Book Review: Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Tiger Lily
Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson
Reading Level: YA
Genre: Fantasy/Romance
Released: July 3rd 2012
Review Source: Harper TEEN
Available: Amazon

Summary: (from goodreads) Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . . .

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.

Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.

With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it's the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who's everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Peaches comes a magical and bewitching story of the romance between a fearless heroine and the boy who wouldn't grow up.

(2.5 Trees)

As much as I adore the story of Peter Pan, this version of the story between Peter and Tiger Lily did not capture me the way I’d hoped it would. One main thing, that you will either love or hate, is that Tinkerbell is the narrator. I felt she was too complex a character at times and her love for Peter Pan kind of shadowed the story in some parts. She was just to cut and dry and even annoying for me.

The story itself wasn’t what I expected probably because it was so slow to get started, that it took me forever to read. I started understanding the point of the story more towards the middle of the book. I assume that it’s primarily meant to be a love story, but through the eyes of a faerie it just didn’t do it for me. I might have enjoyed it more if it had been told in the eyes of Tiger Lily herself. I would’ve preferred her rendition of everything she was feeling for Peter, rather than Tink’s version of Tiger Lily’s feelings.

I will say that the one thing that made me rate this book .5 trees more would be the end. It was so tragic and SAD it literally left my heart hurting. I wish the author had put some of the story’s heart-wrenching passion into the rest of the book and hadn’t waited until the very last bit of it. If you’re a fan of Peter Pan, the Lost Boys, Tink and Neverland, you might just enjoy this book but I would take it with a grain of salt. As was the case for me, it might not meet your expectations.