Review: Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Title: Tiger Lily
Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson
Publication: July 3rd by HarperTeen
Genre: Young Adult
Format: Hardcover, 292 pages
Cover Rating: 5/5
Content Rating: 5/5
First Line: She stands on the cliffs, near the old crumbling stone house.
Purchase: The Book Depository ~ Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Kobo

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.

From the "New York Times" bestselling author of "Peaches" comes a magical and bewitching story of the romance between a fearless heroine and the boy who wouldn't grow up.

My thoughts: 
Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson is definitely my new favorite read of 2012. I was entranced by the beautiful, poetic and beautifully descriptive writing that attracted my attention instantly. This is not a typical Young Adult book. Be warned; it will leave you heartbroken and yet make you crave more of Neverland. It doesn't matter if you have read the original story by J.M. Barrie or not. You'll be enraptured by this enthralling retelling of Peter Pan.

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

I've always loved the disney version of Peter Pan ever since I was a little kid, as I'm sure everyone does, so as soon as  I saw Tiger Lily was coming out I knew I had to have it no matter what. I had seen some great reviews about it going around on Goodreads. Almost all were 4 or 5 star reviews so it made me only more determinded to get it. Also, I just adore this cover. I loved it  as soon as I laid eyes on it. Just like the book itself the cover looks very enchanting. 

I've never read anything by Jodi Lynn Anderson but I fell in love with her writing instantly. It was so poetically descriptive and just beautiful. I couldn't get enough of it! 
Tiger Lily is told not from Tiger Lily's point of view but Tinker Bell's. I thought it was simply fantastic! I had never read any books where the story is told through someone else's eyes. I kind of wish other books were like that, but then again... maybe that's just the brilliance of this book; how different it is. I came to care a lot about Tinker Bell and loved how loyal she was to Tiger Lily and wanted to protect her from all harm. Even when she loved Peter too, she didn't waver. 

Tiger Lily by far is one of the loneliest characters I've ever come across. But that's one of the reasons that makes her so amazing. She's strong; inside and out, fierce, restless and so courageous. It's no wonder Tinker Bell felt the need to follow her everywhere to see what she would do next. Her life at the tribe has never been easy. Her fellow tribe members thinks she's cursed and her adoptive father, who's the shaman has arranged her to marry one of the most horrible people I have ever read about. Giant. His name says it all, doesn't it? 
But then she meets Peter Pan. Oh, Peter. He's all kinds of things all at once. Wild, savage even, beautiful, lonely, charming, frustrating, and the list goes on and on. I couldn't help but fall for him as much as Tiger Lily did. She knew he might've been bad news but there's really no helping yourself with him.

“The bad things are some of my favorites," Peter said.

The romance between the two of them was very sweet. When Peter first gave Tiger Lily a kiss on the back of her neck I just was ready to die from cuteness! Or the wolf pup thing! (You'll know when you read it! :D) ♥ Yes, Peter stole my heart with that! How could he not?
I was rooting for them even though I knew they would not end up together. 

I also liked some of the more side characters like Tik Tok and Pine Sap. 
Pine Sap was so cute! He's always been Tiger Lily's friend no matter what. Not even when she ignored him or anything like that. I'm thrilled that he got his happy ending for himself and her too, eventually after all the crap he went through all his life. It's really true that he read Tiger Lily better than anyone.

“He even listened to more than her sounds, because Tiger Lily was a girl of few words. He listened with his eyes, watched her facial expressions, judged body language, and therefore read Tiger Lily better than anyone else.”  

The Lost Boys were adorable. Every single one of them. And of course the baby called Baby was so cute. Especially when Peter was taking care of him.
Captain Hook was pretty much how I pictured him. Sad, lonely and vengeful. Smee simply gave me the creeps. I also loved how the mermaids were a big part of the story.
I hated when the bad shit when down with Tik Top and Phillip. I had seen it coming a long time ago. Phillip was bad news. Such bad news! I just wanted to scream out loud. I wanted to hurt Phillip for all that he did. He made me so mad and frustrated! Poor Tik Tok. He didn't deserve it at all. 

I didn't think it was possible but this book made me hate on Wendy so so much. Seriously, she ruined everything the moment she came in. She thought she was in her own little novel starring as the heroine, and Peter was the hero...

It felt so hurtful to me when Peter started hanging out with Wendy instead of Tiger Lily because I cared so much for the girl with the crow feather in her hair. Even when she was filled with rage and hurt it was hard not to feel for her. It was all simply heartbreaking and I found myself weepy by the end of it all.

I will never ever forget this book and all the wonderful characters. It even makes me want to read the original story. Will I reread Tiger Lily sometime? I'm not sure. I don't think I'd be able to handle reading it again but maybe, who knows...
The one thing that really made my heart break into a million little pieces was the letter Peter had written to Tiger Lily. I had so many emotions when I was reading it, I can hardly describe them even now or I'll start crying. Keep the tissues ready! 
I fell in love with Neverland from the first moment on. It was like a pull that kept me wanting to read more and more of this wonderful enchanting world and it never ever disappointed me.
Tiger Lily was the most wonderful, exciting, sad, beautiful emotional rollercoaster I have ever been on.

~Favorite quotes~

“I recognized Tiger Lily instantly; I had seen her before. She stood out like a combination of a roving panther and a girl. She stalked instead of walked. Her body still held the invincibility of a child, when at her age it should have been giving way to fragile, flexible curves.”

“How can I describe Peter's face, the pieces of him that stick to my heart? Peter sometimes looked aloof and distant; sometimes his face was open and soft as a bruise. Sometimes he looked completely at Tiger Lily, as if she were the point on which all the universe revolved, as if she were the biggest mystery of life, or as if she were a flame and he couldn't not look even though he was scared. And sometimes it would all disappear into carelessness, confidence, amusement, as if he didn't need anyone or anything on this earth to feel happy and alive.”

“If there was a true moment that Tiger Lily fell so in love with Peter she could never turn back, it was that night, when he shivered and walked and told her he was warm, and told her he loved her so much. She was fierce, to be sure, but she had a girl's heart, after all. As she walked home that night, she was shaking from the largeness of it.”

“Maybe all of her strangeness, her curse, her always feeling like an outsider, had all existed so that she could belong here, with Peter.”

~About the author~

I write books about vaguely magical peach orchards, resorts in the afterlife
, enigmatic island princesses beloved by Tinkerbell, and...civics! I was an awkward and strange child who kept lots of secrets. Now I live with a sweet Basenji dog named Peanut who loves to eat shoes, and a sweet husband who is good at all the things I'm bad at, like being organized and thinking things through. I've loved writing and reading about mythical and strange things since I can remember.

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