Book Review: Encrypted by Lindsay Buroker

Book: ENCRYPTED
Author: LINDSAY BUROKER
Genre: SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY/ROMANCE
Published: January 2011

Series: Planned future series
Same world: Emporer's Edge
Source: Author, no other compensation given for honest review

From Good Reads:
Professor Tikaya Komitopis isn't a great beauty, a fearless warrior, or even someone who can walk and chew chicle at the same time, but her cryptography skills earn her wartime notoriety. When enemy marines show up at her family's plantation, she expects the worst. But they're not there to kill her. They need her to decode mysterious runes, and they ask for help in the manner typical of a conquering empire: they kidnap her, threaten her family, and throw her in the brig of their fastest steamship.

Her only ally is a fellow prisoner who charms her with a passion for academics as great as her own. Together, they must decipher mind-altering alchemical artifacts, deadly poison rockets, and malevolent technological constructs, all while dodging assassination attempts from a rival power determined the expedition should fail...

My Review:
ENCRYPTED was totally unlike what I was expecting. An adventure story, sure. A little bit of fantasy, mixed with some science fiction, even better. Pirates and danger and technology and mathematics and cryptology and romance? Well, all of these elements could have been gleaned from the synopsis or blurb, but I was really blown away by how Lindsay Buroker incorporated all of these things in one novel, and made them work together so beautifully.

Buroker's writing was really easy for me to lose myself in. In fact, every twist that she included as part of the plot came at me fast. Even when I expected it, or knew that it was coming, I was still surprised. I loved that she wrote a book that was worthy of a high fantasy, but twisted it into a part science-fiction, part fantasy, part romance, all-adventure book. The inclusion of the cryptology to the plot also made ENCRYPTED a very unique read.

Buroker is definitely the kind of author that becomes an auto-buy, auto-read after one outing. I'm very much looking forward to reading EMPEROR'S EDGE, another of her books that I am going to be reviewing here, in March. ENCRYPTED is the type of novel that will appeal to readers and lovers of adventure, science-fiction and fantasy. Romance is included in the plot, but it is not romance-heavy, nor is it especially erotic, which will entice people who tend to skip over the love scenes. Yet, for those readers that like action and love, there is plenty to go around, as well as an HEA for the heroine/hero. First-rate read.

5/5 for plot
4.5/5 for characters
4.5/5 for language

My Rating: 14/15 (4.5 stars)

Must Read, if you liked:
The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima
Wintercraft by Jenna Burtenshaw
Mind Games by Carolyn Cross

Links for the author and books:
* Website
* Twitter
* GoodReads

Purchase at:
* Amazon
* Barnes and Noble


Available formats: E-Book



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