3 out of 4 stars
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What goes on at the North Pole? Are Santa and the Elves immortal? How do the toys get made and delivered? If you find yourself asking those questions, then The Elf Brief might be the book for you! Noel Night is fairly new to the North Pole in the scheme of things, but Santa Christo has a special mission for him. Santa wants him to chronicle the events during the transition from the old to the new Santa. Santa Christo is retiring as is usual after about 100 years, and Samuel Locke has accepted the job of becoming the new Santa. Noel will make detailed notes during this time in order to help the transition to be smoother in the future. What secrets will Noel uncover during this process?
This book is a unique, fun fantasy on a topic that is often overlooked in literature. It reminds me, in some ways, of the movie The Santa Clause, but the author puts his own unique spin on the story. I enjoyed looking at the North Pole and Santa Claus from the author’s perspective. One of the unique parts to this story was that each Elf department had a different colored hat. Orange hats belonged to the list department, pink hats were Elf services, and golden hats were administration. I also thought that the use of Christmas names for the Elves was fun. For example, there were elves named White Christmas, Golden Balls, and Glass Ornament.
There are a lot of details covered about how things work at the North Pole, from the warehouse to the dining room to the list department. However, the author sprinkles the information in with a few laughs, a touch of mystery, and good character development so that the novel remains interesting. The reader gets the pleasure of learning the workings right along with Noel and the new Santa. Most would not consider this book to be very suspenseful or action-packed, but I can honestly say I looked forward to reading more, nonetheless. One of my favorite scenes is when the new Santa’s dog Brandy gets to playing with the reindeer. I can just imagine a dog trying to play with flying reindeer. The scene brought a smile to my face.
The only thing that I have to criticize in this book is the editing. While there were few grammatical mistakes, there were many word substitutions. It seems like the author used a spell check, but no one actually read over the manuscript. For example, “has” was substituted for “as” or “where” was written instead of “were.” This was not really bothersome in the reading of the story, but it did happen more often than I would have liked.
Overall, I rate The Elf Brief a 3 out of 4 stars. I enjoyed reading this book and learning more about operations at the North Pole. I know that this is the first in a series of 9 planned books, and I can’t wait to see the possible changes that come about in the future. Unfortunately, because of the many errors in the book, I cannot give this a full 4 stars. However, I would recommend this series to anyone who enjoys a good fantasy with interesting characters.
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The Elf Brief
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Great review.
