Reviews with content warning for Death - Silver Elite

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Silver Elite by Dani Francis

77 reviews

sarahflanders's review against another edition

4.5

Content Warnings

phowww's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

dcnireads's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Loveable characters: Yes

a couple that actually communicates and doesn't hide anything from each other??? im my sci-fi dystopian romance?? color me shocked and unbelievably sat. i was a little skeptical of this at first due to all the divergent comparisons and supposed hunger games vibes because i rarely trust opinions like that but this one gladly proved me wrong. it did have a lot of divergent touches and a little bit of a THG feel to it while still managing to be its own thing, and i liked that. i do admit that it is getting a bit tedious seeing the "superpowered couple can communicate telepathically" trope (gestures to feysand and xadenviolet, though i do LOVE all of them don't get it twisted), and yet another intimidating but hot and deliciously sassy dark haired leading man in a position of power, but fuck it. its always been easy for me to like things anyway. i can look past it and still have a blast. 4.25 stars.

Content Warnings

sanagirl's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

intensej's review against another edition

5.0

dark mysterious medium-paced

Strong character development: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I loved everything about this book! I stayed up obscenely late reading it in one day. The steam, angst, and relationship drama between Wren and Cross was perfect. Dani Francis does a great job creating a realistic world with a complex and unique magic system. I cannot wait to read book 2! Some parts of the book were a little predictable, but there were still a lot of things that surprised me. I really enjoyed the slow reveal of events from Wren's past. I'm not always a fan of enemies to lovers, but Cross was just so perfect for Wren. I also found Wren to be extremely likable; I liked seeing her be strong, yet reckless. Cross reminded me a bit of Xaden from Fourth Wing. (Which is perfect, because all I want is more Xaden/Violet, and this book kind of scratched that itch.)

Content: violence, death, sex, torture

Spice rating: 5 out of 5🔥

Content Warnings

arobertson13's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

kaladry's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I don’t understand the hype for this, it’s super meh. The main character is cocky and sex driven. Sure there’s chemistry between her and her main beau but it’s still very predictable.

How was this a “best selling author” and why are they writing it under a pseudonym? Maybe because the writing is bad. I had to laugh a few times at some stupid phrases. I listened to the audiobook so a bit harder to write down what they were.

The premise seems like it could be good but it’s been taken over by the amount of sex the main character needs to get out of her system. So if you’re looking for that then this is your book.

Content Warnings

angtagonist's review against another edition

1.25

This book prides itself in being a return to YA dystopia's "glory days," and I can see why. It fits in with all the forgotten cash grab books of that era. The publisher, booksellers, book influencers, etc. definitely shouldn't have mentioned The Hunger Games—if I squint, I can see the Divergent fanfic comparisons though.

This is a romantasy book with a dystopian aesthetic. After talking to some other readers, we concluded this book is what you'd get if you saw Fourth Wing's success and wanted to replicate it without getting immediately slapped with the FW copycat label—not a successful attempt since this got wannabe FW written all over it. How does one make this stand out from the crowd of dragon romantasies? Slap dystopia on it because THG seems to be having a revival in the cinemas and online, so why not?

Without getting into the problematic aspect of a "dystopian" book failing to offer any substance or commentary on the oppressive system it uses as a quirky little background for its characters to make out, I just thought this was a poorly written book overall. The pacing is all over the place, the writing reads like a high schooler's Wattpad fic, the characters are two-dimensional, forgettable caricatures, and the romance is not an actual romance.

Wren is an insufferable protagonist who is, above all, obsessed with attractive men. She is seemingly only capable of making the worst possible choices in any given circumstance. Despite the narrative constantly hitting its readers on the head with how skilled and talented she is, she can't last in an actual fight and is outsmarted by characters who are as transparent as cellophane. Being stuck with her POV truly did a disservice to the story because she is just so unlikable and selfish. She's always flip-flopping, lacks personality, and barely experiences genuine struggles. Every problem she faces seems to get solved instantly—usually by Cross; every time the reader thinks she's about to face some repercussions, she gets bailed out—usually by Cross.

The lack of consequences was one of the biggest things that irked me. We're told this military regime is brutal and unforgiving. We're told they practically commit crimes against humanity all the time, and that no one is safe from them. Yet, from the get-go, we have the protagonist being a smartass to a chief officer of said military, whom she barely knows and is currently a captive of, and she gets no reprimands? It's hard for me to believe this "big bad military" is worth a penny. I have many, many issues with Cross, and one of them is how he immediately softened to her and gave her special treatment. There's zero stakes for a story about a woman going undercover to dismantle a regime that's trying to wipe out her people.

Cross... oh, they'll never make me like you. This man is a cringe-fest. He's the stereotypical romantasy's male love interest. He's supposed to be "broody," "dark," and "mysterious." Instead, he comes off as a weirdo with a hard-on for sending people to labor camps. The narrative presents him as some sort of "lesser evil," which just doesn't work when the male lead is just a POS loser. I think the author was desperately trying to introduce him as this morally grey hottie, but that falls apart when this man keeps spouting some icky, tone-deaf nonsense. Wren doesn't even argue most of the time

(even when he's basically saying her uncle deserved to die)

. Instead, she'll "argue" in two sentences, then thinks stuff like, "He has a point. Oh, he's so hot."

The other characters were all forgettable because the story hyper-focused on the idiot couple. Kaine held my interest in the few moments he'd appear, but that's mainly because he was one of the few somewhat entertaining characters. The other Silver Block recruits were of no consequence. We never really get to know any of them, so if a character were to die, I didn't feel any emotions. Why would I? You can't make me care about Side Character #6 by telling me about them after they're already dead.

That gets me to another issue: the info dumping. This was most egregious in the early chapters, but it doesn't improve at all, even as the dumps get less frequent. The author cannot show to save her life, so we're instead inundated with paragraphs of what things are whenever Wren has a conversation with a person. The Blacklands mentioned? Cue three paragraphs talking about how dark the forests were and how Wren is such a badass for living in that darkness.

As a dystopian book, this is a massive flop and an insult to the genre. However, as a romantasy... this is also a massive flop. The fantasy aspect—psychic powers, really should be Sci-Fi, but I've seen this tagged as romantasy more than Sci-Fi so idk—is not well-explained, even with the info dumps. It's an interesting power system though, so I'll give half a star for that. As for romance...

This is not one. This is pure lust. Wren and Cross are infatuated with each other's bodies. They lack a connection

despite literally being psychically connected

, which makes sense considering all they seem to do is make out and have sex. If they aren't doing that, Cross is cornering Wren in some hallway, they're very obviously staring with sex eyes at each other in a room full of people, or Wren is stomping to Cross's office to make out. The author's attempts to pull off the tension-filled enemies-to-lovers trope fall flat. They aren't enemies if Cross is constantly saving Wren from every problem she creates. There isn't any tension if Wren is constantly going back on her own words to go jump in bed with Cross.

I'm starting to get tired of even thinking of this mess of a book, so I will end it on this note:
Silver Elite is a terrible book with bad writing, bad characters, and a bad romance.

Reading for the vibes is fine, but reading dystopia for vibes and escapism and without caring for what the genre's entire purpose is? Weird. I fear I've already seen some dub this as "dystomance" in an attempt to excuse the fact that this book fails to be complex in any shape or form. "It focuses on the romance more than the dystopia!"—the... romance...? Please just say you want smut... even the author acknowledged that she just wanted "spicy 'dystopia'" 🫩

Content Warnings