The Never King by Nikki St. Crowe

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A special edition of The Never King with a new limited edition cover. 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.NOTE: The Never King is a reimagining of Peter and Wendy. Characters have been aged up for this darker, grittier version. If you like your enemies to lovers romance with hot, ruthless, morally gray love interests, you'll enjoy The Never King and the Lost Boys. You can expect hate kissing, fighting, bickering, and 'touch her and I'll unalive you' vibes. Book one ends on a cliff.Please check the author's website for CWs.

CW: Sexual Activity, Some Non-Consensual/Semi-Consensual Sex, Language, Kidnapping, Dark Themes, Polyamory, Violence, Murder

If you’re looking for a Peter Pan retelling that is full of angst and is spicy, I’d recommend picking up The Never King¹And its sequels by Nikki St. Crowe. Holy cow…

In all honesty, I couldn’t tell you what attracted me to The Never King other than the cover. I saw it on KindleUnlimited and borrowed it because it looked cool. I definitely wasn’t expecting a spicy, angsty retelling of Peter Pan. But let me tell you, I couldn’t put the book down after I started reading it! I literally read all 192 pages in one afternoon, on my phone. Yes, on my phone.

I have to say, I love the characters in this book. I adore the twins – Bash and Kas, I love Vane, I love Peter Pan, and I adore Winnie. Vane is such an interesting character to me with his dark, twisted background. The twins are so sweet and kind – even if Bash wants to pretend he isn’t. Peter Pan made me wish I was Winnie from the very get go. And Winnie, our resident Darling, is far different from anything you’re probably thinking she is.

Most of the time when I find books like this, they’re lacking in plot. This one wasn’t, which I was grateful for. I tend to shy away from spicy books and books that feature polyamory because, honestly, a lot of them are two chapters of plot and twenty chapters of spice. But The Never King mixes the plot with the spice well and doesn’t overdo the spice like a lot of books I’ve read.

You start to see hints of romance in this book, but I’m feeling like the majority will be in the sequels to The Never King. You do get the very distinct impression that there are feelings being caught all around, so that’s interesting. I can’t wait to read the other two books and see where all of this romance and polyamory goes.

If you’re new to dark romance, dark fantasy, polyamory in books, or spicy books, I think this one would be a good introduction to these genres/subgenres. I also think that anyone who is a die-hard fan of these types of books would like this as well. However, if you don’t like sex in your books or you don’t like polyamory, don’t bother picking this up, you’ll probably hate it. Just saying.