Rating: 4.5/5

Silvercloak delivers. It’s bold, sexy, chaotic in the best way, and full of high-stakes magic fueled by pain and pleasure (literally). Saff’s a mess but a lovable one, and the queer rep is beautifully baked into the world. A couple pacing bumps and spy slip-ups keep it from a full five, but if you like your fantasy dark, steamy, and unhinged—grab this.

“𝐎𝐡, 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭, 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧.”

I didn’t just read Silvercloak—I devoured it, just like I did with Our Infinite Fates. At this point, it’s safe to say that I’m a Laura Steven fan through and through. If you love your fantasy epic and emotionally charged, with just the right mix of romance, betrayal, and high-stakes magic, this one delivers. The magic system is clever and immersive—I’m still debating which mage order I’d belong to (Timeweaver? Necromancer? Hoping for these 100%)! 🧙🏻‍♀️

the vibes ™:
- betrayal / undercover mission
- prophecies
- unique magic system
- enemies to lovers
- queer representation
- so much more!

Special thanks to DelRey and NetGalley for allowing me to read this as an e-arc!

OKAY. I don’t say this lightly but… this is a new obsession. I mean that so sincerely.

This gem is for the VE Schwab, darker shade of magic fans who want charm, magic, danger, and everything unexpected, but have also maybe found themselves wanting even a little more darkness (while also giving something entirely new and incomparable) than what they found in ADSOM. This scratched fantasy itches I didn’t even know I had, and left me reeling at every single turn.

I’m not sure where to even begin. This is a high/urban fantasy world with the most intricate yet natural world building I’ve found in quite some time, as well as a confusing but impeccable balance of darkness and mystery alongside whimsy and enchantment, and I’m honestly a bit confused about how all of it worked so seamlessly (but it DID).

Saffron is a Silvercloak in training, and she has dedicated her entire life to finding a chance to avenge the death of her parents at the hands of the deadly Bloodmoons, a criminal syndicate that seems untouchable and terrifying in every way. After a mystifying secret of hers comes to light, she’s uniquely positioned to go undercover and bring all manner of terrifying deeds to light, but she couldn’t have possibly anticipated the journey she was about to take.

This has one of the most fun magic systems I’ve read in a very, very long time. It’s intricate and exciting, but also unique and fascinating. It is explored seamlessly, and brings about the most exciting action scenes. The writing style is also stunning and poignant, and genuinely makes you question your notions about right and wrong. It keot me on my toes quite literally throughout the ENTIRE story, and left me guessing all the way until the final page (and beyond, it would seem).

This truly makes me so wildly excited for everything else this author has written. I ADORED Society for Soulless Girls, but I also found that the writing style is almost unrecognizable (which I find even MORE impressive, this author clearly has so much range). I’m grateful that I have another book of hers on deck while I wait for the next installment in this series, because I’m absolutely REELING after the end of it, I can’t WAIT for what happens next, I’m only upset at how early I’ve read it because it means I have to wait longer! Thank you so much to Del Rey and NetGalket for this eArc!

I would like to thank Random House Publishing Group - Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore and Laura Steven for this ARC in return for an honest review.
4 Stars

"Two decades ago, the Bloodmoons ruthlessly murdered Saffron Killoran’s parents, destroying her idyllic childhood. Hell-bent on revenge, she lies her way into Silvercloak Academy—the training ground for her city’s elite order of detectives—with a single goal: to bring the Bloodmoons to justice. But when Saff’s deception is exposed, rather than being cast out, she’s given a rare opportunity: to go undercover and tear the Bloodmoons down from the inside.

With each day testing her loyalties further, Saff finds her web of lies becoming harder to spin. And when one false step could destroy everything and everyone she’s ever loved . . . the detective who’s dedicated her life to vengeance just might die for it."

This book has a lot going for it. I absolutely love the magic system and the idea of refilling your magical well with pain or pleasure. It's so interesting and it can go so many places. The places it went in this book were definitely both intriguing and graphic.

The main love interest is okay, I'm not as invested as I'd like to be but I'm not really sure what's eating at me about it. I definitely prefer Saff's other love interest Nissa. I do adore both Main Characters are truly bisexual (and maybe poly) and completely unapologetic or weird about it. Love that representation.

My biggest irk about the whole thing is Saff's constant struggle not to get caught. It makes her seem....not good at her job. Like not at all. So many things happen where she's like, I should have seen that coming, or Oops can't change that now, and it's like girl didn't you just graduate and get the best(most dangerous) assignment? I'm not saying she shouldn't get caught doing things at all given the level or her enemies but damn girl what they teach you?

