This novel caught my attention right away with its dystopian setting where deception determines survival and trust comes at a high cost. Wren Darlington stands out as a compelling protagonist, not just because of her psychic abilities, but through her resilience and inner strength as she navigates the dangerous training facility of Silver Block while concealing secrets that could prove fatal.

The book creates genuine tension through its well-crafted world, showing the divisions between Mods and Primes, rebels and authorities, controllers and survivors. The combination of dystopian elements with an academy setting creates an engaging blend of strategy, competition, and constant risk that kept me reading.

The romance develops at a measured pace with meaningful tension. Cross Redden is an intriguing counterpart to Wren—observant, mysterious, and creating a dynamic filled with sharp dialogue and chemistry. Their relationship isn't simply about attraction but about navigating opposing forces that might destroy them before they can acknowledge their feelings.

What elevates the story is how it balances surprising plot developments with emotional depth. Wren's journey explores questions of freedom and risk—considerations that extend beyond herself to a potentially better future. The secondary characters have depth, the betrayals feel significant, and the ending is powerfully affecting.

This book revitalized my interest in dystopian fiction by incorporating many elements I appreciate about the genre: resistance, secrets, danger, and a compelling romance. Based on this first book, the series shows great promise. Readers who enjoy complex protagonists, sustained tension, and surprising developments should consider this book. I'm eagerly anticipating the sequel.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Worlds | Del Rey for providing a digital review copy of this romantic fantasy.

I would like to start off by saying: I love this book.

This book follows Wren, a hidden modified* girl, who is trying to avoid notice of the government. The government is all-controlling, and anybody even suspected of helping rebel groups are executed. The world building in this book was excellent, as well as the character development. Wren’s character was very easy to love, as well as Cross, who is my man. I do feel like the ending was a bit rushed. which is why I originally rated it 4 stars, but I couldn’t get this book off my mind, so I bumped it up to 5.

*Modified people are people with special abilities

Features-
- Enemies to lovers
- Political plot
- Spicy
- Touch her and die
- Badass FMC

I absolutely loved this book! A dark, thrilling dystopian adventure that hits all of the right notes. Perfect for fans of Fourth Wing, Shatter Me, and the Hunger Games.

Silver Elite by Dani Franvis, published by Random House World / Del Rey, is the first installment in a trilogy
A dystopian fantasy romance. This is an enemmies-to-lovers romance, the introduction to chracters, setting and storyline.
There's a lot going on right from the start, it took me a minut to get it all sorted out in my head.
All in all an ok read, ends in cliffie and the story continues in the next book.

Wren Darlington hided in plain sight. In a world where her kind, mind readers, are killed or enslaved she keeps a low profile. Set in a dystopia world where the Prime live in luxury and the lower class scrape by, Wren will have to decide how far she'll go to stay hidden. When chaos ensues and someone close to her is killed, Wren will be thrown into the military training program. Success within the program means life, where failure could mean death. The rebellion is coming. How far will Wren have to go to stay safe.

I absolutely love dystopian books. They enter this between stage of reality and would keep easily occur with a few shifts. Dani Francis wrote young characters who are on the brink of a changing world. Darkness has fallen, who will make it out alive? I look forward to more from this series. Thank you Netgalley and Random House Worlds for the advanced copy.

Wren is a silverblood. And under the general's reign, if anyone found out, she's be done for. Silverbloods have dangerous gifts. Telepathy, empathy, mind reading, and other more dangerous mind altering abilities. It's important that she and her uncle keep a low profile. But when she draws a little too much attention to herself, its not long before she's drawn into a world she never wanted to be part of of. A world that includes the too handsome son of the general, Cross Redden. Now she's working for a secret group of silverbloods while training to be a member of society's finest soldier class, the Silver Elite. Her alliances are challenged at every moment and one wrong turn could end her. Francis' world-building will draw romantasy readers in and the chemistry between the leading characters will have them unable to put the book down. With a fast-paced prose and slight dystopian theme, Silver Elite is a great read for fans of Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone or Lauren Robert's Powerless.

I'm not entirely sure if I enjoyed this book as much as suffered through it. The dialogue was clunky, awkward and repetitive. The characters were bland, boring and forgettable.. there was soooo much 'telling' and no 'showing'! And literally nothing happened in this book! The ending was also very unsuspensful. Every "twist" this story had was super predictable and I saw it from a mile away. I felt zero connection to our FMC- she was just ok. This in no way entices me to read the next books... this could easily just be a stand alone. I was excited to read a dystopian world again, but this fell very flat. I would rate this 1 star, but just can't bring myself to do it.

I wan't sure what I was stepping into when I started, and it took a chapter or two to grow comfortable but once I was, the story flew. The FMC is great. Yes, there's a few occasions where you want to say "What are you doing?!" but it's just enough to build a little frustration without making you hate every move she makes. She does not often fit the trope pitfall of annoyingly stubborn FMC. The reader grows to love the MMC right along with the FMC. My distrust broke down right along with the FMC's. There are surprises along the way, and times of laughter. Joy as well as sadness. And the ending...it's a cliff hanger but you feel a satisfying excitement for more, not a feeling of dissatisfied incompleteness. I really enjoyed Silver Elite and can't wait for the next book! I will definitely be buying the trophy hard copy! (Thanks Net Galley for the ARC opportunity!!)

