Review: HOOKED BY THE ALTERNATE REALITY
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 21, 2013
HOOKED BY THE ALTERNATE REALITYIn between eating bon-bons and watching soap operas (oh, the luxuries of being a stay-at-home Mom!) I volunteer / tutor in the local schools.  Before you think I'm too altruistic, just remember that I am a control freak, and this way I'm in my kids' schools.  `Nuff said.  Anyway... the primary school library has these really cool books by Disney called My Side of the Story: Peter Pan/Captain Hook (Disney Princess: My Side of the Story), where favorite pairs get to tell their side of the story.  HOOK'S PAN by Marie Hall reminds me of this - but in a truly grown-up fashion.I read this as a stand-alone book - it is #5 in a series of 5 - so I caught the "end" of the Kingdom Series.  (PLEASE NOTE that I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an HONEST review.)  The fact I hadn't read the prior four did NOT detract from the book; if you are not familiar with the Kingdom series you can still very easily lose yourself in this book.  While other characters are referenced in the book, it doesn't con-volute the plot of "Hook's Pan".To answer some basic questions:  Kingdom is another.... dimension, which is where you can find Neverland.  Think Earth in the Milky Way.  Fairy tales are based on "real" people - but sometimes the story is wrong.  While I may have a lot of Tinkerbell "stuff" in my bathroom decor, Hall's Tinkerbell is far from sweet & kind.  Pan is a sadistic little terrorist.  And yes, Hook is still "bad" - but hey, at least he has SOME moral guidelines to his "bad-ness".  I don't want to get into plot spoilers, so I will let other readers know that there is a "Happily Ever After" (seriously - that's how the book ends - with those actual words).  You will be dazzled by the descriptive efforts of Marie Hall to build Kingdom.  There are some sex scenes so don't be caught off guard by it (this book is NOT appropriate for teens!).  There is some karma payback in the book and the inverted view of the Hook/Pan conflict results from something very sad.I normally try to veer away from "fantasy" type books; it's just never really been my "thing".  However, when I realized this was fifth in a series I wanted to give it a shot -- and I'm GLAD that I did!  I will be checking out the first four books (plus it looks like there is a "bridge" novella to her next series) when I get a chance!