** spoiler alert ** 
 The first thing you have to realize about "Wendy Darling: Stars" is that this novel/upcoming series is to the original Peter Pan what the film Mirror, Mirror is to Snow White. It's a good story and it contains names, clever callbacks, and elements from the original but does not in any way, shape, or form follow the original plot beyond the narrowest sense (I.E. London-based children fly away with a magical boy to a place called Neverland). 
 The story begins with Wendy Darling who appears to have a good relationship with her father and youngest brother, but a bad one with her mother and older brother. 
 Her issues with John Darling were surprisingly well defined (more on John later in the review) but I didn't quite GET what was up with Wendy and her mother. In most adaptations Mary Darling is the voice of reason and appears to be a loving mother figure. In this one she seems...stressed out? Possibly suffering from some form of manic depression? Frankly, I have no idea. In all honesty, her portrayal in itself didn't bother me (it was a surprising but interesting liberty for Oakes to take in her novel); what bothers me is the fact that it's only acknowledged within narrative during the first part of the book. 
 Seriously. 
 The first half of the book is full of "Oh you know how your mother would feel/react/overreact/gets/can be" and Wendy concedes to this, whereas later in the book Wendy seems to be mentally praising her mother as the most wonderful lady ever. Where the actual (BLEEP) did this come from? Is this or is this not the same woman Wendy was terrified would throw a borderline psychotic fit and ship her away to boarding school until she was grown up over simply liking a boy? 
 I mean, I get Wendy might be looking at her mother through rose-colored glasses after realizing Peter Pan stole her memories of home, but this is a little bizarre. Especially considering they aren't shown to be close at all, and even her father appears not to be particularly in love with Mary in this version, mentioning a first love who died that he apparently liked better. He says he can't imagine life without his children from Mary, but I don't recall him expressing any love for Mary herself. 
 Back on track, Wendy does have one person to confide in who isn't her father or a five year old little bro: a childhood sweetheart turned suitor named Booth (I.E. the aforementioned boy she likes). Unfortunately he's an unsuitable suitor because he's...well, poor... Yeah that's pretty much the only thing wrong with him. He's not impolite, from the wrong side of the tracks, engaged to someone else, too old/too young... There is literally nothing else wrong with him aside from lack of cash flow. 
 In short, he's just not posh enough for the Darlings. (Though if you ask me, can a family that allows their children be raised by a dog REALLY afford to be PICKY?). 
 If I may veer off again (fair warning I have a lot of side points to make and will be doing this FREQUENTLY throughout this review) what IS with the poshifying of literary families who are portrayed as middle class in their original books? I've seen this happen a couple of times and I find it a little strange. 
 Not bad, mind you, just strange. I remember for example a Narnia fanfiction where the Pevensies were portrayed as being rich and having, like, a ton of servants; the story centered on Susan falling in love with an unsuitable guy (quite a bit like Booth actually, except much less educated, with a low-class accent that was written out phonetically) which was the catalyst for her not being on the train with her siblings in "The Last Battle". It was actually a very good story but I was a little baffled as what would lead an author to imagine so simple a family as being mega-posh. I had the same feeling reading "Wendy Darling: Stars". In the original Mr. Darling was quite a penny pincher and they were never shown as having much in the way of wealth. In fact, in the original, Mr. Darling was on the verge of giving his children away -- despite Mary's protests -- because they might not have been able to "afford them". 
 But I have to give the author credit for making it WORK in context. I totally bought Wendy in this portrayal as being a blue-blooded Catholic whose struggle is not with "growing up" in the traditional sense but both wanting to be a proper lady and not wanting the excessive social rules that come along with it. 
