Spoiler-Free Review

If you’re looking for your next romantic fantasy to obsess over, one which does the fantasy elements and external plots justice (and isn’t just about the romance), you’ll love Silvercloak.

Thanks to Del Rey and Netgalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Click here for content warnings.

What’s Silvercloak about?

20 years ago, Saffron’s parents were killed by a ruthless gang. Now, after training to become an elite detective, she has her opportunity to take them down – from the inside. But her loyalties will be tested, not least of all because of the kingpin’s son.

This book immediately sucked me in.

Just from the prologue, I knew this was going to be a good time.

I found the magic system and worldbuilding very interesting. It uses a wand-and-spell type of magic (but if you’re thinking that makes it similar in any way to Harry Potter, I’m happy to report that’s where the likeness ends).

In this universe, magic is not an endless resource. In order for a mage to replenish their well of magic, they must experience any kind of pleasure – which means there’s a good deal of both whimsy and sexuality built into their world. There are little pleasures everywhere all the time, from decadent hot chocolates to sweet pastries to magical cats who exist to cuddle up to you. And yes, lax propriety around sex. But pain enhances magic too, and this detail adds a sharp edge to what would otherwise be a pretty quaint world.

The character stakes throughout were solid. Nothing is easy for Saffron. She has to wheel and deal to get what she wants, and sometimes she even has to do heinous things to earn her keep with the gang. This leaves her grappling with many uncomfortable questions and feelings, many of which don’t have obvious resolutions or fixes. I was invested.

Of course, we have to talk about the romance. While yes, the enemies-to-lovers dynamic is a common trope, the love interest felt different from the stock profile in use by most romantasy reads these days. His name is Levan, and as the son of the gang leader, he definitely commits his own share of atrocities. And yet, we can never escape the sense that he’s dissociated. Whenever he’s not “in character,” he can be downright awkward, avoiding eye contact, shutting down banter. There’s clearly a sharp intelligence to him, but he’s not the quippy, irreverent bad guy present in many other books. It was refreshing, but also inspired a lot of curiosity on my part.

The writing was strongest at the beginning and end, but occasionally throughout there would be a paragraph or two of information interrupting a scene. Sometimes this information enhanced the scene, and sometimes it didn’t. This book also did that thing where it tells you the main character is usually calm and calculated, but then we mostly watch her not be.

Things were definitely messy by the end, but there were a few twists that made it all make sense (and one twist I didn’t foresee). The chaos set us up for a series arc that I wasn’t expecting, and I’m excited to see where it goes.

Should you read Silvercloak?

If a romantic fantasy that features wand magic, organized crime, and difficult moral quandaries sounds like something you’d be into, read Silvercloak. It’s also a queernorm world, so while the main romance is between a man and woman, both characters are bisexual so there are non-straight past relationships for both of them that are important to the story.

This book scratched the same itch that Fourth Wing and A Court of Mist and Fury did for me in that I was engaged with both the magic/story and the romance, and not just one or the other.

This one releases July 29^th!