Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

Overall I enjoyed the story but I did not care for the fantasy elements as a substitution for real historical characters. The book takes place in the west after the civil war with elves and orcs replacing Native Americans and African Americans. Throw in a train robbery, outlaws, a frontier town with only women and you have a basis for a exciting story that instead was overshadowed with unnecessary fantasy elements that took away from the story instead of adding to it. By the end I found this book to be a bit of a mess.

I have a problem with this book. Not that it's a bad story -- the plot is okay, the writing is not particularly bad, but it's rather middle of the road. But the problem was using mythical creatures such as elves and orcs as an obvious replacement for Native Americans and black slaves. It just felt wrong and rather tone deaf. Not sure I would recommend this book based on that problem alone.

While this was not a bad read, I really never got into the characters or story. It felt too much like reading a fan fiction or something amateurish. I also had a hard time with replacing native Americans and enslaved blacks with European fantasy trope characters of elves and orcs, etc. It just felt wrong on many levels to now write out of history the people who were already so incredibly marginalized already.

Story: In an alternate history United States, the West is populated by dragons, elves, and other mythical creatures rather than native American indians. The civil war dealt with these people rather than African enslavement. Elf Deputy Berry lives in a far off settlement of women, trying her best to forget the past. But trouble comes knocking in the form of cocky alpha male banker Gilbert.

The women are strong and don't need to be rescued, which is a plus. But none of the characters are very likable either. Deputy Berry is standoffish and rude most of the book (which heroes always mystifyingly seem to find adorable) and Gilbert is smarmy and self centered. There are a host of other characters and I appreciated the LGBTQ representation.

As noted, the writing isn't terrible but feels incredibly unimaginative and unrealistic. The story lacks an organic base though there is character development. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

No Land for Heroes is a Western fantasy set in a world much like post-Civil War US, with elves, dragons, and other non-human people. It has a solid plot at its core. Milly Berry, an elf, is a veteran of a civil war. She’s done some questionable things during the war and is badly traumatised. Now she only wants to live in peace in an out-of-the map town as its deputy. But her former commander and the source of much of her trauma finds her and she must defend herself, her family, and friends.

The book didn’t settle with the core story though. There were several point-of-view characters with their own stories that didn’t contribute to the plot (I’m looking at you Jeb). Gilbert, the love interest, sort of had a backstory that mattered, but he was made to sit out the part that concerned him. It created a very messy story that left the reader feeling let down for investing in the unimportant characters. Added to that were confusing details, like Milly having twins, only for it to turn out one was adopted, but only after a conversation that made me think less of her people. No explanation was given why, even though we did learn who the mother of the other child was.

Characters were unlikeable and their interactions odd. Milly with her traumas was the only one worth following. Gilbert was a jerk who kept propositioning women ‘for good fun’ and passing judgement on everyone he met. I wouldn’t have chosen him as the love interest, but luckily that part of the story was at minimum and unromantic anyway. Jeb, for all that his story was an add on, was the only one who felt like a real person.

My biggest issue was with the worldbuilding. It was basically a Western setting, a frontier town in a world that was recovering from a civil war to free slaves. The core plot fit that setting, and would’ve worked fine in real world too. The fantasy elements didn’t feel integral to the world or the story. The dragon existed solely as a gimmick that had to be killed in the end, and the magic was mostly to heal wounds that weren’t even life-threatening. Religions were derivative and glued on, and the non-human people had no real purpose except to exist as oddities.

The worst thing by far, however, was replacing the native Americans with elves. When the world is so obviously based on ours, replacing an integral part of it with fantasy creatures who then appropriate the entire culture with tomahawks, tipis, and mohawks stood out like a sore spot. I’m not an indigenous person, but even I found it really upsetting. If you want elves, give them their own culture. Black people too were replaced by orcs who worked as servants and were referred to by their grey skin. I was slow to figure that one out though.

All in all, this was a mess that could’ve used a sensitivity reader and heavy editing. But if you like Westerns with a strong female lead and can ignore the fantasy elements, then this is for you.

Did not realize upon request that this was a book that had been out for a while. Uncertain why the approval went through when it did, but I am uncertain I will have time to read the title before it archives. I hope to hear more about it and its sequel.