Silver in the Blood by Jessica Day George

Dacia and Lou are embarking for the trip of their life when they head to Romania to meet with their mother's family. A lot of secrets awaits them, and nothing could prepare them for what they will have to face.

Silver in the Blood has a fun concept, but the execution was lacking for me. The first 50% of the novel is, I'll dare say, boring. It took me almost 2 weeks of reluctant reading, wondering if I should give up altogether, to reach the 50% milestone. The world building is extremely slow and Jessica is so focused on keeping things vague and mysterious that she completely lost my interest. Up to that point, the characters were drab and typical.

Thankfully, things finally picked up when the big, bad secret (which, let's be honest, wasn't much of a surprise) was revealed. There was finally interesting moments and some action to hang onto. The characters finally had some flavor as well! Dacia who had been outgoing and fast-spoken thus far suddenly became almost catatonic until she knocked out of it toward the end. Lou, on the other hand, had been a shy introvert who turned onto a confident and strong woman. I think Lou's transformation is the only thing I really loved about this book. She was like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly.

The lore had an interesting (if not completely original) flavor. The legend surrounding the Florescu family was good, but there was definitely not enough details about Mihai's family. Do they have powers of their own? Why would the Florescus feel compelled to protect them for centuries if they don't have anything special? We don't get answers and it just didn't make sense. I liked the part about the Wing, the Claw, and the Smoke. It was an interesting twist.

We don't meet Dacia's mother at all and it is kind of disappointing because I was curious about her. What kind of woman would send her daughter across the world to face such trauma?

Overall, my review is clearly negative. It's not a bad book, I know many are raving about it, but its flaws bothered me. If you are curious about it, I would suggest getting it from the library.

Posted by Tynga at 01:31

 Bloomsbury Publishing USA, Fantasy amp; Magic, Historical, jessica day george, Netgalley, Review, Silver in the Blood, werewolf, young adult  6 People left their mark

Tynga is a 32 years old mom of two, from Montreal, working as a lab technician in an hospital specialized in heart disease. In her free time, she enjoys reading all things Paranormal and photography.

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