Silver Elite is an entertaining read for fans of the dystopian and slow-burn romances. If you enjoyed Divergent, this book delivers a familiar mix of action, rebellion, and romance. While it doesn’t break new ground, it keeps readers engaged with its fast-paced story.

Set in a world where a biotoxin has split humanity into two factions—Primes, who are immune, and Mods, who develop psychic abilities but are hunted—the novel introduces an intriguing division of power and oppression. However, the world-building in the first part of the book could have been better developed, as it only provides the basics of the setting and its stakes.

Despite its reliance on familiar dystopian tropes, the book remains an enjoyable ride, especially for those who love this genre. The dynamic between the characters and the unfolding rebellion make for an engaging read, even if it doesn’t offer anything groundbreaking.

I just kept reading this book cause of the familiarity of the genre, I was feeling like those old teenagers years in which I would stayed up late devouring Hunger Games.

Final thoughts is that Silver Elite is a solid start to its trilogy, setting up Wren’s journey in a way that leaves readers eager for more. If you’re a fan of dystopian fiction, it’s worth a read—if not, it might be one to skip.

OH. MY. GOD.
this is the type of book I’ve been waiting for since I read Divergent in middle school. Not only is the FMC relatable and empathetic but she’s also a complete badass. So many times, I audibly gasped and said “NO!” Silver Elite had me captivated and swooning throughout this insane plot. This book will bring back dystopian fantasy!!!
It also is begging to be a movie…

Silver Elite is an absolutely incredible Dystopian Romance book and I can’t find words to describe how much I loved it, it’s definitely going to be one of my favorite books of this year and I already can’t wait for the sequel.

Wren is one of the Modified, a group of people with special abilities who are killed when discovered. When her uncle is found and sentenced to death because of her mistake and her rescue mission goes wrong, Wren is forced to train to be the very thing she hates the most, a soldier hunting people like her, and her commanding officer is the handsome asshole she can’t stand but is instantly attracted to.

OMG this book was so freaking incredible I still can’t believe everything that happened. I was hooked and it was a real rollercoaster from the first page, all the action, the plot twists, secrets, crazy revelations and betrayals had me with my jaw on the floor and I read the whole book in one sitting because I literally couldn’t put it down. The world building and system the author created were so interesting and reminded me why I enjoy dystopian books because this one had everything there is to love about the genre in it. Wren was an amazing and badass FMC, I really liked her from the beginning and loved reading her story. Cross was a real asshole in the beginning but gave me some major Xaden from FW vibes and I quickly fell for him, I don’t want to spoil anything but was a perfect MMC. Cross and Wren’s relationship is slow burn, but I could feel the attraction between them from their first meeting and it was amazing to see them finally gave in to it, their spicy scenes were *chief’s kiss* but I also loved how perfect they were for each other, their vulnerable scenes were beautiful and their banter made me laugh out loud, I love these two and can’t wait to see them again.

Silver Elite is an amazing story with interesting world, great characters, beautiful and spicy romance and shocking plot twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat, I absolutely loved it and definitely recommend it to everyone, trust me, you don’t want to miss it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the digital ARC. As someone who grew up on Divergent and The Hunger Games, I was so excited to see this show up in my account. I enjoyed the plot; however, the character development fell short for me. Wren’s decisions always seemed to revolve around a man. In the next book, I hope to see Wren step out on her own more and really live up to her independent spirit.

I loved this book so much. Wren and Cross along with the other side characters like Kaiden, Jim, and Xavier all have my heart. Those last 40 pages though were such a whirlwind of reveals and now I can't wait to see where Dani Francis takes this story. I'm sad that I have to wait probably around a year and a half for the next book but when it comes out I will 100% be reading it.

Also, congrats to Dani Francis because this novel was so good it was almost like she's been writing for years.

This was a really enjoyable fantasy-dystopian story - also made me very nostalgic for my childhood 2010s dystopian books (Hunger Games, Divergent).

