The Never King and The Dark One

What makes something dark romance? Is it the stalking, the blood, the bad life choices?

Is it the blatant disregard for the others’ safety while simultaneously only holding their safety in regard? 

It’s not my go to. Not because it’s too much. It’s just not enough of the right things to keep me coming back time and time again. 

But just like the times I need a ‘pallet cleanser’ from fantasy or cozy. I need a palette cleaner from safe and predictable. 

And you know how much I enjoy a retelling. A Peter Pan retelling at that!

The Darlings are fucked cursed.

Long ago, Granny Darling stole Peter’s shadow. And memories are handed down generation to generation.

So Peter and his friends have kidnapped the Darling women the moment they turn 18, whisking them away to Neverland to dig into their minds, breaking them and turning them crazy, only to come up empty handed and return them to the real world. 

Now there are two kinds of shadows, light and dark. Naturally. 

Peter chose the light shadow many, many, many, years ago. The light shadow gives him dominion over Neverland. The island basically can’t hurt him and responds to his will. It also feeds off of him, but also feeds him endless life. Like a symbiotic relationship.

The dark one on the other hand feels like it takes over the persons ability to reason. It craves violence and death.

In the book Peter is accompanied by three right hand men. They are not lost boys, but they are definitely not found. 

Two are fae princes of the faery court. They were banished for killing their father, even though their father was planning ot kill them. It is a crime to kill a fellow faery, typically one they are put down for. But since our boys are princes they were only banished and Peter took them in.

The third is a dark king from another island. An island that relishes in the violent nature of the dark shadow, but this king wanted to walk away from that.

There are lost boys but Peter is not close to any of them. Instead he’ll rip out their heart if they even look at Winnie Darling the wrong way. 

Winnie thought she would be terrified. She had heard her mothers crazy whisperings all her life. About a world of fae, and pirates, and of Peter Pan.

But Winnie is a little crazy herself. Not in a psychosis like her mother, but in a way that leaves her feeling like she has nothing to lose. 

And using her body to get by in life is nothing new to her. 

So when the four men try to chain her up to begin her torture, she leans into it. And it doesn’t take long to turn them.

The fae princes go first. They are well meaning to Peter but he is not their king. They have magic to control illusions and use it to calm Winnie down when she gets a little hysteric.

And they like to watch each other take her. -Yum!

Peter doesn’t hold out much longer. Though he makes Winnie beg for it.

And just an honorary mention for the princes tying her up to the tree and making her cum over, and over, and over. And over! Again!

Some people truly are blessed.

Now without the shadow Peter is weaker. So during the day he has to go underground and wait to come out at night. He also can’t fly. But he is stronger than human men, and has a nasty little habit of inflicting just enough pain.

It’s the dark king that holds out the longest. But when he cracks it’s dark. He doesn’t take her for her pleasure but only for his. Nearly killing her in the process.

Now Peter wants his shadow back and it becomes apparent Winnie doesn’t know where it is. So they call in the Queen of the fae, the boys sister. 

She ignores her once brothers and performs her magic on Winnie, basically digging into Winnie’s subconscious. This is what they have done to every Darling before her, and it’s the exact thing that makes them lose their minds.

But our girl is tough! The fae queen is ruthless, and doesn’t like humans. As she begins to dig she makes it hurt unnecessarily for Winnie. But Winnie endures.

She lets the queen dig and bears down against the pain. 

And see’s something.

The queen doesn’t actually want Winnie to see the truth, for if she does she’ll see it wasn’t Winnie’s great grandma, but the queen herself that stole the shadow. 

The Queen can’t lay hands on the shadow so she forced Granny Darling to do the physical part. But it was the queen’s plan and volition.

Winnie also saw where the queen hide the shadow. In an old chest back in the real world. The only piece of furniture her family has handed down every generation. 

The queen leaves, not knowing Winnie knows her secret. And the crew heads to the real world and to get the shadow.

Well there are two shadows of Neverland, and the dark one was never claimed. 

They get the chest after a small battle with the gnome people that serve the queen and bring them to Neverland. But when they open the lid both shadows make a break for it. The four men split up to catch the shadows but the dark one is too violent to grab and the light one is too nimble to catch.

Now Hook doesn’t have a huge role, at least not yet, but he gets wind of the shadows back on Neverland and hunts down the light shadow.

He wants to make a trade with Peter, his sister for the shadow. But in reality he just wants to kill Peter and the Croc, who happens to be the dark king’s brother.

Well in classic Hook fashion he fumbles the ball. The light shadow gets away from him, he gets a good hit on Peter but he doesn’t plan for the violence of the dark king’s shadow.

No one dies, except a few henchmen. 

Now Hooks sister is named Cherry. Hook gave her to Peter as part of a peace treaty decades ago. She hated it at the moment but has been pining for the dark king for decades. 

He gives in from time to time, but he is rough, brutally so. She has also been with the fae princes but she’s not really their type.

So naturally, there is some jealousy over Winnie when all four men agree to be with her, and only her. 

Cherry knows Peter wants to send her back to the pirates, and that Hook is only using her as a pawn.

So when the men leave to deal with Hook, leaving Winnie in the treehouse unsupervised, Cherry takes the opportunity.

The Dark shadow made it’s way to Cherry’s room, trying to hide from everyone. Cherry shoves Winnie inside and holds the door closed until the banging and screaming stops.

When she opens the door it’s not just Winnie on the other side. 

What a cliff hanger!

I took a break from reading and reviews for a while, as you’re well aware. But writing this review just renewed my vigor for this series. I already have the next two books…

Overall  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | 💕 Would Recommend   | ⚫ R – Restricted / Adult-Only (Ages 21+)

Worldbuilding🗺️🗺️

Ick Factor 😇 

Fangirl Moments 💖💖💖

Spice🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Errors/Plot Holes

Tropes: Retelling, Dark Romance, Spicy, Smut, Romantasy, Fantasy, Why Choose, Found Family, Morally Gray

Title: The Never King and The Dark One

Author: Nikki St.Crowe

Genre: Romance, Fantasy 

Series: Vicious Lost Boys

Format: Physical

Release Date: February and April, 2022

Length: 196 and 226 pages