Review of Silver by Talia Vance

Title/Author: Silver (Bandia #1) by Talia Vance
Publisher/Date published: Flux Books, September 8th 2012
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: "As I step into the room, a silver flash blurs my vision. Before I can take a breath, the world falls away."

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.

So I haven't seen much about this book around the blogosphere (could be me, please tell me if you've read it!), but I did know that Rachel @ Fiktshun really loved it, so I was all kinds of excited to finally start it!

And I was sucked in from the moment I read the first sentence: "Beauty is pointless when no one is looking." LOVE! I know the invisible girl plot has been done before, but this time there's actually a pretty good reason why people (not just guys) didn't notice her before. It was actually kinda cool.

I really liked Brianna, even though sometimes I thought she was a bit quick to jump to conclusions. And sometimes I couldn't follow her thinking and would go 'but HOW did you get that from what he just said??', but it didn't bother me all that much. I loved her scientific tendencies and her need for a fitting explanation for stuff she didn't understand.

I kinda didn't like Brianna's friends. They seemed extremely shallow and I found myself wondering why these girls were friends, as they obviously didn't trust each other. At one point Brianna's attacked and the girls are accusing her of getting it on with both guys she's found with, who happen to be the questionable boyfriends of both of her friends. I mean, WHAT??? Seriously?? Because OBVIOUSLY that's the most logical explanation...

Blake blew hot and cold and was just SO CONFUSING! And I LOVED IT! He has all these conflicting emotions and loyalties and GAH! There were times I wanted to smack him and times I wanted to smooch him and I could just feel everything Brianna was feeling about him right along with her!

One thing I didn't really like was the casual treatment of sex. I mean, while I know losing your virginity isn't life changing, it's a big deal. But in my opinion sex is always a big deal, even if it's your 400th time. Also, it may have been my naivety, but when one of Brianna's friends went off with a boy, I thought they'd be just KISSING. Yeah, I was kinda wrong.

I loved the Irish mythology, if you know me, you know I'm a bit of a mythology geek and I haven't explored this particular part of mythology just yet, so it was refreshing and SO interesting! I'm dying to learn more about it in the sequel! I really loved Brianna's powers, though I did think she could access them a bit too easily. And I'm kinda annoyed at her grandmother for NOT telling her when obviously SHE KNEW!

Sometimes the storyline was all over the place and I actually was wondering if I'd missed some thing, but sometimes we just weren't clued in and I was left chasing to catch up. There were moments when I got so annoyed at certain characters and things happening that I wanted to throw the book across the room, but then it would be amazing again and I'd settle in with a contented sigh again.

There were parts that broke my heart, parts that confused me, parts that annoyed me, but no matter how much of a hot mess this book was at times, I could absolutely overlook it, because I was a hot mess right along with it! I connected to this story and to Brianna and Blake and I just felt ALL THE THINGS, it was wonderful!

My rating: 4 stars