Jodi Lynn Anderson

This young-adult novel focuses on 3 women, all of whom are interconnected in some way: we open with Adri Ortiz, who has been chosen, in 2065, when the novel opens, to be one of the first colonists of Mars. While awaiting her launch, she bunks down with a distant relative and discovers the letters and diary of one Cathy, trying to live through the 1930s dust bowl in Kansas, and then finds another mystery woman's letters, from one Lenore in England, 1919.

How these women are all connected, and show more how Adri grows in emotional maturity through them and what they have to teach her, are the subjects of this lovely, lovely novel.

The characters here are very well written, including Lily, with sensitivity to their different life situations, historical truths, and emotional insecurities. What binds them together is not only the facts of their relationships to one another, but also their being, in their separate times periods and ages, on the cusp of life's adventures and growth to adulthood. Each in their way must come to terms with family, history, their own realities, and face their own challenges, insecurities, and hopes and dreams.

I really loved this book. The women here are finely tuned and written, and each has a wonderful story to tell.

The title refers to a specific time and place in the history of one of the girls, a place which holds tremendous hope for her. It is a metaphor for the hopes and dreams of all the girls here.

Thank you to the author and publisher for a review copy. show less

**This review and more can be found at Love at First Write!**

I was given a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I’d been in a bit of a reading slump the last year or so because of academics taking up most of my free time and me wanting to hang out with friends and watch movies with the little left over time that I had. This book is definitely a cure for reading slumps! I’ve been reading it over the past couple days and every time I set it down I was show more itching to pick it back up again. I had my doubts at first as to how this book was going to have well developed characters, a plot, and three POV’s while still being as short as it is. All I can say is that it must be magic.

The novel starts of with Adri’s POV. She’s from 2065 and is going to MARS. Holy cow! I thought that future Jodi painted for me cool, frightening, and realistic. There’s some political/social commentary about the generations before her ruining the planet and the waterline rising aka the destruction of the coast. That is something I can get behind in my YA. Heck Yes to the woke AF authors who are using their writing platform to subliminally send messages. We also have Katherine in the Dust Bowl as a POV and Lenore in England during The Great War. Adri is piecing together their past lives while also working out her own. How their story lines mingle and interconnect was so creative, it honestly felt like a historical fiction novel rather than 100% made up plot. The journal and letters just felt so realistic even though we were only reading one side of a conversation. This book was everything I needed and more.

This book was so wholesome and refreshing. Seriously- it was like a breath of fresh air. When I received this book from Ebony over at HarperTeen I thought I recognized the author name. Turns out I was given a previous work of hers (Peaches) by an elementary school teacher of mine. She gets sent free books to potentially add to her classroom and gave me a pile when I last volunteered with her for the Kids Literary Quiz. Anyway, I hadn’t gotten around to that pile of books yet and knew nothing about Jodi Lynn Anderson’s writing style going in to this novel. I was pleasantly surprised! This book struck an emotional chord with me. I can’t say I’ve experienced anything like what these various women are going through, but while reading so many lines just rang true for me. I can’t remember the last time a book had made me feel this way.

Some beautiful gems from the last end of the book when I finally started writing this down (out of context, SPOILER FREE, quotes):

“So many lights you’d think we were living in a constellation”

“I think the rest of the world is not as cold and lonely a place as you think. At least I have to hope.”

“She thought of all the things she’d forgotten to be scared of.”


That last one really rang true for me. How many times have I signed up for things and panicked at the last possible second? All of the possible ways that something can go wrong suddenly fly into your head, even when you thought you were sure about something. My first time on an airplane, driving my car, heck even meeting teachers and classmates for the first time! So the message I got from the book was that you’re as strong as you need to be, and you’ll be brave enough to get through what you’re facing. If none of this makes you want to go read this book, I don’t know what else to say to convince you to be honest. I think over my 20 years on earth I can count on one hand how many books have made me cry. This wasn’t one of them, but it was pretty dang close. I almost cried over a tortoise. A TORTOISE. This is a must-read. show less

**No spoilers for plot, though I've gone and discussed the tone of the ending, which might be considered a spoiler to some.**

"Let me tell you something straight off. This is a love story, but not like any you've heard. The boy and the girl are far from innocent. Dear lives are lost. And good doesn't win. In some places, there is something ultimately good about endings. In Neverland, that is not the case."

This is the story of the thorny romance between Peter Pan and Tiger Lily, before and show more after the arrival of Wendy Darling in Neverland. Even with that opening above, I didn't expect this to be so . . . sad. So infused with loneliness and lost love and tragedy. It's beautifully written, and Anderson's re-working of the Peter Pan legend (including many key moments we should all recognize but are woven in subtly) is unconventional and surprisingly realistic. Tiger Lily is such a captivating, complex character in this version, and so is Peter Pan, Tik Tok (her adoptive father), Hook, and especially Tink, the narrator, who as a mute fairy has developed a empathetic kind of telepathy that allows her to see into others' basic thoughts and feelings (a neat trick that makes for a robust story with multiple perspectives, though centered on Tiger Lily). But I'm left with this melancholy, wistful feeling of regret. I suppose changing, like growing up and growing old, has an inherent sadness to it, especially when told from the POV of those being left behind, and I had forgotten that that concept is at the heart of all Peter Pan stories.

Tink says at one point, "Sometimes love means not being able to bear seeing the one you love the way they are, when they're not what you hoped for them." That's sort of how I feel about this book. This isn't a criticism, so much as an observation -- it's a very affecting read, but one that left me with a lingering sadness at how it turned out, even though it was in some respects a perfect ending.

And now I've gone and jumped this ahead of some of my other books that needs reviews, just to capture this weird feeling. I may do another, fuller review later when I've taken care of those others. show less

Tiger Lily is not your Disney version of Peter Pan and friends nor is it a close copy to the original story by J.M. Barre. Instead, it is a wonderfully original telling of what might have happened and how hearts are broken, love happens in unexpected ways, pirates are not always good guys who are misunderstood and happy endings don't automatically happen. Through the clever narration of TinkerBell, we see Tiger Lily as a headstrong girl who follows her heart more so than her head. She goes show more against the tribe and saves a stranded Englishman, befriends Peter and his lost boys but does her best to honor her father's wishes. In the end, she is just a teenage girl complete with raging hormones, jealous of the newcomer Wendy's hold on Peter and blind to those who love her. Will she follow her heart and run off with Peter or will she follow the wishes of her father and friends ? Jodi Lynn Anderson has pulled off one of the better retold fairy tales and I hope she will take on another very soon. show less