This was a bit of a mixed read for me.

The positives were that I quite like the writing style of the author. I liked the characters and the dichotomy between the two main kitsune characters. I also like how the book tackled some tricky concepts like trauma and mental health.

However, this was a slow burn book that just didn't really have a climax and never seemed to go anywhere and then ended on a cliffhanger. There was never a resolution to any of the issues raised in the book, which left me very frustrated.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for permitting this book to be a Read Now to help members develop their Feedback Ratio in exchange for an honest review.

Review Summary:
This story follows two demons, Jaden and Kuro, as they navigate the human world. They are kitsune, fox demons who can shapeshift to appear as humans. As kitsune they can only survive by ‘feeding’ on the souls and emotions of humans… with a twist. They can only feed on the negative such as fear, anxiety and sadness. We follow our characters as they try to evade discovery of their true form following a widely publicised incident, while also trying to learn more about their kitsune abilities and their ancestry. All the while Kuro and Jaden learn more about each other and their seemingly unbreakable bond, and how this has influenced their interactions with others. Simultaneously we follow Kenneth, a human involved in their near-discovery, who becomes determined to find the pair and solve the mysterious incidences occurring since their arrival. I would definitely advise looking up the content warnings for this novel.
Positives are that this novel has a truly engaging plot, mixing fantasy with romance and thriller mystery. I finished this story within two days, I was so enthralled. The book also deals with some really complex emotional and psychological phenomena such as trauma bonding, depression and grief. This added some real depth to the story. I adored the slow burn pacing as it allowed me to feel so much more invested. The romances depicted in the novel are pretty controversial, but I still really enjoyed them.
Negatives were mostly related to the Kenneth POV, which I felt needed a little more development to match the quality of Kuro’s. There were some occasional inconsistencies with the lore and prose.

4 stars. Dark, controversial but so beautifully written. With a couple of issues ironed out this could have been a perfect 5 stars for me.

FULL REVIEW BELOW. AVAILABLE WITH THE ADDITION OF HIDDEN SPOILERS ON GOODREADS.

World-building:
The novel is based in the United States, in a forested rural area where Kuro feels most comfortable to hide in his Kitsune form and avoid excessive mingling with humans. The vast, expansive and often isolating environment was very well written with the underlying fear and anxiety of being in the middle of nowhere, and nowhere near any form of aid, being captured well. The lore and the history of the kitsune is largely a mystery even to the two kitsune themselves which added to the fear of the unknown. Watching Kuro and Jaden wield the powers they do know about was fascinating, and even being such a complex and unquantifiable ability as to search through souls the writing made it feel truly palpable. Later on as we start to pick up on more potential knowledge of the kitsune it lends itself beautifully to the characters own development.

Characterisation:
This book didn’t shy away from the darker aspects of the human mind, with almost all of the relationships explored in the novel being toxic in some way.
Kuro is a fascinating main character. His emotionally abusive kinship founded on trauma bonding with Jaden has left him with no true sense of self, whether that be worth or belief. He has always felt he is totally reliant on Jaden, and so to watch him start to develop his own agency and sense of morality was incredible. Jaden himself is a frightening antagonist. Frightening in how realistic it felt with his abuse of a power dynamic and watching him lose himself to his obsessions of knowledge and self discovery. I truly hated him and in many ways it was frustrating yet heartbreaking to watch Kuro feel so helpless against him while also holding such a strong sense of duty and obligation towards him, leading him to protect him even while vehemently condoning his actions. Kuro and Caroline’s story is a controversial one as their relationship is essentially built on fear, mistrust and violent intent. But what a beautiful slow burn it was. It was in many ways heartbreaking especially knowing that the characters are very much still hiding things and telling mistruths. Kenneth is an interesting but potentially underdeveloped character, along with his friends Jacqueline and Eric. Kenneth was an opportunity to explore chronic depression and the consequences of it, but I still felt I didn’t really know his personality outside of his depression and his feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness. It made me feel a little less invested in his relationships with his friend and with Jacqueline. Jacqueline suffered the same fate in which I felt I didn’t really know her personality outside of her dealing with her grief of the lost closeness with Kenneth. I’m hoping her involvement in solving the mysteries in the novel will help develop her character. While it kept being said that Kenneth and Eric had been best friends it didn’t really come across in their interactions past and present. Eric was probably the most interesting of the three, even though he was written as the levelheaded realistic friend. Hints of his deeper feelings were shown through his dialogue and facial expressions which made him mysterious.

Story:
This story had a little bit of everything and I loved it. Mystery, crime thriller, fantasy and romance. Some may have felt it was slow paced but I personally felt it made the story feel more realistic and immersive.
The aspect I didn’t like so much was the storylines involving Kenneth and his photojournalism. It felt a little corny in some aspects with the writers and the journalists trying to get their ‘big scoop’.

