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Hooked gives a familiar villain a different role: romantic lead. Emily McIntire takes names and ideas associated with Peter Pan and builds a contemporary story around James, Wendy and a plan for revenge. The recognisable names provide the invitation. What those characters want from each other supplies the trouble.
James wants to destroy Peter Michaels. When Peter’s daughter Wendy enters his bar, James sees a way to get closer to his enemy. Seducing her looks useful. Developing feelings for her threatens to make a calculated plan painfully personal.
The publisher describes Hooked as a fractured fairy tale, and its subtitle identifies it as contemporary romance. That is helpful context for anyone arriving through the Peter Pan connection. This version takes place among adult relationships, family money and dangerous ambitions, with Wendy caught in James’s orbit.
Knowing a familiar story gives a reimagining a useful advantage. A name can arrive carrying years of associations before its owner has done anything on the page. The writer can then use that familiarity to create expectations, complicate them or send them somewhere else entirely.
You do not need to treat the novel as a reference-spotting exercise. The central situation is understandable on its own: someone intends to exploit another person’s trust and discovers that their feelings refuse to stay conveniently separate from the plan.
Wendy has spent much of her life sheltered by a wealthy, emotionally distant father. A night out brings her into James’s world. Meanwhile, trouble inside his organisation forces him to look for a traitor, adding uncertainty to his attempt to use her against Peter.
The emotional question is built into that first deception. Wendy and James do not begin with equal knowledge. Wendy enters the relationship without knowing James’s revenge plan. He knows what he wants from her father; she cannot judge an intention he has concealed. That imbalance makes honesty consequential long before anyone has admitted to love.
For readers who enjoy revenge plots, this is a promising source of tension. Becoming attached to a person who is supposed to be useful can expose the limits of a carefully controlled self-image. It also leaves the other person with the harder task of deciding which parts of the connection were real.
Watch what the characters know when they make their choices. The difference between an informed decision and a decision built on concealment can matter more than the strength of the attraction.
The author’s content notes list explicit sexual scenes, torture, physical assault, kidnapping and killings, along with descriptions of sexual and physical abuse involving a minor. This is an adult book with serious material behind its familiar literary references. The full notes are available on McIntire’s website.
Hooked may suit readers drawn to villain-centred romance, deception and the question of whether attachment changes a person’s priorities. The premise offers plenty of scope for divided feelings: understanding the appeal of a character while remaining unconvinced by their justifications.
That tension can make a useful book-club discussion. Consider how much freedom a romantic lead should have to remain morally compromised. Some readers want remorse and change to be central. Others are interested in a fantasy that lets a dangerous character retain those qualities. Identifying your preference helps explain a reaction more clearly than a simple verdict of love or hate.
Hooked is the first Never After book. McIntire describes the six novels as complete standalones that can be read in any order. The published sequence continues with Scarred, Wretched, Twisted, Crossed and Hexed, each drawing on a different familiar story.
That structure makes it easy to choose by the source material that interests you. Hooked gives you James and Wendy’s story without requiring a commitment to one long plot across all six books. If the broader idea appeals, another reimagining can be a separate reading choice.
The Amazon UK link here points to a paperback edition. Different editions can share a retailer page, so check the selected format and cover if you are collecting a matching set.
Hooked begins with an efficient scheme and introduces the one complication its architect cannot comfortably control: a person who starts to matter. Readers curious about the villain’s place in a love story will recognise the appeal. The more difficult question is what happens to Wendy’s choices when she becomes central to someone else’s revenge.
Book information and content notes: Sourcebooks: Hooked; Emily McIntire: books; Emily McIntire: content warnings; Emily McIntire: links and reimaginings.
Find Hooked on Amazon UK (paperback, affiliate link)
Hooked is an adult contemporary dark romance that reimagines Peter Pan names and ideas. James plans to use Wendy to get revenge on her father, Peter Michaels, until attraction complicates his scheme.
It is contemporary romance inspired by a familiar fairy tale, rather than a story requiring a magical Neverland setting. Its central themes include revenge, deception and a villain as romantic lead.
The author describes them as complete standalones that can be read in any order. The published sequence is Hooked, Scarred, Wretched, Twisted, Crossed and Hexed. Check the linked official content notes for each book.
