If you spend any time in the New Adult fantasy/romance circles online, you’ve probably heard of Emily McIntire. Her book, Hooked, BLEW up. Hooked is book one in the Never After series and a modern retelling of “Peter Pan” with a mafia type vibe; at least as far as I know. I never read Hooked because mafia romances aren’t my thing but when she released Scarred, I was intrigued. Scarred is an historical romance and a retelling of The Lion King. The Lion King is my favorite Disney movie EVER so I had to read this book. Even though it is book two in the series, each one can be read as a standalone. I had very high hopes but unfortunately, I hated this story. This review will have spoilers.
🔥I like to give a heat level rating for all books with romance. If you’re curious about my rating system, you can check it out here.
Synopsis:
Once Upon A Time,
there was a king who passed.
He left behind two sons,
one beloved and one outcast.
The older of the two was set to take the throne,
but before he could he had to find a queen to call his own.
The younger one was known to be unruly and unhinged.
The chosen queen was warned to keep far away from him.
Beautiful and cunning, in the light is where she stayed.
But late at night, it was the shadowed lands in which she played.
Mistakes were made and secrets forged;
forgetting duty and her sense.
And while the new king had her hand,
her heart belonged to the scarred prince.
Scarred is a DARK Royal Romance. It is not a retelling or fantasy. It contains subject matter which may be triggering for some. Reader discretion is advised.
My Thoughts:
- Rating- ⭐
- Heat Level- 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Have you ever read a book and just known that author’s work is not, and will never be, for you? That’s how I feel about Emily McIntire after reading Scarred. I had many, many issues with this story so let’s get into it.
In the synopsis above, you can see clearly stated that this book is not a retelling. However, it most definitely is and I’m not sure why McIntire would claim that it’s not. Here’s a list of the character names and The Lion King names they were influenced by:
- Sara B.- Sarabi
- Scarred Prince (Tristan)- Scar
- Faasa- Mufasa
- Simon- Simba
- Kara- Kiara
- Sheina- Shenzi
- Edward- Ed
- Timothy- Timon
- Paul- Pumbaa
- Raf- Rafiki
The rebel group that is led by the “Scarred Prince” is called the “hyenas.” There is a tavern called the Elephant Graveyard. There are also many quotes ripped directly from the movie; a couple of them are: “I shall practice my curtsy” and “Long live the King.” Tristan also murders his brother by pushing him off a cliff… but sure, it’s not a retelling🤨🤨
Moving past the retelling issue, I simply hated the writing. It is the definition of doing WAY too much. I get it, the characters are supposed to be eDgY but they give off serious Joker and Harley Quinn vibes. Here are a few direct quotes:
“Is it possible to be jealous of God? Because when His name leaves her lips, I want to slit my wrists and fly up to His kingdom, just to burn it to the ground.”
There was also this pure poetry:
“But with Tristan? I would light myself on fire and revel in the burn if I knew it would please him. It’s a scary feeling, but one that I embrace, because he is my king and I am his queen and together we will rule the world.”
🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴
Is that supposed to be romantic? The character’s talk about fire constantly and from the reviews I’ve read, there are similar quotes in Hooked. McIntire may think fire is sexy (who am I to judge?) but I do not.
Tristan also gives Sara a tattoo on her thigh of an anatomically correct heart that says, “Tristan’s property.” I truly don’t think I have ever cringed so hard. To add to the cringe, he constantly calls Sara “Little Doe.”
The sex scenes in this book were also cringy and just disgusting. Sara B. is a virgin and yet, she’s into violence and wax play. McIntire created a virginal character that is unrealistic and a male fantasy. I’m not going to go into more detail because I like to keep my reviews clean but there were some lines that literally made me gag. I don’t consider myself a prude, but I can truly say if I would’ve known that kind of content was in this book, I wouldn’t have read it.
Despite all of that, this book still managed to bore me too death. The pacing creeps along and nothing really interesting ever happens. This is truly one of the worst books I’ve read, and I don’t care to read more from this author.
Final Thoughts:
I like to find the positive in every book I read but there was nothing likable about Scarred. I would love to see somebody take The Lion King and do a really good retelling but this one isn’t it. If you’ve read anything by this author, I’d love to know your thoughts. Thanks for reading and have a great day!
The Book and Beauty Blog 
Yikes. I was intrigued by the premise, but I think I may pass on this one.
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I think you should😬
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She’s exaggerating! I read it and I rated it five stars. Don’t judge a book by its cover or this review. Read it and see for yourself.
