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.

so so so good! the love child of divergent and fourth wing minus the dragons. absolutely could not put it down from the time i started reading! :)

HOLY SHIT. This book is my new obsession. If The Hunger Games, Divergent, and Shatter Me invited Fourth Wing to join their threesome, you would get this book. It feels like an homage, or rather a return, to the Dystopian Romance era. This is a book for those of us who grew up reading the aforementioned dystopian novels and are now adults and what the steamy, spicy, sexy version of those books. I LOVED this, and need book two like, yesterday.

One of the easiest 5 stars I have ever given. The plot, the world building, the cast of characters... chefs kiss. I haven't felt this way about a book in so long. I cannot wait for the next book!!!

Links to come

It’s been a while since I read a dystopian book, but this one felt exactly like what I used to read when I was 12. This was a really big surprise. I picked it up on a whim because the synopsis sounded pretty interesting and I had a really fun time. The book itself isn’t perfect, but it was entertaining and that’s what matters.


In this book, we follow Wren as she has to hide her psychic powers in order to survive a world that condemns her people. In her attempts to not draw attention to herself, she ends up being forced to join the SIlver Block, the most elite of the military, where she does her very best to fight off the attraction she feels for her commanding officer.


Let’s start with the most obvious plot point in this book. The romance. It was fine. And why do I say that? I can’t say I cared for it in the beginning. The one thing I hate in romantasies (yes this book is a dystopian but I would say it can be categorised as romantasy too) was in this book: Insta-lust. I genuinely hate when no connection forms between two characters, but we still just move on to smut. Also, Cross was too much of an asshole in the first half and I can’t say I cared for him. But once we hit the 60% mark?? Oh god. That’s when I can say that it started being really good. The chemistry was there. It didn’t feel like insta-lust anymore as the attraction between them actually started to make sense.And I just started to fall in love with Cross too.


The plot was incredibly fast paced, it was one of the fastest 500 page book I ever read. I was honestly reading it whenever I had the chance. I was hooked immediately as I started. I even got emotional in the first 15% of the book which I found WILD. How did the author manage to do that?? Honestly, because of the impact it had on me that had to be my favourite scene in the whole book. That aside, iI did feel like the plot dragged a bit in the middle, but I didn’t mind that as much as I thought I would in the end.


A lot of things felt a bit predictable too. Every reveal in this book made sense, but oftentimes the foreshadowing was pretty obvious. It was something I could overlook, though, since there were still some things that surprised me. Although, if I paid more attention, I think I could have guessed those too hehe.


Wren was a pretty cool main character I won’t lie. I genuinely really loved her as a person. She was so sassy and sarcastic, I was honestly laughing every other page. And her loyalty to the people she loved??? All she did was to try and protect the people she loved and help them as much as she can. There were a couple times, especially towards the end where I felt like her character was a bit inconsistent and that affected my enjoyment of this story a tiny bit..


As I said Cross was a huge ass in the beginning, but the more time Wren spent with him he got so much better. We start seeing sides of him that he doesn’t really show when other people besides Wren are around and I loved that!! AND HIM CALLING WREN DOVE WAS MY FAVOURITE THING EVER!! I love nicknames in books so much.


Then we have Wolf. I loved him since the first time he was mentioned. I was a bit unsure of who he really was, for the first half of the book I was oscillating between two different characters but once we got past the 50% mark, I knew for sure who he was. And I was right. I have a soft spot for childhood friends in any kind of stories, so of course I loved him. Anyway, I can’t really say anything more about him without spoilers, so I suggest everyone reads the book to know more about him!!


I really loved a lot of characters in this book like Lyddie, Betima, Kaine and Xavier.

Lyddie was such a good friend to Wren and I loved how she kept helping Wren all throughout the book!! She was such a sweetheart.

Kaine was also one of my favourite characters. His interactions with Wren were literally the cutest and just as Lyddie he was also a good friend to her and such a good support for Wren?? He helped her a great deal at times.