✔ I really enjoyed seeing Wren grow into her confidence and own her strengths. There is a fine line with stubborn protagonists and Wren landed on the good side of that line.
✔ The banter between the romantic leads was really well written.
✔ Actually, everything was really well written - this felt really solid for a debut novel.
✔ The presentation of the morality of what the characters are dealing with in their world is really thoughtful - there is no good guy/bad guy, just survival.

✖ The romance was set up to be a really good slow-burn but I think the characters got into an “established relationship” a bit too quickly.
✖ The “shocking reveal” was not actually shocking. I think a bit more mystery would have made it more impactful.

4/5 stars!

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this as much as I did but I’m glad I was able to read it and will be looking forward to sequels.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Not my personal speed but this will definitely find its audience. Extremely readable action/adventure dystopia that reminded me of Red Rising and Divergent, a little bit of Hunger Games flare thrown in. If it's derivative, it can be forgiven because it does everything you want a book in that vein to do and it does it very, very well. The first person works great here, but at times I had trouble centering myself in the world. I wanted it the story to do something new with the genre or with the main characters, but it didn't, because it didn't need to. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, I guess.

The first book in a sizzling dystopian romance series and it does not disappoint! If you took Crimson moth and divergent and the kindreds saga had a baby it would be this new series. The book has lots of banter and the FMC is hilarious and has the most entertaining personality, she’s very rebellious and witty. This is the type of book that makes you forget you’re reading. I can’t wait for more of this series and am so thankful to NetGalley that I got to get my hands on this arc!

Silver Elite feels like the Hunger Games meets Divergent. It took a little while to get into the story, but once you get though it boy does it deliver.
In the story, there are modified, or "mods" who are banned and hunted down by the government. The FMC, Wren, is a mod, and eventually becomes forced to work for the bad guys. The romance in the book is a bit rushed and underdeveloped, but that's okay with me because the story is the main focus. Maybe it's today's current political climate or the gripping story - Silver Elite pulled me out of a major reading slump.

In this fast paced dystopian book there are two types of people, Mods and Primes. The Modified or the Affected are born with powers such as telepathy, healing, mind control and incitement. The Primes are in control of this world and being Modified is a guaranteed sentence to either death or enslavement in work camps.
Wren Darlington is a Mod of extraordinary power. But she is young and headstrong. One day after disregarding the advice of her guardian she shows off some of her skills and gets the attention of one of the Prime. Of course things go horribly wrong after that and Wren is forced into military service with The Primes while trying to hide her Mod powers and her growing attraction to the captain in command of her unit.
Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for the opportunity to read and review this book which I am giving 3.5⭐️.
I really enjoyed the first 60-70% of this book. It was fast paced and I loved the chemistry between Wren and her love interest. The biggest issues I had with this book are the fact that it was not only entirely too predictable but it felt like a lot of rehashing of material we have already seen.
At this point I’m not sure if we will ever see another main character who actual listens to the advice of others again. Wren is continuously told don’t do something then decides she knows best and does it and then regrets doing it. After a while I’m over reading someone make bad decision after bad decision. I did enjoy this book and will probably read the next book when it comes out but for now can only recommend this as a get it from the library if you can book.

I absolutely loved this book! I finished it in one sitting because I couldn’t put it down. It gave elevated and more adult vibes of other dystopian novels. There were trials, great banter, an amazing slow burn romance, and so many twists and turns that I never would have predicted. It was definitely a five star read for me, and I cannot wait to continue the series!

I loved the romance. Psychic pen pals?? SO GOOD. Overall, the book is fun but still pretty standard and could have used more development. I'm excited to see where this goes next, I think there's a lot of interesting possibilities with that ending!!

Thank you to Del Rey and Netgalley for the eARC.

This was sooo good! The dystopian genre is killing it right now. It was giving Divergent meets Fourth Wing. We’ve got a war between nonmagical people and people with psychic abilities, a cutthroat training program to become one of the Elite, and an Uprising trying to dismantle the system from within.

Wren is our badass magical MC, and Cross is our brooding and deadly MMC who happens to be a commanding officer on the enemy side. The forbidden slow burn romance was everything. I loved Wren so much and Cross had me swooning big time.

This book had me on my toes the entire time and the ending had me absolutely shook. The wait for the next book is going to be torture!

