“She needs to know…there are no white knights here. Just monsters. And I am the worst one.”
The Never King by Nikki St. Crowe
The Story:
The stories were all wrong — Hook was never the villain.
For two centuries, all of the Darling women have disappeared on their 18th birthday. Sometimes they’re gone for only a day, some a week or a month. But they always return broken.
Now, on the afternoon of my 18th birthday, my mother is running around the house making sure all the windows are barred and the doors locked.
But it’s pointless.
Because when night falls, he comes for me. And this time, the Never King and the Lost Boys aren’t willing to let me go.
Key Elements:
Fantasy, Dark Romance, Retelling, Peter Pan, Morally Gray, Lost Boys, Reverse Harem, Romance, Violence, Neverland, Enemy-To-Lover
More in The Series:
- Book 2: The Dark One
- Book 3: Their Vicious Darling
- Book 4: The Fae Princes
Why This Rating?
Oh.. Why HELLLOOO Lost Boys! My goodness this was a wild ride of fairytale characters turned rough, dark, and sexy. Crowe didn’t hold back and gave us everything from sex to violence to a bit of magic. For a retelling, it captures the feeling of Peter Pan and his Lost Boys wonderfully, but stayed wholly in its own lane. Which is probably a good thing, because having these Boys are vicious! Don’t think you’re going to get any child’s story character from this series when you read. This is proudly in the dark romance section of the bookshelves and I am happy to report that it is worth every page flip you go through. It is a fast paced story, but with enjoyable morally gray love interests (and I do mean to include that S on interests!) and a simple, yet dangerous goal for the FMC: find the Lost Thing or everything falls a part for Neverland. You know, the usual stuff that I absolutely crave in stories!
Crowe’s writing kept me hooked even though it was pretty simple. But simple certainly doesn’t mean bad! We’ve got multiple POVs (Winnie Darling, Peter Pan, and some Lost Boys) which I loved. Even though we’ve got a bunch of POVs to flip between, we weren’t constantly swapping. Mostly through Winnie’s and Peter’s POV with a scattering of others in the pages. They are giving just enough from the other side of things that make it a delicious read! Heads up, if you listen to the audio version, Winnie and Peter’s readers are fantastic! The other people reading the other Lost Boys – I was not a fan of their readings at all. But the story was so worth it regardless of the readers.
There wasn’t much of any character development, which is understandable. There are only 200 pages in the entire story and something has to give for the author. There are more books in the series so if there is any to happen, it would probably be stretched out along the series. My heart was going out to Winnie for all that she grew up with and her fear of loosing her sanity. If I was told since the beginning of my memory that I wold be taken on my 18th birthday and the women in my family all were never mentally the same afterwards, I would equally be panicked over this too.
I’m going to gush over the guys in this book for the next little stretch. – wows – We get a group of guys who are all the morally gray, vicious, blood thirsty, sinfully sexy men who all have the softest of spots for this Darling. And man do they ever! This is a reverse harem where she wants them all and they only want her. We only get to really interact with 4 of the Lost Boys: Peter, Kas & Bash (Fae Twins), and Vane (the Dark One). And they are all so unique! Peter is the king that has a strong don’t cross me or mine and has a full on “touch her and die” complex. Kas is the sweetheart of the group that loves to tell stories while curled up but will easily put you on your knees until you beg. Bash is the cook of the group – and damn does it seem like he can cook! – and he is the naughtiest of the boys. Secret Exhibitionist perhaps? And then there’s Vane. He is the most unhinged of the Boys we get to play around with. Rule #1 with him: Don’t Run. Dangerous, little control over his power, and the one that is the least interested in Winnie. a.k.a. Winnie’s new goal in the treehouse lol! The smutt is intense and naughty so get ready. Our guys are completely over taken in the few days of knowing her and I love that so much!
This is going to be a fun series to keep reading. Be careful if you read this one in public! Highly recommend to any Enemy-to-Lover, Morally Gray, Dark Romance readers out there!
Time to get lost in the next story!