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😂😂😂 Just because I hated this book doesn’t mean I’m exaggerating. Last I checked, this is my blog where I share my thoughts. Go touch grass, Mikayla.
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I like that she makes sure at the beginning of each book to say this IS NOT A RE-TELLING it’s a FRACTURED FAIRYTALE. I do think some of the sex scenes are very graphic and somewhat unrealistic. Buttt I would also say I don’t think men are really reading this I think it’s more woman, as well as isn’t porn the same way… aren’t most sex scenes in woman’s erotic type books… These were just some of my thoughts when reading the book review above. But I totally respect the feelings they had about the books. I just finished hooked and I thought it was amazing but I love a good mafia boss love story. It’s fucked up and is so far from reality that it’s a break for my brain. But there were things I read that I was like oh wow that’s extreme but moved on from. If your somebody who doesn’t read the vulgar sex scenes then I would be very stomach tied by them as well. I’m starting scarred right now and wanted to know what villain this story was based on and this helped a lot! I’m VERY curious to see what these book brings. I do kind of wish she would have picked maybe not an animal book to use of a fractured fairytale just because I have a feeling it might read werewolf fan fiction or some type of other bestiality type fan fiction. Like the phrase “little doe” as a pet name….
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I quite like her writing and books but i also like more of that realm of fantasy.
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Who is Opehila and Mardial supposed to be is my question? I don’t remember a any characters in Scarred named Kara?
I finished it too
I’m a 29 year-old virgin I can confirm that as a virgin I find BDSM gross. I was skipping over it. I don’t think abusing someone while having the act is wise. Also if my male partner ever tried to burn me with candle wax or choke me. I would be turned off by that and leave. To me I thought of Loki when reading Tristian’s parts if I’m being honest. Mostly because I can hear his voice saying those things.
The story itself I found to be interesting personally I don’t care for the sensual stuff because it takes away from the story. The plot twists I figured out, though I will say this Hooked got me twice with the plot twists. To a point where my mind was blown. I know in the 1900s that could’ve happened for royalty but it don’t feel like the 1900s. It felt like England during the Medieval times as weird as that may sound.
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I’m about 20% into the book, a huge Lion King fan, but honestly…..if you didn’t know this was a Lion King retelling I don’t think you’d notice. Like, I knew this was a retelling going in & I’m still trying to tie things together, lol. Until you said it, I didn’t even think as Sara B. as Serabi. I think that’s why she says this is a “fractured fairytale” bc it’s not supposed to be noticeable but maybe for die-hard Disney fans it is? I honestly keep forgetting it even relates to the Lion King. I’m intrigued but wish I didn’t start listening to the audiobook bc the narrators sound like children.
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I understand the story or the sex scenes are not your thing. But Sara herself has said that she wasn’t a total virgin and has done a few things. And as someone who was a virgin at one point the whole bdsm things are not that far fetched and are not just to male fantasy. Just as Wendy in hooked had “explored” into what she liked and that included choking. So that part of this review is what irks me other than saying it is a re when it is not. It is just inspired and probably heavily on the fairytails.
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You are most definitely allowed to have that opinion😀
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I mean. It’s supposed to be a dark romance. If you don’t like dark romance then maybe don’t read it? The toxicity is the point. But calling is a male fantasy when it’s literally written by a woman and literally all these things are standard female fantasies is kinda rude.
Also Sara isn’t a virgin, she says so, and when I was a virgin I thought about wax play too. So this review is a bit reductive.
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The cool thing is, this is my review, on my blog. That means it’s my opinion AND it’s my opinion in the one place where I can share whatever I want. This book is trash. Light and love😌
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I absolutely adore this book and the whole Never After series! ❤ But I can understand how it's not everyone's cup of tea. Dark romance novels are outside of the realm of "normal romance" relationships. These are designed to be edgy, twisted, rough, abnormal scenarios. Some are a lot darker and some, like in hooked, just have some choking. If you aren't into dark fantasies, these are not the books for you.
Anyways just came to say thanks for the character connections! I was trying to piece together the in book characters to the lion king characters! I think you hit the nail on the head. It was obvious with hooked, I don't think she changed a single character's name. But this one (besides scar and sarabi) had me a little baffled.
Again, if you don't like darker fantasy, dont read these books. But if light bdsm is in your fantasy realm. This might just be one of your favorite series. Hopefully they don't make a movie out of them and ruin it like 50 shades lol
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I LOVED this book! I’ve read almost all of them I’m just missing Wretched and Hexed 😦 The entire series is on the top of my list. The plot twists in this book are crazy and I never saw them coming! 10/10 recommend!
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