Never by Jessa Hastings reimagines Peter Pan in a unique way

While Beauty and the Beast is known as a tale as old as time, Peter Pan is ripe for retelling including Never by Jessa Hastings.

If you’ve been reading romance for the past year, then you’ll recognize Jessa Hastings. She’s most known for her Magnolia Parks series which blew up on TikTok. Since then, she’s been in high demand.

That’s why I was so excited to pick up her newest release with Bloom Books which is Never as it’s a Peter Pan reimagining. The story takes the classic tale and twists it around a little and then packages it as something I never saw coming.

I’d like to thank Bloom Books for sending me an ARC of this one as I ended up reading until to end of November and it was a surprising one.

Never by Jessa Hastings is unlike any other Peter Pan reimagining.

Let me preface this by saying that this is my first read from Jessa Hastings so I had no idea what to expect. Never ended up being completely different than I had imagined and somehow, one of the most unique Peter Pan reimaginings I’ve ever read.

We follow Daphne Darling who believes Peter Pan skipped out on taking her to Neverland. That is until she’s getting close to her 18th birthday and he comes for her. The two are quickly transported to Neverland and from there, it’s mostly a really bad time for Daphne as Peter isn’t exactly as dreamy as her family had described.

Things change when Daphne ends up meeting Jamison Hook, the son of Captain Hook, and the two start to form a friendship. Of course, the book ends up being a tangled web of drama, lies, and deceit but once that picked up, I couldn’t put the book down. From the first moment we met Jamison, I was immediately wanting him with Daphne.

However, as with most Peter Pan retellings, she felt a sense of duty to Peter and it ended up being this back-and-forth mess between the three. Eventually, Daphne started to realize her worth and make some decisions for herself.

What made me enjoy Never was the ending. That third-act conflict was just so freaking intense. I had no idea that was going to happen and how everything played out. It was truly too much to bear and I couldn’t get enough of it. Plus I feel like Jessa Hastings gave us just enough to get excited about the sequel.

My only complaint is that it took me a while to get into the story. I don’t know if it was just her writing style or the pacing. Until I hit the 50% mark, it was hard to care but once I truly fell into the story, I was sucked in and couldn’t put it down. With that being said, I am going to be picking up the sequel since I have to know what happens next for Daphne.

Never by Jessa Hastings is out now where your favorite books are sold.

Will you be grabbing a copy of Never by Jessa Hastings on release day?