Silver Elite by Dani Francis

Ok ok ok, hear me out. This is a DNF... for now.

Something about this book's vibes are way off. And I can’t tell if it’s a me problem or a book problem, so I’m tapping out at 40% and calling it an intermission. Not a full breakup. Just… maybe we see other people for a while.

Let me give you the quick and dirty of why I bailed.

First off, the writing feels weirdly juvenile for an adult fantasy. The FMC is allegedly grown, but her decision-making reads more like a chaotic 14-year-old with a death wish. You’re warned that a sketchy government squad is actively hunting you down, and your response is... to go straight home to check it out? Be serious.

The dystopia itself barely shows up. It’s technically there, I guess, but mostly just loitering off-page like a background extra who never gets a line.

But the biggest issue? I’m not invested. I’m entertained, I’m intrigued, I’m... vaguely along for the ride, but I’m not emotionally hooked. It kind of feels like someone tried to manufacture a romantasy without actually understanding why the genre hits. Like, all the pieces are here, but none of the heart.

Hot take: it almost reads like a man wrote this under a female pen name to hop on the romantasy wave. I have zero proof of that. But the tone, the character dynamics, and the emotional disconnect all feel like things I’ve seen before in male-authored fantasy. Which, for me, usually ends in the same result: entertained but not emotionally involved.

Take it all with a grain of salt, I didn’t finish the book. You might love it. I might even come back to it someday. But right now, we’re on a break.