Review: Seas by Colleen Oakes

Seas by Colleen Oakes

Wendy Darling #2

Publisher: Sparkpress

Publication Date: September 20th, 2016

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Source: Netgalley

Format: eARC

Pages: 274

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Summary (from Goodreads):

From the author of Queen of Hearts comes the much anticipated sequel to Wendy Darling.

Wendy Darling: Seas finds Wendy and Michael aboard the dreaded Sudden Night, a dangerous behemoth sailed by the infamous Captain Hook and his blood-thirsty crew. In this exotic world of mermaids, spies and pirate-feuds, Wendy finds herself struggling to keep her family above the waves. Hunted by the twisted boy who once stole her heart and struggling to survive in the whimsical Neverland sea, returning home to London now seems like a distant dream - and the betrayals have just begun. 

Will Wendy find shelter with Peter's greatest enemy, or is she a pawn in a much darker game, one that could forever alter not only her family's future, but also the soul of Neverland itself?

Likes:

I think the thing that I liked the most about this series is that Peter is the villain and the pirates are the 'heroes'. I liked learning about life aboard the Sudden Night and seeing Wendy and Michael create relationships with the different pirates. I feel like the only pirate that was actually scary was Smith, the first mate, and I think at a certain point in the book, it becomes all for show.

I like how brave Wendy has to be in this book. She has to be brave with the pirates for Michael. She has to make some tough decisions when it comes to Michael's safety and how far she's willing to go to help Hook save Neverland.

I liked that there wasn't really any romance in this book. Wendy still thinks about and has feelings for Booth. But there is no love interest for her in this book. It was really REALLY weird, but I swear when I was reading this I kept expecting Wendy and Hook to get together. I'm glad that they didn't because that would be kinda wrong, but I feel like I'm just trained to expect romance in everything I read, I was just waiting for it.

The cliffhanger at the end makes my heart hurt. I need the last installment in this series. Like now.

Dislikes:

The biggest complaint I have about this book is that I didn't feel like it did a really great job of recapping what happened in the first book. I know that Wendy left Pan Island because Peter is an actual monster, but I don't remember much of anything else. I don't remember how the Darling children ended up in Neverland. I don't remember how she actually escaped Pan Island. I don't remember how Wendy and Michael got onto the Sudden Night. I don't really remember anything about Wendy's time on Pan Island.

I mean, there are a few mentions of things that happened in book one, but 90% of the mentions of book one events are Wendy remembering how Smith slit Kitoko's neck when they were looting one of Hook's caves or whatever.

Then for as dangerous as EVERYTHING is made out to be in this book, there seemed to be a distinct lack of actual danger. I can think of two events in this book that struck me as actually dangerous. The pirates on the Sudden Night were marshmallows and Peter barely makes an appearance.

I also didn't really feel like a whole lot happened in this book.

Overall, this wasn't a terribly exciting book. It was a decent sequel and I really enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend this series if you are a big fan of Peter Pan. I am super excited to read the next book, Shadow, next year!

Have you read Stars, the first book in this series? Do you like Peter Pan retellings?