Reviews

The Elf Tangent by Lindsay Buroker

noll's review

5.0

The Elf Tangent was absolutely delightful and as soon as I finished listening to it from the library, I immediately purchased the audiobook from Chirp, and restarted it cause I was just that in love with the world, and the writing, and the characters. However, since I listened to it, I have no idea how to spell a lot of names, so please excuse any errors in that department.

The banter throughout the book is pure gold. The characters are all extremely well written, and their personalities mesh well together. It was so nice to see Aldari and Thelli having an actual friendship outside of their professional relationship, and even the few moments where Hawk and Setvick weren't arguing were filled with such unexpectedly genuine humor that I just wanted them to make peace and be at least indifferent to each other if not friends.

Spoiler

So the part at the end when Hawk admits he was wrong to call him a coward and Setvick says "Yes you were. I will follow you anyway." was INCREDBILY satisfying

I will say, most of the plot twists were very predictable, but -again- the writing was so good and the story was so engaging and the characters and their snarky quips were so fun, that it didn't matter. Lindsay Buroker could write about these characters playing Uno and I would pay to read it.

Spoiler

Was I expecting the twisted to basically be elf zombies? No. But I'm glad because if I had, I probably wouldn't have read it cause I don't really like zombies. That being said, the twisted were properly terrifying in an 'oh snap' kind of way and the scene with the hoard gave me a healthy little adrenaline rush both times I listened to it. Not gonna have nightmares or anything but she did a good job of bringing a very lowkey element of horror into it.

Other little thoughts about the book that are far less organized:
Oh my gosh Hawk and Aldari are so good together, the romance was amazing and I'm gonna cry over it.
The number of times Aldari improvised weapons or threw rocks at things was great. Queen.
The number of times Aldari stabbed something or someone was also great. Queen.
Bard Thelli. That's it. That's the thought.
Setvick is an ass but he's a slightly more likeable ass the second time through.
Lindsay Buroker writes hugs so well??? Like yeah the kissing was great but the hugging????? Gold.

emms_across_formats's review

3.0

The pacing was weird. The first half is slowish, then the second half feels really rushed. Might have been better as a duology instead of just one book. It was alright.

averagebookgerblin's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

ez_bakes's review against another edition

4.0

Had a lot of potential but fell short in a few places for me. The pacing was a little slow, the puzzles were not clever enough, and it was a little TOO closed door in the romance department. I’m also not a huge fan of a “happy for now” with no epilogue. Wanted a lot more out of that ending.

Ultimately a solid read but probably wouldn’t pick it up again.

kebyrne2's review

2.0

I got 70% of the way through and could not finish. Not sure if it was because of the characters, writing, or plot however it was not for me.

I loved that the main female character was book smart esp as she didn’t seem to be street smart at all.

The book just wasn’t for me.

nencsa's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

lifeand100books's review

5.0

This was such a fantastic story. Lovedddddddd our FMC and her bodyguard sidekick. The slow build-up of the FMC and MMC falling in love was done so so well. The story moves at an excellent pace and kept me invested from beginning to end. This was the first Buroker book I've ever read and it will certainly not be my last!

reneeutter's review

4.0

Lindsay never misses. And her audiobook narrators are always A+. This was cute, lighthearted, and a wonderful little escape from some of the darker topics in my recent reads.

I find that Buroker's female main characters are always strong and written in a way that the strength is not equated to masculinity (i.e they aren't all assassins, crazy powerful witches, stubborn etc.) Their strength is nuanced, emotional, intellectual, and makes the character development much deeper.

annmaries's review

2.0

Fluffy and formulaic

I've read quite a bit of this author's work, and this is not one of the better ones, or my favorite. It has a very interesting premise (elven zombies!), but suffers from a too-quick pace. If this were developed into one of her series, I think it would be excellent, but it rushes through everything too fast and suffers from a lot of telling rather than showing.

rosejoy's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5