A big thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Silver Elite by Danielle Francis is a dystopian fantasy with a forbidden romance.

Wren Darlington was “adopted” by her “Uncle Jim” as child after losing her parents — Uncle Jim and Wren both have telepathic powers, which are punishable by death on the Continent. The elites find out that Uncle Jim was telepathic & Wrens is on their radar now…. She is taken captive and forced to train for the Silver Elite.

This book reminded me of Fourth Wing & Language of Dragons… minus the dragons and the slow burn forbidden romance reminded me a bit of Divine Rivals. The final half of the book had me at the end of my seat & there were so many twists & unexpected reveals that have me highly anticipating the next book.

I would recommend this to dystopian fantasy lovers who enjoy spicy scenes.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Del Rey for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. Catch this book when it hits the shelves on May 6, 2025.

4.5 stars

𝗔𝗥𝗖 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗶𝗹𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗲

This new and up and coming dystopian novel is all anyone should be talking about!

It follows the story of Wren Darlington, who lives in a country divided in two - there are the Modified, those with special psychic abilities, and the Primes, those with no abilities at all.

And unfortunately for Wren, being a Modified is punishable by death.

As she’s forced into Silver Block, an elite military training program, she must keep a low profile and hide her abilities, whilst also trying to take the system down from within.


💭 ℳ𝓎 𝓉𝒽ℴ𝓊𝑔𝒽𝓉𝓈 💭

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I actually don’t have the words to describe how much I adored this book 🥺❤

I mean I’ll try though… 😉😂

✨ 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐛𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 ✨

If you are looking for a book with the slow burn of Fourth Wing and the thrill the old dystopian books like Divergent and Hunger Games gave us, this is for sure the book for you.

This book had me in such a chokehold, I didn’t put it down in two days.

Not only is it extremely well written, it’s full of twist and turns and moments that make your heart actually speed up. The stakes are 🅷🅸🅶🅷

And when you aren’t feeling the thrill and the excitement, I can guarantee you will have butterflies in your stomach from the ａｍａｚｉｎｇ romance that runs through this story.

Also, the fact that she has to hide who she is adds so much tension, betrayal and fear to the plot that will have you blood pressure levels through the roof!

If you like strong, badass, snarky FMCS who take no sh** from no-one, you will absolutely love Wren, and the banter, enemies to lovers, slow burn between her and our MMC is just absolute fire ❤️‍🔥🌶🌶

It’s incredibly paced and I was left wanting so much more. I can’t believe I now how to wait to see what happens next 😪

One of the best reads I have had this year and in a long time, I predict this series will be huge!

DNF at ~31%

I like dystopias. I like romance in the books I read. So I was prepared for a fun mix of both, but couldn’t find either aspect appealing in this book.
The characters were flat, the world-building lacklustre at best, there was no chemistry between the love interests, and the dialogue made me cringe pretty often, especially when there was attempted something like sexy banter or when he called her ‘dove.’ The stakes were removed by the protagonist being too special and the captain bestowing special treatment upon her. The writing is pretty easy to read, though.
If you’re looking for ultra-light entertainment where you can self-insert yourself into a Divergent-flavoured world in order to fantasise about being with a sexy captain, then this might be for you. It wasn’t for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The rating is only for Netgalley.

In this dystopian fantasy, 150 years ago, a biotoxin nearly wiped out the world's population. Now, there are two groups of people on the continent, Primes—who are immune to the biotoxin— and Mods—who developed special psychic powers from the toxin, and they're at war.

This was incredible. The writing was so good and painted the scenes so well.

Much of this felt like a more fantastical version of some current events 🙃 although, maybe some of that remains to be seen with what there is to find out about the two groups in future releases in this trilogy. Parts of this book were very 1984-ish and some even Handmaids Tale-ish. Mix that with a dramatic romantasy and... 😮‍💨

My only drawback with this book was the way that Cross was written. Overall I think he ended up being a really compassionate guy, but some of the things he said, especially early on in the book, were pretty problematic to me. And not in a "charismatic, dominant, man who takes charge" type of way, but more the "don't leave your drink around this man" type way. If it wasn't for that, this would be a 5 star book for me, but he was just too hard to root for early on. I feel like most of this was early in the book and I guess could be seen as him teasing, but some of his dialogue was just not it for me. He ended up seeming like a much better guy than he was early on though.

