This book is a contemporary retelling, taking place in a city where Hook is a Mafia boss and Wendy is the daughter of a rival Mafia boss, Peter, who moved to town. It is a 'retelling' but it mostly just uses the names and base lore from the peter pan story, if you think there's going to be pixies, flying or anything else fantastical you will be disappointed. The plot is well done, and balances the 🌶️ with 🥰 in such a way that you want to find out what happens next. How is it possible that this book ended in such an endearing way? And that I liked it so much! I don't usually like mafia boss tropes or referring to females as someone's 'pet' but somehow despite that I thoroughly enjoyed this and I'm excited to read some of her other books. It’s quite throughly descriptive, if you know what I mean, in both horrifying and pleasing ways.

Just a recommendation - You might consider listening with headphones on if you aren’t alone. It’s the kind of book that drew me in and I’m afraid the next one I read will be a let down after this one. As I mentioned, I found this quite enjoyable overall. Because of this, they each perform the opposite character’s voice during their chapter and that took me a bit to get used to hearing. The two performers narrate chapters separately and they present chapters written from their character’s point of view. But, I was won over and I enjoyed the story more than I thought I would. I thought several times that I would not be swayed to understand this “love” story because honestly the guy, Hook, should be in prison. I gave the overall rating 4 stars because I did have a hard time with just how “bad” this guy was - and he’s horrible. I normally just listen to books as I commute but I couldn’t wait to keep listening to this one. I finished the entire audio book in about 3 sittings. A play on Peter Pan but not at all Peter Pan - a story of “even bad guys need love too.” I enjoyed the clever way the author wove pieces of Perter Pan lore through the story and found myself chuckling a few times at the wittiness.

I started this book because the storyline interested me.

Hooked by Emily McIntire