Tinker Bell, banished from her homeland for doing the unthinkable, selling the hottest drug in Neverland—pixie dust—wants absolution.
Welcome to the February 18th stop on the blog tour for Second Star to the Left by Megan Van Dyke with Escapist Book Tours. (#EscapistBookTours | Twitter | Instagram) Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, exclusive content, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.
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About the Book
Second Star to the Left
Reimagined Fairy Tales
by Megan Van Dyke
Published 15 February 2022
City Owl Press
Genre: Romantic Fantasy
Page Count: 302
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Tinker Bell, banished from her homeland for doing the unthinkable, selling the hottest drug in Neverland—pixie dust—wants absolution.
Determined to find a way home, Tink doesn’t hesitate to follow the one lead she has, even if that means seducing a filthy pirate to steal precious gems out from under his…hook.
Captain Hook believes he’s found a real treasure in Tink. That is, until he recovers from her pixie dust laced kiss with a curse that turns the seas against him. With his ship and reputation at the mercy of raging storms, he tracks down the little minx and demands she remove the curse. Too bad she can’t.
However, the mermaid queen has a solution to both of their problems, if Tink and Hook will work together to retrieve a magical item for her.
As they venture to the mysterious Shrouded Isles to find the priceless treasure, their shared nemesis closes in. However, his wrath is nothing compared to the realization that achieving their goal may mean losing something they never expected to find—each other.
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My Review
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
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I was granted complimentary access to Second Star to the Left by Megan Van Dyke as part of my participation in a blog tour for this title with Escapist Book Tours. Thank you to all involved in affording me this opportunity! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.
Second Star to the Left falls somewhere between being an alternate timeline retelling and an origin story prequel to the classic Peter Pan story, but this time the male lead and sympathetic “hero” is Captain Hook (James) and the POV character is Tinkerbell herself. His lover. Yup, you read that right!
This is a before-Wendy story that exposes connections and relationships between Neverland’s most famous faces that nobody’s ever known about before. It provides a lot of insight, for those who can read between the lines and look ahead to the timeline of the classic tale, as to why Peter and Tink have such a volatile relationship and why Tink even wants to hang around. It provides an interesting connection between Peter and Hook, as well, and definitely does an excellent job at making Hook a lot more human. He’s still a pirate captain, he’s still not on the right side of the law (if such a thing exists in a place like Neverland) and he’s still motivated by greed and revenge, but we get to see him as a sympathetic, flawed man who has redeeming qualities.
I must comment, however, that the synopsis did NOT prepare me for how frequently and how graphically we would be visiting Tink and Hook in bed. I’m left with a few questions given the usual size difference between these two very different species of humanoid beings, but I also… don’t want to know. It might have been explained but frankly, this level of steamy is not my thing and I just tried to make sure I wasn’t missing key plot points while getting back to clothes-on as fast as possible. If you’re also not a sexy time reader you can get through this book only skimming those scenes, but I think readers who DO read that will feel more connected to Tink.
Overall this was a very interesting, unique take on Neverland with great storytelling and interesting new spins on old characters. I’m definitely interested in reading more from this author, and I do recommend this book to readers of fantasy romance who enjoy fairytale retelling-type plots.
About the Author
Megan Van Dyke is a fantasy romance author with a love for all things that include magic and kissing, especially fairytales and anything with a happily ever after. Many of her stories include themes of family (whether born into or found) and a sense of home and belonging, which are important aspects of her life as well. When not writing, Megan loves to cook, play video games, explore the great outdoors, and spend time with her family. A southerner by birth and at heart, Megan currently lives with her family in Colorado.
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Giveaway Alert!
Prize: An eBook Copy of Second Star to the Left
Starts: February 14th, 2022 at 12:00am EST
Ends: February 20, 2022 at 11:59pm EST
| Feb 14 | @plot_head | Feb 15 | @bookchara |
| Feb 16 | @sadiesspotlight | Feb 17 | @curlytopreads |
| Feb 17 | FanFi Addict | Feb 18 | Westveil Publishing |
| Feb 18 | @my.bookish.mind | Feb 19 | Tiffany Joissin |
| Feb 20 | Al Alhambra | Feb 20 | @cassidee.omnilegent |
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