Unhooked - Lisa Maxwell

Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell
Published on February 2, 2016 by Simon Pulse

For as long as she can remember, Gwendolyn Allister has never had a place to call home—all because her mother believes that monsters are hunting them. Now these delusions have brought them to London, far from the life Gwen had finally started to build for herself. The only saving grace is her best friend, Olivia, who’s coming with them for the summer.

But when Gwen and Olivia are kidnapped by shadowy creatures and taken to a world of flesh-eating sea hags and dangerous Fey, Gwen realizes her mom might have been sane all along.

The world Gwen finds herself in is called Neverland, yet it’s nothing like the stories. Here, good and evil lose their meaning and memories slip like water through her fingers. As Gwen struggles to remember where she came from and find a way home, she must choose between trusting the charming fairy-tale hero who says all the right things and the roguish young pirate who promises to keep her safe.

With time running out and her enemies closing in, Gwen is forced to face the truths she’s been hiding from all along. But will she be able to save Neverland without losing herself?

Unhooked is a adventure that features some of our favorite faces of Neverland, like Captain Hook and Peter Pan but everything is given a new look by twisting the childish fairy tale into something dark. Neverland in Unhooked isn't the land of never growing up, play every day and having fun like Disney presented us, this time around it looks much more like a land of nightmares with evil faires, a magical and manipulative Pan and a not trusty worthy Captain Hook (or is he the only one that can be trusted, who knows).

My favorite aspect of this story was the pace, it just never slowed down. Since the start, we are only a few chapters in and them boom we already go to Neverland, and after that is just one thing after another. We have a lot of things to explore on this island and so much secrets to undercover that there is just not a time to stop and breath, it truly is an adventure for the reader.

What I would have liked more is to the characters to be more developed, specially Gwen, she is overall a good main character that doesn't wait around for the answers to come to her, she isn't naive or too focused on the Captain's pretty features to forget about her mission but she isn't all that unique or memorable, this unfortunately happened with all of the characters on this one, while Pan and Hook are deliciously twisted and full of shades of gray still, their personalities never surpassed surfaced level.

There is a small romance on this one that was nice, since it goes from a hate to slowly start to trusting to partnership to love, I would have like more if I enjoy the characters involved on it more but it was a nice addition. It was entertaining for me because I kept picturing Hook as Captain Hook from Once Upon A Time and they are definitely similar on their personalities.

Overall this wasn't a favorite read and I would recommend it with some restrictions but it was still pretty enjoyable and always kept the adventure going. Probably a best read for fans of retellings, Peter Pan, Once Upon a Time and those who love a good adventure book. 

That Other Time When I Was Too Lazy #2

Hey guys, today I'm here with more mini reviews because this is really more easy than setting up a whole review to one book at each time and I'm lazy so let's just roll with this. This time around we have two contemporary reads one that is out for some time already and that gave me mixed feelings and another that just came out and it's totally amazing and you NEED to check out if you like contemporary reads

This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

Published by Headline on April 2, 2013

Ellie is a (almost) regular girl from a small town of Maine and one day an e-mail about taking care of a pig comes for her, it turns out it was an accidental error from movie star Graham Larkin and everything changes from them on, on both of their lives. 

This is my second experience with Jennifer E. Smith and I have to say that she is great for when I need a good chill romance read - this book is as cute as you can imagine, it was all teenager girl dream of a romance between a regular girl and a super start in all the right kinds and the best parts are definitely the talks between Ellie and Larkin, it was really easy to get lost on the story when they were together and read tons of pages on one sitting. 

That being said I did had some problems with this one, the main issue is that this book is cute and light and fun to read but that is all, really. I never felt head over heels for the romance between Ellie and Larking, I felt like the ending was so abrupt for a book of 416 pages - there should have been at least one talk between Ellie and her dad, there was pages enough for that to happen but it did, which kind of let me down, I really would have liked a more clear resolution for this part of the story - also there was some small issues with the plot, like how they when things get hard, Ellie push Graham away, forcing them to stay most of the book apart and when they do get back together they never really talk about what drove them apart, like the problem didn't existed at all anymore (except that it totally did), soon after that Graham makes some poor decisions that can make them drive each other away, again - it's just I don't have any problems with cliches, but moderation please. Oh, also (spoilery things ahead, not that much but yeah) Ellie has money problems and always says no to help but them in the end she is totally fine with the situation Graham put her on (at the restaurant, if you read you probably remember) and if some guy/friend/whatever person made me that thing of proposition when I clearly had not been comfortable asking/getting their help before I would have been so pissed and not all happy like Ellie was. 

Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz

Published by Simon Pulse on March 3, 2015

[This book was give to me from the Publisher and in no way this affected my opinion.]

Etta isn't a regular girl meaning she isn't white, straight, skinny and definitely doesn't fit her small Nebraska town - specially after the fall out with her ex-group of friend, the Dykes, but then she meets new friends, that were completely the opposite of the Dykes, like Bianca who doesn't eat, and can sing, and is Christian and straight, and new things that Etta never hoped for start to happen.

I just... I don't know what to say about this book because he is so damn amazing. At first look I hated the cover and was thinking on passing it out, but then I saw some early reviews really positive and read the synopsis and found out it was about a bissexual girl and well, it's pretty rare to read about bisexual characters so I couldn't let this pass. And I'm so glad I took a shot.

Etta tells her story on a stream of thoughts and at first I was uncertain if it was for me this kind of writing, even so that I read the first 10% on one day and then stayed without continuing for ten days BUT when I did picked up again I finished the others 90% on one night, so that tells you something. Also Etta = Queen, I came to this conclusion very early on the book, on a particularly scene when her ex-girlfriends prank her and she just roll with it on such a way that made me smile (it's the condom scene for those of you who already read this). 

Basically this is a book about finding yourself and being true to it, despite your friends/parents/relatives/boyfriend-girlfriend, it's a powerful story that made me ugly sob from the 70% until the end not because it was super sad but because it was so damn true, I'm not from a small town, I don't have religious parents/friends and still managed to connected so much with all that Etta was going through. So if you like contemporaries that are touching, and emotional, and a little bit romantic and sexuality positive, and diverse and funny too you need to read this. 

Ps.: Oh, I also loved the way religion/religious people were portrayed. Seeing Bianca's journey was pretty cool too.