Review: Silver

SILVER (Bandia #1)
Talia Vance
Paranormal Young Adult
374 pages
Flux
Available September 8th
Received from publisher via NetGalley for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Brianna has always felt invisible. People stare right past her, including the one boy she can't resist, Blake Williams. But everything changes at a house party where Brianna's charm bracelet slips off and time stands still. In that one frozen, silver moment, Blake not only sees her, he recognizes something deep inside her she's been hiding even from herself.

Discovering she is descended from Danu, the legendary Bandia of Celtic myth, Brianna finds herself questioning the truth of who she is. And when she accidentally binds her soul to Blake, their mutual attraction becomes undeniable.

But Blake has his own secret, one that could prove deadly for them both.

Bound together by forbidden magic, Brianna and Blake find themselves at the heart of an ancient feud that threatens to destroy their lives and their love.

MY THOUGHTS
Silver is an intriguing first installment, delighting us with a touch of Celtic mythology as well as a deeply forbidden romance, and keeping us on the edge of our seats as life for young Brianna gets more complex by the page. Tensions run extraordinarily high the more we learn of Brianna’s lineage and the cycle of violence that plagues those like her, defeat settling on our shoulders with a tangible weight as the fate of all the young women before her becomes brutally clear. While the mythology and the starcrossed nature of the romance is endlessly fascinating and painfully heart-wrenching, the actual romance itself leaves us slightly lukewarm – missing the flush to our cheeks and the rapid thumping of our hearts every time Brianna and Blake appear on the same page, but the potential for combustion is there and we can’t help but hope we feel that fire in the next book.

Brianna is an enjoyable heroine, a self-deprecating young woman who is constantly able to poke fun at her social ineptitude when she goes from being completely unnoticed to being the sole focus of Blake’s intimidating attention. She’s used to walking by members of the opposite sex without so much as a nod of acknowledgement, and while she at some point may have wallowed in a deep hole filled with self-pity, she’s long past it when we meet her, accepting her virtual invisibility with humorous resignation. Her relationship with Blake once it starts does feel very one-sided however – her feelings for him seeming the stronger of the two – but thankfully she’s not oblivious to the imbalance, instead proceeding to ask questions of Blake we as readers want asked as she tries her best to see past the bond they share and discern his true feelings.

Where the romance seems to fizzle slightly is with hero Blake, a young man with a conflicting destiny to Brianna’s own who practically dares us to try and get a read on him as things progress, and in doing so ultimately succeeds in keeping us at bay. Quickly after their meeting the two of them find themselves soul-bound to one another, creating a physical ache when they’re apart and a burning attraction when they’re near. We know so little of Blake prior to their bond, and once they’re joined he spends majority of his time alternating between fighting against the attraction and succumbing to it, leaving Brianna and us thoroughly confused as to where the truth of his feelings lies on the emotional spectrum. Just as Brianna’s gone years without anyone around her really seeing her, Blake is much the same for us as readers, our eyes searching him out but ultimately glancing off him as he remains an indistinct form in this tale; a nebulous mix of traits we can never quite fully force our minds and hearts to focus on.

For a story predominantly relationship focused, Silver doesn’t quite captivate us with the romance, things between Brianna and Blake often very sexy and very physical, but the intimacy we wish would accompany that physical draw is sadly missing a bit in this first installment. There are declarations of love, but they feel hollow, the words rattling around in a cavernous space we’d hoped would be filled with complementary feelings of respect and friendship, yet instead we’re left with more of a begrudging attraction on Blake’s part. The story is definitely more than interesting enough to continue on with the series however, and there’s so much room for growth in the relationship that we can’t help but want to see if both Blake and Brianna will work harder in the next book to convince us what they have is real.

Rating: 3.5/5

Review: Seraphina

SERAPHINA (Seraphina #1)
Rachel Hartman
Paranormal Young Adult/Fantasy
464 pages
Random House Children's Books
Available July 10th
Received via NetGalley for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)

Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.

Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.

MY THOUGHTS

Seraphina is a grand, sweeping fantasy where a precarious truce between humans and dragons keeps war at bay, and while life among dragons is obviously something we can’t realistically relate to, the thread of prejudice running throughout on both sides is more than enough to yank us into the story heart and mind. The lack of understanding between both species is staggering, with neither human nor dragon deigning to learn anything significant about the other, instead both irrationally cling to a long-standing hatred perpetuated generation to generation. It’s this aspect of the story that anchors us amidst a sea of unusual and fantastical creatures, and it’s pleasantly confusing to try and sort through our feelings towards each group as we attempt to ferret out information on both species that neither group seems willing to research on their own.

While Seraphina’s world is a fascinating one, the beginning chapters tend to drag a bit (as is often the case when there's a significant amount of world-building), our connection to people and events held at bay as we’re bombarded with unfamiliar terminology and a rather large cast of characters given Seraphina herself has seventeen individual companions existing in her head alone. There is a glossary of terms in the back, though those with an e-reader will likely not benefit from it given the difficulty of trying to flip back and forth in a digital format, but inevitably those who have a physical copy will be grateful for the thorough description of both terms and characters. About a third of the way through however, the strange words and unusual descriptions lose their foreign quality, and the story quickly picks up as the leader of the dragons makes his way to the human royal court.

Seraphina is an intriguing heroine, not a young woman who leaps off the pages at us from the first chapter, but rather someone who takes her time garnering our favor, holding pieces of herself so close to her chest we can’t get a good look at them until she slowly starts to unfurl and lets us get a glimpse of the real girl. She’s highly intelligent and possesses an unexpected sense of humor that seems to pop up at random times to shock us into a laugh, and once we’re immersed in her world and learn her secret, we find ourselves fiercely protective of this young girl who has not once been accepted for the truly extraordinary person she is. She’s hidden herself her entire life due to her own fear as well as the rampant fears of others, and it’s hugely satisfying to watch as she starts to take pride in herself, flaws and all, and trust those around her to see with more than just their eyes and their preconceptions.

After a somewhat sluggish and disorienting start, Seraphina blossoms into an engaging paranormal murder mystery with a touch of light romance worked in, and we’re given a solid conclusion to the first installment with still a myriad of possibility for Seraphina and company moving forward. Those who are lovers of fantasy most likely won’t be quite as lost in the sea of unusual terms as the world is built piece by piece in the beginning, but I would encourage those who don't attempt fantasy often to keep reading and allow Seraphina’s subtle charm to work its not-insignificant magic.

Rating: 4/5