4.5 stars!

WOW this was fun. As I was reading this I realized it's been a while since I read a dystopian book, and I missed it! I thought this world was super interesting with the Primes vs the Mods and different types of Mods. I also liked the training/academic setting of the Silver Block Wren had to join, and I also felt that Wren was a very capable and interesting character. I also really liked the romance (calling her Dove because it's also a bird name has my heart) and I had to stop multiple times to read my friend dialogue because I was giggling and blushing.

The ONLY reason why this wasn't a five star is that the FMC makes an absolutely terrible decision that has terrible ramifications and legitimately made me feel so viscerally angry, but I will 100% be sat for this sequel, especially with that ending???

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Worlds for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was pleasantly surprised with this one. I normally don't seek out military/dystopian fiction but I was HOOKED on this book the entire time.

Wren definitely does some stupid stuff but she is young so the flaws reflect her age. Very emotional and decisions are based on those emotions. Her relationship with Jim was well written and that was a sad moment for me. This is how a enemies to lovers book is supposed to be. Not insta anything and we read for the journey not the ending.

I will PRAISE this author for how government/leadership is portrayed in this book. Both sides are wrong.. there is no talking one side up and both Mod and Primes make horrible decisions for the sake of winning the war. And I like how that opens Wrens eyes to how both sides are playing.

I would definitely recommend it to those who enjoyed Divergent.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Worlds | Del Rey for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC.

This book was like if Fourth Wing meets Divergent and I really enjoyed it!!!
In all honesty, I struggled with the first 10% of this book. I think that I would have preferred more world building and explanations within that first 10% rather than our FMC having just finished an “escapade” with someone who didn’t add a value to the story. It also made her feel like a completely different character than who & what she actually turns out to be later in the story. After that first 10% thought I was HOOKED!! Some things I did like about this book was the dystopian style setting, the longing between the FMC and MMC was delicious, the military style setting, and the powers/ mods that some of the characters had. Some things I didn’t like was the insta lust over the FMC. At one point she said that the FMC was so beautiful that he would have been better whore which I thought was a little unnecessary. The ending of the book leaves off a a cliff hanger and I cannot wait to find out what happens next for everyone!

4.25 stars!!

i loved this so much! this was a great sci-fi/fantasy read. gave out some divergent & hunger games vibes. some good spice in there too! a certain group of people with psychic abilities (mods) are spouted as the enemy. wren spends her life in hiding with her uncle, but one day he gets captured and her whole life changes. she’s forced to join a program for elite solders. she also joins the uprising. she has some serious chemistry with the captain of the program, BUT he’s the son of the general. the reason the people she loves are dead.

Arc review:

"You're not timid or weak, Dove. You're a firestorm, and you're going to burn everything in your path if you don't learn to restrain yourself."

When I got the approval through for this arc I absolutely lost it - this was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and I cannot thank NetGalley, and Random House, enough for the chance to read it pre-release.

I finished it a couple of days ago and all I want is to read more of it. I know people are going to love this and the series is going to be completely devoured (by me especially).

I don't even know where to start. The introduction to the dystopian world is done so well, it wasn't overwhelming or too complex, I followed along easily from the start and it made it easy to pick up on the additional elements such as the psychic/modded ablilities a lot easier.

Romance wise, I'm not sure which element of it was my favourite - we have commanding officer X recuit, enemies to lovers, forbidden romance and tension was...tense. This wasn't lost within the wider plot, but it also didn't smother the rest of the plot - it was a good balance of a romance developing under the most unconventional/inconvenient circumstances for our main characters whilst not losing the high-stakes of the undercover/rebellion elements.

The protagonists are stubborn, and witty, and our supporting characters add a depth that has us questioning the complexity of the world they are living in, especially the interactions with Wren whilst nobody knows she is modified. I loved it and I know that there's so much that can be unfolded and built upon.

Overall, I'm sure it can still be developed but I hope readers will get behind it because the concept, and the characters have SO much potential and I would love to see where Francis takes them next.

Thank you Netgalley and Delray for my EARC📚

This is definitely one of my Top 10 books for 2025 already!!!

What would you do if you lived on Earth 150 years after it with through terrible biotoxic destruction that caused Modified humans to be created but also the other half of the population is normal of no significance. This obviously causes lots of war and destructions among the primes and the Mods. Wren and her uncle came across the most trouble. It guaranteed her a spot on a training academy for the people who absolutely hated her kind but she had no idea that it would lead to working with Cross Redden the Generals son...

I was very skeptical of starting a book that has SCIFI in it Im not a Sci-fi person. But this book blew me away. It was electrifying with every chapter. I just didn't expect the level of Romantasy I got form the story. I couldn't put the book down. This book was right up my alley its Dystopian aspects were what made it unique. Including the training academy antics were very entertaining. I can't wait for book 2.

This will be one of 2025 top reads without a doubt this will fulfill all the book girlies hearts and minds.

