This was a DNF for me, though I do think Silver cloak has its readership.

Steven's incorporated an element of whimsy that I wasn't expecting, and the world felt sort of DND'ish because of it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this atmosphere, it just didn't work for me.

I also didn't really connect with Saffron, so I was left feeling unconnected from the story.

Firstly, I’d like to thank you NetGalley, DelRey and Laura Steven for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

This was an easy 5 star read for me. I can’t wait to read more of Laura Steven’s work as her writing and story telling is pure poetry. Laura's vivid descriptions bring every detail to life, leaving you feeling completely immersed in this world.

I was completely captivated from the start and struggled to put this down. I finished in 2 days and honestly, I would’ve finished it in one sitting if responsibilities didn’t get in the way. I was on the edge of my seat for the entirety of the book!

I have never read anything quite like this magic system. It was complex and unique, with consequences that, at many times, hindered the characters throughout the book. I loved the concept of either pain or pleasure fuelling their “magical wells.”

The two main characters, Saffron and Levan are wonderfully complex. Both ruthless, they will stop at nothing to get what they want, all whilst trying to understand the feelings growing between them. At no point did I think the romance overshadowed the plot of the book, it was woven expertly in adding an emotional depth that at some points, had me needing to put the book down to stare at a blank wall because WHAT THE HELL?! The emotional damage this two had me feeling may forever leave a scar.

The ending had me screaming, gasping and crying all at once. I am already foaming at the mouth for the next one!! I highly recommend this to anyone that loves intense world-building, forbidden love, morally grey and COMPLEX characters and unique magic systems. You will not regret this!!

LOVED this. It completely delivered as an adult romantasy version of Harry Potter and I could not put it down. The writing was so vivid, bringing to life a world full of whimsy and charm, yet also so much darkness and cruelty, making the atmosphere so well-balanced. I appreciated the FMC being more complex, morally grey, and highly fallible, which makes it so much more interesting to follow compared to other mainstream characters that are linear and predictable. That’s not to say that there weren’t plot points of this book that were easy to see coming from a mile away, but that didn’t detract from the overall story being intriguing and addicting to the very end. The banter sometimes didn’t quite hit, but the romance between the main characters as a whole felt very well done and I was highly invested in it. My only other wish would be for a bit more ‘mob’ activity in the middle section of the book, which felt slow in parts - hoping the later books will really explore more of the Bloodcloak underground world! But as a whole, I loved this story and the direction of where this series is heading with lots of mysteries still to be unveiled. Definitely will be recommending this once it hits the shelves!

HUGE thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5/5 rounded up

Actual rating: 4.5 stars.
The beginning of this book immediately pulled me in; I was confused and intrigued. Once we caught up with Saffron in the present, I was really getting into the book. The idea of magic being based on pleasure and pain is super compelling and really interesting. After we skipped forward a year and Saff had to go undercover, I’m not gonna lie, I was a little put out because I wanted to see more of the academy and more of her friends.
I put the book down for a couple of days, but once I picked it back up, I couldn’t put it down!! The violence, the deception, the intrigue!! Saffron and Levan’s relationship was very curious, and of course, we now know both sides a bit more—Saff knew she would kill him and Levan knew she would save him. Super interesting! And it definitely makes sense that Saff is a Timeweaver, I would’ve been sorely disappointed if she wasn’t.
I’m very curious about how she’ll continue to explore that in the next one, and I’m wondering quite a bit if she’s gonna live long enough to see herself become the villain. I guess we’ll see.

Thanks to Laura Steven, NetGalley, and Del Rey for an ARC copy.

I decided to DNF.
This book was overly detailed, confusing, and messy.
The writing reminded me of a YA novel but in the very first chapter there were adult themes, I did not expect that going in and I realized very quickly that this book is not for me.

Mark my words -- this book is going to be one of the biggest fantasy releases of 2025.

L. K. Steven's Silvercloak had me spellbound from that first gripping chapter. Our story follows Saffron Killoran, a cadet on the brink of graduating from her detective academy when she is given a deadly assignment: go undercover to take down the Bloodmoons, the cult that killed her parents.

With intricate worldbuilding, steamy romance, and compelling twists and turns, L.K Steven's Silvercloak is just the beginning in a magnificent fantasy series geared toward adults.

I can't wait for the next book. In fact, I need it now!

I'm a little sad that I didn't love this as much as I thought I would. I built it up so much in my head and the reality didn't even come close to it.

I love the concept. I love the magic system. I love the writing style. What didn't work for me? Honestly, I just felt so detached. The stakes were high. It's kill or be killed. And I didn't feel anything. I didn't care at all about Saff or any of the characters. I hate it when this happens. Because why am I even reading when I don't care about anyone?

There wasn't much "oomph" in the ending. It was basically spoiled for us from the beginning. But I am curious about how book two will go. Hopefully that will go better for me.

Thank you to Random House Publishing and L.K. Steven for allowing me to read this ARC! This story was engrossing in its world building, character development, and details. Saff was a very interesting FMC; I loved the fact she wasn’t presented as a small, helpless girl - which happens to often in fantasy books. Standing at 6 feet tall and with her own control of magic, Saff is a force to be reckoned with. Additionally. I appreciated the poetic wording throughout the book. The author writes in a way that keeps you turning the page! I would recommend this to anyone that likes romantasy. I can’t wait until the next book in the series!