I'm on the fence about continuing the series but I definitely recommend it for other to give a try, there's a lot of cool things going on here that I think will tic a lot of boxes.

I received an ARC of this book for free from Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore, and NetGalley, and I am voluntarily writing this review. Saffron is in training to become a Silvercloak, a magical detective protecting people from crime in a world where pleasure and pain fuel magic. She has secrets, a harrowing backstory, and wants to punish her parents’ murderers, the vicious, criminal Bloodcloaks. This is the start of a great fantasy series! I devoured the book in less than 24 hours because I couldn’t put it down. I can’t wait for the next one!!!

Silvercloak took me by surprise—in the best way. It sat on my TBR for a while, but once I finally cracked it open, I was completely immersed. This romantic fantasy pulls you into a gritty, dangerous world where magic is fueled by pleasure and pain, and the tension never lets up.
The story follows a relentless investigator going undercover in a brutal gang of dark mages, and the stakes are sky-high from the start. I was on edge the entire time, constantly second-guessing how it would all unfold. The pacing is razor-sharp, the twists genuinely surprising, and the emotional moments hit hard.
One of the book’s biggest strengths is its richly imagined world. The spellcasting system is unique and layered, with real consequences that shape the story in meaningful ways. I also really enjoyed the political undercurrents and the slow unraveling of corruption woven throughout the plot. I wish I got more of the early years, as I've seen others write, I hope there is a prequel at some point.
This is the kind of book that lingers after you finish—the setting, the intensity, the originality of the magic system. I’ve already been telling every adult fantasy reader I know to grab it the moment it releases.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Del Ray for the chance to read this amazing book. The one downside to reading and loving an arc is having to wait even longer for the next book!

I just have so many feelings. I was hooked from the beginning. Literally first page - so whimsical and then tragic. I should have heeded the warning.

The relationships are complex. The magic system is compelling. The story mixes stress and adventure and suspense. There’s some predictability in moments and the bits I didn’t expect.

Reading the “about the author” section has me THRILLED to learn I have another book by this author (our infinite fates) on my bookshelf to tide me over until this saga continues!

Everyone should read this!

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Silvercloak by L.K. Steven
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Romantasy
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: July 29, 2025
464 pages

LGBTQ Rep- Main Character
Guild of Mages (Bloodmoon + Silvercloak)
Dangerous Undercover Mission
Cute Animal Companions

I loved the beginning. The world-building was excellent, I enjoyed the good vs evil aspect of the rival guilds and the undercover mission was brutal. I'm not a fan of mafia romance, but if you are then I think you'd enjoy the romantic subplot. I'm not sure why I didn't love it, I just found my mind drifting after about 65%. It started to feel a bit repetitive and focused more on sexual attraction between MCs and but so much moving the plot along.

If the Wizarding world of Harry Potter x Mafia sounds up your alley, you should give Silvercloak a chance!

Thank you so much Del Rey and NetGalley for the digital review copy!

⚠️ death of parents, some sexual content, gambling, substance abuse

I've heard so much about this novel in the book community, I was dying to get my hands on it to read for myself. Between the hype and the premise I was excited, but once I actually started it I seemed to lack the connection I was hoping for.

I wasn't captured early on by the book, so I felt more like I had just been reading to read rather than processing and experiencing the story. The magic concept was unique, but I personally felt like this leaned too heavy into sexual themes and I tend to steer away from a lot of those.

The romantic subplot seemed a bit worn for me, it mimicked a lot of the "dark haired morally gray" MMC that's been done a lot here recently and wasn't fresh enough for me.

While I personally wasn't enthralled with the book, the setting was rich, well developed, and it was a unique spin on some fantasy elements. Those who prefer some darker fantasy would probably be more into some of those elements than I was.

The writing is solid, 100% and the pacing was great. It's not badly written, it's quite well written, I personally just didn't find a good fit with this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for an ARC of Silvercloak by L.K. Steven.
=
Saff only has one goal, she wants to find the murders who killed her parents. Saff is forced into an elite academy so that she can infiltrate The Bloodcoates, where her special ability of being immune to magic protects her.
I enjoyed Silvercloak. I will warn the readers it's a bit gory and the main character isn't shy about getting her hands dirty, so please read the trigger warning before diving in. But if you like Zodiac Academy you'll probably enjoy this book as much as I did!

