Arrows and Gems ~ Review

Arrows and Gems: 
A Retelling of Robin Hood and Snow White and Rose Red
The Roumaterra Chronicles #4

By Erin Halbmaier

Poor Princess Helena has so many problems. Hidden away because she was cursed as a child, then she fell into a long sleep and was forgotten by her family. Then when her curse was broken she discovered her true love had fallen in love and married someone else. What's a princess to do when she is ordered by the council to wed before the year is up? Run away and join a band of outlaws in another kingdom, of course.

Now I will admit this would not have been my solution to the problem, but then I'm not a princess who has her life completely upended. The plan is clever really, who would suspect a princess to go so totally rogue? Unfortunately for her the leader of the outlaws thinks it is all an elaborate trap to capture him. With Caps distrust of Helena so strong he doesn't trust her with anything. There may be one little problem, his heart has other plans.

This was a fun addition to the Roumaterra Chronicles series. This can be read as a standalone title but it reads so much better if read in series order. Arrows and Gems is a mashup of Robin Hood and Snow White and Rose Red totally works. The characters are believable in this story world that Erin Halbmaier created. Royalty in disguise. Noble purpose. Missing prince. Court intrigue. Misplaced trust. Thwarted love. But all woven together in a clean, attention-grabbing book. Yes, I stayed up to read this one. I should have been doing other things like sleep, but what can I say other than Helena and Cap won my empathy.

I was provided an Advanced Reader Copy of this book with no expectations but that I provide my honest opinion. All
thoughts expressed are my own.

About the Book:

A runaway princess. An honorable outlaw. A crime that hasn’t been paid.
Princess Helena has always struggled to belong. When she wakes from her twelve-year enchanted sleep, she tries to 

adjust to the changes in her life. But her childhood sweetheart’s marriage and the council’s plan to choose her husband 

push her too far.

Cap just wants to protect the people suffering from the tyrannical regent’s rule. But his less-than-legal methods have 

put a target on his back. He’s wary of the woman he believes has been sent to trap him, but she has a way of slipping 

past his defenses. And he’s afraid she might be another sign that he shouldn’t trust his own judgment.

Can Helena and Cap work together to bring down the regent? Or will their insecurities and secrets destroy everything 

they care about?

Arrows and Gems is a clean, no-spice retelling of Robin Hood and Snow White and Rose Red. It is book four in The
Roumaterra Chronicles, a series of interconnected, standalone fairy tale retellings perfect for readers of Brittany Fichter,
Celeste Baxendell, and Annette K. Lars.