Review: Wrenched by Lindsay Buroker

Posted May 8, 2024 by Lola in Fantasy, Review / 0 Comments

Wrenched (Legacy of Magic #5)
by Lindsay Buroker
narrated by Vivienne Leheny

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
Matti Puletasi finally has the name of one of the people responsible for her parents’ kidnapping. He’s a powerful billionaire with magical security strong enough to keep out dragons, but she’s determined to get in to question him. Make that interrogate him.

Sarrlevi, the elf assassin she’s fallen in love with, would usually help her, but he’s fighting a battle of his own. The wounds he received in their last skirmish aren’t healing, and something in his blood is affecting his mind. And it’s getting worse.

If Matti can’t reach the billionaire and find a way to heal Sarrlevi, she could lose everyone she loves.

My Review

I picked up Wrenched not long after finishing book 4 as I was in the mood for more of this series. Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the previous books in the series and felt the tone of this one was different. With the way book 4 ended and the cover I was expecting a lot of focus on Matti trying to figure out where her parents are. Instead the plot is a bit on hold as she deals with something more urgent namely Varlesh who is losing his mind after an alchemical formula Matti’s aunt inflicted upon him in book 4.

To be this book felt a bit more sad and heavy, I thought having Varlesh struggle with something this severe felt quite sad. Having someone Matti loves struggle like that was hard to see and read about. The actual way he slowly loses his mind just felt particularly gruesome and horrifying. It made me sad to read about it and this book lacked it’s usual charm because of it. It also missed some of their usual banter as Varlesh isn’t himself, there are still some scenes, but they don’t really have the usual upbeat and lighthearted vibe and felt more sad due to the things going on. I did like how Matti never wavers in her support and does what she can to help Varlesh.

The plot felt a bit slow to progress. And while I usually don’t mind the slightly meandering plots of these books, here I just wanted things to get better for Varlesh and have them back on figuring things out about their parents. And every time they focus on the other plot lines it felt odd as to me it felt more urgent to focus on Varlesh first. Some side characters are actually collecting some important clues as well in this book, which felt a bit odd too. The ending was actually quite good with plenty of action and things happening. It brings a lot of things together and has a lot of progress and things happening in a short amount of time. I liked seeing then get some new clues and get a resolution to some plot lines and I look forward to the next book.

To summarize: Due to what’s happening in this book with Varlesh losing his mind, this book felt more sad and heavy than the other books in this series. Which is not something I expect from this series. Having someone Matti loves go through something to horrible and gruesome felt really sad. The banter between them isn’t as frequent and to me felt more sad than lighthearted when it happens. The ending was good and progresses the plot with things happening as well as new clues and information coming to light. I look forward to the next book and hope that will be back to it’s usual tone for this series.