Xavier was literally the greatest best friend anyone could ask for. The way he helped Cross with anything he needed and the way his help and love for his friend was literally unconditional???? He was honestly the biggest surprise to me, I had no idea what to expect from him.


There were honestly so many characters that I absolutely despised in this book, but I’ll let you guys see them for yourselves when you read this book. Aside from this, some of the characters that I loved did end up disappointing me and, by the end of the book, I was not fully sure what to think of them.. Only the sequel will help me understand them better.


The world itself was so cool, though!! The 2010s dystopian vibes were ON POINT!! There have been a lot of attempts at reviving dystopia in the past years and out of those that I’ve read none have managed to do a better job than this book!


The ending was full of a couple unexpected things, I was genuinely on the edge of my seat waiting to see how everything would unfold. The ending was probably my least favourite part of the book, though. So many characters just did some things that made me hold some resentment towards them. For some characters their actions felt justified, considering their upbringing, but for the others, it either felt stupid or out of character.


Overall, this was an astonishing debut with a strong plot and beautifully written characters that would evoke strong feelings in you as a reader and honestly if you want something easy to read this is the perfect book!!

Thank you Netgalley and Del Rey Books for an arc of this book in exchange of an honest review!!


┆彡 Silver Elite ★★★.5

I haven't stopped thinking about this book since I read it. I can't wait to add a physical copy to my shelf, and am already desperate for the next book!

I loved the world here, it was different to many fantasy books I have read and I really enjoyed it. I loved the connection that Wren had with her Uncle and where that path led, as well as the one she had with Wolf. So pleased to see that my thought were right with Wolf. I'm so excited to see how that pans out in the next book.

I thought Cross' development as we got to know him over the book was brilliant and loved the relationship he developed with Wren, it was a lot of fun to read.

This honestly is shaping up to be my favourite fantasy read of 2025, I think it is so far! You definitely need to read this if you like a romance and some violence.

A bioweapon fallout resulted in part of the population developing abilities that range from telepathy to healing. This group of genetically mutated people is called Modified or Aberrant, and can be recognized by their veins glowing silver on their arms when they access their abilities.

Wren is an orphan, raised in secret in a place called Blacklands, where darkness is absolute, aside from the little clearing her adoptive "uncle" settled them in when she was 5. He promised her parents he would protect her after they died allegedly helping the Uprising.

This is because, of course, this wouldn't be a dystopia without deeply rooted xenophobia (going both ways). The author doesn't fall in the easy pit of a black and white war, and focuses instead on the fact that both sides had their chance at power, and both sides did an awful job out of it, pushing their supremacist views, hence pitting neighbor against neighbor, and sons against mothers.

Wren has been raised without any contact with other children, and her only outlet was her secret friend "Wolf", who she spoke in her mind with, but she never met.
Proximity is usually needed to establish first contact, after which, each other's mental signature can be retraced regardless of distance. It's only impaired by consciousness. But Wren was nowhere close to Wolf when they made contact (or so we know).
They start talking to each other in their minds without never revealing who they are, and become emotionally close in a world of secrets. Trust is a rare commodity, and identifying details keep being omitted in their conversations.

The power system is one of my favorite things in this book. Look at this explanation about why mental voices are different from real-life voices:

I asked my uncle why people’s telepathic voices sound so different from their audible ones. “Have you ever listened to yourself on a recording and thought, I don’t sound like that?” was his response. “That’s because to your own ears, you always sound different. When we speak telepathically, I hear your voice the way you hear it. When you speak out loud, I hear your voice the way I hear it.”


I can also say that I enjoyed this kind of secret-identity pen-pals much better than Divine Rivals
But that’s not Wolf’s style. He has no filter, never has. And he’s an outrageous flirt, although the flirting didn’t really start until we hit our teenage years. One day, we were two kids talking about kid stuff; the next, we were discussing our love lives. A bit unnerving, considering we’ve never actually met."


