second star – Mithah Reads

Title: Second Star
Author: JM Sullivan
Publisher: Bleeding Ink Publishing
Publish Date: March 5, 2019
Book Form: E-ARC
Pages: 352
Genre: Sci-Fi, Retelling
Dates Read: Jan 12 – Feb 9
Rating: ★★.75

Thank you to Netgalley and Bleeding Ink Publishing for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and feelings are my own.

Wendy Darling worked her entire life to rise through the ranks of the prestigious Londonierre Brigade. Now as a Captain, she has everything she’s always wanted, including a ship and crew of her own. But when the Brigade receives a strange transmission from the legendary James Hooke, lost a hundred years earlier in uncharted space and presumed dead, Wendy is willing to risk it all to rescue her hero. She races to the planet known only as Neverland; her mission to find the long-lost crew and bring them home.
But there is more to Neverland than meets the eye, and more to Hooke than what was written in history books. When Wendy crash lands on the ominous planet, she quickly discovers Neverland’s dark secret; a malevolent being known as The Shadow that’s looking for a host body to escape its eternal prison. To fulfill her mission, Wendy must decide whether to trust the dashing Hooke or the mysterious Fleet mechanic who goes by the name of Pan–and she has to decide quickly…
Before the darkness consumes them all.
– Goodreads

I wanted to love Second Star. I really did. It came highly recommended from my friend Sarah. We have pretty much the same taste in books so I figured I would love it, too. I finally decided on a 2.75 star rating. I kept going back and forth between a 2.5-3 star rating. I’ll tell you why.

I spent a lot of the book confused. There were SO MANY characters. I couldn’t keep up with who was with what crew, what they did, let alone their names. And it was all important! But I guess I just didn’t care enough to go back and look?

I actually liked Wendy. I found her pov to be pretty interesting. She was strong and commanding and I loved that strong female presence! On the other hand, I hated Peter’s pov. I just couldn’t connect with him. I felt his parts just drug on forever.

The villain wasn’t a strong presence to me either. I felt it was just kind of thrown in. It was meant to be a big climax at the ending of the book, but I just didn’t feel the fear or worry for the characters I was supposed to.

There was some good in the book! I liked the little romance we got between Wendy and Peter. I thought it was sweet and it was a nice slow burn. The ending was also pretty interesting. It’s what really saved the book for me.

Now let’s talk about those read dates. I picked up and put down this book from Jan 12 till Feb 9. It took me forever. I just couldn’t get into it. I think it’s part of why I slumped so hard last month. It was an arc, so I didn’t want to dnf. But now I’m done, proud of myself for finishing and I’m moving on to the next!

Like I said, I gave it a 2.75 star review. The ending saved it from being a 2.5 star, but I didn’t like it enough to be a 3 star. I give a lot of books 3 stars, and it wasn’t on the same calibur as those books.

Have you read Second Star? What were your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below!

Until next time…

Here’s another WWW Wednesday! This week is flying by! If you want to participate, this post is easy! Just answer the three W’s:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you will read next?

What am I currently reading?

Second Star by JM Sullivan

This is a Sci-Fi Peter Pan retelling. My friend Sarah raved about it! I had a little trouble getting into it, but sci-fi isn’t really my thing. It’s picking up though!

What did I recently finish?

Evil Has a Name by Paul Holes and Jim Clemente

Finished the audio yesterday. I have become obsessed with the Golden State Killer, so I loved getting to see how the FBI profiled him and how they used genetics and ancestry to find him!