meigothic 's review for:

The Legacy of Villains by Juliet Lockwood

3.0

---

This is closer to a 3.5 than a 3, but Legacy of Villains is a nice debut and fun YA Peter Pan retelling! I really enjoyed the concept of this one, and the first half of the book was really great! I also liked Jolie and Peter's dynamic throughout most of the book, really, and it was enjoyable to learn more about Peter and also the history/conflicts of Neverland through Jo's eyes. Juliet did a really nice job with the pacing of how things unfolded plot-wise. The outline and series of events leading up to the ending did meet expectations! Unfortunately, it just felt rushed emotionally when it came to the relationship toward the end of the book, particularly the final 25%. I know there was a lot that needed to happen to kind of resolve things and yes, there were a lot of revelations, but it still felt like there was a sudden ramp-up.

Their interactions were believable to me and there was somewhat of a chemistry, but not really enough for me to (major spoilers for final 20%):

Spoiler

believe the declarations of love. That's kind of me being a tough critic, but also, I just didn't feel like the build-up warranted those emotions. Yes, Peter helped Jo figure out who actually killed her mother and they cleared up the air there, and also cleared up things about her dad, but I think there could have been much more friendship building too. It felt like there was kind of a dependence on Peter being charming. I could believe the attraction they had for each other, and I mean yes, Jolie saved his life and figured it out, but still didn't believe the love as much as I was wanting to.