Hooked

The Never After Series, Book 1

By: Emily McIntire

Narrated by: Felicity Munroe, Rupert Hawthorne

Length: 9 hrs

Publisher's summary

He wants revenge, but he wants her more.

Once upon a time, there was a little boy.

His belly full of laughter, his life full of joy.

Until one day, something changed; stripped his innocence away.

The hole inside making space for the devil to come and play.

His dreams gone forever, he grew up way too fast.

An endless night of crocodiles, and watches made of glass.

He grew into a villain, the taste of vengeance on his tongue.

Craving to make his enemies pay for the misdeeds they had done.

Instead he found a darling girl, and refused to let her go.

For what better way to make the man pay, than to steal his little shadow.

Hooked is a full-length, complete standalone in the Never After series: a collection of dark romances where the villain gets the girl. It is not a literal retelling. It is a dark, contemporary romance (not a fantasy) featuring mature themes and content that may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

©2021 by Emily McIntire (P)2022 by Blackstone Publishing

Cleverly sucks you in…

I started this book because the storyline interested me. A play on Peter Pan but not at all Peter Pan - a story of “even bad guys need love too.” I enjoyed the clever way the author wove pieces of Perter Pan lore through the story and found myself chuckling a few times at the wittiness. I finished the entire audio book in about 3 sittings. I normally just listen to books as I commute but I couldn’t wait to keep listening to this one. I gave the overall rating 4 stars because I did have a hard time with just how “bad” this guy was - and he’s horrible. I thought several times that I would not be swayed to understand this “love” story because honestly the guy, Hook, should be in prison. But, I was won over and I enjoyed the story more than I thought I would.

The performance was very good. The two performers narrate chapters separately and they present chapters written from their character’s point of view. Because of this, they each perform the opposite character’s voice during their chapter and that took me a bit to get used to hearing.

As I mentioned, I found this quite enjoyable overall. It’s the kind of book that drew me in and I’m afraid the next one I read will be a let down after this one. Just a recommendation - You might consider listening with headphones on if you aren’t alone. It’s quite throughly descriptive, if you know what I mean, in both horrifying and pleasing ways.

Guy talks about his "stuff" alot...

My goodness... My kingdom for a good fantasy romance that isn't straight up cringe porn! I couldn't even get a quarter into this. Idk why anyone would be into Hook. He is so gross and not in a cool villain way but in a guy-who-keeps-talking-about-the-needs-of-his-you-know-whats kind of way. ALL THE TIME! I know you had a dark past but get some more personality! It just all comes across as lazy, boring, and cringy. Please, please, I just want a good fantasy romance with the bad guy that isn't this... any recommends?

Not what I thought ..

I almost stopped reading it just because of the accents. The female accents were so shrill and annoying! Wendy’s wasn’t bad, but her “friends”, omg. Peter sounded like he had a stick up on his butt every time.
The story felt rushed, the characters weren’t very developed. The sexy scenes also felt rushed and misplaced at times.
There were some good twists- especially in the last hour of the book.
I do feel it was concluded well and questions were answered.
Not sure that I would use a credit for another one of her stories.

Peter Pan Vs Hook Mafia Retelling

How is it possible that this book ended in such an endearing way? And that I liked it so much! I don't usually like mafia boss tropes or referring to females as someone's "pet" but somehow despite that I thoroughly enjoyed this and I'm excited to read some of her other books. The plot is well done, and balances the 🌶️ with 🥰 in such a way that you want to find out what happens next. It is a "retelling" but it mostly just uses the names and base lore from the peter pan story, if you think there's going to be pixies, flying or anything else fantastical you will be disappointed. This book is a contemporary retelling, taking place in a city where Hook is a Mafia boss and Wendy is the daughter of a rival Mafia boss, Peter, who moved to town. There are past wrong doings and revenge plots and Wendy ends up getting mixed up in all of it. I do think Wendy forgave Hook a little fast and even though she felt empowered I wished that she would've let her sarcastic quips come out more. But this book was definitely enjoyable and I was pleasantly surprised by it and I ate it up!

Story ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Audio 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧

Did not finish.

Around chapter 35 I realized there was no longer any plot. I really wanted to like this book but unfortunately there isn’t a nice thing I can say about it. I really disliked both audio performances as well. All in all this was a very disappointing use of a free credit.

