Hooked: A Never After Novel

Look, most Peter Pan retellings – or even books that take inspiration from or pay homage to it like this one – usually do not work for me. We just don't mesh. Except for this one, apparently.

I read the prologue twice and while I felt sparks of interest, a brief feeling of “yes, I want to read this” I found I wasn't in the mood for it? I'm not sure if it is my weird reading mood or what, but I decided to listen to the audiobook to kind of push myself into it and y'all... Y'ALL the audiobook is where it is at.
I was blushing so much, omg. Hook has such a dirty mouth and inner dialogue that I was probably beet red at work trying to pretend I was listening to something mundane. The narrators do an absolutely amazing job, especially Rupert Hawthorne, who seemed to give Hook a certain edge to his voice, making him seem like danger the entire time. A+ work.

I did audiobook for the first 55%-ish and then ebook for the rest as I just didn't want to wait. So, I can say I prefer the audio version and I might not have enjoyed this as much if I hadn't listened to it or then had the narrator's voices to use in my head when reading the rest. Because the actual plot? The story? Kinda weak, can't lie. A few of the reveals were... not great. I left the book going “okay, but what about X???” and “because of X shouldn't they have Y or do something with Z?” I feel like there could have been a bit more.
Yet, at the same time, I had an absolute blast reading this and some reveals had me gasping while some lines had me swooning and giving. I'm pretty sure I was halfway in love with Hook before the end of his first chapter (Chapter 2). Wendy is a boring-ish character, but you know what? I did actually like her. I was rooting for her happiness the whole time because feeling her loneliness and grief (since it felt like she was grieving the loss of the relationship she used to have with her father) made my heartache – Felicity Munroe does a fantastic job in voicing Wendy's emotions.

Also, I love lil' easter eggs and the throwbacks to the Peter Pan tales. The names made me chuckle, the little intricacies or quirks some of the characters inherited made me smile. It was like playing Where's Waldo trying to find the points that relate back to Peter Pan and waiting to see how certain aspects would be included.

Anyhow, this book was fun. I had a great time with it. Thanks again to everyone who recommended it to me and pushed me into giving it a try. Hopefully I'll be moving on to the next book soon.