The most recommended Robin Hood books

While I found Joanna Shupe from her Regency books, I heard an interview with her in which she talked about trying to write about the Gilded Age, but no publisher would take it. So to support her dream, I choose the first of her Gilded Age series—an opposites attract novel between an uptown girl and a downtown guy who works for her father and has some secrets. The spice level in this is steamy rather than erotic. I picked this because I will read a Robin Hood story with romance every time.

"Empire's Edge" is the first of a huge, epic steampunk series, so there is a lot to read if you find you love it as much as I did.

I give you a plucky heroine, a taciturn assassin and a nice assortment of sidekicks who have the most insane adventures. Of course, they are all fighting for good, that is, for a young Emperor out of his depth. For reasons (which I won't spoil).

Even better if you like snark. There is so much snark in this book!

And hey, it's free. Can't beat free entertainment, right? I promise, you will be entertained.

Most people don't even know about this book. Written in 1946, it's just a little older than I am. I read it years ago and was delighted by Myers' world woven from existing fantasy and legend. I also use what has worked before to make my own books both familiar and new. How convenient when you have a perfectly fantastic cauldron of long-held material completely free for the taking. I, as did Myers, took full advantage of the vast pool of wonderful existing ideas. “Silverlock” certainly showed me I could freely dip from the pool and just twist it a bit to fit my own tale.

While this novel is not set in another world, it does show a side of our world and history too often ignored. Travelers Along the Way is a heartfelt and humorous take on the Robin Hood tale, brimming with sisterhood, cunning disguises, and dangerous heists. It transports through clever details and unforgettable characters. 

If you’ve read all of the books on this list and are looking for something new, this book is the story of Robin Hood with all the backstabbing, politicking, and civil unrest of A Game of Thrones. Though not “Fantasy” (there is no magic, second-world, divine intervention, etc), this historical fiction novel was no less epic, and I would be remiss to leave it off this list.

As someone who exclusively reads fantasy and some sci-fi, I find this story (and its sequel, Lionhearts) to fit right into my reading list. The use of character perspective was so powerful because despite there being six primary POV characters who are diametrically opposed to one another in different ways, I somehow found myself rooting for all of them. Each character was so convincing in their justifications and righteousness that every chapter constantly reflected on who was in the right.

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Thomas Costain’s series introduced me to a fascinating world of castles and cathedrals, of tournaments where mounted knights broke lances on behalf of their ladies, where courtly love and chivalry ruled the day. (In theory. Seldom in practice.) How strange, my preteen self thought. How enchanting! I was particularly fascinated by The Three Edwards, which recounts the reign of one of England’s worst kings sandwiched between two of its greatest. With the eye of a natural storyteller, Costain intersperses tales of wars, rebellions, and political machinations with myths such as Arthur and Guinevere’s tombs being “discovered” in Glastonbury and the possible origins of Robin Hood. While there are newer series mining the same period, Costain’s research remains relatively solid, and his prose retains its powerful simplicity.  

I've always enjoyed the story of Robin Hood and was intrigued by how the well-known legend would be told by Ms. Newcomb.

Robin and Maid Marian get married and have a family, and it's through the POV of their oldest son, Robert, who was born out of wedlock and harbours antipathy towards his father, the story is told. He becomes a mercenary soldier fighting in France before returning home and joining King John's forces.

I enjoyed the story very much and the journey of the father and son relationship. I recommend you read this book.

I loved this story of a feisty female Robin Hood who lives as a woodland outlaw with an odd group of very likable bandits. As a young girl, I adored adventure stories set in Sherwood Forest, with memorable characters such as Little John, Maid Marian, and Friar Tuck.

This medieval romance combined all the elements that I loved about Robin Hood but with a delightful twist of reverse gender roles. As a dog lover, I adored the heroine Temair’s loyal wolfhounds and how the hero Ryland de Ware charmed them in subtle, humorous ways as he wove his way into capturing Temair’s heart.

This was a fabulous, steamy, and entertaining medieval romance.

Take a sweeping YA adventure and magic and horses and a delicious book boyfriend all dropped on an outspoken, stubborn young woman thrown into a life she’s uniquely suited to and you have this delightful read from Robin McKinley. With a powerful heroine doing her best to understand her place, suspended between two distinct ways of life, The Blue Sword makes me want to run away from feeling out of place, awkward and never good enough and be just like Harry Crewe.

I will read anything by Parke Godwin. His command of language and his talent for bringing history to life won me over from the first book. In Sherwood, he takes on Robin Hood, whose legend is compiled of stories collected over a 200-year period. Godwin sets the story a hundred years prior to the legend, in the time of William the Conqueror. Sherwood gives us the life of a brash young Saxon landholder, displaced by the conquerors, who leads a guerrilla resistance from Sherwood Forest. It also paints a sympathetic young sheriff of Nottingham, who starts as Robin’s foe but grows to admire the outlaw—and falls in love with his wife Marian.