Silver

by Talia Vance
Read: September 16-17, 2012
Published: September 8, 2012 by Flux
Source: Library book
Category: Mature YA/New Adult - Paranormal Romance
Series: Bandia book 1

Brianna has always felt invisible. People stare right past her, including the one boy she can't resist, Blake Williams. But everything changes at a house party where Brianna's charm bracelet slips off and time stands still. In that one frozen, silver moment, Blake not only sees her, he recognizes something deep inside her she's been hiding even from herself.

Discovering she is descended from Danu, the legendary Bandia of Celtic myth, Brianna finds herself questioning the truth of who she is. And when she accidentally binds her soul to Blake, their mutual attraction becomes undeniable.

But Blake has his own secret, one that could prove deadly for them both.

Bound together by forbidden magic, Brianna and Blake find themselves at the heart of an ancient feud that threatens to destroy their lives and their love.

Silver is about a girl named Brianna that has been invisible her entire life. She can't figure out why no boy ever notices her, and that makes her come to the conclusion that there must be something wrong with her. Maybe she's missing pheromones? Maybe she's ugly? She's been crushing on a guy named Blake for a long time, but he pays no attention to her at all. Then she goes to a party and everything changes. There's a crazy flash of light, something freaky happens, and suddenly Blake SEES her. Her life isn't the same again. 

Brianna also meets Austin at the party. He is another boy who notices her, and he plays a role in the action of the story. I don't want to give anything away about his character, except to say that I have mixed feelings about him. Also, I sense there is a lot we don't know about him and his motives.

Silver centers around Celtic mythology, and Brianna is descended from Danu, an Irish goddess. I found the mythology in the book to be interesting, but a bit incomplete. However, I really enjoyed the ambiguity in Silver of what is really the "good" side and what is the "bad." It's not cut and dry. One of the aspects of Brianna that I really admired was her ability to look objectively look at the different perspectives she was given without being swayed. I do hope that we get MORE details on the mythology in future books, because we got a lot of pieces of a bigger story, but I didn't feel like it was all there. 

It is no surprise that Brianna is fairly insecure because of her years of invisibility, and also because of Some Other Things that happened in her past. As Brianna begins to realize who she is and what her purpose is to be, I wish we'd seen her gain more confidence than she does. I'd really like to see Brianna become more certain of who she is and what she can do. That doesn't happen as much as I'd like in this book. But it is part of a series, so I'm hoping for more of that in the future.

Brianna has two girl friends, named Haley and Christy. I honestly, did not care for either of them, and felt like their friendships with Brianna were fairly shallow. A lot of petty jealousies and misunderstandings happen in this story. And Brianna's friends tended to blame each other for stealing boyfriends, when it was clear to me that the guys were the problem. I wish that they'd stood up for each other more, and trusted their friends' opinions instead of rumors. I hope that in future books, Brianna either gets better friends or we see a confrontation that leads to a better relationship with them. Some of that may have happened at the end of Silver.

Even though I wasn't impressed with Brianna's friends, I did like how her relationship with her parents developed. It stared off in typical YA book fashion, with her parents being out of touch. But there is a really great scene where Brianna eventually tells her parents what has been going on in her life. I really appreciated the way that she opened up to them, and the fact that they listened to what she had to say. 

The Romance: First I will say that I did NOT like Blake or Austin for at least the first half of the book. I'm still undecided on Austin. Currently it's NOT like, but I have a sneaky suspicion that the author will work to change that in the next book. We'll see. But Blake did grow on me slowly. I eventually understood why he did some of the things that bugged me. But I need more time with him to fully make a decision. 

I also thought the romance was a bit unbalanced, especially in how much of it was shown to the reader. As far as I know, this book has been promoted as a Mature YA/New Adult story, so I was puzzled as to why certain decisions about it were made by the author. For instance, there is a scene at the beginning of the book where we get a lot of description of something that happens to a character, and then a later one where I don't think we got enough. The second scene left out so much that it was confusing, and I had to read it twice to figure out what actually happened. It also wasn't really ever addressed again by the involved characters, which felt very irresponsible and unnecessary (especially if it was going to be handled that way). I know I'm being vague, but I don't want to give away any more specifics. 

I'm going to end on a random high note: I love that Brianna rides horses and spends time in a stable. Although I don't ride currently, I've always loved horses. I enjoyed the scenes between Brianna and her horse Dart. 

 

Love Triangle Factor: Mild for this book, undecided for the series. It certainly felt like one is coming.

Rating: 2.5 stars Despite this somewhat low rating, I am intrigued enough to read the next book in the series.