Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Age Level: 12 & up | Grades 8 & up

Let me tell you something straight off. This is a love story, but not like any you’ve heard. Dear lives are lost. And good doesn’t win. In some place, there is something ultimately good about endings. In Neverland, that is not the case.

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.

First things first, I love retellings and adaptations of classic stories. When I read the title Tiger Lily, I knew it was Peter Pan. Who doesn’t love that Lost Boy! I went into this story not knowing what to expect, I was trying to figure out just how someone could write a Tiger Lily/Peter Pan love story that would be….good?!? Would it work? Could it work? Well Jodi Lynn Anderson did! It is the most beautiful story told through the eyes of Tink! Yes, Tinkerbell is telling us this story of love, betrayal and loss. Tinkerbell is a faerie you see, she can’t talk so she is able to hear and observe the world around her at a heightened awareness. She is also able to convey what she sees like no one else. She is able to give us the scoop on what ALL the characters are thinking, she gets right in there with them! We see everyone in this story, including Captain Hook and the Lost Boys! Tinkerbell is my favorite character in Peter Pan, so I was in love with the idea that she was omniscient because as you know good and well, all faeries are! We learn so much about Tiger Lily in this story not only what we already know about her being brave, loyal and strong but she is compassionate, loving and selfless as we learn while this story unfolds. Keeping with the original dark tale of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, this isn’t your Disney-happily-ever-after fairytale. There is swoon worthy romance which is important in fairy-tales even in dark fairy-tales, believe me, you will not be disappointed in this book! Never really being a fan of Wendy, even in the Disney cartoon, (my favorite part was when the mermaids were trying to drown her…hehe) I didn’t like her much in this book either, but you may. Did I love this book? YES!!! Do I think you should read it? ABSOLUTELY!!! Not your “typical” happily-ever-after, this story is bittersweet, somewhat dark and oh so lovely!