So, shit happens, Wren is impulsive and ends up opening her first pit of spiraling consequences to her good but misguided actions, that land her as a conscripted recruit to Silver Block.

Enter our two hotties, a co-recruit and Captain Cross.
It's not clear whether there will actually be a triangle, so it's something that can negatively impact your experience, it's best you are aware of this beforehand.
One of the two seems clearly endgame, but the other is portrayed a bit too charming (and the FMC is not indifferent) that it's not clear for me if he's being kept for future developments.
Often enough, I know who I should root for, but I end up connecting with the other more. I do not know if this is voluntary or not on the author's part.
He gives me a thoughtful look. “Shower games over already?”
I flick him off, but he remains unfazed. “Didn’t realize the captain and I were in competition.”
“There’s no competition,” I grumble.
“Wait, what?” Lyddie sits upright, her gaze sliding between us. “Oh my gosh. Are you guys—”
“No,” I interrupt, while Kaine grins at me.
“Are you and the captain—”
“No.” My tone is even firmer this time."


The last 15% is an absolute whirlwind of plot twists, betrayals, other than the FMC being allowed by the author to do such a mess of herself and her circumstances, that she seems a really huge idiot 🙄😶 it's both refreshing and annoying to see. I'm undecided. She's a walking disaster....

This said I'll end with a couple more notes:
✍️ The writing style is surprisingly good for a debut, I've never seen a more solid debut! It could still be refined a bit, but I hope readers will be tolerant. I definitely see lots of potential and can't wait to see this author's growth!
I loved Wren's personality and humor in the first half, I loved much less how she took her impulsiveness to perplexing levels toward the end.

✍️ I liked the mod powers and system the most, along as the simple, but solid reasonings.
On the other hand, the romance and spice felt a bit lukewarm, and best in the banter phase, and a bit underwhelming once they, very quickly, succumb to their attraction.
But again, it's a debut so it's understandable!

ARC Review (ARC provided by Random House Publishing Group & NetGalley)

This book felt like a warm hug to my younger self. Forever a bookworm & fantasy fan who fell in love with Four from Divergent as a teenager, and has now fallen in love with Cross Redden as a young adult.

I would recommend this book for anyone who has lived out their Divergent/Hunger Games era and developed into their Fourth Wing (slash any spicy romance) era. And the best part???? It's only the first of the series!! I can't wait to see how the storyline ans the characters develop throughout the books in future!

Silver Elite makes me want to return to my dystopian era. 🖤

This was an easy and enjoyable read - the pacing was good, the world building wasn’t complicated, and we understand immediately the conflict between the Mods and the Primes. Solid tension to start, and then it just amps up after Wren’s uncle is executed.
Naturally, all this animosity gives Wren and Cross the perfect conditions to give us the good old enemies-to-lovers trope.

Wren was likeable as an FMC, not my fav, but she also didn’t annoy me. Girl had some serious self-control for being able to keep Cross at arm’s length for as long as she did. Not to mention being able to resist all of Kaine’s flirting! I’m also happy that she is self-aware and knows that she’s impulsive and stubborn as all heck.

Cross ended up surprising me - give me a moody, sarcastic, morally grey seeming mmc and I’ll be sat. But there was something a little extra about Cross that had me constantly wanting to learn more about him. I think it was all the surprisingly tender moments he had with Wren (the flower cave, okay!!). Then seeing him with his mom, that was game over for my emotions.

Unfortunately, the reveal with Wolf didn’t come as a surprise. But I was still happy with the result.

The side characters were pretty likeable or detestable (Roe, I’m looking at you), which always helps keep me invested in a story.

So in this, we’re getting:
- dystopian setting
- enemies-to-lovers
- hidden identity
- war college vibes
- forbidden romance

Overall I really enjoyed it, and I’m so impressed this is a debut novel! Thank you so much to Random House Publishing Group - Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore and NetGalley for this arc!

