana's greedy uncle and cousin not only usurped her father's title and executed him, they have been increasingly harsh rulers ever since; Juliana has turned bandit to steal provisions for her destitute people, but an encounter with Collin, lord of the neighboring land, shakes them both into new ways of thinking and being, and puts them both in danger.

(Though reviews are inherently subjective, I prefer to provide some organization to my opinions through the use of a personal rubric. The following notes may contain spoilers.)

Plot and Setting 4.2 -- Plot is engaging, with both cliche/overly convenient elements and some more unique aspects. Has a few shaky bits and/or a slight lack of focus. Setting is clear and believable. Timeline may be a bit hard to follow. This book has echoes of a sort of gender-swapped Robin Hood, though it does take the story in interesting directions of its own, which I also liked. I did find some of the plot twists to be just on the too-convenient edge of things, plus it took a turn toward the overly corny/sappy romance near the end, and it was slightly challenging to track how much time was passing along the way. And, like book 1, it has a tacked-on bit of next-book drama at the very end, slightly marring an otherwise stand-alone story.

Characters 4 -- Main characters are relatable, realistic, interesting, and dynamic. Some minor characters have depth, while others may be slightly stereotyped or simplified. Definite strong points in the relationships between characters. As with the previous book in the series, we mainly focus on our two main characters, and other characters are fairly simplified, with a few defining features and little to no growth. Collin and Juliana both have rather dramatic story arcs, though. Juliana shifts from her thieving ways and blanket hatred of all nobles into a more thoughtful, just leader who judges even nobles by their hearts, not their purses. Collin becomes aware of his spoiled, indulgent lifestyle, and is moved to compassionate generosity and truly self-sacrificial love.

Mechanics and Writing 4.5 -- Few, if any, typos, punctuation issues, or word errors. (<4/100pgs) Generally solid use of POV, with a few errors or oddities. Skillful writing that adds to the story. Errors include compound word confusion, mild punctuation or formatting issues. Really very few typos. POV is all first person, but alternates between Juliana and Collin. There are no labels or other indications of whose perspective it is at the start of each section; you just have to read and figure out from context who is narrating, which is frustrating.

Redeeming Value 4.7 -- Well-developed, central, uplifting themes. Drugs, alcohol, violence, etc, are not glorified, though there is some shaky ground. No explicit sex scenes. Clear moral guidelines for behavior. Similar to book 1, there's palpable attraction, but chaperones and no more than kisses, and some cuddling, especially after they're married. Violence and torture, as well as robbery. Juliana and her friends are involved in the robbery and violence, though her conscience is nudging her away from that way of living. Torture is described in enough detail to be clearly horrible, but avoids getting too graphic. Lessons in judging people by their character, not their wealth, and also using what you've been blessed with to help others.

Personal Enjoyment 4 -- I liked it a lot. Highly enjoyable and very entertaining, with perhaps an issue or two that tempered my pleasure. I’d enjoy reading it again.
I liked the first book in this series okay, just enough to want to read this second book, but this was on my TBR for a long time after I read the first book. Since the third book is out and I'm at least somewhat interested in it, I wanted to read this second book to see if I liked it any better than the first one and see if I really wanted to commit to finishing the series or if I wouldn't bother. I did like it more than I remember liking the first one, it has a lot of action, though it can get surprisingly gory at times, there was a little bit of gore in the first book, but we're talking a big escalation from that here, I was really not expecting that, but I did like all the action scenes. I liked the characters, Colin was my favorite part, he was just so much fun and I loved him for it. Juliana was okay, though I would have maybe liked a little more depth to her and her situation, the motives behind her situation are mentioned here and there, but I got the feeling of them being a little bit too glossed over sometimes. Overall though I did like it more than the first one, it's still not exactly making my favorites list. I had thought that the first book might be good for younger readers, but I would not recommend this for anyone under 15, and I'm really not sure I would recommend this series just in general anymore. I might read the next one, but so far I'm not that impressed with this series.
Completely delightful! This spin on the Robin Hood fable brings us into the life of Juliana Wessex, a medieval maiden who moonlights as the Cloaked Bandit. Juliana is of the nobility but has been ousted by her cruel Uncle; fearing for her life she hides with others in the woods of her family's land. Much like Robin Hood she takes from the rich to feed the poor. Things take a turn when she runs into a wealthy and noble knight.

While there are aspects to the story that mimic the Robin Hood tale, Hedlund makes it her own and does a wonderful job of winnowing out truths, as well as a delightful tale. This story engaged me early on but really wowed me in the last half of the story. The romance was sweet and clean, and without giving too much away, a wonderful example of true love. There are a few kisses but nothing inappropriate for the age level. And while young adults will enjoy this story, I believe adults will be equally swept up into the tale.

This novel can be read as a stand alone, however, it does have characters from Hedlund's previous novel, An Uncertain Choice. My recommendation would be to read them in order, but as I said you do not have too! For those of you who did read the previous novel, you will be delighted to know that the noble night in this story is Collin or Lord Goodrich! Yay! Not only that but it looks like there is in the works a 3rd novel for Sir Bennet!

To wrap it all up, this one is definitely worth the read! It left me with some good truths to chew on, a grin on my face and a smile in my heart!
4.5 Stars