Silver Elite by Dani Francis
Silver Elite
by Dani Francis
Fantasy | Dystopian | Romantasy
528 Pages
Released May 2025
Silver Elite series #1
Rating: ★★★ 3/4
Goodreads
Content Warnings
Okay, so a little secret about me. Whenever I’m in a serious reading slump, I turn to whatever book everyone is talking about to help get me out of it again. This one caught my eye because of the mystery surrounding the author (a mystery, since Ms. Francis has little to no social media presence. Unusual for a debut book that’s being hyped absolutely everywhere).
This book follows Wren, a young woman living in a dystopian society where “Mods” or humans that were affected by x and now have psychic capabilities, are persecuted by those that aren’t Mods. Wren has spent her whole childhood in hiding after being adopted by her Uncle Jim, during which he taught her how to hide her abilities. Wren is an unusual “mod” though, because her veins don’t turn silver when using her physic abilities like many of her counterparts. When Wren is captured and forced to join the military, she initially tries to sabotage her chances hoping they will let her go. But she is quickly persuaded to aim for being admitted into the “Silver Elite”, a group of elite military soldiers in order to bring down the military from the inside. Even worse, her commanding officer, Cross Redden is as handsome as he is irritating, and he’s keeping an infuriatingly close eye on her.
So. This story is marketed as “dystopian” and a “grown up version of Divergent” and I can sort of understand that comparison, but I found the world building in this novel to be really underdeveloped. Short of knowing that there’s mods and non-mods, I didn’t really get a feel for the world that Wren grew up in and so the stakes in this book didn’t feel as high as they could have. Other than one or two moments, she never really felt in danger.
There’s nothing really groundbreaking about Silver Elite, it really falls into a lot of the current romantasy tropes, just with a bit of a different setting. It’s strikingly similar to Fourth Wing, with maybe a tad less love-triangle (though it’s still early enough in the series that a love triangle can still be introduced). The characters felt like cookie cutter romantasy characters. Wren was your average plucky, stubborn, attractive-girl-with-a-secret main female character and Cross was dangerously broody and handsome. All the other characters felt underdeveloped and predictable as well and I found myself not really interested in any of them.
But. It was a fun read. Despite the fact that I’ve seen it all before, it was still an entertaining read. I flew through this book despite its hefty 528 pages. That’s got to count for something, right? And while I haven’t decided yet whether I want to continue the series (probably not), I think there are plenty of people out there that would still enjoy it.
If you’re new to spicy romantasy, this is as good of a place as any to start. If you enjoy all types of romantasy, I’m sure you’ll like it as well. But if you’re looking for something new, this will not scratch that itch.