Hooked

From international bestselling author Emily McIntire comes 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.
Hooked is a dark contemporary romance and the first complete standalone in the Never After Series: A collection of fractured fairy tales where the villains get the happy ever after. It is not a literal retelling and not fantasy. Hooked features mature themes and content that may not be suitable for all audiences. Reader discretion is advised. For all content warnings, check the author's website.

I’ve been meaning to read one of Emily McIntire’s books for a while now and finally purchased the first book in her Never After series. Lately, I’ve been listening to my books more because I don’t have time to sit and read a physical book, and I’m glad I borrowed the audiobook of this book. The narrators chosen for this book made the book more enjoyable to listen to instead of reading it. Unfortunately, I think if I had read it, I would have DNF’d it. Here’s the thing: I enjoyed the first half of the book, but the second half went downhill for me.

I liked the storyline behind this book and how it’s a fractured fairy tale based on Hook this time and not Peter. Hook is still the villain, and Emily made sure to keep his evil qualities, which I definitely liked about him. She also kept the revenge plot between Hook and Peter, but she did throw in a twist, where Wendy is Peter’s daughter. Wendy is the innocent young girl in the story who craves her father’s attention and wants him to acknowledge he cares about her and her brother, but unfortunately, Peter is not that type of father. He’s all about business, and Hook wants to take Peter down for what he did to him, and the best way to do it is to take advantage of Peter’s daughter, Wendy, and claim her innocence. Wendy is drawn to Hook because she doesn’t have anyone else in her life who cares, but she should be running from him, especially with what he has planned for her and what he does to her in this book.

This book had the normal things I would expect in a Dark Romance, such as kidnapping, having a morally gray character who is an a-hole and wants revenge and will do anything to get that revenge, plus the usual sexual kinks I find in these types of books (one of them being: breathplay). Still, it wasn’t as dark as other books I’ve read in this subgenre. The first half was well done, introducing the MCs and explaining the vengeful plot that Hook wanted, and it was deliciously smutty. Still, once that second half came around, it became rushed and cringeworthy. Also, I was not too fond of Wendy’s character because she was naive at times and way too innocent, in my opinion. She did redeem herself towards the end, but it was already too late for me to like her. I think if the second half had gone a different route and not been rushed, I would have enjoyed the book more.

As I stated above in my review, I listened to the book and was glad I did because the narrators chosen were perfect for the voices of Hook and Wendy. Their voices and acting were fabulously done, even during the cringeworthy second half. The narrators for this book are Felicity Munroe and Rupert Hawthorne, and it was my first book audiobook with these two and won’t be my last. Rupert’s accent was swoon-worthy. (Don’t tell the hubs, even though he knows I love listening to books with narrators that have accents.)

Will I read the next book in the series? Yes, because even though I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I wanted, it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t give the second book a chance. I like the idea of the villains getting their happily-ever-afters because villains are just misunderstood characters that just need us readers to find out their back story on why they are villains in the first place.

Story Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️.5

Steam/Spice Rating: 🌶🌶🌶.5

Standalone or Part of Series: It’s part of the Never After series, but each book can be read as a standalone.

Would I recommend this book? I recommend this book to readers who have read Emily McIntire before and like her writing style or are intrigued by the synopsis like I was for this book.

Genre/SubGenre(s): Romance | Dark Romance | Fantasy Romance

Trope(s)/Element(s): Fractured Fairytale Retelling | Villain Gets the Girl | Forbidden Romance | Peter Pan Retelling: Wendy + Hook

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FranJessca

Owner/Reviewer at A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog

I guess I should type a bio here. I'm FranJessca, or Fran for short. I'm the owner/reviewer behind A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog. I've been reading and reviewing books on my blog since leaving the Navy in 2011, and I will keep doing it as long as possible. My favorite genres will always be Romance & Fantasy, and I read every subgenre underneath those two genres. (Sorry, not a fan of nonfiction, so don't try to convince me to read it.)
My obsession with reading started over 30+ years ago when I went to my first Scholastic Book Fair and found R.L. Stine's Fear Street series. Later, I came across Anne Rice's novels at my public library when I was fourteen when my obsession with vampires started. I was the girl who preferred to be a vampire over a princess any day. My husband says I would leave him a heartbeat for a vampire that looked like Spike or Angel (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) or Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries. (It's true, though, and he's accepted it.)

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