What a great first book! Well done Dani on an excellent story! The story follows Wren, a modified, who hides away from the Primes. As a dystopian it follows the usual theme of revolt/uprising, keeping the story engaging with conflicting emotions at every turn. The slow burn romance feels like a minor part of the story while the uprising takes centre stage, and I loved this. I really enjoyed Hunger Games and Shatter Me and felt that this gave me the same enjoyment.

This is what dystopias are meant to be.

Dystopias are one of my favourite genres and this book certainly delivered. Their main purpose is to explore the exaggeration of societal fears, and at certain points I was reminded so vividly of current politics that it could have been pulled straight from a newspaper (minus the psychic part).

This book was never boring and the characters are deeply impactful. I love the main character, who is flawed and stubborn in a way that is believable as opposed to annoying.

The setting has just enough of a foundation in reality to create a personal connection with it from the get go. But, all additional world building removes it far enough from the real world that it still feels like escapism.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me this ARC.

This book had me feeling nostalgic and excited and all the warm fuzzies that come from a 🔥 Romantasy.

I loved this one thoroughly! It truly gave me the hunger games and divergent dystopia, something that I haven’t read in a while now. While giving my younger YA reading feels, it threw in a steamy romance and the fanfasy elements. Loved the way the romance was done honestly and how it developed, the forbidden nature of it and all. I enjoyed our FMC who just wanted to live and get out of there and watching her grow but trying to keep her morals as well. It truly makes me excited for the next book and see where it goes!

An absolutely great setup of a new dystopian series that will be loved by all of us that read the classic Ya dystopians in our youth. Now we just want it a bit 🌶️🌶️🌶️ 😈

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the chance to review this arc! I cannot wait to share more of it with friends and on social media!

Amazing. Incredible. I need more. Pls. The way this book gagged me from beginning to end. It was surprising, not gonna lie. At first, I didn't know what to expect but the more I read the more I liked it and the ending was just so good.

Jesus Fu** I don’t know what I just read. I’m going to start by saying I used to love the show Dark Angel in early 2000’ I was obsessed with it as a kid. And God that book feel like it it’s the mix between that and divergent, if they had a baby that will be it. I ate that up too fast and I honestly try to read it slowly because I never wanted that book to end. It’s not perfect literature, not the RF Kuang or Olivie Blake type, we are more of the Yarros writing, but with a fast paced story line and an incredible FMC. Wren isn’t perfect she is impulsive it’s an understanding but she is sarcastic, sassy and bad ass. And she made me laugh a lot of time, she doesn’t take sh*t and never takes no for an answer. Cross is the typical brooding mysterious book boyfriend I like their relationship even if I don’t think it’s a real ennemies to lovers (won’t spoil anything here.) It’s a relationship based on banter and chancing each other out.

The plot twist and the betrayals are made my heads turn, it’s a serious game of who can Wren trust and what she is able to say to people. I loved it and I’m a bit pissed that I have to wait next year for the next book or longer. If you are a fan of crazy dystopian world and betrayals secrets identifies and forbidden romance it’s made for you.

GUYSSSS!! You have to read this book!!

In the world of fantasy now there is a lot of over saturation of fae books and this was so damn refreshing to read. It’s a big YES to bringing back dystopian fantasy properly! I’m obsessed… this may have changed my brain chemistry 😅

If you loved hungers games and fourth wings military setting… Chuck in a dystopian world, action packed training regime, rebellions, secret identities, forbidden romance, mind magic and bam… this masterpiece!

I could not put this down!!

The book follows wren our badass FMC, who is a modified (person who survived the virus and can now use mind magic) as she finds herself in an inescapable situation that leads her into a military programme to become a silver elite soldier for command, her enemy.

