Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell

My name is Gwen, and my mother believes monsters are after us. I now know she's right. Dark Ones grabbed me in the night, and I was rescued by a teen, pirate captain and his crew of young boys. He says he's protecting me from Pan, but there's something else he wants from me. Later, Pan snuck aboard the ship and showed me Hook's terrible secret. Pan swept me off to Neverland, but I don't fully trust him either. I'm finding it difficult to remember my mother and life before the Dark Ones captured me and being around Pan makes it worse. Pan thinks I belong here and maybe he's right. I feel a strange connection to Neverland, and I've learned something about my parents that may explain it. If I really want to get home, I need to do it soon or risk forgetting about that life forever.

I randomly chose this as an eBook and was pleasantly surprised. It compares and contrasts to the familiar fairy tale of Peter Pan. As with some other books I've recently read, the concept of good and bad depends on one's point of view. Who's the antagonist Hook, Pan, someone else, or all of the above? The author does a great job of presenting mixed clues that will keep you wondering, and I find this aspect most compelling. The memory factor adds a time element to the conflict, since Gwen will eventually forget her previous life entirely. She doesn't know if any other characters can be trusted, including her best friend Olivia, so her problem becomes thoroughly complicated. The story includes faeries and little boys, but they're not sweet little characters; they're dangerous. There's violence, death, and a little bit of teenage love, but it's not too graphic when compared to other books. The conclusion is much more intense than expected, but it wraps up all of the issues together. Overall, the book is entertaining and should appeal to lovers of fairy tale twists. However, it's not a cutesy story and doesn't offer much levity. It's pretty intense all the way through.