Book Review: Silver Elite by Dani Francis
Date of Publishing: May 6, 2025
Series: Silver Elite #1
Genres: Young Adult // Dystopian, Romance
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ 🌶️
Quick Thoughts: Silver Elite is a "brain off" entertaining read that's all vibes with slim plot and shallow world-building—closer to military romance than the robust dystopian story it's marketed as. I'd recommend it for readers who loved Fourth Wing's academy aspects and want surface-level entertainment, but serious dystopian fans should look elsewhere.
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Sexual Assault
Dubious Consent
Death & Grief
Human Trafficking
Victim Blaming
Mentions of Torture
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Enemies to Lovers
“He’s her superior”
Military Academy Setting
Secret Relationship
Forbidden Love
Hidden Powers
Telepathic Powers
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Psychic gifts are a death sentence and there are rules to survival: Trust no one. Lie to everyone. And whatever you do, don’t fall for your greatest enemy.
TRUST NO ONE.
Wren Darlington has spent her whole life in hiding, honing her psychic abilities and aiding the rebel Uprising in small ways. On the Continent, being Modified means certain death—and Wren is one of the most powerful Mods in existence. When one careless mistake places her in the hands of the enemy and she’s forced to join their most elite training program, she’s finally handed the perfect opportunity to strike a devastating blow from inside their ranks.
LIE TO EVERYONE.
But training for Silver Block can be deadly, especially when you’re harboring dangerous secrets and living in close quarters with everyone who wants you dead.
AND WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T FALL FOR YOUR GREATEST ENEMY.
As the stakes grow ever higher, Wren must prove herself to Silver Block. But that’s easier said than done when your commanding officer is the ruthless and infuriatingly irresistible Cross Redden, who doesn’t miss anything when it comes to her. And as war rages between Mods like her and those who aim to destroy them, Wren must decide just how far she’s willing to go to protect herself . . . and how much of the Continent is worth saving.
INITIAL THOUGHTS
Silver Elite has been absolutely everywhere on BookTok lately. The claims are that it's an enemies-to-lovers dystopian romance and an "adult Hunger Games." Those happen to be my two favorite things in books, so decided I wanted to check this out.
MY REVIEW
All in all, Silver Elite is slim on plot and substance. I was fine with because that is what I was looking for after the cliffhanger of A Forbidden Alchemy.
This book is the definition of a "brain off" read. I really enjoyed my time with it and still think about it all the time, but I also understand why it's gotten such divided reactions.
Plot & World-building
The premise of the book is simple: Our FMC Wren infiltrates a training program for an elite military unit that serves the government who is systematically executing her people -- her people being "Mods", those with psychic abilities.
Because the plot is so slim on substance, it suffers from pacing issues. Over half the book is spent watching Wren deliberately try to fail out of training and the repetitive scenes get old quickly. On the other hand, we flew through scenes that should have been a big deal. The book ended on a frustrating cliffhanger that opened up a ton of new questions. This entire book should have been half a book rather than a complete first installment in a trilogy.
You can also see the plot twists from a mile away. For example, the author pretty much spells out a huge plot reveal by page 20. However, I found that enjoyable in a different way because I was anticipating the reveals the entire book.
The world-building is where Silver Elite struggles the most. Despite being marketed as an "adult Hunger Games," the dystopian elements feel disappointingly shallow. While aspects of the world like climate devastation, political oppression, and military coups are mentioned, they are never actually explored. I don’t think it’s completely wrong to call it a dystopian, but I'd say Silver Elite is closer to a military romance with a thin veneer of science fiction or dystopian rather than some robust dystopian romance it is marketed as.
Characters
Wren has that "don't give a damn", sarcastic attitude that we usually see in the romantasy/fantasy romance worlds. She was entertaining but she constantly makes reckless and illogical choices. For example, she's training for an elite military squad that hunts down her people and the alternative is going back to a military prison...so tell me why her choice is to attempt to fail out of the program and NOT strategically infiltrate it and collect intelligence from the very beginning? It's a pet peeve of mine when characters make nonsensical decisions purely to advance the plot and I felt like that is what was going on here with Wren.
I was hoping that we'd get a found family arc since we're in a tight-knit military school setting, but the supporting characters lack distinct personalities or development, so they kind of blur together. The characters are more like plot devices than real people with their own motivations and backstories.
Romance
Cross and Wren's enemies-to-lovers/"he's her superior" dynamic has its fun moments. The tension is entertaining and the book definitely delivers on it's "spicy" scenes. If you're here purely for the sexual tension and heat, you'll probably find what you're looking for.
However, anyone who describes this as a slow-burn is a liar. This is insta-lust through and through. I won't say too much, but the author does try to fix this with something that happens later in the book (iykyk 😉) but it honestly felt way too convenient. It was just a band-aid to cover up the lack of relationship development.
Overall
I'd recommend this for readers who loved the training academy aspects of Fourth Wing and don't mind surface-level storytelling, but serious fantasy and dystopian fans should probably look elsewhere.
Long story short, read this if you just want to have a good time and escape into a book for a little while.
Check out this review on Goodreads or Storygraph.
Happy reading!
Kim
SILVER ELITE FAQs
Just a heads up, some of the answers may include spoilers. Read with caution.
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Yes. Silver Elite is part of a series. This is the first book in the series. As of the writing of this post, the release date of book 2 hasn’t been announced yet.
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Yes, Silver Elite is spicy. Romance.io considers it “Explicit Open Door” meaning these scenes happen with us in the room and goes into explicit detail.
