A review by xalrynne
Silver Elite by Dani Francis

adventurous dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Take Divergent and make it R-rated and remove all the worldbuilding, and you have Silver Elite. Or take Fourth Wing and remove the dragons and add a half-baked dystopian setting, and you have Silver Elite. 

This book feels like it was written for what’s selling in the market right now: take all the most popular tropes and combine them into a book reminiscent of other fantasy bestsellers, and make it spicy. But don’t give it any depth. 

This book is the epitome of “I didn’t say it was good, I said that I liked it.” But did I actually like it? It’s definitely not good. But I flew through it. My biggest compliment about Silver Elite is that it’s compulsively readable. It’s very easy to keep turning the pages when the chapters end because each chapter ended on a cliffhanger and I was interested just enough to want to keep reading. 

I have to emphasize that the worldbuilding in this story is nonexistent. We are given lots of words that sound important, but no explanations, no descriptions, no painted pictures. The author capitalized a bunch of terms to make it seem like she built a world: Primes, Mods, the Program, Command, Silver Block, Faithful, Aberrant, Continent etc. But none of it is ever explained in any sort of context. It’s basically like, “Primes join the Command and attend the Program so they can defeat the Aberrant Mods and locate the Faithful.” What does any of that mean? I still don’t even know who the Faithful are or why they need to be found. Then you have a sentence like,“seven continents were devastated, four of them razed or underwater,” and in the same paragraph, “dwindling resources,” “overpopulation,” “radiation,” and the “Last War” are mentioned, but nothing is explained or mentioned ever again in any sort of clarifying context. There is no history, no backstory. There’s Silver Block, but there’s also Tin Block and Copper Block, etc. What do the metals have to do with anything? We never find out. The author really did a disservice to the readers on the worldbuilding front because it’s all as flimsy as a sheet of paper. 

This book tries to be both post-apocalyptic and dystopian, yet it’s pitifully neither. It really feels like it’s set in the present day and they’re just at a normal strict military academy. There’s a supposed post-apocalyptic setting since a toxin wiped out the majority of earth’s population—which would absolutely affect societal infrastructure as there are way fewer people to produce goods and teach skills, etc., but we don’t hear about any of the ramifications of this—and apparently all the continents are devastated and half underwater. But there’s ZERO information or worldbuilding to support this setting or indicate how it got this way. The setting is not clear from the context, and I would have no idea the setting wasn’t the current day if it wasn’t explicitly stated. Silver Elite is also supposed to take place under a dystopian government, but it really doesn’t read that way. There are strict rules in society, and Mods are generally looked down upon, but it doesn’t have that oppressive feel that most dystopian books do. I don’t know what the government’s motivations are. There is no discussion or critique of the system, which is also a common thread among dystopian novels. Everything here is half-baked . . . it’s actually not even half-baked, it’s just plain raw. 

I didn’t care for Cross at all. He is toxic and possessive. I don’t like how he talks to Wren. What happened to relatable and likable love interests? Also he is only 22 and as a military commander who is described as so “broad” and “muscular,” he definitely needs to be in his late twenties at least. Early twenties is just not believable. I didn’t like Kaine in the beginning either, but he grew on me throughout the book. I wish he had been Wren’s love interest, at least in this first book, because they had more chemistry together and made more sense together than Wren and Cross did. 

I was most interested in the character Wolf because he’s a total mystery. Who is he? Where is he? What’s so important about him? I’m glad we got answers to those questions in this book and didn’t have to wait until the next book, even though those answers felt cheap. And I liked Tana because she was kind and level-headed. My favorite character though was Lyddie. I loved her and I loved how happy and positive she was while still being mentally strong. She was so much more interesting to me than Wren. 

Wren was fine overall, but man did she make a ton of stupid decisions. Chapter 48 had me fuming because it was one idiotic move after another. If you’ve read it, you know. The whole bloodmark situation made me so angry. I also hate that the book started with Wren having a one-night stand. Gross. What a scene to start a book with. Almost made me DNF. But I guess it’s the kind of thing the target audience for this book would be into. 

I haven’t decided yet if I will read the sequel. The ending definitely has me interested but will my interest remain until the second book comes out? We’ll see. Was Silver Elite entertaining? Yes. It’s a quick read that’s easy to get through despite being over 500 pages. But was it good? Not really. And if you look more than surface deep, the entire story falls apart. I really wish this book had more worldbuilding as I prefer depth to my stories and it would have made the story so much stronger. I think the premise here was great, but it could have been written to be so much better than it was. It seems like the publisher knew this would sell so they didn’t bother to put forth the effort to turn it into something great, which is disappointing. 

I’m so glad I was able to buddy-read this with my friend because that made the experience so much more fun. We texted each other updates and theories, and it was great. I need to do more buddy reads. 
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