Review: Hooked
by Emily McIntire
Book One of the ‘Never After’ Series
Caution: This blog may contain spoilers!
This blog is for adults, 18+ only. Please be aware of the trigger warnings listed at the bottom of the article.
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Hooked. By Emily McIntire
Good Reads Score: 3.80
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Adult, Dark, Fantasy, Retelling
Spice Level: 4.5/5
My Overall Rating: 5/5
‘Dark’ spectrum: 5/10
Synopsis:
“A dark and delicious fractured fairy tale reimagining of Peter Pan.”
“He wants revenge, but he wants her more…
James has always had one agenda: destroy his enemy, Peter Michaels. When Peter’s twenty-year-old daughter Wendy shows up in James’s bar, he sees his way in. Seduce the girl and use her for his revenge. It’s the perfect plan, until things in James’s organization begin to crumble. Suddenly, he has to find the traitor in his midst, and his plan for revenge gets murkier as James starts to see Wendy as more than just a pawn in his game.
Wendy has been cloistered away most of her life by her wealthy cold father, but a spontaneous night out with friends turns into an intense and addictive love affair with the dark and brooding James. As much as she knows James is dangerous, Wendy can’t seem to shake her desire for him. But as their relationship grows more heated and she learns more about the world he moves in, she finds herself unsure if she’s falling for the man known as James or the monster known as Hook. “
James Barrie a.k.a ‘Hook’
(Side note: I tried really hard to find some good fan art for this book and really came up short.
If you find any let me know and I would love to post it!)Review:
Y’all, I was so excited to write this blog post. This book gave me a new zest for dark romance. For a while there it felt like I was reading books that were just not holding my interest. I’m sure all you readers can understand that when you read a certain genre for a while it all starts to blur together a bit. Maybe it’s because I’m an absolute simp for the Peter Pan universe of content, but this book was SO fun to read. It was sexy, I enjoyed the characters and the plot was intriguing!
A Contemporary Re-Telling?!
I was actually hesitant starting the book because I knew it was a Peter Pan retelling, that it was set in a non- fantasy setting and that it is contemporary. I’m a BIG fantasy lover so I was worried that it would feel like a big part of the story was missing with out Neverland. And although it took me a moment to adjust to the modern setting, I settled in quickly and found that the world this author created was still compelling.
I think something that helped me settle into the contemporary piece of this story is that Emily McIntire peppers in nods to the original Peter Pan (at least the Disney one I am familiar with) throughout the story. While there are a few important to the plot, most were just for extra flavor. For example, the name for Hook’s gang is the Lost Boys and they sell “pixie dust”. Hook is still extra triggered by the ticking of a clock and Peter’s “girlfriend” is named Tina Bell. It was a nice nod to the missing fantasy element that I really enjoyed about this story.
Ok but now onto the more important part- the smut!~
Not to fear- you are not going to have to wait too long for this story to dive into the spice, dear reader. Almost right off the bat Hook is talking about his dick, *graphically*, and how it is responding to his rather violent environment. Please, as you should know by now, check the trigger warnings before jumping into this one. However, I hear that as the series goes on it just gets darker and spicer- exciting!!
The spicy scenes between our two main characters- Wendy and James (Hook)- are SO good too. This is a book that would be very hard to read in public. Even alone I was NOT able to control my face. The sex is monogamous and hetero- so not really a lot of expansivity there but these are the tropes that I found really present..
TROPES:
the ownership, control trope (a.k.a Touch her and Die)
Villian Gets the Girl
Accidentally Falling in Love
Secrets/ Secret Identity- (Wendy not knowing who James really is)
Daddy Issues
The “I can’t trust you but I love you” Trope
There are a lot of dark themes and there is torture, gore and imprisonment but the actual sex itself isn’t super dark i.e. there’s consent between two willing adults that’s mostly focused on penis in vagina or oral sex.
To Finish:
I highly recommend this book. It was a fun and easy read- perfect for a weekend or to take on vacation. If you are looking for your next dark romance read- would give this one a go for sure.
Right now I am reading Stephen King’s “Fairy Tale” with my husband. We accidentally both bought the same book so we’re using this as an opportunity to read together. I always get a little competitive and try to read faster- don’t tell. #capricorn
I’m not sure I will write a blog on it but stay tuned! What dark romance should I review next?
Thanks for reading!
xoxo, Jilly
“Darling, if I’m the dark, then you’re the stars.”
Trigger Warnings:
Child abuse recounted, Paedophilia, Drugging, Pregnancy, Blood & gore depiction, Amputation, Emesis, Grief & loss depiction, Death of a parent in a car accident recounted, Death of a relative in a plane crash, Murder, Graphic torture, Gun violence, Physical assault, Kidnapping, Consensual choking (breath pay).
This is an adult 18+ novel. (From the Trigger Warning Database)
