Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Hooked by Emily McIntire

409 reviews

brooksie03051's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Hooked by Emily McIntire

This is a standalone and the first in the Never After Series of a dark romance where the villain gets the girl. It is not a literal retelling but a dark, spicy contemporary romance (not a fantasy) reimagining of Peter Pan.

Wendy meets James (Hook) at a popular bar he runs in town when she and her friends sneak in with a fake ID. Before he knows she is the daughter of the man who ruined his life (Peter), she stands out like a bright star in the sky. When he bumps into her and she doesn't fall at his feet like all other women do when they look upon his devastatingly handsome face, that makes her even more interesting. He likes that he has to pursue her rather than throwing herself at him. The fact that his arch enemies precious shadow willingly came into his domain was perfect and now he needs to work his charm to win her over so he can finally destroy him once and for all. The bar is where he and his partner filter money, but their real business is in selling drugs and protection to the surrounding businesses. Peter is trying to take over the area and Hook will have none of that. He will ruin him and take the one thing Peter truly cares about—his beloved shadow, his daughter Wendy.

This hit many of the character points with familiar references to them without it being a fantasy and had not only "Hook" as a villain but Peter as well. Although James "Hook" is known to be a powerful and dangerous man, he falters a bit regarding Wendy. She is nothing like any of the women he has ever known, and he gets under his skin. Again, this is a spicy tale, so don't let your kiddos read it.

Content Warnings

tumbleson92's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

lovelynovellas's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

“The greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life was to love you, Wendy darling”

I enjoyed this. Wendy was a bit too “innocent” and naive for me, it was a bit eye rolling. I liked the twists at the end and the epilogue taking place two years later.

Tw: death, murder, kidnapping, blood, gore, drugs, knives, guns, torture, sexual content

Content Warnings

cookreadrepeat's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

justmudlynnabout's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

If I wasn’t reading this for book club the first couple chapters would’ve turned me away. It got better and I’m glad I finished it.

Content Warnings

crazybooklady89's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

🌶️🌶️🌶️ oh my! I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect when starting this one, but this wasn’t it. I loved this re-imagination of Peter Pan so much!!! James (“Hook”) was so endearing, and Wendy didn’t irritate the hell out of me like most heroines do in these types of books. Taking 1 star away because I do think it was rushed in many parts. I wish the book had been longer so that more buildup and detail could be added.

Content Warnings

antidietleah's review

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

bluz19's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Hooked is a standalone story of dark contemporary romance. It is apart of the Never After Series which is a collection of fractured fairytales where the villain gets the happily ever after. It is not particularly a retelling as it is a complete remapping of the story. The book features very mature themes that must be considered before reading.

I mainly picked up this book because I usually love the stories of Hook and for once I let social media talk me into a read. I didn’t hate it, I know not the best way to start a review. I am not big into smut, in fact I find it CRINGEY, BUT ultimately I loved the book. Putting the heavy smut aside, the story itself held a lot of parts I did like. This book is very dark and twisted. It definitely hooked me from beginning to end (no pun intended). I found myself enjoying the storyline and not as much of the romance because it was very harsh for what I generally like to read. Imagine if Hook owned a bar and secretly sold “Pixie Dust” and got rid of anyone who lied to him or opposed him and suddenly your enemy (Peter) comes to town and its the perfect time to get your revenge. That is the entire real premise of the book with smut thrown in. Now I must note that there is a lot of trauma bonding and I would say inappropriate relationships because they are ultimately toxic, HOWEVER I’m here for the toxicity in book form. A lot of the decisions made by Hook and by Wendy in this book are aggravating and without reason but it did make for a good story. The twists in this book, the betrayals, and the lies had my jaw ON THE FLOOR! I felt through this story and nothing had me wanted to lay this book down (except for maybe the heavy smut scenes). This story never pulled punches and I felt every part of each line.

I think if you enjoy smut or can look past the smut then you will definitely find joy in the dark parts of this book. This is probably one of the more mob-boss stories I have read in a minute. There will be torture, abuse, death and assault in this story so definitely be aware of that. I am not sure if I will pick up the other ones because of the sexy scenes but I did love the dark and twisted imagination of this author as well as the “bad guy” not always losing.

Content Warnings

franticromantasy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

very demure

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things100's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Oh my gosh this book was soooo good. James was sooo morally grey I’m obsessed. Wendy and James are the cutest

Content Warnings

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