Harry Potter meets the Mafia... but poorly executed IMO. And that pains me to say because the concept of this magic system is SO COOL AND CREATIVE. This book had an explosive, promising start. I love the idea of magic fueled by pain or pleasure. And the plot - the idea of going so deep undercover to get retribution and revenge for her parents' murder... it all sounds so good. But the pacing was off, at some points slogging along, and I found myself struggling to stay interested. I also failed to feel a real connection with the characters. (Mild spoiler alert) There are character deaths throughout this story, and I should have been affected but couldn't find it in me to care. It left the FMC emotionally ravaged, and I wanted to be destroyed by the deaths right along with her, but I just wasn't. Even though the ending had me scoffing in contempt, that last line ("This is how villains are born") was GOOD. Thanks Netgalley for the e-ARC!

I stand by what I said a week ago: fucking phenomenal and I’m gutted. I cannot stop thinking about this book. It captivated me from the start and kept me firmly in its grasp clear through the ending. The first book isn’t even out yet and I’m already clawing at the bars of my enclosure for any scraps of information about book two.

There’s so much this book does well that it’s hard to even know where to start. The worldbuilding felt deep and immersive, while still keeping the lore and relevant factoids to a relative minimum. It definitely never felt like work to understand what was going on. I love that this entire society is based on being expressive and casually queer and sexually uninhibited. It felt refreshing to read something where characters weren’t ashamed to talk about what they’re into, especially for women.

The magic system is really cool, too. I’ve never read something with a pleasure/pain based magic system but it definitely lent itself to some unique plot setups. I’m eager to see how the author explores this in the future. There are also some neat little details with the wands and what they can do that felt fresh and imaginative and set this read apart from other wand-waving fantasies.

Love love love these characters and know they will be sticking with me for a long time. Both our MCs have very twisty and compelling stories. I appreciate that the author wasn’t afraid to deep dive on the inner monologues navigating the intersection of where right/wrong meets greater good/duty. There’s a lot of inner turmoil and uncertainty from both MCs and I’m glad we got to experience that fully. The spectrum of morally grey here is so nuanced and I love when an author can make you empathize with a character’s reprehensible choices. Chef’s kiss - feed me a buffet of this exact thing.

The pacing moves along quickly, but not too fast. The story definitely has time to breathe and the reader really gets to know the characters before things dive off the deep end. I had so much fun reading this book while also being stressed out of my mind about everything taking place on these pages. Pretty sure I had a hand clapped over my mouth for the last fifty pages or so.

Overall just a really good time! Fascinating world, imaginative magic system, compelling plot, and characters who are so easy to attach yourself to even as you want to shake them because what are you doing bebe no

Can’t wait for the sequel! Will be yapping about this one until then.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for access to an arc in exchange for review.

Thank you NetGalley and Del Ray for giving me a copy of this book. This book has a really interesting magic system, pleasure and pain and that was super unique. I really enjoyed the world building and the relationship between Saffron and Levan, and that this book gave me grown up Harry Potter vibes.

A ROMP and a well-written one, at that. Full of vengeance, double-agents, and all your fave tropes (PLUS... EVERYONE is queer, which is just *chef's kiss*). I'm already a big fan of Steven's YA, and now I get to gobble up this series and I'm ELATED. Perfect for fans of Naomi Novik, VE Schwab, and Brigid Kemmerer

This was a great dark fantasy with a classic magic system and a new take on the mafia. I loved the twist at the end, but I did feel it had a few plot holes: Saff never checks that anyone’s dead, and never reacts to the horrors (though in fairness that’s a conscious choice), so I did feel a bit disconnected from her emotionally by the end of the book. Also fantastic sex scene

Once again big thanks to NetGalley and Random House - Del Ray for the opportunity to read and review this book! 3.75 rating on Storygraph, upped to 4 stars on here, also some of my thoughts are Just in my storygraph review bc they contain spoilers which I cant tag here so feel free to open my review on there to see what Ive omitted here!

Enjoyed this one, will definitely be picking up the sequel! Came for the cool cover, stayed for the magic system, more of that below!

As always starting with the pros:

For one I really enjoyed the concept of the magic system, the pleasure/pain aspect was pretty cool, as was the world-building I think. If I ever reread it I think Id like to do a physical reread because the digital version did not have a map and I couldn’t really picture all the places and cultures I read about. Even without a map I do feel like the world was solid enough to feel Real, somehow!

Another thing I enjoyed was how easy of a read that was, picked it up one day and was on page 140 the next day, the story is just very engaging I think. Ive been reading a lot of high fantasy lately, which is really great but goes kind of slow, so the pacing here felt like a breath of fresh air!