Prose:
Stunning. This is a truly talented author. There were one or two typos and a couple of scenes where the wrong character was reacting or speaking, or looking up when they should have been looking down. This did not detract from the beautiful flow of language and poetic vocabulary. The dialogue was believable aside from the cheesy journalists. Caroline and Kuro in particular had some achingly beautiful interactions.

This book presented a unique form of magical realism. The character interactions were realistic and honest. As a local to the area in which the story takes place, I appreciated references to locations and beauty along the parkway.

A Black and Solemn Silence is a fast paced paranormal urban fantasy with a bit of an enemies to lovers romance and a ton of action.

Two shape shifters, Kuro and Jaden, are alone in the forest when someone from Kuro’s past takes a picture of him in his demon fox form. They begin a journey to find him before he’s able to post the picture. Kuro becomes injured after someone shoots him and he has to make a very difficult decision that will challenge his morals. This book was so fun to read! I got absolutely lost in the story and loved the characters. There was also an aspect of mystery that I loved alongside the romance. It had a little of everything and I thought it was great.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Danielle Thompson for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This published today!

I have posted my review on Goodreads, in my Facebook book club, and will rave about this on TikTok the day after publishing day!

Thank you NetGalley and Danielle Thompson, Independent Book Publishers Association for this ARC Copy!

This was a book that I was immediately drawn to. The premise was so interesting and I was hooked from the beginning.
The story follows two MMCs who are shifters and they have grown up separate from the world, but as the begin to immerse themselves into the human world. The path that each of them take are very diffident but they will forever remain tied to each other, whether they want to be or not.

This book had some dark and twisty parts and I could not stop reading, and I can not wait for the second book in the series.

This is such an eerie story - not spooky or scary at all, but the kind of story that lives in shadows and dread. This is the story of two kitsune - mystical demon foxes - who only have each other, but when one accidentally gets himself photographed by a human, the other takes that as an excuse to indulge his cruelest tendencies.

I was completely enthralled by this book - from the start, I couldn’t put it down. The bits of magic, the way the relationships stretch and pull, they way little offerings of the full story are slowly revealed, all had me hooked. At times it could be shockingly gory, but the gore never felt gratuitous.

My only complaint is the cliffhanger ending - how cruel to leave us readers at that point! - but we’ve been promised even more kitsune in future books, so all will eventually be forgiven.

This was a really mixed read for me. I got on really well with the author's writing style. The prose is very rich, it's written maturely and I found the style itself very pleasing overall. I also liked how this is an urban fantasy romance with a very unique mythological basis which you don't see very much in the genre. Kudos to the author for picking something more out of the box!

Unfortunately, I felt like I just didn't really connect with the characters, not even Kuro. The plot was also a little meandering and there weren't many significant peaks or troughs - just the same kind of muted tension throughout. There were long periods of time where I didn't pick this book up because I didn't have that burn to read more.

A Black and Solemn Silence by Danielle Thompson is a slowburn, paranormal, enemies-to-lovers romance and the first book in the adult urban fantasy Color by Numbers series. It includes adult themes and ends on a cliff-hanger.

Kuro is the grumpy, brooding book boyfriend you want to take into your arms and show him that he can be loved. He hangs around with an evil and dangerous fellow, Jaden, who is the only other kitsune he's known since his existence. Jaden is very conniving and manipulative and Kuro never really puts too much thought into his future beyond hanging out in nature, that is until one fateful day when a chain of events unfolds in which they are being hunted for murderer and Kuro’s very existence and survival hangs in the balance between his trouble seeking companion and a country girl whom Kuro develops an unhealthy (physically makes him sick) interest in.

I loved Kuro’s character development as he begins to realize that there is more to life and companionship outside of the mountains. Jaden was portrayed exactly how you would expect a villian to be. I felt like there could have been more back story given for some of the other characters, but have high hopes those will be revealed in the future books released for the Color By Numbers series. Overall, I really enjoyed this story and it was left on a cliffhanger with a sneak peek into the next book at the end that has me anticipating the next release!

I really struggled getting into this book. The blurb sounded really exciting, but I found the writing and the storyline just wasn’t for me.

It immediately begins in a really confusing way. The author seems to expect the reader to immediately understand what’s happening and understand what the main character really is, but that was not the case.

The style of writing was good, but I think overall there could have been more explanations.

I started this one and while I enjoyed the writing it was never he right time for it.