I couldn’t get past Chapter 17

I couldn’t even get halfway. And I can’t return it to get my money back. Main female seems weak and I can’t stand characters like that. And the main guy just annoys me, I can’t stand men in real life who act possessive and like they have to be “alpha” so it’s just not my desired type of book.

Whoa! Read NOW!

Go in blind. Enjoy the ride.
Wonderful narration.
Loved how they brought the story to life.

Concept is there execution is not

Just couldn’t like either character. Wanted to like this bc of the concept so much but it was too cheesy even for me. :( was really close to dnf but it’s not long so I powered through.

The narrators made the story so much better

I usually prefer to read my books but with the increase in commute time and reduction in opportunities to sit still and read uninterrupted I decided to look into audio books. Hooked has been on my TBR for a while and I figured would be a good use of my credit. I am so glad I did. The story was fun, and I loved the characters but I loved the life the Narrators brought to them more. Rupert is an amazing James and Felicity was amazing with her Wendy persona and doing all the Boston accents. they've definitely brought me in to the audio book fold and I can't wait to hear what else they've narrated.

As for the story itself I found it delightfully spicy with a plot line that chugged along fairly smoothly and not as an after thought. The way Emily reimagined the characters of Peter Pan was brilliant and tackling the theme of revenge was masterfully done. I selfishly wanted more spice because James is such a delightful villain made all the better by Ruperts voice.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟➕

𝑻𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒔: Dark Romance, Fairytale Retelling, Peter Pan Retelling, Enemies to Lovers, Anti-Hero
𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟➕
𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒎 𝑳𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒍: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
𝑷𝑶𝑽: Dual
𝑻𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝑾𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈: Dark themes suitable for mature audiences
~~~~~~~~~~
𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒆’𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒂 𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒅, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆’𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒍. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒆. 𝑷𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏’𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒄. 𝑶𝒖𝒓 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏’𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚’𝒓𝒆 𝒗𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒔, 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒔, 𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒆𝒅.
~~~~~~~~~~
Who doesn't love a male lead with questionable morals? Add in a dab of enemies to lovers with a pinch of pixie dust to this Peter Pan inspired retelling where the villain gets their HEA told, and you have one amazing read on your hands. Let alone add the fact that this audiobook is so amazing. The narrators both do a phenomenal job with this book & it was an amazing listen.

Wendy has always been her daddy's little girl, but at almost 21, she is not a little girl anymore. After her mother died when she was young, she has kept her family first, helping to raise her little brother Jon since her dad is almost never around.

James' life has definitely not been smooth sailing. Loosing his parents at a young age, raised by an evil uncle, it was only ever Ru who showed him any kindness. Ru who taught him everything he knew in how to run the streets of Bloomsburg Massachusetts.

These two are an unlikely pair, but sometimes you have to look past the norm to find a match to your own twisted desires.

Loved it!!

Didn't think I'd like it but loved it!! A different retelling of Peter Pan where the Villain gets the girl!

Alright

It was definitely enjoyable, just the accents were a bit to overdramatic and gave a bad aftertaste from time to time.

love a dark villain

Thoroughly impressed with this book I didn't know what to expect but really loving the villainy was not it! haha loved the story the characters the growth the twist the turn the spice*chefs kiss*. highly recommended!

Accents not great but good story.

Accents weren’t amazing ( especially the female) but overall the story was great. Really enjoyed it

Loved the performance

The story was intriguing and simple. The hints were clear to the mystery and I hoped it was more of a fall in love than fall in lust. But no complaints there since it is a short story.
Great performance.

Sorry but No!

This book was not for me. I could not finnish the book because of cringeness. I hope every girl under 25 dont fall for this Hook character. He is not a dark sexy person! In real life he would be a red flag!

Hook

fabulous story line enjoyed it very much can’t wait for next one I hope it’s as good

not perfect but still good

OK, it's not perfect, but I'm still obsessed.
can't help but to picture Hook as Hook from Once upon a time 😅

I liked it but...

I liked the story but it seemed like the tension was off because the male narrator did not express that in his voice. I missed the aggression and anger of Hook and this left it a bit flat.
The story was interesting and entertaining though and the plottwists were also fun but not necessarily shocking.

cringy at best

it was kinda predictable and sooo boring, I kept on reading waiting for something more, but mote didn't show up.