Review: Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Published: July 3, 2012
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 304  
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Synopsis: Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . . .

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.

Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything--her family, her future--to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.

With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it's the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who's everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.

My Review: When I first saw this book I was a bit skeptical. As a kid I loved the Peter Pan movie so I wasn't sure if this would completely ruin the whole Neverland magic for me or not. Instead I loved Peter Pan and Neverland more than I ever thought I would!

Tiger Lily is told from Tinker Bell's POV. Not Tiger Lily's POV like I thought it would be. At first I was a little disappointed about that because I wanted to experience everything through Tiger Lily but as I continued reading I thought that Tinker Bell's POV was perfect because you don't get to see things from just one character, you get to slip into the minds of many different characters. You get to see why Tinker Bell was such a jealous little faerie but you also got to see why other characters acted the way they did.

The first part of the book before Tiger Lily met Peter Pan was somewhat boring, but not at the same time. I wasn't very interested in Tiger Lily in the beginning of the book but at the same time I couldn't stop reading. After awhile Tiger Lily really started to grow on me. She isn't your average girl. She's courageous and when she meets Peter she doesn't automatically fall in love with him. It takes some time for her to actually warm up to him.

By the end of the book I was all for Peter Pan and Tiger Lily. But from the beginning it's no secret that they won't end up together.

"Let me tell you something straight off. This is a love story, but not like any you've ever heard. The boy and the girl are far from innocent. Dear lives are lost. And good doesn't win."

But I couldn't help but wish that somehow everything would turn out to be alright even when I knew it wouldn't. Tiger Lily was a bittersweet book that had me sobbing so hard I could barely read the pages but it also had me smiling.

So if you love anything to do with Peter Pan then I suggest you read this.