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The spicy chapters are:
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 35
Chapter 37
Chapter 42
Chapter 45
Chapter 48
These scenes range from mildly steamy to explicit, especially after chapter 32.
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In the literal sense, no. They have to be apart for now but their relationship and love is still strong.
SILVER ELITE SPOILER RECAP
If you haven’t read the book yet, stop reading here unless you want the ending spoiled. I put together these spoiler recaps, so readers can refresh their memories on the ending instead of re-reading the whole book.
So without further ado, here is how Silver Elite ended.
To set the scene, Wren just had her big confession where she told Cross everything — about the real relationship with her Uncle, living in the Blacklands, and that she can do more than just read minds. She also shows him that she got her scar removed so now her bloodmark is visible on her thigh.
I’ll start with Chapter 49. Wren has her latest mission for the Uprising, which is sabotaging the Jubilee. She meets Adrienne and picks up a package. Her job is to place explosives in the kitchen. Just as she’s leaving Jayde Valence comes in.
Jayde shares that she had a vision about Wren’s involvement in the Uprising’s Jubilee attack. Wren telepathically calls Cross for help while Jayde is distracted by the disbelief that Wren withstood her initial interrogation after Uncle Jim’s murder. Jayde eventually tells Wren that she’s on the wrong side and that The Uprising is corrupting people’s minds. Of course, Wren doesn’t believe her. Jayde also tries to persuade Wren to come over and work with the General. She’d be prisoner while Jayde does experiments on her and Wren refuses. It’s at this point Wren starts inciting Jayde to turn the gun on herself and is successful. Jayde dies.
Cross shows up. He calls Xavier Ford to help clean up the mess and tells Wren to leave and get ready for the party. Wren uses a jammer so she’s not on any cameras as she makes it back to her room.
Lyddie is also getting ready and notices Wren’s scars are gone. She gets a glimpse of the bloodmark and Wren tries to make a cover story on the spot. She says she is loyal to the Company but she’s undercover for the General. Ivy shows up and Lyddie immediately tells her that Wren is an undercover operative. Lyddie eventually promises not to tell but Ivy is gone before she can make the same promise.
The Jubilee begins. Wren initially wants to find Ivy to ask her not to tell anyone. Before she can do that, Cross enters her mind and Wren tells him about Lyddie and Ivy finding her bloodmark. Wren then catches sight of Adrienne and Cross shows up in time to watch the General’s speech.
The General starts speaking in nonsensical sentences. Wren glimpses Adrienne again and guesses she is doing something to the General. Travis (Cross’ brother) and Cross eventually intervene. Wren thinks back to Jayde telling her that the Uprising is corrupting minds. Then the explosives Wren set go off.
Chaos erupts and Wren catches up with Adrienne to ask if she corrupted the mind of the General. Adrienne looks surprised that Wren knows the term. Eventually Adrienne tells her that she did use her power of Rewiring, which is an incredibly rare Mod power.
Another explosion happens and Adrienne gets away. Roe confronts Wren and Lyddie shows up and turns her in to the soldiers. They see her bloodmark and Roe tells the soldiers to take Wren to the stockade.
Wren is waiting for Cross in the stockade. She reflects on the fragmented people she saw in the hospital and Cross’ mom. She wonders if they are Mods who are fragmented or if they are Primes that had their brains corrupted/rewired by Mods. Cross speaks to her telepathically and tells her the General’s brain is completely fried and that Travis has been appointed as the General.
Cross shows up to the stockade and tells Wren that Travis has declared war on all known Mods, including slaves and loyalists. Cross also tells Wren that the Tribunal has scheduled her death for the next day. He’s is going to help her escape. Wren links to Adrienne and asks for help. Adrienne says they can’t help her because wards are locked down and airspace is monitored. She says if Wren can make it to the Dagger (Uprising’s base beyond the Blacklands), they’ll take her in. Wren is to cross the Blacklands and link with Adrienne. She’ll then get transferred to the base.
Xavier, Cross, and Wren escape on motorcycle and make it to the Blacklands. Xavier will be accompanying Wren through. Cross needs to stay behind to keep Travis and Roe in line.
Xavier and Wren set off on their journey. Travis now knows Wren and Cross are both Mods and how Cross and Wren are childhood telepathic friends. They eventually make camp for the night and Wren finds a letter from Uncle Jim in an old storage box. We don’t learn the main contents of this letter at this point but after Wren reads it, she burns the letter.
Xavier and Wren make it to the other side where Wren contacts Adrienne. Adrienne is sending aircraft pick up. Wren realizes she never mentioned Xavier coming along. She tells him that he can turn around but Xavier promised Cross he wouldn’t leave her side so he stays.
A helicopter shows up and Wren catches site of the pilot. It’s Kaine, who is actually Grayson Blake, the pilot for the Uprising. He was sent to infiltrate the Program to steal a plane. The night he “died”, he actually orchestrated the distraction to steal one of the Company’s planes and flew it back to the Dagger. Xavier is restrained at this point because he attacked Kaine/Grayson for killing Tyler during this operation.
They head back to base and the book ends there.
The last pages are Julian/Uncle Jim’s letter to Wren. Here are the sparknotes:
Wren’s name is Stella Hess
Her mother is Marina Serrano, a Mod
Her father is Jake Hess, a Prime
Her father died in bombing coordinated by Mods in retaliation for the bombing at Valterra Ridge, which is the bombing Wren’s parents coordinated together.
The Uprising calls them the Tin Block Traitors and they are responsible for the loss of many Mod lives.