I will begin by saying I absolutely fell in love with the author's uniquely simplistic writing style. The author quite quickly plunged me into a mystery that captivated me until the end of the book. This was a wonderful twist on the original fairytale though, admittedly, perhaps a bit heavier than I was expecting.

I was hopeful about enjoying this fairytale retelling, but unfortunately, it didn't capture my attention as I had hoped. It fell flat for me and didn't quite meet my expectations.

I liked the book but it’s not the best Peter Pan based story. I can see it appealing to people who like those kind of things.

This is a fairytale prequel/re-telling style fantasy.

Our female main character is 20 and she has to get married to support her widowed mother and younger sister, even though that's not what she wants. And her sister's imaginary friend is not something she wants to deal with right now.

But then she ends up trapped in Nverland with her own former imaginary friend, and slowly remembering what life was like when she was a child.

Intercut with this are chapters from the point of view of the imaginary friend Jay who is going to grow up to become someone we've heard of.

This was fine, but not the book I expected it to be. Its quite dark and unhappy, and while it's a Peter Pan retelling, it's essentially the origin story for Captain Hook.

In this we're getting a lot more clarity on the abuse and suffering the lost boys and girls faced, the fact that Peter is basically a psycho and that Tinkerbell is a monster.

And it might be foolish to expect any kind of happy ending in a villain origin story, but it's quite a depressing ending!

3.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

Light of the Second Star was my first time in the world of Neverland outside of cinema. This story reeled me in from the very start. The worlds created were both real and magical weaved between a child's reality and the places she slips away to when left to her own imaginings. The setting of this story had me longing for the freedom of the woods I was fortunate to grow up near. The pictures painted were vivid and detailed and altogether real.

For the first ten years of Louisa (Lou) Webber's life she was an only child. She divided her time between playing with her only friend Jay, reading with her father and trying ever so hard to be perfect just to please her mother. No matter how hard she tried she just could not get the third one right. As her tenth birthday approached so did the arrival of her mother's new baby. The one that her mother had always hoped for. Many things were lost to Lou that tenth year, but it wasn't until she was grown at 19 for her to see these things for what they truly were.

Raccio's fairy tale is all that I could hope for in a book. Not all sunshine and rainbows, but a true tale of life, friendship, found family and the hidden horrors that can come for us at any time. This book was a delight to read, as an adult I appreciate every little nuance and lesson to be learned. Although a bit dark at times, I really think this book would be fun to read with kids too. All the characters here are done with much consideration. There are no slow parts to this book. I think most kids would be up for the adventure.

A heartbreaking retelling of the Peter Pan storyline.<br /><br />I am a sucker for Peter Pan and fairytale retellings. Light of the Second Star was an average read; not the best but not the worst. The book was darker than I imagined it would be but I enjoyed that aspect. And by dark, I mean emotionally not spice-wise. The story follows Lou and Jay as the main characters. Lou and Jay are similar to the original Wendy and Hook. <br /><br />Lou makes it to the island because she becomes lost - a twist on the lost only being boys. Lou's story breaks your heart in the best of ways. Lou desires to be a pirate over a mermaid -- going for the dangerous, dark character over the traditional gender role of a young lady.<br /><br />The pacing felt a bit off at times and the timeline became confusing. The book speeds up halfway through but it takes a bit to get there. My recommendation is start sooner on intrigue, mystery, and twists to keep readers engaged.

I unfortunately didn't feel massively connected or engaged with this story or the characters. I'm not 100% certain that this is the books fault though - I have been reading a lot of fairytale retellings. I will revisit this title at another time.

• 𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖐 𝕽𝖊𝖛𝖎𝖊𝖜 •
Light of the Second Star by Vanessa Raccio is a heartbreaking fantasy read. Another testimony of how retellings may give an already beloved literary piece a completely new perspective is this novel. I was mesmerised. These characters—many of whom are children—deal with both the positive and negative truths of life. As adults, we sometimes fail to remember that complexity was something we had to deal with even as kids. That was brilliantly illustrated in this book. I would be happy to thank Raccio for the pleasure of experiencing my rollercoaster of emotions. We overlook the fact that bad guys are made, not born. I felt guilty after reading Jay's narrative in an empathic manner. Most of the time, individuals genuinely want to be appreciated. The only thing I had to complain about was that the ending seemed to go on forever, but each chapter was necessary. When I got to chapter 7, I felt like the plot started to get extremely interesting. After that, the speed picked up, and I found myself unable to put the book down. Really heartbreaking, and not at all what I expected, was how it ended. It's cathartic. Overall, it's a wonderful story that I recommend to dark fantasy readers.

