The Never King by Nikki St. Crowe Series: Vicious Lost Boys #1
Published by Blackwell House LLC (2.20.2022)
Genres: Adult, Erotica, Fantasy
Format: eBook, 192 pages
Source: Kindle Unlimited
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.
* Release Date is not final and will likely be much sooner. Target release date is March 2022 *
The Never King is a dark retelling of Peter and Wendy. 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.
My thoughts
Save the king, save the island.
I’m actually quite shocked that I enjoyed this book! This was only the second reverse harem I’ve ever read in my life, lol. But I do think this was a good one for a beginner to the genre because it’s not in your face smutty (which I am not a fan of) and it’s still got a great story! This book was a very quick and easy (and fun!) read.
There are no white knights here.
Just monsters.
And I am the worst one.
This is a Peter Pan retelling, but Hook is morally gray and is also fae. I loved the idea of the shadow and how it connected to the magic of the island, as well as the fae courts. It was really cool and I loved the world a lot, even though I’ve never been a huge fan of Peter Pan.
I liked that it didn’t shy away from the topic of a woman liking sex. Women who enjoy sex and are open about it are often labeled as whores or sluts, and I’m honestly so sick of that culture. A man could sleep with 12 women and no one bats an eyelash, but a woman does the same and it makes her easy/loose? Nah, fuck that dude.
I’m like a kid let loose at a county fair and I want to ride all the rides and play all the games.
The main character, Winnie, loves sex, and I love that she was open about it. It made her the perfect person to break Pan’s curse because she enjoyed being kidnapped by four tall dark and sexy men instead of crying about it. (Although, the “not like other girls” narrative of the story was a little annoying tbh.)
I enjoyed the four main guys and the development of their relationship to Winnie. It was cute that they started doing little things for her and calling her “our little Darling.” Even Vane, the baddest baddie of all of them, had a soft spot for her by the end of the book. Speaking of Vane, his ‘sexy’ interactions were the ones I wasn’t a fan of. He wields fear, and is aggressive to the point of being abusive and I’m just not about that. So I could take or leave those sexy times.
HOWEVER. The other sexy times? Whew. *fans self* There were a couple of lines that were a bit much for me – when it gets into the whole STFUATTDLAGG (iykyk) stuff it’s just kinda bleh for me. I’m not into the super aggressive ‘suck my dick’ and ‘call me daddy’ shit, lol. But, other than a couple of lines that made me cringe, I surprisingly enjoyed the rest! It was pretty hot, not gonna lie. And this is coming from someone who has never really been a fan of smut scenes. (I think I’m just really picky about the way it’s described and I need a good story line with minimal smut.) But I’ve just been in the mood for it lately I guess!
“All men are born with an ax in their hands, Darling. To take the measure of a man, you just have to pay attention to how he wields it.”
Overall Assessment
Plot: 4/5
Premise: 4.5/5
Writing style: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
World-building: 4/5
Pace: 4/5
Feels: 3.5/5
Cover: 4.5/5
Overall rating: 4/5
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