We can all agree that there’s already something…alluring…about the Peter Pan story, right? A magical boy shows up at your window and whisks you away VIA FLIGHT to a magical, tropical island, where you are to become the sole focus of multiple males’ attention? And they are all slightly damaged, in need of fixing? I mean. Come on. Enter The Vicious Lost Boys series, artfully crafted by Nikki St. Crowe.

Winnie is the youngest in a long line of Darling women, who are cursed. Every year on their 18th birthday, they are visited by The Never King, Peter Pan, who takes them back to Neverland. Their purpose? To settle Pan’s vendetta against the family line by finding his shadow that was stolen from him generations ago. The problem is that when they return from Neverland, they always go crazy. Winnie’s mother has spent all of her money on every mythical solution she can get her hands on in order to protect Winnie. Unfortunately, it’s all for nought, when, on that fateful day, Pan comes knocking on their door.

Thus begins a twisty tale that’s part fairy tale, part mystery, and part sexy why choose. Nikki is so endlessly clever in her take on the elements of this well known story. She masterfully paints the picture of the Neverland Tree built into the Lost Boys’ house. The island is shared with James Hook, who’s right hand is Smee. The Crocodile even has a role to play in this story (tik-tok, tik-tok).

This entire four book series is only about 850 pages, but somehow we get to enjoy a girthy plot line while learning about the specific bugs, animals, plants, and foods in this world. We learn about politics, mythology, geography, clothing, and so much more. And yet, you don’t once feel like there’s too much information shoved into these pages. The pacing is a perfect balance between conflict and resolution. The character development is deep enough that your heart attaches itself to these beings (…sigh…Vane…), but not too much that we’re taken on distracting diversions into long backstories.

My two favorite things about the author’s choices in these books are: 1. the big reveal about who Pan truly is and, 2., the story ends with a ton of loose ends. I’m not going to get into number one at all because, well, obvious reasons, but I do want to address why I’m thrilled about the loose ends. First of all, I worry that some authors feel like they have to explain each and every plot line to it’s completion in their books. This isn’t always the right path. Keeping the end of some roads a mystery allows the reader to play into their imagination, like a choose your own adventure sort of thing. In this case, Nikki is planning on publishing a stand-alone, MMF sometime later in 2023, which serve as a spin off from the Vicious Lost Boys series, focusing on other characters. My guess is that it will also continue to explore these loose ends, but with the cool twist of us being able to experience it from these other characters’ points of view. I love this approach and can’t wait to read it!

As for my rating, I gave books 1-3, 4.5/5 stars, and the final book I rated 5/5 stars. Highly recommend. If you’re interested in this or any of Nikki’s other works, you can check out her website. Feel free to comment below if you’ve read this series or just want to chat about how “enticing” the world of Neverland is…wink wink.