⭐ 2.5 - 3 stars
You've read this before and it was probably done better. This is definitely Fourth Wing but lacking the cool dragons and that nostalgic charm that harkens back to early 2010's dystopia like Divergent. The main love interest is even an incredibly tall and attractive, black-haired, tattooed son of a general who's her enemy. Not that that is particularly unique to Fourth Wing as well but the parallels are undeniable, especially as the story takes place within an academy-esque setting and later story details are revealed. It's simply undeniable that there was some copied homework here...Which I know isn't a drawback for everyone. If you'd like something similar to Fourth Wing, the same tropes but with worse writing, you might actually enjoy this!

2.5-3 stars is a mediocre-ish rating for me so I don't think it's terrible! I feel as though I could have ignored how expected/cookie-cutter the main characters were if the writing weren't lackluster. While not the worst I've ever read, it is incredibly mediocre at best and sometimes just distractingly cringe. The book is also uninterested with the world/genre it is writing within. There isn't really any message or meaningful critique of systems of government within the novel, which isn't bad, just disappointing as I found the romance (the actual main focal point) to be equally as flat.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Silver Elite had me reminiscing on the heyday of dystopia media. It’s been so long since I’ve gotten the chance to read a dystopian novel, so this was a lot of fun.

We start off with Wren, who has secret powerful psychic abilities that if discovered, would result in her death or enslavement. Wren ends up far from her ranch, training for an elite military force, hiding her secret with even higher stakes.

The world of Silver Elite was very interesting, but limited in its scale because of the access our narrator had to information. I’m looking forward to reading future installments of this series, as there is already a ton of promise about expanding the world based on the cliffhanger. Good dystopia high needs stakes, and Silver Elite definitely has high stakes. I have a little confusion about the reasoning behind the fates of a few different side characters and it got a little old reading about a protagonist that’s good at everything, but nothing that would stop me from continuing this series. Plus, to be fair, the protagonist’s fatal flaw is her impulsiveness, and that did add some dimension to her characterization. The romance subplot was enjoyable and tastefully spicy as well (note - despite this emulating big YA dystopian novels, this book is NOT young adult and does not claim to be).

Ultimately I found this to be a little too derivative of titles like The Hunger Games and Fourth Wing, but because I enjoy those books, it was fine. This is Dani Francis’s debut novel, and I think based on Silver Elite, she shows a lot of promise. I would definitely recommend this to fans of 2010s dystopia.

This book was everything. Definitely in my all time top 5.

The plot, dystopia, romance, slow burn, the characters... So good.
All the emotions. The end….!!!! No spoilers but man I got a big smile on my face when what happened in the last couple of pages happened.
I cannot wait for book two.

firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc!!

2.5 stars and that’s being generous.

i’m upset i didn’t enjoy this as much as i wanted to because unfortunately, while i love reading dystopian novels, dystopian fiction has made a huge come back due to the recent socio-political climate. so when i saw that silver elite was an adult dystopian novel, i was ready to ravenously eat it up.

well, i could barely touch this book. the writing is extremely juvenile and unserious despite the sense of urgency the author creates for readers. of course, since this is a dystopian ROMANCE, there was a heavy emphasis on the lust/smut… which is exhausting at this point. believe you me, i enjoy a good smut scene or two or five in a novel, but PLEASE actually have extensive world building and character development before diving into bed? it’s disappointing when a book with potential is thrown away for the unnecessary smut scenes.

i still don’t understand the difference between modified and abberant individuals, why they are so feared aside from their powers, especially if they have been crushed under the thumb of the general of this world.

and of course, the foreshadowing of who “wolf” actually was so easy to piece together if you’ve read so many similar novels like i have, that i immediately put two and two together. it would have been nice if the author led readers astray and let us think someone else was wolf before the big reveal, but alas, she did not and i was disappointed but not surprised.

while i’m positive this book will find its audience, it’s certainly not me.

This will be the next big hit in the Romantasy genre, y’all. I’m calling it.

5/5 stars!!!

I DEVOURED this book.

- Dystopian setting
- Self assured FMC
- Telepathy???!!
- MMC who isn’t afraid of confident females
- Training for military operations done RIGHT!


I was never bored throughout this book. I constantly had to figure out what was going to happen next. I found myself sacrificing sleep to just “get a little further in the book” then had to slow down because I didn’t want the book to end.

Wanting book two IMMEDIATELY, and then realized this one isn’t even out yet.

You’re not going to want to miss out on this one! Out in May 2025.

Thank you to the publisher for the E-ARC 🩷

I have mixed feelings about this book. The beginning dragged quite a bit, with too many info dumps that made it hard to stay engaged. Wren also wasn’t the easiest character to like at first—her decisions were frustrating, and I struggled to connect with her. But once the story found its rhythm, it completely pulled me in. The action was gripping, the romance had plenty of tension, and Wren’s character growth made me appreciate her much more by the end. While the pacing wasn’t perfect, the second half made up for it, leaving me eager to see what happens next. Fans of Divergent or fast-paced dystopian fantasy with strong heroines will likely enjoy this one. Flawed but still an enjoyable read—I’m giving it 4 stars.