Early Review - Silver by Rhiannon Held (2.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Size: 320 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: June 5, 2012
ISBN-13: 978-0765330376
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone?
Source: ARC through Amazon Vine
Rating: 2.5/5 stars


This is Held’s debut novel and is basically a paranormal werewolf type book. I got an advanced reading copy through the Amazon Vine program for review. It’s an okay story, but that’s about it. The characters never really drew me in and the plot was fairly predictable. Not my favorite werewolf book, but not horrible either. This is the first book in a trilogy.

Andrew Dare is the enforcer for the Roanoke pack. One night he stumbles upon a woman/werewolf poisoned by silver; she is barely sane. When he does get her calmed down she says her name is Silver and that a monster is hunting her. Andrew must unravel the mystery behind Silver’s Monster or his whole pack could be in danger. The viewpoint switches between Andrew and Silver.

Andrew is your typical I need to feel like part of the pack but don’t want the responsibility type of guy. He is the enforcer for Roanoke, he could be the alpha but he doesn’t want that type of responsibility. So he stays on the fringe and tries to support Roanoke’s not-all-that-great current alpha. I didn’t like Andrew much, he comes off as standoffish and is hard to relate to...I know he has issues but I wish he would have grown more as a character throughout the story.

Silver is a complete nut-job. She is pretty much insane because of the torture she underwent under the Monster’s hands. She talks to Death and hears other voices as well. She also prays and talks to the Lady a lot; which seems to be a personification of the Moon and a religion that some of the werewolves follow.

It’s hard to relate to or even get to know Silver as a character because she only seems present for parts of the story. Other times she is off talking to Death or the Lady or whoever else is in her head. The whole thing gets a bit ambiguous and it is hard to figure out if Death is in her head or if he is actually there.

I never really felt any romantic connection between Silver and Andrew. When they do become involved it is actually kind of creepy. Silver obviously has issues and even the fact that she states she is a consenting adult is a bit weird considering how much she talks to herself. There is also quite a bit of discussion of torture, murder, and gore in this book...so just a heads up if that bothers you.

The plot focuses on Andrew hunting down the person who tortured Silver. There is kind of a twist to the plot too; at least it is supposed to be a twist but I thought the whole thing was a bit predictable.

I also didn’t enjoy the writing style all that much; it was a bit stiff sounding for me. It is written in kind of a formal sounding way; some may like that but that style didn’t really resonate with the story for me. I found many parts of the story to be kind of boring as well.

The story wraps up some things and leaves others to be solved in future books.

Overall an okay werewolf paranormal story. If you enjoy flawed characters, you might enjoy this book. I personally had trouble enjoying reading about Andrew or Silver; the relationship between Andrew and Silver felt kind of creepy to me. It is an interesting take on werewolves, but again I didn’t really enjoy it. The writing style is a bit stiff and the plot kind of predictable. I personally won’t be reading anymore of this series. If you are a huge fan of werewolf paranormal romance then you might enjoy this; it is a different kind of werewolf book.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- Horror and Urban Fantasy Challenge
- 150+ Books Reading Challenge
- Debut Author Reading Challenge