Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen

"Every child knows how the story ends. The wicked pirate captain is flung overboard, caught in the jaws of the monster crocodile who drags him down to a watery grave. But it was not yet my time to die. It's my fate to be trapped here forever, in a nightmare of childhood fancy, with that infernal, eternal boy."

Meet Captain James Benjamin Hook, a witty, educated Restoration-era privateer cursed to play villain to a pack of malicious little boys in a pointless war that never ends. But everything changes when Stella Parrish, a forbidden grown woman, dreams her way to the Neverland in defiance of Pan’s rules. From the glamour of the Fairy Revels, to the secret ceremonies of the First Tribes, to the mysterious underwater temple beneath the Mermaid Lagoon, the magical forces of the Neverland open up for Stella as they never have for Hook. And in the pirate captain himself, she begins to see someone far more complex than the storybook villain.

With Stella’s knowledge of folk and fairy tales, she might be Hook’s last chance for redemption and release if they can break his curse before Pan and his warrior boys hunt her down and drag Hook back to their neverending game. Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen is a beautifully and romantically written adult fairy tale. 

3 stars
“Every child knows how the story ends. The wicked pirate captain is flung overboard, caught in the jaws of the monster crocodile who drags him down to a watery grave. But it was not yet my time to die. It’s my fate to be trapped here forever, in a nightmare of childhood fancy, with that infernal, eternal boy.” 

Peter Pan was one of my favourite stories when i was little. I loved the fairies, the lost boys, flying, indians, mermaids and how Peter always won because he was good.
But what if Peter Pan wasn't as good as the books made him to be? What if he was a bratty, bloodthirsty boy with the need to always win? And what if Captain Hook was trapped in the endless and terrible never-ending childhood of Peter cause of a curse?
Then you have Alias Hook . 

Alias Hook is told from Hook's POV. I love how we got to see Hook's life before Neverland and how he bacame Hook. The aspect of the curse was pretty good, i really liked how he was trapped and could never leave or die no matter how many years past. The romance aspect was pretty good, i liked that the author made Stella a strong female character with a mouth that's even dirtier than Hooks. 

"It haunts me beyond all reason, an ache in my heart I can't explain or ignore. And it all began with the damn book. There it sits, the crumbling old thing, on the tea table next to the window. I run my fingers over its nubby, embosses cover, the gilding almost entirely worn away, a boy in leaves and a pair of tarty little mermaids. I needn't open the cover to see what's written there; it's scrawled just as indelibly in my memory: a single word, Believe." 

This story is about hope, love, despair and how to overcome your fears and learn to love and to forgive. Alias Hook is a beautifully written book and i would definitely recommend it to anyone who loved Peter Pan and his wolrd as a child.

So if i liked it this much why did i gave only 3 stars?
Well 3 reasons.

1) I would have loved it if Hook had more of a potty mouth. Yeah i know, but i think a pirate would curse a lot more and wouldn't be so freaking polite.

2) The romance. We didn't get to see why Hook and Stella loved each other. At one point they were talking and on the other ripping their clothes. I wish we got to see more of a development in their relationship.

3) I didn't love the ending. I didn't hate it but i would love the book so much more if it had a slightly different ending.