About the Book

Book: Shadow
Author: Kara Swanson
Series: Heirs of Neverland, Book 2
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Release Date: July 13, 2021

Peter Pan has crash-landed back on Neverland. But this is not the island he remembers.

Desperate to rescue Claire and the fractured Lost Boys, Peter must unravel what truly tore his dreamland apart. But with each step, he is haunted by more of his own broken memories. Not even Pan himself is what he seems.

Claire Kenton is chained to a pirate ship, watching the wreckage of Neverland rocked by tempests. When she finally finds her brother, Connor is every bit as shattered as the island. Claire may have pixie dust flowing in her veins—but the light of Neverland is flickering dangerously close to going out forever.

To rescue Neverland from the inescapable shadow, the boy who never grew up and the girl who grew up too fast will have to sacrifice the only thing they have left: each other.

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My Thoughts

Gah!! What can I say?! I LOVED this book and I am so sad that this is the last one (insert crying book reader!) This book leaves you right where the last one ended so immediately it captivates you and you are submerged once again into Neverland. If you haven't read the first one it is imperative that you do so as you will be completely lost on the storyline if you try to start with this one. Trust me DO NOT DO IT!!

I will not be disclosing ANYTHING from the storyline but what I can tell you is that we do find out what happens to Connor and what he has been up to this whole time, we see a completely new twist to the story of "Peter Pan" that I was totally not expecting at all (this is definitely not the Disney Peter Pan we are used to... SO MUCH BETTER!!) and the ending was superb!!

Here is what I can tell you Kara Swanson has a beautiful gift for creating a world in which you are deeply submerged into, characters that you fall in love with and are truly engaged with and definitely imbeds the element of faith without being in your face about it. The ultimate truth is simple. Even in the darkness there is light. God is our light. He is all we need when we face those dark moments in our life.

This is considered a YA book but let me tell you I definitely would consider this a book for everyone! All I have to do know is acquire both paperbacks (I own the ebooks) so they can live in my bookshelves and I can pick them up and re-read them!

My Rating: 5 Stars/ LOVED IT!! I need more!!

Here's my review on Book One if you want to check it out! - Dust

I received a copy of this book through Celebrate Lit. I was not required to post a positive review. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.

About the Author

As the daughter of missionaries, Kara Swanson spent her childhood running barefoot through the lush jungles of Papua New Guinea. Able to relate with characters dropped into a unique new world, she quickly fell in love with the fantasy genre. The award-winning author of The Girl Who Could See, Kara is passionate about crafting stories of light shattering darkness, connecting with readers, and becoming best friends with a mermaid—though not necessarily in that order. Kara chats about coffee, fairytales and bookish things online (@karaswansonauthor) and at karaswanson.com.

More from Kara

One of my favorite CS Lewis quotes is this:

“Some day you’ll be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”

There’s something subtly profound about the idea that the very stories which captivate our imagination and shape our perspective on good and evil as children, will reveal more gems when we return to them later. When we’ve conquered some dragons of our own.

This was especially true when I write my Peter Pan retelling duology Dust and Shadow. These YA novels literally return to a fairy tale. I took a familiar story and dug even deeper, pushing Peter himself to grow a little more and see what new bits of pixie dust and hope there may be in a familiar story.

But there is another reason why our hearts gravitate toward fairy tales.

I think GK Chesterton put it brilliantly in a quote that is actually at the very front of Shadow:

“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”

Because maybe even more than being reminded of the whimsy of a fairy, we need the reminder that even in a world filled with dragons – they can be killed.

We can conquer.

And that simple truth, told a hundred different ways, will always lift our hearts and our chins.

Shadow was not an easy book to write – and it is not a particularly lighthearted tale. It is raw and vulnerable and at times lives up to it’s title in some darker moments. But there is always a sense of courage there too. A reminder that even in the shadowed places, the valleys, the instances that steal our breath and twist our hearts and make us wonder if all is lost –

There is another page to turn. Another step to take.

We are not finished.

No matter how young we are, we can strap on our armor, lift our swords, and fight for the light.

We are not overcome because our strength does not come from us.

It comes from our King.

And in the end, He will make all wrongs right, and there will be a happy ending to our tale, even if it may not be the ending we expect.

Because it may not be easy to slay the dragon, but as the fairy tales do remind us –

The important thing is that they can be slain.