What if I said the character dynamics are like if Nova from Renegades met a less sarcastic version of Dorian from Throne of Glass if he was raised by Silco from Arcane? What then?


Silvercloak has been on my Netgalley TBR for a while, and I've been meaning to get around to it sooner but kept getting new ARCs with closer due dates. It's an adult fantasy that often gets compared to Harry Potter because the characters carry wands, but honestly, the world reminded me more of Ketterdam from Six of Crows and the magic system was vaguely reminiscent of by Katy Rose Pool. And, because I can't help but include one more reference, the plot reminded me a lot of Heartless Hunter. While reading, I kept making fun of the two main characters because they continuously referenced their favorite childhood book series (which one character wrote his thesis on?), but here I am, name-dropping a dozen other books.

I want to talk briefly about the worldbuilding, which I don't always discuss in-depth in my reviews. Magic in this world is born out of either pain, pleasure, or a mix of both. I found this concept to be super interesting, but some of its execution was a bit disappointing. For example, it is mentioned that pleasure can come from simple things, like delicious food, beautiful music, or pretty artwork, but most of the time it comes from sex. Saff offers that, "almost everyone in Ascenfall was attracted to all genders, and almost everyone was kinky as all hells," basically using the excuse that everyone is horny all the time so everyone gets magic from sex. I really would've liked to see more exploration on other ways to generate pleasure, rather than a flimsy excuse that completely disregards asexuality and other people who simply might not enjoy sex. If you're going to do a magic system like this, there are so many interesting things you could do with it beyond smutty scenes.

Back to the plot: Saff's parents were murdered by the Bloodmoons when she was a child, so when she gets the chance to go undercover and bring them down, she accepts it immediately. I thought it would have a bit more action and tension, given Saff was supposed to be undercover the whole time, but I agree with another review that mentions that she and Levan are pretty overpowered (although sometimes Saff seems not to have much depth to her magical "well" and other times she can perform dozens of crazy feats in a row). This eliminates some of the tension and slows the pace at times, but I still enjoyed the story. I almost wish there had been more of a mystery subplot or something, as Saff spent a lot of time with the Bloodmoons just sitting around, which also could drag at times. I called two of the major plot twists (one of them is extremely obvious), and the one that I missed feels like there will be more developments in the future. Similarly, I saw some complaints about the ending, and while yes, I did find it a bit convenient, I'm hoping the story will play more with the consequences of those decisions in the future. Overall, it's a promising start to a new fantasy series, and I'm excited to see where it goes in the future.

As I said before, these characters resembled a lot of other characters from other books and TV shows. I kind of expected not to like Saff, and while she did get on my nerves at times, I didn't mind her too much. Her snarky quips combined with her relatively inquisitive (aka nosy) nature made her intriguing to follow, even if I didn't always agree with her. I have mixed feelings about Levan because sometimes I thought he was boring, and other times I liked his character. He's kind of your typical "book boyfriend" love interest in that he's "morally gray," has some obscure but calm/artistic hobby (reading), and grew up in tragic conditions that led to an even more tragic backstory. I'm interested to see the continuation of his arc, but he does feel like he's trying a bit too hard in this book, and I hope we get more flaws. I compared Lyrian to Silco because my reactions to them were basically the same; I hated them at first, I hated them slightly less upon finishing their series, and now I still hate them a little bit but feel kind of guilty about it. Saff starts the story with a handful of friends that I found interesting (I love Tiernan and Auria), but they quickly became irrelevant, and I'm hoping they come back in the next book.

Silvercloak is the first book in an upcoming adult fantasy series reminiscent of many other fantasy novels but putting its own unique spin on magic systems and promising more excitement to come.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the free e-ARC!

4.25/5