Review: Tiger Lily

Title: Tiger Lily
Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson
Release Date: July 3, 2012
Source: bought

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.

Nancy’s Review:

I can still feel the big lump in my throat and the stinging in my eyes as I try not to cry. I just finished reading Tiger Lily and I have never felt as enamored by the idea of “love” as I do right now. This book told such a powerful and emotional tale, that it has left me almost speechless. I loved it. It was absolutely incredible. Tiger Lily was everything I expected and more.

Right from the moment that I saw it on goodreads.com, I rushed to order it on Amazon (with rushed shipping), because I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I put aside the other books I was reading and completely immersed myself in the story. Tiger Lily is the story of THE Tiger Lily from the book written by J.M. Barrie, which was adapted into a hugely famous Disney movie later on. I have never read Peter Pan, though I’ve seen the Disney movie so many times that I have lost count. It was one of those movies that you watch over and over again as a kid, because you just want to jump into it and you wish your life was as magical as it was for the characters in the movie. So, inspired by my love of Disney’s Peter Pan, I began Tiger Lily.

What first grabbed my attention when I started the book was the writing style of the author. It was beautiful! It was deep, moving, and definitely thought-provoking. Through this book I saw all the characters that I loved so much in a whole new way. They were no longer two dimensional characters as I viewed them in the movie, without thinking of their lives outside of what I was actually seeing. Reading Tiger Lily gave me new perspective that I wasn’t expecting. They were suddenly very much real, with real feelings, past lives, and obstacles to overcome. Of course, my favorite one was Tiger Lily. She completely changed from what I once thought her to be. She became her own person, and what a great person she was! She was simply amazing. I could definitely see why Tink and Peter were so fond of her. 

Tinker Bell, the narrator, gives the reader a very up close and personal look into the life of Tiger Lily… her family, friends, strengths, weaknesses, everything. I found myself admiring Tiger Lily, just as Tinker Bell did. She truly was an inspiring character. Through everything that happened in the book, she remained the focal point of the story. Tiger Lily had all the adventure and romance that I wanted, but it also gave me a bit more, it gave me something to think about. Some passages were so moving to me, that I had to go back to re-read them. I fell in love with all the characters, the story, the book as a whole.

Though I want to say much, much more about this book and describe everything I love in detail, it would be unfair to anyone who wants to read it. I would be ruining the magic of the story. I’ll just say that what I loved most of all was the ending, it was perfection. I couldn’t have wished for a better ending to such a great story. Some of the best books have the worst endings, and I’m happy to say that this was not one of those. I just wish I could go to sleep hugging this book without looking like a crazy person, I want to take it with me everywhere now just to tell everyone how much I loved it. I have no other words to say, other than Tiger Lily was amazing and everyone should read it.