The Never King, the first of the Vicious Lost Boys series, has been on my TBR for an embarrassingly long time. Long ago, I made the decision that the only way to get through my ever-growing list of books is to create a system. This is how the TBR jar was born. Every time I finish I book, I pluck a random piece of paper and that decides what I read next. As you can tell, The Never King was somewhere at the bottom for a very long time.
I didn’t know how I felt about the idea of a dark romance centering around Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. Transparently, Peter Pan was never a story that particularly interested me. Something must have been wired weirdly in my brain—I bypassed the expected affection for Tinkerbell and, instead, fixated on the Crocodile. To me, this story stayed squarely in the realm of, “thou shalt not make a smutty story about it.” But, after seeing a seemingly unending slew of positive reviews from my readers and other bookish content creators, I figured I’d give it a chance.
I will say, The Never King was probably not the best book for me to read on a plane. It seems I have poor decision making abilities, as the last time I was knee-to-knee with a stranger, I was reading Haunting Adeline. Anyway, I did it to myself again, and here we are.
In this dark and twisted retelling of Peter Pan, Captain Hook is not the villain. Instead, it’s Pan, who, for the last two centuries, has been abducting the Wendy girls to bring them back to Neverland. There, they are tortured, broken, and then returned back to their homes changed for the worse. He is looking for something, but what, none of the Wendy women know. Winnie just turned eighteen and it’s now her turn to be taken to Neverland.
I’m of two minds when it comes to The Never King. I feel like this is a guaranteed five-star for a specific audience. However, I, unfortunately, am not that specific audience. In the sake of fairness, I’m breaking apart this review into two sections and concluding with my personal thoughts. The first for my dark romance readers who love quick, steamy reads, and the next for those who enjoy dark romance, but prefer more lore/relationship expansive stories.
Review #1
If you love spice and you love dark heroes and feisty heroines, this is likely exactly what you’re looking for. The Never King is a quick read that doesn’t waste any time in getting you to the “good bits.” This story has shades of “why choose” and “touch her and die.” If you like your romantic leads to be very rough around the edges, and very far from the classic “good guy,” look no further.
Review #2
If you are someone who needs a lot of context and back story to make a dark romance work for you, The Never King isn’t going to hit the spot. The characters aren’t overly developed, which gives them an almost two-dimensional feel. This character fills this purpose, and this character fills this purpose, etc. There isn’t a lot of space for nuance (likely because of the book’s brevity). The characters aren’t overly likable, and the premise of the book (fantasy aside) asks you to suspend disbelief just a bit too much. At least, in so far as how quickly attachments are made. I’m not going to get into Winnie’s decision to use her body to distract her captors, nor the fact that she liked it (we’re not here to kink shame), but that might cause a few readers to trip up and lose interest.
My personal review
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I didn’t dislike reading The Never King. I found it entertaining and unlike most of what is on my TBR. It was, in a weird way, a palate cleanser. I intend to read the next book whenever my TBR jar pulls the title, and I know I’ll likely enjoy the next installment. But I’m not waiting with bated breath for it.
Overall, I think that this is an excellent book for someone with very specific tastes, or is looking to scratch a very specific itch.
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