Fantasy Book Critic: SPFBO XI Finalist Review: To Touch a Silent Fury by R.A. Sandpiper

Rachel A Sandpiper (she/her) is a fantasy author living in London. She has a law degree she's never used despite spending five years in government-adjacent roles, loves games of all kinds (the nerdier the better), and will always dance at weddings.

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CHELS

low burn romance? Dragons? A mysterious island with a magic system rooted in the senses? All of that and multiple points of view are in this book and what an adventure.

We follow two points of view, Tani and Lang, the Moontouched Sister and the Crown Prince who is also a dragon rider. The tension between these two is pretty intense from the start. When Tani is given the fate to marry whoever wins an upcoming tournament, Lang decides he will do whatever he must to stop that from happening.

It took me a few chapters to get into this one but, once I was in I knew this would be a strong contender for me. I really enjoyed the world building and the magic system, there are some things we could poke holes in but I was having too much of a good time. Highly recommend this one for fans of fantasy, even if you aren’t keen on a romance, give it a go as there are so many other elements within this book to explore and enjoy.

JACK

To Touch a Silent Fury is a high-fantasy romance which mostly follows Tani, a teenage girl who was born Moontouched. In the novel's setting, anybody born Moontouched has bright white eyes and hair and a unique magical ability tied to one of the five primary senses. With the exception of Tani, they're also all male. Each Moontouched is also given a particular Fate - a special task, the achievement of which will strengthen that person's magical ability. Tani's struggle to achieve her Fate, despite opposition from the Powers That Be, is largely what propels the novel's plot.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this novel. Both Tani and her love interest feel bland as characters and have little apparent chemistry beyond physical attraction. Setting lore is repeatedly presented in unwieldy chunks, and often in far greater quantity than the reader needs to follow the story. The story is also full of inconsistencies and poorly developed plot elements. Some of these are small - for example, Tani's magic working inconsistently, or people confusing a red dragon for a black one despite the fact that there's only 4-5 dragons around. Others, though, undermine the narrative in a fundamental way. People seem FAR more worried about Tani achieving her Fate than they have any reason to be, and the actions they take to prevent her from achieving it are so extreme and unnecessary as to be almost silly.

ŁUKASZ

To Touch a Silent Fury is clearly doing something right. It has a huge fanbase, secured a traditional publishing deal after starting as an indie novel, and judging by the reactions online, many readers absolutely adore it. After finishing it, I can see why. It's easy to read, moves at a brisk pace despite its length, and mixes dragons, romance, political intrigue, and magic into something bingeable.

Unfortunately, it just wasn't a book for me. The premise is intriguing. A secluded order of magic users. Fates that determine the course of your life. Dragons. Rival kingdoms. There are plenty of interesting ideas here, and the first part does a solid job laying the groundwork for a much larger story.

The dragons, unsurprisingly, steal every scene they're in. The characters, though, lacked personnality for me. I never really connected with Tani or Lang. They often felt younger than their ages, and much of the characterization reminded me more of YA or New Adult fantasy than adult fantasy. It's exactly what many readers are looking for, but it meant the emotional beats rarely landed for me.

The romance was an even bigger hurdle. It's marketed as a slow burn, but I never really bought into the relationship. Much of Lang's attraction seems rooted in Tani's beauty rather than who she actually is, and I struggled to see their emotional connection deepen in a convincing way. By the time declarations of love started appearing, I felt like the novel was telling me these characters belonged together rather than showing me why.

I also found the worldbuilding less convincing than I'd hoped. There are a lot of moving pieces ( different kingdoms, magical traditions, dragons, political conflicts), and while the setting is undeniably ambitious, I often found myself questioning how some of it actually functioned. Certain decisions made by rulers and organizations felt driven more by the needs of the plot than by believable political or social logic. Likewise, some magical abilities seemed to work exactly as the story required from scene to scene, making the rules feel a little flexible when they needed to be.

None of these issues completely broke the story, but together they made it difficult for me to become fully immersed. That said, I never found the book difficult to read. Quite the opposite. The prose is clean, the pacing rarely drags, and the chapters usually end in ways that make you want to read just one more. It's easy to understand why so many readers enjoy it.

In the end, I think this is simply a case of the wrong reader meeting the wrong book.

If you're looking for a fast-paced romantic fantasy with dragons, fated lovers, and plenty of emotional drama, there's a good chance you'll enjoy To Touch a Silent Fury far more than I did. If, like me, you tend to prioritize layered characterization, tightly constructed worldbuilding, and relationships that grow more gradually, your experience may be quite different.

I may not have been the right audience for this one, but it's easy to see why so many readers are championing it. Sometimes a book can be both successful and well written while simply not matching your tastes, and that's exactly how I felt here.