The whole command programme to become a soldier was epic, the atmosphere, the training, the undercover operations! As a person who loves ‘SAS who dares wins’, this gave me all those vibes! Real life drills to be the best of the best… it was so fun to read!

I loved wrens character, her impulsivity, her stubbornness, her strength and knowledge of who she is! Then there’s cross, our soldier MMC, and them together… perfection! The slow burn tension was exquisite (the shower scene IYKYK) and the development of their relationship felt solid given the world they were in!

The plot was punchy, action packed and kept me literally on the edge of my seat! The writing followed nicely and I was not lost in the world building, and what a world it is, so much scope to go bigger and I’m sure there is so much more to find out. The ending was incredible… opening up more world, more questions and a whole heap of worry!!

I needed book 2 yesterday and this book isn’t even officially out yet! This will hypnotise you and I cannot recommend this enough!!

Silver Elite by Dani Francis is the kind of book that will definitely find its audience. If you love steamy, drama-filled dystopian romances where the heroine juggles multiple love interests, this might be for you! It has an elite military academy setting, a cadet x captain romance, and a telepathic heroine who has to hide her abilities—all intriguing elements that remind me of Fourth Wing with a mix of Divine Rivals (thanks to the secret telepathic connection between Wren and “Wolf,” a mysterious boy she’s communicated with since childhood). If you’re into that, you might really enjoy this one!

That being said, I was not the right reader for it. I’m giving it 3 stars here on NetGalley— despite me DNFing it—because I think it will be super popular with the right crowd, but personally, it didn’t work for me.
I don’t enjoy books that prioritize romance (especially overly sexualized romance) over character depth and world-building, and that was my biggest issue here. However, I won’t be unfair and act like this book is bad—it just wasn’t my thing, and I hope it finds the right audience!

Why It Didn’t Work for Me:

1. The Main Character (Wren) Was… Not It
This was my biggest struggle. From the very start, I had trouble connecting with Wren. She’s introduced as someone who sleeps around but refuses to be honest with the men she’s with—she lies, plays with their emotions, and then paints herself as the victim. The opening scene had her sneaking away from a soldier she hooked up with, and instead of just telling him it was a one-night thing, she kept up the act, kissing him like she cared while secretly planning her escape. Then she had the nerve to tell her friend that he "got a little needy at the end, kept begging to see me again.” Like, girl?? He was nice and respectful, but you manipulated him, and now you’re mocking him? That immediately made it hard for me to root for her.

2. Every Man = A Potential Hookup
The amount of horniness in this book was insane. It felt like every single male character existed just to be ogled or flirted with. She immediately sexualizes the captain the moment she meets him. The second a male cadet touches her, she gets tingles. Then, after a different cadet dies, she kisses her male cadet friend as a way to cope?? (Can we stop using random hookups as a replacement for actual emotional depth? Please?) It was exhausting.

3. The Moment I DNFed
I tried to push through, I really did. But once Wren—while already lusting over the captain—seriously considered sleeping with her cadet friend, I was done. There was no yearning in this book, no emotional build-up, just sexual desire driving every interaction. The fact that she could so easily be tempted by another man, even after spending chapters drooling over the captain, completely lost me. I skimmed the rest of the book in hopes that the plot would pick up and balance out the discomfort, but nope. I even skipped to the ending to see if anything major happened, but nothing intrigued me enough to care. And I purposefully avoided the spice scenes between Wren and the captain because if I was already so uncomfortable with her thoughts and actions before they even got together, there was no way I could handle the actual scenes.

4. The Romance Was Just… Uncomfortable
I wouldn't call this enemies to lovers—it’s more of a cadet x commanding officer romance. But the sexual tension felt so forced. The captain makes inappropriate sex jokes while still being her superior, and instead of being put off, Wren feels "warmth" and "hunger" toward him. And even though she’s already interested in him, she’s still tempted to sleep with her cadet friend. Like… what??

