A review by mushmysteriesandmore
Hooked by Emily McIntire

dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 
 First of all, I would like to point out that before reading this, my spice level was approximately 2-3, I’m not big on violence and had read a grand total of 0 dark romance books.  Knowing all this about me, Hooked was probably not going to be the first book someone recommended to me.

However, I LOVED IT!  I was fooled into buying this by myself, my Disney brain told me I would be fine DESPITE multiple warnings from the author that this was NOT a Peter Pan retelling, merely using the source material as a base.  James Barrie, aka Hook, was not a nice person, he was mean, sadistic, possibly slightly (a lot) unhinged and dangerous to know.  I mean when the first chapter depicts him despatching his uncle with an ice-cold demeanour and no feelings, you know he’s not going to be singing and dancing off to Neverland.

Wendy, considering she’s been cossetted and coddled her entire life and is still an innocent, gave me a wee shock knowing she likes being strangled during playtime so that was about as far from her Disney counterpart you could get.

Despite the age gap between them, the chemistry between Hook and Wendy was off the charts, both affecting the other in ways they hadn’t imagined and the relationship between them was intense, to say the least.

I did enjoy the connections to the source material, mainly in the names, Wendy’s brother Jon, although Michael was absent, instead Wendy’s surname was Michaels, and her father was Peter Michaels.  Her father’s PA was Tina Belle, and Hook’s henchmen included Smee, Starkey, Curly and the twins; his mentor was Ru (Rufus), there were places named after locations or people in Neverland such as The Jolly Roger (Hook’s bar), Cannibal Cove and Tiger Lily (Hook’s boat).  Hook’s aversion to the tick-tock of the croc was also nicely worked in.

I think it also helped that I constantly imagined the gorgeous Colin O’Donoghue who played Hook in Once Upon a Time, any time James was mentioned. That was definitely how I saw him and it was not an unpleasant image to have in my head (see the final slide if you’re not sure who he is)

I have Twisted already on my TBR which is the Aladdin/Jafar-based story so I am looking forward to that as well as eventually getting to the others in the series.  But this was definitely a 5-star rating from a dark romance novice 

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