 I don't know how I felt about Booth's character. I didn't dislike him, but I did find him rather long-winded and, well, kinda flowery and soppy for a GUY... In many ways I think Booth is what a lot of young girls WANT to believe guys are like, but isn't very realistic or practical. The truth, ladies, is that even if this guy was REAL, you probably wouldn't want him in the long run; it would be like being married to Romeo from Romeo and Juliet and having to hear flowery verses about how perfect he thinks your face is 24/7. It's like, dude, I get it, you love me forever, my face is glowing like the full moon, now can you please go make us some money so we can eat tonight? 
 I do believe Booth loves Wendy and their history (I wish more of this could have been shown rather than largely just told) was VERY sweet, but I dunno, something still felt off in the chemistry department between these two characters. I think it might have been that it was too obvious the author herself was shipping Booth/Wendy. Going back to Fanfiction, it's actually something you see a lot when people insert an OC they obviously either care about, relate to, based off themselves or someone they know and like, whatever. They take for granted that we as the audience might not love their characters AS INSTANTLY as they do. Considering that Booth is only present for the beginning of the book, the author really needed to WOW us with him, and she didn't. 
 At least, I personally was not wowed. 
 Also, I get that Wendy loves him but all of her musings about a boy she's known since childhood shouldn't be so bleeding PERFECT! She's supposed to KNOW this boy, not just blindly worship him. Where's the memory of him oh, I don't know, wiping boogers on her favorite dress sleeve or playing a silly prank on her he later regrets? And where's HIS recollection of HER being less than perfect? According to the perfection that is Booth the only thing wrong with Wendy is that she isn't brave enough. That's literally IT! She has no other traits that annoy him but he tolerates because he loves her? I find that very hard to believe. 
 It just got the point where I was half expecting one of Wendy's returned Booth related memories to read something like this: Wendy thought about Booth, her dear, loving Booth. Booth who gave her books and had always been there for her, understanding and patient and calm, not wild and confusing like Peter was. Booth, dearest Booth, whose flatulence had no odor. And even if it had, his beautiful brown eyes distracted from it. 
 That said, I'd be interested in seeing more of him, perhaps in the final, third book? Maybe he'll have gotten just a wee bit of character development by then? I also have a fan-theory regarding him. My theory is that Wendy will go back to England, marry Booth, and he will be the father of her daughter Jane, whom Peter (if he doesn't get killed off) will one day meet and perhaps take to Neverland. 
 Getting back to the plot, because Wendy can't be with Booth she's sad and one night while her parents are away and she is planning to sneak out and meet with her ill-fated suitor, she has a run in with a magic portal-opening, flying red haired boy named Peter who offers to take her and her two brothers on an adventure. 
 But the adventure, although initially intoxicating and freeing for Wendy, turns out to be a bit of a false pretense. The littlest lost boys (called Pips) love Wendy but some of the others seem resentful and, although this should be a place where their rivalry could cool off, her brother John's resentment only seems to be growing. Add to the mix that everything in Neverland pretty much wants Wendy dead (from mermaids to an inexplicably human-sized Tinker Bell who thinks Peter is the greatest thing since sliced bread) and you have one very befuddled Wendy Darling. 
 Peter although initially kind to Wendy (and in my opinion much more interesting than Booth) turns out to be emotionally unstable and wildly abusive. Upon realizing that making her forget about Booth wasn't enough to make her fall in love with HIM instead, Peter goes psycho and tries to threaten her into loving him. Apparently Hook killed his first and only girlfriend (some Indian Princess I assume is based on Tiger Lily), Tink isn't good enough to replace her, so now he wants Wendy to be his queen of Neverland. 
 Rather a lot of people disliked Peter in this. But I have to say although I disliked his character's ACTIONS, I didn't actually dislike HIM as a person/character. If the backstory he gave Wendy about being from an abusive family in Scotland before he discovered Neverland is true (the book doesn't tell us one way or other, and I hope this will be clarified later in the series) you can UNDERSTAND, though not agree with, why he's the way he is. Also, he may be an abusive bully, and though it is no excuse, he isn't in his right mind. He's kind of like one of those villains on Criminal Minds, really. You hate what they do, but you see WHY they do it. 