Another spicy Peter Pan retelling but for me this one fell flat. It was similar to many books written before it. I wasn’t engaged and indeed felt like I had to punish myself to finally finish it

I do enjoy Peter Pan retellings and this one has an interesting twist. While this is darker than I expected, it's what makes the story work. The one drawback is that the story did not flow and could have been executed better.

Another excellent Peter Pan retelling. Mixing new with old characters and staying relatively true to the original version and sneaking in some of the others, Vanessa did an excellent job transporting me to the island and the imaginary friend aspect was truly the icing on the cake. I will be recommending this novel left and right!

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

"You see, something that has not yet been discovered cannot be caged, let alone named. It can simply… exist. Just how it is. Forever. Not knowing something means there is the possibility of everything."

Light of the Second Star is Vanessa Raccio's second book and a standalone fantasy retelling of Peter Pan, first published on June 6th, 2023. In this novel, we follow Louisa Webber, a future wife, and Jay, her old imaginary friend, as they try to free Peter Pan in order that Louisa can return home.

I would like to start by saying that I picked up this book because it was advertised as a Peter Pan retelling, and it did not disappoint! I am a fan of Peter Pan as it is one of my favourite Disney movies, but is a loose retelling so it is even better (of course, Wendy and Louisa are really similar characters, and some characters and places are inspired by Peter Pan's universe, but the story is not the same). Although it is a Peter Pan retelling, the content of the book is not really made for children and I highly suggest checking the trigger warnings before reading this book.

The pacing was quite slow in the beginning and I felt like the story began to really be interesting when I reached chapter 7, and then it got really interesting and I could not stop reading. The end was… really sad, I did not expect this at all.
As aforementioned, Louisa is a character who is very similar to Wendy Darling: she's the eldest daughter and a girl who doesn't really want to grow up and be an adult, but she is forced to by her parents. Jay is her imaginary friend, and although he might seem like the Peter Pan equivalent in the story, he is not (I found out who he was after reading the book, it sadly didn't seem that obvious and I wish I had known it beforehand).
I feel like, even if it is a Peter Pan retelling, it is also a tale about growing up and refusing to meet the expectations that your close ones and family set for you. It is a tale about making decisions and choosing what is right for you.

I highly recommend reading this book if, like me, you liked Peter Pan but wanted a different end for Wendy.

I really enjoyed this retelling!

I will say I've never actually read the J.M. Barrie version of Peter Pan, so this comparison is based on the Disney version of the story. I loved getting to see different motivations and deep backstories for these characters.

I am looking forward to reading more of Raccio's work.
3.5 rounded up

While the Light Of The Second Star storyline captured my heart, sadly the actual book did not.

This story tells of the past and the present and focuses on Jay’s experience aka Hook but when he was a little boy and his friendship with human girl Louisa.

It was hard to differentiate between past, present and the dreamlike imaginary scenes. Most of the time I had to reread a lot of the paragraphs to understand exactly what was happening in the story.

I’m not even sure how to describe the characters in this book because they are just as confusing. We have a domineering degrading mother who treats her adult daughter Louisa as a piece of furniture. Louisa who acts like a child but is really a 20 year old woman (she probably acts like that considering the way her mother treats her).

There are other things that haven’t been explained like the name calling of Samuel by calling him Wet Samuel.

Overall, it was okay but it wasn’t great.

Thank you Netgalley and Victor Editing for the digital copy of Light Of The Second Star

While I loved the premise of the book, I personally thought the delivery fell a little flat, especially in the middle part of the book. I thought the characters' struggles were treated very carefully, and I was really inetrested on how these were eventually solved. The ending had me very emotional, which is a great point for the author!

This book is just another example of how re-tellings can add a whole new dimension to a work of already beloved literature.

I was captivated. These characters- most of them children- deal with the realities of life, both the light and the dark. Sometimes, as Growns, we forget that even in our childhood we dealt with complexity. This book showcased that beautifully. My emotions were a rollercoaster,and I would gladly thank Raccio for the pleasure.

We forget that villains aren’t born, they are created. Reading Jay’s story as one of empathy racked me with guilt. Often people really are only asking to be loved.

My only complaint was that the ending felt extremely long, however each chapter contained within was needed. Thank you for the privilege of reading an ARC through NetGalley. There are many new quotes in my book journal ❤️

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC. I really enjoyed reading this title. It was fast-paced and full of twists and turns. The ending has left me shocked. I wouldn't have seen the twist coming. It was an interesting spin on the story of Peter Pan.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy of light of the second star. This was such a wonderful story and a little dark at times.