Hook's Daughter by Heidi Schulz : review

Hook's Daughter by Heidi Schulz

Published by: Chicken House

Publication date: March 5th 2015
Genres: Peter Pan Retelling

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Twelve-year-old Jocelyn dreams of becoming every bit as daring as her infamous father, Captain James Hook. Her grandfather, on the other hand, intends to see her starched and pressed into a fine society lady. When she's sent to Miss Eliza Crumb-Biddlecomb's Finishing School for Young Ladies, Jocelyn's hopes of following in her father's fearsome footsteps are lost in a heap of dance lessons, white gloves, and way too much pink.

So when Jocelyn receives a letter from her father challenging her to avenge his untimely demise at the jaws of the Neverland crocodile, she doesn't hesitate-here at last is the adventure she has been waiting for. But Jocelyn finds that being a pirate is a bit more difficult than she'd bargained for. As if attempting to defeat the Neverland's most fearsome beast isn't enough to deal with, she's tasked with captaining a crew of woefully untrained pirates, outwitting cannibals wild for English cuisine, and rescuing her best friend from a certain pack of lost children, not to mention that pesky Peter Pan who keeps barging in uninvited.

The crocodile's clock is always ticking in Heidi Schulz's debut novel, a story told by an irascible narrator who is both dazzlingly witty and sharp as a sword. Will Jocelyn find the courage to beat the incessant monster before time runs out?

My Thoughts
As many of you know I love Peter Pan Retellings, always. So, I went into this book knowing I was going to love it and I was right. I read it in 2 days. Once Jocelyn got to neverland I was glued but I thought that the build up to that sometimes dragged on a bit but you realised it was necessary to have the extremely emotional ending.

I think Heidi was great at creating characters, I loved every one of them all having their own little quirks. My two favourite characters were Roger and One-Arm-Jack. I thought Jack was a complete idiot and everything he did made me laugh and I liked Roger because of his storyline which I can't tell you because it's a spoiler.

In conclusion, it was a great debut novel and I can't wait to see what else Heidi writes. I give the book 4/5 stars. Definitely worth reading.