Enchantment of Silver and Sea Review

Enchantment of Silver and Sea (The Council of Cyllene #1) by Tara Straight
Series: The Council of Cyllene #1
Genres: Dystopian, Fantasy & Magic
Format: eARC
Source: Provided by author for honest review
Goodreads

Survival means…Keeping your head down. Doing what you’re told. Asking no questions.
Following the tragic death of her sister, twenty-year-old Maila Gray lives a solitary existence within the walls of the magic-free city of Cyllene. Her life is quiet. It’s uneventful. And that is exactly how it needs to stay.
But one night, Maila finds herself face-to-face with intruders from outside the city walls – fierce and slightly intimidating Nyathera, and heartbreakingly handsome Kieran. While Cyllene citizens are forbidden to interact with the Strangers who lurk Outside, the threat to Maila’s life leaves her no choice but to meet their demands.
One visit from the Strangers leads to another. And although she’s breaking all the rules, Maila can’t help but be intrigued by these mysterious people who live side-by-side with magic. Every encounter is a risk. But for the first time, Maila has found a risk worth taking. When she reaches the point of no return, she must decide if she’s willing to put everything on the line for the people—and the dangerous half-human man—who have made her feel truly alive.

 Julie’s Review:

Enchantment of Silver and Sea is a New Adult dystopian fantasy with magical creatures and Strangers living on the Outside, and a magic-free, oppressive city, Cyllene.

Characters: The book follows Maila, a 20-year old orphan, who witnessed her own sister being executed by the Cyllene Enforcers when she was 10, with per parents already dead in the line of duty, and lives with the nightmares and trauma of this experience. As a character that makes her very believable and her actions understandable. While she lives day to day by the rules of her city, she trusts no one, for good reason. One day, some Strangers break into her home asking her for help with information, and her curiosity is piqued so she complies. Here her character development takes off, as she learns about the world outside, the living conditions and struggles of other humans, she makes very risky decisions to participate in these illegal activities. The more truth she learns, the stronger she becomes in her conviction that what the city is doing is wrong. But what can she, one small person, do? Well, as it turns out, she is sought after because she is special (yet in a slightly different than a chosen one trope).

The two Strangers who play the biggest role are strong and sassy Nya, and a devastatingly handsome playboy with glowing silver eyes, Kiran. The banter and sarcasm between the characters is entertaining and endearing, though Kiran is annoyingly standoffish and secretive about his feelings and personal trauma. Other than his heartbreaking handsomeness and relentless flirting, I wasn’t convinced why Maila was utterly infatuated with him. Where the book goes so deep with emotional trauma of loss and grief, love was not as clear an emoti0n. While Maila all but berates Kiran for just wanting her as another conquest, yet she falls for his charms. I would definitely enjoy a POV chapter to see what he feels, because his actions say one thing but he is such a closed book.

Pacing: It takes about 25% of the book to get the plot going, but once it does, it’s pretty much non stop action and emotional roller coasters. The information was dripped out slowly rather than a world building infodump, so we the reader stayed curious about why the characters behaved a certain way or their motivations for a while. However, the ending left me wanting, something. It wasn’t a cliffhanger ending, but it also wasn’t a resolution. It certainly set up the path for the next books in the series, but also shows that fighting back against a dystopian society isn’t a one an done situation. And that magic can be dangerous if emotions are not in check.

Tropes:

• Magical systems
• Dystopian society
• Morally Grey MMC
• FMC with strong moral convictions to do the right thing
• Trauma trigger warnings
• Slow burn romance
• One bed spicy time
• Found family

I give it a solid 3.5 stars, not quite 4 because something I can’t put my finger on was not aligning for me. It was a quick read though, read over a beach weekend because where else do you read a book with Sea in the title?

I am curious about the next iteration and wonder if Kiran’s character will be more developed as a good guy, or will his inner turmoil turn him a little more villainous? I’m here for it either way.

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