Check the Shelf Book Review: Silver in the Blood

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  That did not sway my opinion in the least.

Shannan’s Summary

Two cousins of New York high society go to visit their relatives in far off Romania.  What seemed like a typical trip soon becomes mysterious as everyone in Romania seems scared of their family, and their family won’t tell them anything.  It’s up to the cousins to discover on their own who their family is and decide what they will do when the find out.

First Off…

I heard mixed reviews, but when I saw it available on Libary Things I thought I’d give it a try.

The Story:

I wound up enjoying this story more than I thought I would.   The story is intermixed with diary entries, something I don’t typically like.  But with the audio version it made it less jarring to switch between the two styles.   I get why there were so many mixed reviews, as the beginning of the story was a slow start.  There were several times that I thought about just giving it up, but I have a little more tolerance for audiobooks.

There was a bit of mystery at the beginning concerning what was going on. For me, though, I felt like I knew what the secret was, I just wanted them to tell me I was right.  Once this happened, the story started to pick up.  I found myself sitting in my car a little longer to know what was happening.

The characters were interesting but slightly shallow.  Thinking back to the story, they each held to one character trait.  The main characters did have a slight arch, but for the most part, there were few complexities to the many characters that came through the story.

The Writing

There are two major parts of this writing, the diary aspect and the turn of the century “American Royalty.”  They intermix the narrative with the diary. This, in retrospect, seems an odd choice since the story is told in the first person by one of two main characters.  It would seem this technique would be a better addition to a third person telling. Though, this is probably why the change of medium wasn’t jarring.

The Voice

Sandy Rustin did a great job reading.  Honestly, I think it’s half the reason I kept with the book.  She helped keep me in the time period without pulling me out of the story.  She also gave a depth to the characters that I would have missed out on had I read the book myself.  I think I would strongly recommend listening to this book if you add it to the TBR.

In the End

I think a tween-age reader that is interested in history might enjoy the story and pace of the story.  Obviously, that isn’t me, so it wasn’t one of my favorite reads.

10 Second Summary:

1. Mixed styles: Instead of being all diary, it mixes in pieces entries with the narrative. 
2. Creative Storytelling: The combination of photographs and words in this story add a whole new depth to book that I haven’t experienced through other books.
3. Slow Beginning: It takes a while to get into the story, but it’s worth it.

It’s a $5 book for me.  Something you might pick up for the right price, but not a must have.