⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 3 stars

Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC of this book via BookOfMatchesMedia in exchange for an honest review!

A Land of Never After is a Peter Pan retelling, in which Wendy gets stuck in Neverland and can’t get out. In a dark and dangerous place where you only survive if you kill, Wendy is desperate to find a way out.

This is definitely a darker retelling than I first imagined. What I really liked about this story is what it did with the original story. It took the main elements from the original tale and truly shaped it into something unique. Maybe it's more like a story inspired by Peter Pan than a retelling. Even though it’s an adult retelling, the characters aren’t really aged up but were similar aged as in the original tale. While I liked that, often the characters, mainly Wendy and Peter, didn’t act like their age. They felt older in everything they did.

The story was very short and fast-paced. I like the plot and the direction the author took the story, but because it was short a lot fell a bit flat. Some events that happened seemed rushed and I think it would’ve been better if it was more detailed or not as rushed. The characters-building also wasn’t really as developed as I would’ve liked. Especially since some of the background stories made me really curious. I was a fan of Wendy though in how she is portrayed as a strong heroine, but it took almost till the end of the book for me to warm up to her.

Another point where the book missed the mark a bit was in something that was mentioned in the blurb. It says “a dark retelling with an LGBT twist”. It mentions LGBT so I had some expectations, but didn’t really read anything like I expected I would. I liked the LGBT take on Peter, but I would’ve thought more would be written in the LGBT plotline instead of only mentions of it.

Overall, it was a unique take on the story of Peter Pan, which makes me curious about the second book in the series, where I hope the story will be more detailed.