Last thing I wanna talk about for the pros is the smut aspect of the book, Im usually not a smut reader at all, makes me cringe internally so I was not sure how this was gonna go for me but I feel like the plot to smut ratio was done really well in this book, there were some (I think three?) sex scenes in it but they weren’t overly long and the centre of the attention, which I enjoyed. Every once in a while we get a little sexual remark in passing but I think that works well with the world Laura has created!

Oh actually I lied, one more thing I wanna talk about is the ending, plot twist was fun and I look forward to Something That Got Revealed at the end!

Now onto the cons:

Writing felt a bit corny at times, the a few different points of the book physically made me cringe for a second Im sorry. Also the “their lives were always intertwined in some way”, I feel like thats sorta veering in the fated mates trope and I just dont particularly care for it haha.

Second thing is some of the characters fell kinda flat to me, or not entirely flat but they weren’t prominent in the story? Whole time we got Saff and Levan and no one else kinda, Nissa appears briefly for 12 minutes and then disappears again, I wish we got more of the Silvercloaks so I could connect with them as characters rather than plot devices. I still dont remember the names of the last two cohort members, only know Nissa, Tiernan and Auria, I do hope we get more of them and their dynamics later on.

Lastly I wish we got more of the political aspect, I wish we could see how the corruption works in that world and also how the crown functions! This is a lighter con tho because I do hope we explore this in the later books!

Overall had a good time, will be picking up the next book to see whats going on in the world of the Silvercloaks!

In this addictive new fantasy series set in a world where magic is fueled by pleasure and pain, an obsessive detective infiltrates a brutal gang of dark mages—knowing that one wrong move will get her killed. . . .

Silvercloak is the first installment the new upcoming trilogy by L. K. Steven. This cover is absolutely gorgeous and the blurb had me intrigued so bad! This book blew my mind in the best way possible. I was immersed into the world, and was hooked to the point I could not see the ending coming! It just didn't want anything stop. It didn't feel like I read over 300 pages because everything was grippy and had me hooked that I didn't realise the pages were passing. The magic system is so wonderfully unique and complex with consequences and limits that continuously challenge the characters throughout the book. Saffron and Levan deserve so much better. With everything they've been through, not together and together, they deserve so much better than their world has to offer. Every aspect of the writing feels well-balanced. It’s definitely dark in places, with a significant number of lost limbs for the overall headcount, but it’s not overdone. That ending definitely caught me off guard and I DID not expect it at all! I'm eagerly waiting for the next instalment despite knowing it would be a Summer 2026 release. Overall, if you enjoy dake and brutal worlds, with a queer-normative society and brutal magic with wands, this is a very compelling read!

Intricate characters, a brilliantly unique magic system fuelled by pain and pleasure, expansive world building and honestly it was everything I’ve been looking for.
I’ve always wanted to revisit a world with wands and magic that’s a lot darker and gritty and this book was everything I needed. What a work of art.

Some brilliant plot twists and reveals, the last 20% made it impossible to put down and left me eagerly awaiting book 2 already!!

The romance? Chefs KISS. I just love tension, a forbidden romance and morally grey characters, but they were also so much more. Grief is a big driving factor in Silvercloak. It’s easy to become emotionally attached to the characters so you might need the tissues!

Silvercloak is out 24th July and I will be begging people to read it so I can talk about it please.🤭

I was really intrigued by the synopsis, and I was not disappointed. I definitely understand why some people were saying it reminded them of Harry Potter. I would have to agree with that, just with more adult themes and a cool magic system. To me, it was kind of like Harry Potter meets The Departed. There are lots of moments that make you sweat about her cover being blown, where loyalties lie, are you defined by your actions or your intentions, etc. I loved the magic system and appreciated the characters and plot. I enjoyed my time with this story, and I will definitely read the next book.

Thank you immensely to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the absolute pleasure of reading this early.

I swear this is the best book that I have EVER read and I’m not sure that I will ever fully recover from the emotional whiplash endured. It honestly had me in a chokehold, I couldn’t put it down and read the whole thing in a day.

My favourite quote was “I see you, Silver. For all that you are”, it was just so powerful and I’m slightly in love with our morally grey MMC.

One thing that made this book as good as it is, is the depth the author went to, in order to give us a characters backstory. I even started to feel a bit sorry for Mr Kingpin Man.

The epilogue was actually earth shattering,

1000000000 STARS AND PLEASE GIVE ME THE NEXT IMMEDIATELY