Unhooked.

☆☆☆☆☆

unhooked.

Lisa Maxwell.

Publisher : Simon Pulse.

Publication Date: February 2,2016.

Genre: Fairy Tale Retelling|Romance.
Format|Pages: Hardcover|342.

 Source: Goodreads|Library.

 “But it’s been ages since I felt as human as you make me feel. I’ve tried not to want you, but I can’t bring myself to stay away” 

 ☂

For as long as she can remember, Gwendolyn Allister has never had a place to call home—all because her mother believes that monsters are hunting them. Now these delusions have brought them to London, far from the life Gwen had finally started to build for herself. The only saving grace is her best friend, Olivia, who’s coming with them for the summer.



But when Gwen and Olivia are kidnapped by shadowy creatures and taken to a world of flesh-eating sea hags and dangerous Fey, Gwen realizes her mom might have been sane all along.



The world Gwen finds herself in is called Neverland, yet it’s nothing like the stories. Here, good and evil lose their meaning and memories slip like water through her fingers. As Gwen struggles to remember where she came from and find a way home, she must choose between trusting the charming fairy-tale hero who says all the right things and the roguish young pirate who promises to keep her safe.



With time running out and her enemies closing in, Gwen is forced to face the truths she’s been hiding from all along. But will she be able to save Neverland without losing herself? 

 ☂

Peter Pan had always been one of my favorite’s fairy tales, as a kid. I remembered re-reading few times when I was younger. When I came across UNHOOKED while I was at the library and minute that I read the summary and found out that it was a Peter Pan retelling, I grabbed it because I was curious about it. Well cover and title was first that had captured my attention and got me to pick it up, but the summary is what caused me to be even more curious about it. UNHOOKED was the first Peter Pan retelling that I have read, and the first book I read by LISA MAXWELL . Even though when I picked it up I was not sure what to expect, but not long after starting the novel I had a thought that it was going be an amazing novel. It was. Every page, every chapter got it harder for me to put the book down, mostly because I needed to see what happens next, I wanted to see if Gwen would be able to get out, or if she would end up stuck in Neverland. As time passed, I felt like she would never get her chance to go home, because it seemed like something would always get in her way. Despite the people she met, I knew that she wanted go home and I hoped rooting her to find her way back home.



I had my mixed feelings about both Rowan and Pan. Yet, I found myself loving Rowan more than Pan. Even though Rowan was supposed be ‘Hook’ in the story, it was not the same Hook that I remember in ordinal fairy tale and I loved that spin that was put into this retelling. I had this thought, despite how he acted around Gwen in start of the book, he cared about her but just did not show it at start, because he did not want feelings get in way what he had to do. As for Gwen, I knew that she felt something for him too, she just did not realize it how much till later on. I was wondering how long it would take them to finally admit the feelings for one another. There was a point where I thought that Gwen might fall for Pan’s charm, just like Olivia had, that she would forget who she was and her home life. There were parts that I think that she always had. I had a feeling that there was something off about Pan, especially considering how he tried to convince Gwen to stay at Neverland, that Neverland could be her home. Even I did not realize how twisted he was. How far he would go to get what he wanted. The scenes between Rowan and Gwen were my favorites though, it was not long when I began to root for them, you could practically see the tension, the connection between two of them, even if they tried deny it at first, or at least Rowan tried to. They belong together.



Of course the action scenes, the mystery was amazing in this novel. There was not a single page where there wasn’t some sort of action, or at least some sort of challenge that the characters had to face. From moment that Gwen was given role to free the Queen, I wondered if she would be able to accomplish it, and once she did, what would happen next? UNHOOKED did not have a single page where you did not find yourself wondering what risks, what challenges they would have to face next. Most of all how will all of these come to an end. There was part of me that didn’t want the book to end because I felt like the characters, especially Gwen and Rowan became like my friends, they felt real to me. I did not want to say goodbye to then. This is sort of story that will stay with me, and the one that I will probably find myself re-reading in the future. An astonishing retelling of Peter Pan. I can’t wait to read what other adventures LISA MAXWELL came up with. If you love fairy tales, you won’t regret picking this one up.