Of Silver and Shadow Published by North Star Editions on February 16, 2021 Genres: Juvenile Fiction / Fantasy & Magic, Young Adult Fiction / Dystopian, Young Adult Fiction / Fantasy / Dark Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction / LGBTQ
Pages: 480
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Goodreads
Ren Kolins is a silver wielder—a dangerous thing to be in the kingdom of Erdis, where magic has been outlawed for a century. Ren is just trying to survive, sticking to a life of petty thievery, card games, and pit fighting to get by. But when a wealthy rebel leader discovers her secret, he offers her a fortune to join his revolution. The caveat: she won’t see a single coin until they overthrow the king.
Behind the castle walls, a brutal group of warriors known as the King’s Children is engaged in a competition: the first to find the rebel leader will be made King’s Fang, the right hand of the king of Erdis. And Adley Farre is hunting down the rebels one by one, torturing her way to Ren and the rebel leader, and the coveted King’s Fang title.
But time is running out for all of them, including the youngest prince of Erdis, who finds himself pulled into the rebellion. Political tensions have reached a boiling point, and Ren and the rebels must take the throne before war breaks out.
Review:
Of Silver and Shadows is the 2021 debut novel for Jennnifer Gruenke and is the only one she released to date. Again, this is another neglected Netgalley arc that sat on my physical and ebook shelf for too long. I love unique magic systems, worlds where magic is forbidden and only royalty have it, and our main character has magic. Ren is a fantastic character; she wants to survive and uses her magic creatively to benefit from being a thief. I chose to borrow this audiobook since I was so late reviewing it, and that was a massive bonus as we get unique narrators for each character. The world-building is vivid, and I am almost sad that this debut author has no more books. I would check them out.
About Jennifer Gruenke
Jennifer Gruenke is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, where she studied communication and writing. She grew up among the redwoods of Northern California, and now lives in Charlotte with her books and the houseplants she hasn’t killed yet. If she’s not writing or reading, you’re most likely to find her in a cafe, music venue, or the aisles of Trader Joe’s. OF SILVER AND SHADOW is her debut novel
I’ve got to go back and finish a lot of requests on Netgalley myself! Smart to do the audiobook method. I might go do that now and see if I can find any of them in my library. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, sounds like it was an okay read!