Everland by Wendy Spinale
4.5 out of 5 stars.

“To die will be an awfully big adventure.”

Goodreads Description: Forget the story of Peter Pan you know. Because in Everland, the only way to grow up is to survive. London has been destroyed in a blitz of bombs and disease. The only ones who have survived are children, among them Gwen Darling and her siblings, Joanna and Mikey. They spend their nights scavenging and their days avoiding the ruthless Marauders — the German Army led by Captain Hanz Otto Oswald Kretschmer. Unsure if the virus has spread past England’s borders but desperate to leave, Captain Hook hunts for a cure, which he thinks can be found in one of the survivors. He and his Marauders stalk the streets snatching children for experimentation. None ever return. Until the day they grab Joanna. As Gwen sets out to save her, she meets a mysterious boy named Pete. Pete offers the assistance of his gang of Lost Boys and the fierce sharpshooter Bella, who have all been living in a city hidden underground. But in a place where help has a steep price and every promise is bound by blood, it will cost Gwen. And are she, Pete, the Lost Boys, and Bella enough to outsmart Captain Hook?

I was given an ARC of Everland when I visited Kepler’s bookstore in California back in March. It was on my TBR, so I was excited that the lady that worked there let me have it. I am a huge Peter Pan fan and I also really love retellings, so I had to get my hands on it. The story takes place in a steampunk world. I don’t believe I’ve ever read a steampunk book (or if I had I didn’t know). I actually didn’t really know what steampunk books were until I looked it up.

Everland was such a fun spin on Peter Pan. It was fun and exciting and pretty intense at times. Pete’s character was spot on from the Peter Pan I grew up with from the Disney movie. He was one of my favorite characters in the book. It was easy to connect with all of the characters though and the group of Lost Boys were quite the bunch. I laughed a lot and even got teary eyed a few times. I also really liked the Bella was just like the Tinkerbell that I remember. I think Wendy did a really good job with writing the characters for this book.

The concept of the book was awesome and I love how it all came together. I think it was really well written and at times hard to put down. One that though, since I am so used to the movie I would visualize the characters like how they look in the Disney movie lol. I had to remind myself that really they are all just young kids/young adults. Captain Hook was only 18 if I remember correctly. It was such a fun book though. I love the adventure, I love the characters, and there were pretty good amount of twists. I wanted a little more from the ending, but it was really good.

Everland was just released last Tuesday (May 10th), so you guys should definitely go grab a copy! I highly recommend it.

I hope you have a great Monday! 🙂