Hooked by Emily McIntire (Never After #1)
Rating:
⭐⭐⭐.5
Spice:
🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶
Primary Genre:
Dark Romance
Trigger Warnings:
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Favorite Quote:
“Feelings don't just go away, they merely shift and change as your soul breaks, molding themselves into the cracks.”
Plot 4/5:
A fractured fairy tale reimagining of Peter Pan. Imagine Hook is a straight up mafia type drug dealing ganster and Peter Pan is a millionaire mogul who will destroy anyone if it serves him. Modern day Hook and Wendy end up in a situationship involving copious amounts of hooking up. Hook spends the majority of his time trying to take Wendy's dad (Peter) down. Lots of people get tortured and murdered. Tinker Bell is now Tina and so much more evil than Julia Roberts played her.
The Good:
*James/Hook has some incredible character development throughout the book. It's not ridiculously unbelievable either.
*There were several parts of the book that got me in the feelers. Ru's story. The whole back story with James's uncle. Back story of James's parents.
*There isn't any of that 3rd act breakup BS, just a different element to ramp up the angst.
*The ending has so many twists, it's giving thriller/horror vibes. Seriously, I had to take a breath and catch up.
The Meh:
*Wendy comes off as cheesy at times. I don't really vibe with the virgin FMC, so I feel like that's part of what made some of the pages taste like mild cheddar. While James's character is very complex, Wendy's seems to lack depth.
*Peter's character goes SO far in the other direction that Robin Williams must be rolling over in his MF'n grave.
*Tina and Moira's characters seemed so similar that it was confusing.
*Wendy's friends who were an integral part of the beginning of the book just disappear as characters.
Bottom Line:
I would recommend this book. I think this would be a good book to dip your toe into dark romance, instead of starting with Haunting Adeline like I did 🙃. The romance part of the book isn't super dark imo but the things Hook and Peter are doing on the sidelines are. I enjoyed the overall vibe of the book, I liked the story. Growing up in the 90's, I was more of a "Hook" fan than a "Peter Pan" fan. I had no qualms with hating Peter like I initially thought I would when I picked this book up. At least Emily still made Ru/Rufio loveable.
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