Review: Silver in the Blood

Title: Silver in the Blood: (Silver in the Blood #1)

Author: Jessica Day George

Page Count: 358

My Rating: 3.5 TURTLES: A very enjoyable read, I recommend you check it out.

*Thank you to Netgalley for giving me this book in exchange for an honest review

Amazon

Description:

Society girls from New York City circa 1890, Dacia and Lou never desired to know more about their lineage, instead preferring to gossip about the mysterious Romanian family that they barely knew. But upon turning seventeen, the girls must return to their homeland to meet their relatives, find proper husbands, and—most terrifyingly—learn the deep family secrets of The Claw, The Wing, and The Smoke. The Florescus, after all, are shape-shifters, and it is time for Dacia and Lou to fulfill the prophecy that demands their acceptance of this fate... or fight against this cruel inheritance with all their might.

With a gorgeous Romanian setting, stunning Parisian gowns, and dark brooding young men, readers will be swept up by this epic adventure of two girls in a battle for their lives.

Review:

I picked Silver in the Blood up from Netgalley because I was a hug fan of her other book Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow. While I did not share that love with Silver in the Blood, it was still an engaging story that played with the retelling of folklore and myth, which is something I really look forward to in fiction.

Where Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow plays with a northern European myth, this book is set in Romania, a place I know very little about, and plays with Romanian mythology. I really enjoyed learning about it, and seeing how it was explored. The author travelled to Romania to learn about the culture and location and shows. The buildings, garb, and food are very different from other parts of the continent and I enjoyed getting to know it more. I also loved Lou and Dacia. They had a great relationship, but I also loved seeing their personal development, especially after they learned about the “family secret”.

My main problem with the book really was its pacing. The first third was very slow and took me a long time to get through. It felt to me like there were a lot of details that could have been condensed or omitted altogether. There was a lot of exposition, but I was wondering when the meat of the story would start. Once it got going the story kept at a good pace, I wish it could have gotten started sooner.

Despite the slow start I still really enjoyed this book and appreciated its unusual location and awesome main character in particular. Fans of Young Adult and the Dracula tales should definitely check it out.


 Disclosure: this post contains links to an affiliate program (Amazon), for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases.