Title: Red Rider
Author: D.A. Randall
Quote: "I gripped my crossbow as I approached the tavern, ready to fight whatever wolves I found inside."
Little Red Riding Hood is growing up. Having bribed the woodcutter to teach her to fight, she's still lost her parents prematurely--before they could teach her most of the things a Basque-French peasant maid would be expected to know--because the local werewolves held a grudge. Now she's The Red Rider, armed with silver-tipped arrows that kill werewolves at a touch, out for werewolf blood. Old enough to have a boy friend who's still a friend, staunch and true if not quite as brave as she is. It's going to come down to hand-to-hand combat with the monstrous alpha werewolf of the pack.
This is one young adult novel that's romance-free. Of course, that's because it's book one of five complete short novels. Red, also known as Helena, is only sixteen; Pierre is a child. There may well be a romance in volume 4 or 5.
As fresh takes on old fairytales go, this one's not up to Pamela Dean's standard, nor yet C. Gockel's, but it's a nice twist anyway.
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