Neverland Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway

Welcome to my stop on the official blog tour for Neverland! Today I'll be sharing my review of the book - and don't forget to enter the fantastic giveaway! To follow the rest of the tour, click on the banner above.

Neverland

Author: Shari Arnold

Genre: YA Fairy Tale Retelling

Release Date: April 7, 2015

Description:

It’s been four months since seventeen-year-old Livy Cloud lost her younger sister, but she isn’t quite ready to move on with her life — not even close. She’d rather spend her time at the Seattle Children’s hospital, reading to the patients and holding onto memories of the sister who was everything to her and more.

But when she meets the mysterious and illusive Meyer she is drawn into a world of adventure, a world where questions abound.

Is she ready to live life without her sister? Or more importantly, is she brave enough to love again?

In this modern reimagining of Peter Pan, will Livy lose herself to Neverland or will she find what she’s been searching for?  

Neverland is a sweet modern day retelling of Peter Pan. It follows our main character - Livy - as she attempts to come to terms with her little sister's death. Even though it's been months, Livy can't move on with her life and spends her free time at the Seattle Children's Hospital, visiting and reading to the patients - which helps keep her memories of her sister alive. Enter the cute and mysterious Meyer - who intrigues Livy and promises her a life of adventure and good times. Livy isn't sure if she's ready to let go of her sister yet, but Meyer's world is seductive itself - and Livy finds herself having to choose between the fantasy of Neverland and the real world; where she just might be able to find the strength to live and love again.

I've been really loving the trend of fairy tale retellings that's been happening lately, and this book only adds to it. It's a modern day retelling of Peter Pan, which I thought might be a bit weird and would turn into some kind of fantasy. The author wove a magical story that was able to combine this well-known tale with a contemporary setting - which made it not only feel realistic, but possible as well. Our main character, Livy, is incredibly easy to identify with right from the very beginning of the book. The author uses first person point of view - from Livy's perspective - to tell the story. If you've read any of my other reviews, you know that this is by far my favorite writing style. It worked perfectly with this book because we get to experience everything that happens alongside Livy, as well as getting to know her character on an incredibly personal level. We get to be inside of her head during the whole book, so we hear her inner dialogue along with more personal thoughts and feelings - her fears, hopes, dreams, the intense pain and grief of losing her little sister, and the exciting feelings that Meyer brings out in her. By the end of the book, I felt like I truly knew Livy - it's like she was a real person instead of just a character in a story. The flow and pace of the story was smooth and natural - it felt like Livy was telling me what happened in a conversation. 

The story line is a true roller coaster of emotions - one that I fully experienced, which is unusual for me. I felt Livy's emotions - both good and bad - as if they were my own, and had visceral reactions during the entire book. I smiled, laughed, swooned, cried, and just about everything in between. When I react this way to a book, I know that I've found an author with true talent - which is precisely what happened with this novel. I loved Meyer's character and the way he was with Livy. He had so many different sides to his personality that it felt like I knew him just as well as Livy did. I can be a real sucker for romance, and I have to admit that this book brought that out in me. I loved watching Livy and Meyer as they see each other from afar then finally meet, and then as their relationship grows and blossoms during the rest of the story. But it's not just the romance between Livy and Meyer that makes this novel so fantastic. It's literally everything about it - from the writing style and the rounded characters to the setting and the flow of various emotions it evokes - and everythng in between. To me, it wasn't just a modern day retelling of Peter Pan - it was so much more than that. It deals with some very difficult topics - like grief, the death of a loved one, cancer in kids, and feeling invisible. It's not just about the hard things in life though - it also speaks of finding yourself, letting yourself be happy, falling in love, and accepting the things we can't control in life - to name a few. To me, this book was the perfect blend of romance as well as showing the full spectrum of human emotion and the ability to heal. It's so hard to try to describe what this novel became to me - probably because it's so much more than just a contemporary romance or a fairy tale retelling. It was beautifully written with a compelling story line, realistic characters, and a story full of hope, acceptance, and love. That's the closest I can come to describing how this book made me feel - aside from the huge emotional roller coaster of the story itself - and what I love about it. I can't recommend this book highly enough to fans of contemporary fiction as well as readers who enjoy fairy tales, retellings, romance, and books that deal with serious life topics. You don't want to miss out on this book!!

Shari Arnold grew up in California and Utah but now resides in Connecticut, with her husband and two kids, where she finds it difficult to trust a beach without waves. She writes Young Adult fiction because it's her favorite. And occasionally she takes photographs. 

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Giveaway: (1) Print copy of Neverland + $10 Amazon Gift Card - Open to US only!

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