Blog Tour Review: Wendy Darling Volume #3 - Shadow by Colleen Oakes

Book info:

Title:  Shadow
Author:  Colleen Oakes
Series:  Wendy Darling #3
Genre:  YA Fairy Tale retelling/fantasy
Release Date:  July 18th, 2017
Publisher:  Sparkpress, SparkPoint Studio
Source:  ARC from publisher for review
My rating:  5 stars

Synopsis:

Wendy Darling has found herself once again in the arms of charming Peter Pan, the god-child who desires power above all things. This time, though, Wendy burns not with passion but with a secret: with Hook as her ally, she is there to defeat the evil that lies inside of Peter, the evil that holds all Neverland hostage—the Shadow.

To do this, Wendy must quietly undo Peter from inside his heart while at the same time convincing Tink to betray the twisted love that binds them together. This is a task made nearly impossible by the arrival of Booth, her sweetheart from London and a new pawn in Peter’s manipulative game—a boy whose heart she must break in order to save his life. 

As all of Neverland prepares to fight, Wendy races to untangle Peter’s connection to the Shadow, a secret long buried in the Forsaken Garden. When the time comes, pirates, mermaids, Lost Boys, and the Darling family will all rise—but if Wendy can’t call the Shadow, they will all be destroyed by Peter’s dark soul. War has come to paradise, and Neverland will never be the same.

My Review:
If you've followed me for a while, you know that I am a big fan of fairy tale retellings.  This series is one that I got the chance to read about a year ago, starting with the second book.  While I haven't gone back and picked up the first, even though I do have a copy, I was able to get right in with book two, Seas.    If you go click that link and check out my review, you'll see that I really enjoyed it.  So when I heard from the publisher about the chance to read the final book in the series, I jumped on the offer.  What is really fun about reading it right now, is that I actually was on a family vacation to Disneyworld when I started it this past weekend.  Even more funny is that the first ride I rode at the Magic Kingdom was the Peter Pan ride.  

In this final book in the trilogy, Colleen Oakes has taken the well-loved story of Peter Pan, and turned it around, while completely staying true to the original ideas and characters in such a way that you still feel you are in that original Neverland written about by JM Barrie.  If you haven't finished the first two books, you might want to quit reading for my final paragraphs of the review, just know that I highly recommend this whole series.

While we have come to root against both Peter Pan and Tinkerbell in this story, Wendy is able to still see the good in Peter, as well as Tink,  and be able to hope that not only will Wendy be able to defeat the Shadow that is destroying Neverland, but that somehow she can also redeem both Peter and Tink, and help them to be the characters that everyone can love once again.  I rooted for Wendy's love from back home, Booth, to understand when she had to play up to Peter, to make him believe she loved him instead of Booth, in order to save his life.  I love that what I feel is more realistic, for her explanation to convince Booth without a ton of distrust like you so often find in these situations.  While there were those who sacrificed in the end to defeat the shadow, it wasn't in a way that everyone just gave up and became good, no, it worked the way that it needed to.  Many beloved characters may have lost their lives in this story, but they did it in ways that pulled at my heart, and kept the story as rich as could be.  There were no easy out solutions for this, and there were still surprises at each and every turn of the tale.  

If you like a good retelling, or are a fan of Peter Pan, this is the book you need to pick up and read next! 

Review: Seas (Wendy Darling #2) by Colleen Oakes

Book info:
Title:  Seas  
Author:  Colleen Oakes
Series:  Wendy Darling #2  
Genre:  YA Fairy Tale Retelling
Published:  September 20th, 2016
Source: Finished copy received for review from SparkPoint Studio

Just like with Three Dark Crowns I was contacted back in August to be a part of a Fall YA Tour.  Now the books came a little later than planned, so I didn't get to this one before the publishing date unfortunately.  I also had asked for the first book in the series, but due to the mix up and late mailing, I didn't get it.  Fortunately, the author does a great job of catching you up on what happened in the last book.  It's not done in a big info dump at the beginning, although you do get the necessary details right away.  A lot of what happened is spread throughout the story in appropriate conversations and memories in the right spot. Obviously there will be a few spoilers in my review below, sorry about that.  But you can pick this one up and read it without reading the first one if you want.  

As you can guess, this is a retelling of the story about Peter Pan.  Only in this version, Peter is not the good guy.  Captain Hook is still a pirate, and so still not really a nice guy, but in this story he is going to be really all that Wendy has to help her get her brother back from Peter, as well as to keep her safe from Peter's obsession with her.  You see Peter Pan is very charming.  Not only does he have Tinkerbelle in love with him, but at first, he makes Wendy feel like she is in love as well. But soon she sees him for what kind of a person he really is, when he takes her up flying, and drops her from very high above the ground.  He catches her, at the last minute, but uses this as a way to try to make her stay with him.  But Wendy now just wants to get her brothers and get back home. Even though according to everyone in Neverland, there is no way back.  Wendy and her youngest brother Michael must learn to live on the pirate ship, while Hook tells Wendy his story and his reasons for being after Peter.  Wendy will work in the kitchen, and get to know the pirates well enough to call some of them friends, in their own way.  As long as she is on the ship, she is pretty well protected from Peter.  

Eventually Hook and Wendy will go to find out how to really kill Peter, which will require a dangerous trip alone for Wendy, so that she can ask help from the mermaids.  The mermaids who will trade the information for virgin blood.  Wendy's blood.  Along their travels Wendy will not only have to worry about Peter finding her, but also some of the pirates on the very ship she is on may not be able to be trusted.  Along with a big pirate summit where there is mutiny among Hook and the other ships.  The mermaids cannot be trusted, and even just to get to them Wendy will travel a path where Peter will almost be able to capture her and stop her.  

Wendy's thoughts are just to save her brothers and get back to her home where her family is, as well as the man that she really feels she could be in love with.  In the end we will lose some of the characters we grow to love, and things will not come out quite the way as planned.  There is a big surprise at the end, making me very anxious for the next book, so that I can see what Wendy will do to solve this next obstacle.

This was my first book by the author, even though I have a copy of the ARC of Queen of Hearts sitting on my TBR shelf.  I am definitely very excited to read that one now, and I have also ordered my own copy of the first book in this series so that I can read about the whole relationship between Peter and Wendy, and how this version of the fairy tale all began.  If you haven't started this author, or this series, I definitely recommend it.