 On the subject of another character a lot of reviewers have hated on, I have to say I don't GET why you all hate John! I just don't. Yes, he's a prat, and rude to his sister, but THINK ABOUT for a moment what he must be going through. He obviously is a good guy deep down, he's won the affection of their father and Nana (he's BOTH of their favorites, and neither of them would love him that much if he were truly as rotten as he comes across sometimes), but he has no friends (apparently) at school... Maybe the only person he has to play with is his little five year old brother Michael. He doesn't even have what Wendy does, for all her problems. Booth was her FRIEND before they fell in love; she always had him to turn to. John didn't have ANYONE outside of the family. 
 So John finally makes a friend a little closer to his own age, aka, Peter, whom he obviously adores, and he has to contend with the fact that Peter ONLY does nice things for him, puts him in a high position, because he's smitten with his sister. John clearly wants to be liked on his own merits by someone -- possibly anyone -- who isn't a blood relative and therefore "forced" to like him, and is consistently denied that. Yes, he IS constantly a little jerk, he does disrespect his older sister and bully his little brother, but bear in mind that this is THE FIRST BOOK. 
 I can think of another Fantasy book series that had a boy roughly John's age who started out bullying his youngest sibling and disrespecting his older sibling. In fact THIS boy was even going to betray ALL his siblings to a witch for power and candy (and that's worse than ANYTHING John does to Wendy or Michael in this book!). He later becomes one of the series' MOST LOVABLE CHARACTERS, a reasonable and just king. 
 So why can't we give John Darling his chance, yeah? As a reader, I see a LOT of potential for redemption and character development in him. 
 Back to my thoughts on the book itself, I enjoyed it greatly and it has earned its five stars and a place on my favorites. HOWEVER, I do think the book should have gone through another draft/revision before publication. The prose is BEAUTIFUL but it is also excessive. Purple prose is like icing, I want a good amount of it, sure, but I should still be able to taste the cake under it. In order to get a gist of the "cake" in this case, I found myself re-reading a lot of parts that just didn't process correctly with me because they were overly wordy. I don't fault the author for this, as I sometimes have the same issue in my own writing, but her publisher should have pointed this out to her and helped her crop it just a wee bit more. 
 I am looking forward to "Wendy Darling: Seas" and fully intend to read it (anyone know when that is supposed to be coming out, by the way?). 
 Though I have to say I really hope the author expands on a lot of stuff she's already set up instead of making the next book a complete "ode to Captain Hook". 
 Also, is anyone else hoping Hook is just as MUCH of a villain as Peter Pan in this version? I'm sorry, I realize this would be majorly traumatizing for poor Wendy who has already gone through so much in this story, but the "Pan is evil, Hook is good" twist has been DONE to death. But I have yet to read a book where they are BOTH villains (they were both sort of good guys in "Second Star" but that's about as close as any author has ever got to making their story roles similar instead of stark contrasts) and would enjoy seeing that play out in this series. 
 Five stars. Not my ALL-TIME favorite Peter Pan adaption (that honor is still held by Jessica Stilling's "Betwixt and Between") but still a brilliant and likable one I highly recommend. 
 (update 12/21/15: I realize I wrote the review a while ago, but I wanted to add a quote I found from "Anne of the Island" that almost perfectly sums up my feelings toward the Booth/Wendy/Peter triangle in this book. 
 " 'Anyhow,' resumed the merciless Mr. Harrison, 'I don't see why Maurice Lennox didn't get her. He was twice the man the other is. He did bad things, but he did them. Perceval hadn't time for anything but mooning' 
 'Averil couldn't have married Maurice. He was bad.' 
 'She'd have reformed him. You can reform a man, you can't reform a jellyfish.' " 
 Booth, of course, being the jellyfish in this. I hope when his character is fleshed out in later books he is less jellyfish-like, because I think it's a safe bet Peter/Wendy is NOT going to be endgame in this series. )