Thank you NetGalley

CONTAINS SPOILERS


the book was extremely dark and graphic, but it was so good. Jaden being Kuro's foil was an interesting dynamic. I *hated* Jaden more and more as time went on. Kuro isn't perfect, and I actually like that. I prefer when characters are flawed. Caroline is a wonderfully written character, although I wouldn't describe her and Kuro's dynamic as "enemies to lovers". More like "complicated distrust to friends to maybe, sometime in the future, lovers?"

This was an easy read to get through. I did like the characters a good bit as well! It did have some depth to it that was a bit complex but wasn't to hard to follow. The kitsune aspect is what originally drew me in. The only complaint is the cliffhanger so I'm impatiently awaiting the next!

Thank you Danielle Thompson, Netgalley, and IBPA for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC for A Black and Solemn Silence!

I wanted to love this book and the cover is one of best I have seen so far this year. It has a great foundation and there were a lot of good things in the book it was just executed the best. One of the things is the chapter are way too long. Also every chapter felt like it could have been 3 chapters. Because of that the flow of the book is a bit off. This book had good moment the concept was good. The ending did bring the book up and bring the book up for me.

Put simply, this book felt a bit like a bad execution of another book I read. The novel follows Kuro and Jaden, two kitsune (or fox shifters). Kuro has been caught on camera, and the story shows the foxes’ ideological difference (i.e. violent or not) as they try to track down the photographic proof of their existence, and Kuro also accidentally falls in love with a woman who tries to kill him when they first meet.

Frankly, this book felt all over the place. It couldn’t tell if it wanted to be a romance, mystery, magical realism, or a revenge story. In theory, it could be all four, but its bad pacing and abrupt transition between side plots left me feeling detached from the story and I didn’t really care about any of it. Further, and this is partially my fault, I had just come from reading The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo, which similarly tracks a fox shifter whose now-dead daughter was caught on film, and her journey of revenge as she tracks down the photographer. Whereas Choo’s novel manages to beautifully weave together historical fiction and magical realism, tenderly rendering emotions and keeping the reader interested, I found myself incredibly uninterested in the romantic pairing, and I hated Jaden. I am not sure if the author intended to portray him as a morally grey bad boy, but he truly just comes across as an irredeemable villain.

The novel ends on a cliffhanger, and I found that I didn’t care about it. I won’t be reading the sequels, and give this 2⭐

*Thank you again to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

I am so happy I got the chance to read this book. It was different from my usual reads and I am glad for that because it gave me a different taste.
The writing style of the author and the flow is super nice. The story points were grabbing my attention immediately - I didn't want to put it down!
In addition, the chapters are of a good size as well, which is a book characteristic that helps me enjoy a book better.
Finally, I liked the characters, the descriptions and the way they were reacting realistically in certain situations.

Overall, I would say that I will definitely read the next book and of course read more of the future books of Danielle !

I really enjoyed this book. It tells the story of Kuro, a kitsune who has been living on the outskirts of the human world for some time. After he gets tangled upon a mess when someone takes a photograph of him he and his fellow ‘demon fox’ Jaden, try to get the photo back before it is leaked to the human world.

This story is written very well and I really felt connected to Kuro and his journey. The way the author writes the slow blend of the mythical world with the human world was great. The world building was done in a subtle way, without any feeling of confusion or overwhelm at any point.

It has a great mix of fantasy, thriller and murder mystery with some developing character depth as things go on. There is also an element of a love story which I found organic and interesting.

It does end of a cliffhanger so I’ll have to check out book two for sure!

Really liked the dark mystical vibes in this book and it was beautifully written! I did however find it a little difficult to connect to the characters, especially with the multiple povs. I enjoyed the cliffhanger, and look forward to reading more from Danielle Thompson!

Thank you to NetGallery and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for providing me with arc of this book.

I will be honest I did not enjoy this book - it really wasn’t for me but I can say that many will enjoy it

This is a book about a Kitsune who is struggling to find his way. The book is dark and spooky vibes and an air of mystery that was fun. The author is building a unique world.

For me it was a little disjointed and I struggled to follow the rules of the magic system. Which meant I was often pulled out of scenes trying to piece together what was happening. The multiple POVs added to the feeling for me which didn’t help

I’m sure many will love this but it wasn’t for me

I really enjoyed reading this book. The action started right away, it felt like you were dropped straight into the story with information coming at you in snippets of backstory rather than faced head on.

I would’ve liked more romance between the mmc and the fmc, but I assume that’ll be developed more in the coming stories.

I like it enough to read what comes next. It captured my attention.

The writing was very good and everything flowed really well. However I had a really hard time connecting with the characters. Overall I feel like the concept was really interesting. I am just not really a fan of main characters who sullenly just let things happen to them, and that is what I felt like they all were.