A review by taylorhathcock
The Never King by Nikki St. Crowe

5.0

“Peter Pan was a myth and now he’s real and he’s drinking in the sight of me like I’m a mirage.”

I don't think I enjoy anything more than I do a Peter Pan retelling and I have to say I'm incredibly mad at myself for waiting this long to dive into these amazing books. I love the fact that we've aged up our characters. It always makes these retellings more fun that way. I adore this book, I feel like I inhaled it. Winnie is the perfect character. She feels alone and to an extent she's searching for something more... I mean when you start looking forward to being taken by Peter Pan, who it turns out is the bad guy... The whole book just had this amazing feeling to it. Pan and his three most loyal Lost Boys are a group for sure. A very powerful group of people. I instantly loved how each of them are all so different. I apparently have a thing for the sweet morally gray "villains" and I won't apologize. 

The book has the romance dynamic down of course and the scenes are chef's kiss. I really enjoyed though just how much of an actual broader story exists. Neverland is basically in a power struggle between Pan, Hook and Tilly (the Fae Queen) and watching all the ways this plays out is amazing. It's also really cool because we don't know much about Pan at this point or really any of our major players and I have to say I can't wait to find out more. The book throws so many plot twists that you just know something amazing is coming. I really feel like this one kept me on the edge of my seat at the end... just to end on an intense cliffhanger that made me dive right into the next one.