Unfortunately, a frustrating read despite high hopes and some promising buzz. While I was gripped by the premise, and eager to reach to the end, I felt this book was actively manipulating me as a reader. I was told characters possessed certain defining traits even when their actions showed the opposite. I was told facts about characters that were then contradicted both in telling and showing. For example: one particular emotional scene only works if we believe the love between two characters (not our mains) love which is both actively denied and barely developed. Instead, the author uses the inclusion of a color-changing device (like a mood ring) to tell us what they feel at any given time. I really wanted our FMC to be the academy-honed mage we were promised. Instead, her greatest weapon is dad-jokes and being outplayed by the people she's meant to be outplaying. I will read the sequel only to see the MMC get his revenge, so in that sense the book “worked” and no doubt this will be liked by fans of similar plots such as Arcane Academy, Throne of Glass, and the upcoming A Dance of Lies.

Full RTC.
Screaming crying throwing up. What do you mean with that cliffhanger??!

--
I have now composed myself, and this review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Laura Steven, and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read an eARC of this gem. My first instinct was to rate this 4.5 stars (rounded up to 5). However, upon reflection upon the number of times I snorted due to the fantastics sarcastic humor written throughout, it gets a straight 5 stars from me.

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

The premise of this story and this world plop you directly into grey territory. My favorite place to be.

In a world where magic and power comes from both pain and pleasure (and those with magic use wands), Saffron Killoran must risk everything she has dedicated to becoming a Silvercloak in order to infiltrate the dangerous group that murdered her parents in order to bring them to their knees and avenge her parents deaths. But becoming a Bloodmoon requires more than donning a brand and scarlet cloak, and Saff suddenly has to contend with who and what she must become to survive.

I enjoyed that Saffron was a flawed main character. I loved the realism in watching her try to balance her desire to plot precisely with her strength in never wanting to back down and charging in when she feels there is more to gain than to lose.

Levan was also a great MMC. There were a few times I felt the shift in his behavior was a little too tidy for the plot. But, the ending especially cemented him as a deeply caring yet flawed human who is powerful but hiding parts of himself that make it hard to parse his intentions (which is a plus for me. I don't like when a building romance makes it all wrap up too nicely).

I must also mentioned that I loved Rasso, the loyal pet and king of my heart, because he is a good boy (when not ripping out throats).

The well written banter, fantastic writing of sarcastic humor, strong plot (romance was in the backseat), and a cliffhanger that gave me pain in knowing I have to wait for the next installment after having the pleasure of reading this story makes Silvercloak one I will reread, recommend, and think about often.

Is the book good or is it actually just the last 100 pages? Unfortunately I think it’s just the ending thats good with this one. We’re just thrown into this story and there’s A LOT of names - people, places, magic, multiple religions and figureheads, etc - all at once. It was very confusing and most of them were unnecessary imo. But once the story starts going, it gets easier (ish). Honestly i think i just started to ignore the massive influx of names that weren’t explained/important. Like not every far off region needs to be explained/have a sea and cliffs and mountains that all have specific random names just to never be mentioned again and not even be important for the current situation the characters were in. Ugh!!

With that being said, the magic was pretty interesting- very Harry Potter-esque with wands and teleportation so it definitely felt nostalgic. Plus the love interest is the enemies son? I eat that shit UP. Their chemistry, banter, and spicy scenes really worked for me. The ending was pretty strong. I really really loved the action and reveals but the beginning I really struggled with. I actually think with some more editing, the next books in the series are going to be much better now that the “backstory” is out of the way (I hope).

Honestly I think if you liked FBAA, you might like this. It has a semi-complicated magical world that doesn’t really make sense/isn’t fully explained, morally grey FMC and MMC, good spicy scenes

Saffron Killoran ha pasado su vida buscando venganza contra los Bloodmoons, la despiadada banda responsable del asesinato de sus padres. Tras ser descubierta en su engaño al intentar ingresar a la Academia Silvercloak, donde entrenan a los élites detectives mágicos, Saffron no es expulsada, sino que se le ofrece una peligrosa misión: infiltrarse en los Bloodmoons y desmantelarlos desde dentro.

Saffron, al estar obligada a realizar actos horribles para mantener su tapadera, se encuentra atrapada en una telaraña de mentiras. Además, debe lidiar con un amor inesperado por Levan, el hijo del líder de la banda, cuya muerte es profetizada a manos de ella. A medida que avanza, sus lealtades se ponen a prueba y las líneas entre lo bueno y lo malo se difuminan.



Es un libro absorbente, con una trama intensa y una mezcla de magia y emoción, que deja con muchas ganas de leer los siguientes libros.

Al principio me trajo recuerdos de HP.





Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Saffron’s parents were murdered by the Bloodmoons when she was younger. She manages to join the ranks of the Silvercloaks, but is soon her forgery is found out, but to her surprise, she is tasked to go undercover, join the Bloodmoons and find substantial evidence to finally undo them. Vengeance is never easy though.