5. The Academy Plot Was Overshadowed
I love a good academy setting, but instead of focusing on her training, her struggles as a cadet, or the high-stakes tension of hiding her telepathic abilities, so much of the book revolved around who she was going to sleep with next. The actual world-building and dystopian elements took a backseat to Wren’s never-ending romantic entanglements.

Final Thoughts

I think this book will absolutely have an audience, and if you’re looking for a romance-heavy, fast-paced dystopian read with a lot of steam, you’ll probably have a great time! But for me, I need some level of emotional depth, and this book just didn’t give me that. If you're into books like Fourth Wing but wish they leaned even more into romance, this one might be perfect for you. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the ARC.

This book screwed with my head so bad, I have been procrastinating writing this review! It's a sci-fi/dystopian romance with so many twists and turns. At no point in this book was I 100% sure of ANY character's morals or intentions, including our FMC.
In this world there are modified, or "mods" who are essentially banned and hunted by the government. Our FMC is a mod, and through a harsh turn of events she ends up working for the government that she hates against her will. They have no idea what she is.

For the most part, I really enjoyed this book. I think it is a unique take in a genre that is full of repetition. I could see some influences from other books but I didn't feel it was a copy and paste like some others are.
One thing I found odd was the pacing. It took until about 3o% into the book for the FMC to realize she could work her situation to her advantage and that drove me nuts while reading. I also found one aspect of the book - which I will not name because its a huge spoiler - incredibly obvious. As in, I guessed it from the second it was introduced. That being said, though, the rest of the book caught me very off guard and consistently went in the direction I didn't think it would go in. Which is impressive to me because I have very high pattern recognition and typically know what will happen before it does. There were so many twists I never could have predicted, especially around the end. The last 20% of this had me on the edge of my seat.
My other criticism is that I felt the relationship between the FMC and the MMC was incredibly underdeveloped. The romance wasn't the main plot, so it didn't ruin my enjoyment of the book but it did annoy me. By the time they were doing love confessions, I still felt like they hadn't connected on a real level.

All in all, I quite enjoyed this and will definitely read the next book when it eventually comes out! That's the pain with reading arcs :.)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wow! This!! Thank you Del Rey and NetGalley for this eARC. I couldn’t put this down, literally read it in 24 hours by staying up way too late. It’s a sci fi fantasy enemies to lovers with forbidden romance set in a dystopian future, like an adult version of Divergent/hunger games…I mean HELLO!!

I loved Wren, she was funny, gutsy, loyal and forced to join the continent’s military despite secretly being a Mod, the very people they are hunting. Cross, her ruthless commanding officer with whom she has sizzling chemistry with is also the son of her greatest enemy. We have an academy setting, secret identities, commanding officer/trainee and so much amazing banter and paranormal abilities

I think this book will be a huge hit, I know I couldn’t stop reading it and it’ll be a top read of the year

Tropes:
Sci fi fantasy
Forbidden love
Enemies to lovers
Academy setting
Dystopian romance

When I first received this ARC I had no expectations at all and I have been pleasantly surprised. Silver Elite had me hooked right from the start and I have devoured it over the last few days. From Wren’s sarcastic attitude to her determination to survive, she really brought the story to life and I am intrigued to see where the next book will go.

I did see some of the twists coming but that’s didn’t take away my enjoyment. I am looking forward to the next in the series!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and rate this book!

I had a lot of fun reading Silver Elite - it was fast paced and had a good banter. I like the fact that it was a mixture of popular romantasy/dystopian novels I've read before as I like a bit of predictability in my books. But I'm not sure if I'll continue with the series...
The exposition and world-building felt very awkward at times (I prefer a balance of tell/show), characters were archetype-y and despite the fact I really wanted to like them, I didn't believe their personalities. The insta attraction was tiring at times because the relationship of main characters ended up not having much depth.
In the end, I'm torn - I enjoyed the reading experience and I finished this book in two days but I'm not curious when it comes to what happens next.