Silver in the Mist by Emily Victoria

Silver in the Mist by Emily Victoria
Published by Inkyard Press
Published on 1 November 2022
Genres: Action & Adventure, Fantasy & Magic, Friendship, Young Adult
Pages: 304
Format: eARC
Source: Edelweiss
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RRP: $18.99

"A fast-paced fantasy for fans of complicated families, lush magic, and beautiful friendships." — Linsey Miller, author of
Mask of Shadows

Eight years ago, everything changed for Devlin: Her country was attacked. Her father was killed. And her mother became the Whisperer of Aris, the head of the spies, retreating into her position away from everyone… even her daughter. Joining the spy ranks herself, Dev sees her mother only when receiving assignments. She wants more, but she understands the peril their country, Aris, is in. The malevolent magic force of The Mists is swallowing Aris’s edges, their country is vulnerable to another attack from their wealthier neighbor, and the magic casters who protect them from both are burning out.
Dev has known strength and survival her whole life, but with a dangerous new assignment of infiltrating the royal court of their neighbor country Cerena to steal the magic they need, she learns that not all that glitters is weak. And not all stories are true. 

I received a copy of this book from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Despite it taking me literally forever to read this book, I did really enjoy it.

This book was published in November 2022 and I am finally reviewing it in April 2023 after taking far too long to finish it. I have no excuse. Despite enjoying it, it didn’t grip me and prevent me from putting the book down, which only means it doesn’t get 5 stars. Was it a good book? Undoubtedly. Would I recommend it to others? Without hesitation.

I know the author identifies as aroace, but I only found out after I had requested to review this book based on the undercover spy fake friendship blurb. I became aware that the lead was canonically ace and possibly aro, and I have also seen criticism from other reviewers that it doesn’t seem like the representation is there as the main character never discusses their asexuality or aromanticism.

Look.

I didn’t realise I was ace until I was thirty five years old.

I’m fucking married.

Dev is a fucking teenager.

She may very well be aware of it. Lucky bitch if she is.

But also, maybe it’s not fucking relevant to the story. There was no place to bring up a conversation about Dev’s sexual preferences or lack of romantic desire. Her primary relationship in the book is an awesome friendship with the girl she’s supposed to betray, who also only saw Dev in terms of platonic friendship (even if she did have those emoji heart eyes because god damn, their friendship was remarkable).

What we got was a typical spy beats story about going undercover to fake befriend someone and then actually becoming friends. Like fake dating but for aroaces. And I loved that. I loved that Dev was trying to manipulate her target, but was steadily building a genuine friendship the entire time. I love platonic friendship, and as much as I am aware that gay rep is still pretty crap in YA lit, what’s even worse is ace rep.

Aside from my own emoji heart eyes over the main friendship development, I did find the magic system a little hard to understand. There’s a ton of worldbuilding history with an ancient feud and magic gone wild that needs restoring but I never quite grasped how the magical artefacts, the magical threat, and the magic users themselves were all connected. One of Dev’s close friends appeared to have ‘burned out’ but I wasn’t quite sure if it was because they used too much magic, and where the line is, and was Dev’s strong and skillful new friend also at risk of burning out?

Apart from that, I lover Dev’s character arc, her friendship with the girl she’s supposed to betray and her old friend from back home, and her complicated relationship with her mother. The culture of the contrasting countries was also interesting, and watching Dev’s reaction to the apparently frivolous use of magic and art.

As a stand alone, I really enjoyed this book, and I think it’s a good example of how an aroace can be represented.

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