This was quite the ride from start to finish. I enjoyed the magic system, the different type of wands and spells that can be cast with them. If you’re a fan of wand magic, you’ll definitely enjoy this.

Saffron is an engaging main character. She’s strong willed, yet flawed. She had me shaking my head a few times, but also rooting for her. I’m eager to see where the story takes her and Levan next, especially after that ending.

Also, I want a Rasso in my life.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore | Del Rey for the chance to read an arc of this magical world!

Silvercloak - Laura Steven

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for a review!

Despite the rather serious and high stakes plot, Silvercloak is a lot of fun! I thought that the worldbuilding was interesting. Because this story is set almost entirely in Saffron’s (third person) POV, I felt like the narrative was asking me to question her assumptions and biases. This world, which at times Saffron describes as idyllic, is filled with dark history. At the same time, it was fun to be a world where bisexuality and queerness were the norm. I also found the magic system to be engaging, though I wish there had been a bit more information about how stripping spells out of wands worked. For example, the killing curse being one that is readily available on everyone’s wands while a teleportation spell has been revoked felt a bit odd. As of right now, it feels more like a plot hole than like some sort of commentary, but the smaller issues like these could definitely be explained in later books though!

Although there are some fun surprises here and there, I found the overarching plot and many of the larger reveals to be a bit too predictable. I won’t spoil it here, but as soon as a few concepts or characters were mentioned, I felt like I knew exactly what the book was going to do with them. I’m not a person who hates spoilers or predictability, but I felt like the character relationships weren’t quite strong enough to compensate for some of the more predictable aspects of the plot.

Additionally, I felt that some of the dialogue and narration of this books felt too similar to modern slang. There were moments when the dialogue or Saff’s inner narration felt like something the average millennial might say when describing the book rather than how a character living in this world might describe it. While this wasn’t a complete turn off for me, there were a few moments where it took me out of the story.

Overall, I felt that this book started off really promising and ended in a way that makes the sequel feel appealing to me. I read this book pretty quickly, and it kept me interested, even when I felt like I knew where something was going.While I wasn’t the biggest fan of the second half of this novel, I can totally see how some people would really enjoy the romance.

Another superb story by L.K Steven.

Both the prologue and the epilogue were super intriguing and made me want to start the book and eagerly await the next book in the series.

If you enjoy magic, heists, deceit, betrayal and undercover secret missions then this book is for you.

A few things for me that would have made a 5 star read:
A glossary for the spells is needed as it sometimes became quite confusing what was happening during the magic battles.
Sometimes, the FMC was a little haphazard in her planning and execution, despite her extensive training and analysis of situations as a silvercloak which was sometimes a little frustrating - particularly at the end.
The reason revealed at the end for the MMC being so powerful seemed slightly unbelievable and I thought there would be a bit more to it; especially with his family heritage.

This was an enjoyable read and I am excited for the next installment in the series.

Thank you again to NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this ARC.

This was a really fun fantasy with a unique magic system and a whole host of interesting characters. I think it really would have benefited from multiple points of view outside of the prologue and epilogue chapters. I do think there were some very obvious plot problems that made it a bit predictable. You can’t have someone go undercover if there is only one official person who knows about it. I also don’t think the romance plot was that compelling. If in the first few chapters of the book there’s a prophecy she’s going to kill him I'm not that invested. I also think that the time weaver magic should have been more thoroughly explained, although we’ll likely get that in the second book. The last few chapters with all the time jumps was also really messy and it made it hard to follow what was actually going on. I feel like I still don’t have a good reason for why her parents were killed or why she couldn’t bring her friend back other than her pet didn’t feel like it. Also the full motivation for a literal gang being that they want to bring the dead wife back is so wild to me. How does this organization function? How did it function *before* the death? Why? I loved the magic and the world was really cool and I’ll still read the next one but this was very messy.

Such an interesting concept and magic, but unfortunately I found the writing dry and didn’t care much for the characters. It was kind of like how I felt about Atlas Six.

Harry Potter fans, this one’s for you. The world is so Harry Potter-coded.

Silvercloak was a top-notch fantasy read. The premise was intriguing, the plot gripping, the pacing of the story good, and the characters interesting and relatable. The world building was nicely handled throughout and I enjoyed learning about the different forms of magic. Saff and Levan were both well-crafted characters. We saw each of them grow through the course of this first book, and the development of their relationship, too, was well constructed. I enjoyed the morally grey aspects of the story and the queer representation. The book ended in a way that left me keen to find out what will happen next. Recommended for fans of darker fantasy with a wizards and wands vibe. I am giving it 4.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Well what a start to a series. Yes, it did take me a little while to take to the main characters and understand their motivation but wow does this read like a magic infused mafia romance crime thriller. The plot was great once it got going and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing where the series goes. The last line of the novel just…what an ending. Sometimes the writing got a little clunky as if it was making sure we knew it was an adult book, but it didn’t take away from the overall enjoyment.

I NEED THE NEXT BOOK NOW. MY MIND IS COMPLETELY BLOWN. I HAVE NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE HOW BRILLIANT THIS BOOK IS.