Review--Trapped by Neverland by Megan Charlie

 

A desperate stowaway. A dashing pirate. Their quest to end Peter Pan’s reign of terror.

Wendy Darling has never been called rash. But when she discovers her cruel stepfather intends to separate Wendy from her brothers, she gives in to their wish to run away to Neverland. She’s rewarded in ways she’s never abundant beaches, a ready-made family of Lost Boys to mother, and her first taste of freedom. But Neverland is not all it seems.

The Lost Boys are going missing, and it looks like Peter Pan is to blame. When Wendy stumbles across Pan’s secret, he comes for her, too. She manages to evade him by hiding among a ship’s cargo but when the ship leaves port, Wendy finds herself stranded on the Jolly Roger, the most feared pirate vessel in Jocestrian waters. Worse, her brothers have been left behind.

Captain James Hook is as blackhearted as they come—and Pan’s sworn enemy. If anyone can defeat Wendy’s pursuer, it’s him. But something is strange aboard the Jolly Roger. Sure, Hook is as rude and high-handed as the stories say. But his crew treats him like the savior of the seven seas, not a notorious villain.

If Wendy wants to save her brothers, she’ll have to convince the devilishly (distractingly?) handsome pirate to return to the site of his greatest defeat and face their shared enemy. But Hook is convinced she’s a spy sent to foil his plans. As she works to convince him Wendy begins to realize not only is her life at stake, but so is her heart.

Trapped by Neverland is an enemies to lovers, no spice reimagining of Peter Pan, the third title in the Of Seas and Tides multi-author romantic fantasy series. These novellas can be read in any order and feature a villain who gets their happily ever after in a swoony, swashbuckling romance.

I love Peter Pan stories so naturally, I was drawn to Megan Charlie's Trapped by Neverland in which we are treated to the twisting tale where Peter is the villain. While I love a good Captain Hook is the hero story, I felt like the length of this novella worked against it in some ways, as while the story was good, I felt like there were a few holes here and there that never really got filled in.

We open the story with Wendy running from Peter Pan. She witnessed something horrifying with Peter at the helm and now she's running for her life. She hides upon a ship, hoping to get to land and bring in the authorities to handle the matter with Peter. And right away, I'm reeling! This is not your ordinary Neverland as it's apparently very accessible. There's no flying involved, although Peter does fly with pixie magic involved, but it really never got explained as to how Wendy, her brothers, and the other Lost Boys came to be on Neverland. Obviously Peter did something, but again, the answer was never made clear.

Wendy soon realizes her error in choosing a ship for refuge, for not only is she on a pirate ship, she's on Captain Hook's ship, Peter Pan's ultimate rival and nefarious villain. But Wendy soon realizes how wrong she was to believe Peter's stories about James as he's not at all the man she was led to believe he was. She now must convince James to help her rescue her brothers and the other Lost Boys and put a stop to Peter's dangerous antics once and for all, but luckily, getting revenge on Peter was always in Hook's plan.

I believe this novella was dubbed as a clean romance. There's no spice. And before your mind starts reeling about romance with Wendy and Hook, Wendy is a twenty year-old woman. Another thing that didn't really get explained...why did Peter bring an adult with him when he was bring her brothers to Neverland? Was it just the "mother" thing? I mean, really, as a kid, I thought you couldn't go to Neverland if you were around 13 or whatever, because you're on the cusp of adulthood and Neverland is for children who don't want to grow up. All those years of waiting by ground-floor window for nothing! Lol.

But yes, some of these inconsistencies of not getting an explanation was a bit befuddling. I mean, I get there not being a lot of time in a novella to make these changes known, but I had hoped for something. Like Wendy's age and the lack of flying for all and how Neverland is a known place and Peter was a known person...it was just befuddling. Like where was the magical fantasy element? Yes, it's there in a sense, but that magic of getting to Neverland is just not there and I feel like that took away a bit of Neverland's magic too.

Despite not having some clear answers, the story was still enjoyable. It's a short read, so having things condensed was expected. Like Wendy and Hook's whirlwind romance. They went from being wary of one another to be starcrossed lovers in the next chapter. I mean, again, I realize it's a novella, but just the quick turnaround of how quickly that went was enough to give me whiplash.

Since this is a novella, it ends on a high note and all is well. You can pretty much imagine how things will turn out given its fairy tale background. Charlie does lend an interesting take to her version of Neverland! I always love experiencing a new kind of Neverland, but I almost wonder if this story would've benefited more by being a full length novel, or even a longer novella. I feel like with those missing details and stretching out the romance a bit more this would have been even more phenomenal read! As it was, it was still a really good read and kept me entertained, but I was naturally left craving for more!

Overall Rating 3/5 stars