Outside of early cross, this book was fantastic. Compelling, shocking, creepy at times. This isn't even out yet and I can't wait for book 2!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Del Rey for an e-Arc of Silver Elite by Dani Francis.

Not my favorite but not the worst book I’ve read recently. While I enjoyed some parts, it was missing that spark. The plot, characters, structure and world-building could’ve used more work and depth as it felt underdeveloped.

When it comes to our main characters, Wren, our FMC, wasn’t my favorite. Her mindset felt questionable at times, and she often made impulsive, poorly thought-out decisions. She couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t rescue her when in reality she was a liability. Her growth felt slow and underwhelming. I can see the potential for her character but I’m unsure if I’ll continue with book 2.

Cross, our MMC, was a bit more layered and intriguing. We still don’t know too much about him but he came out as a more rounded character and compelling.

Side characters didn’t get much attention and I felt like we didn’t really learned much from them or about them. The reveal of Wolf’s identity was predictable, which was disappointing.

Overall, the plot fell flat for me and there was not a lot of mystery to the story. It’s not the worst dystopian book I’ve read, but it lacked the shock factor and twist usually seen with these type of books.

If you like heavy mf romance with sci-fi/fantasy elements or settings, you may really enjoy Silver Elite. But I do think you deserve better.

- Wren, our fmc, is a horribly unlikable person.

From the opening scene, we get a taste of Wren’s selfishness, superiority complex, and tendency to self-sabotage. While “escaping” from a one-night fling, she actively leads the guy on while telling everyone else how clingy he is. She doesn’t like him because he is a Command soldier—part of the military oppressing her kind (Mods)—but yet she still chose to sleep with him.

I like a little brashness in a dystopian fmc (see: Katniss). However, Wren’s impulsivity is not due to a strong moral compass or sense of injustice—she acts selfishly, and everyone around her has to deal with the fallout. She genuinely does not seem to have any forethought about the impact of her actions on others—they are all essentially NPCs to her. We don’t learn much of anything about her supposed best friend, so their friendship isn’t really believable. The male characters are introduced by how hot Wren thinks they are instead of by using normal physical descriptions.

I’m all for complex, varied, and even unlikable fmcs when it makes sense for the story. But there is no indication that the reader is supposed to be actively rooting against Wren as much as I was.

- Cinder blocks and exposed pipes do not a dystopian make.

Silver Elite does the same thing that I take issue with in many recent romantasy hits: the interesting dystopian and sci-fi elements are an afterthought. They’re only developed and utilized insofar as is necessary to put the fmc and love interest into tropey scenarios (in the vein of me playing Barbies as a kid and trying to make the Barbies kiss). I was really intrigued by the idea of a dystopian world with an oppressive regime and an fmc with hidden abilities infiltrating the regime’s elite military squad. However, I don’t think the author was interested in the political commentary that is practically essential to a dystopian world. For example, Wren notes that the Company is a “military machine” but its leader, the General, “has no need for politics or superfluous job titles.” This is just a bunch of handwaving to avoid the inherent politics of the world.

- The romance is icky.

Wren and the main love interest are just terrible people being insufferable together.

It’s insta-lust, it’s toxic, it’s shallow. The love interest has zero personality and is all inappropriate comments. He’s also just really bad at his job? And because the world building is generic and the stakes are not believable, the “enemies to lovers” is just giving sexual harassment in the workplace.

TLDR: This is not a return to The Hunger Games as an adult. This is the same romantasy couple we always get (right down to the tattoos and a certain special connection—IYKYK), but with a fresh coat of millennial gray paint for “dystopia.”

This book just wasn't for me and that's okay! I didn't enjoy the writing style, nor could I manage to get invested in any of the characters. The premise was interesting enough, and I do think Francis has a lot of hope for future books, and hopefully I'll enjoy those more.