Showing Silver: Book One of the ArKen Duology

by Evelyn Linwood

Magic is Dangerous.
Keira knows that better than anyone. Unfortunately, she’s a Natural, gifted with magic from birth. She’s done her best to suppress her power, but at nineteen, it’s more difficult than ever. Worse, there are whispers of a threat from the neighboring kingdom — and a gift as strong as hers could turn the tide.
All Keira wants to do is heal. If she trains to use her magic, she fears she’ll be called upon to serve in battle. But if she doesn’t, not only can she hurt those around her, but she will be powerless to halt the building assault on her kingdom.
Soon, Keira will have to make a choice — face her fears and accept her magic, or watch her kingdom fall. Can she learn to walk the thin line between healing and destruction?

Genres: Fantasy

232 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 8, 2025

Reviews

[Judith Cormier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d say this book was a touch slow-moving, but overall, it was quite enjoyable. Normally, I am not a fan of books with slower plots, but this wasn’t long and did require a certain amount of world-building to truly have an appreciation for the story. Having said that, the pace of the story was the reason I gave it four stars.

Luckily it combined that world-building with a great character point of view from Keira. She is a young woman who has a very protective pair of parents, and who have discouraged her use of her natural magic. She is sweet and longs to just make her parents proud of her. It becomes clear that she is not having the best of success with keeping a cap on her magic. She eventually manages to talk her parents into letting her pursue finding someone to help her train. They are reluctant at first, but then slowly come to understand that it’s unavoidable.

Throughout it all she has wonderful support from everyone. Her parents, her friends, her Master that she apprentices with and a potential love interest in Lord Duval. Now this book doesn’t contain any sexual content, and the romance is not an integral part of the book, but it’s the slow build of a clear interest that is fun to see as part of Keira’s growth.

And Keira really does grow. And how she learns to control her magic is probably the best part of the story. I absolutely loved how the author was able to not only describe the magic but clearly express how Keira felt it flow through her. As a comparison, in some of the world-building, it was more of the narrator telling us the details, whereas with the magic that Keira would wield, it was very much a showing. Really well done.

I know this is going to be a series … how long I have no idea … but I’d be interested in continuing. If each entry manages to stay short and sweet, with these great characters, then I’m in!

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this. It definitely felt like the first part of a much longer book, but it's supposed to be a duology, so I'll have to read the next one when it comes out. The characters were endearing and reading this honestly felt like taking a walk on a spring afternoon or something poetic and soft like that. The stakes were lower than I was expecting, for a fantasy world with magic, and Keira seemed to solve every problem really quickly which was occasionally annoying, but I really appreciated how close and supportive her parents and friends were... and I definitely ship Keira and Fionn 🙂‍↕️

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I pick up a book, it is to relax. What I liked about Showing Silver is that when I needed to set the book down to do something else, my mind kept coming back to the story. I wanted to read more and it was an easy book to start and finish during a holiday weekend. It is light enough romp to be enjoyable but had a nice pace, good story line, and high quality writing. I liked the sweet romance story as well.

[Resa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keira starts off this story a bit fearful, concerned about breaking rules and social conventions and trying to find her place after moving with her family from a small town to the capitol. As she finds comfort and safety in the castle’s wondrous library, her thoughtful and curious personality shines through in the relationships she builds and the topics she explores. Which means it’s no wonder that her attempts at repressing her strong magic start to fail, and the danger it poses to herself and others finally forces her to take action to not just repress it, but start learning to harness it.

Facing her fears is a repeated theme for Keira. From accepting and embracing her magic to mastering a potentially destructive element that she’s previously misused and caused herself emotional and physical harm with, this feels like a coming-of-age or coming-into-one’s-own story.

The magic is really enjoyable, and I like the way it’s rooted in relevant science that is described without getting overwhelming, and how seeing/sensing and understanding connections and differences between, for example, light and heat leads to Keira’s successes and allows her to make leaps in logic and apply what she already knows to different magical tasks.

This book is an approachable, easy read. It starts very cozy, giving you a slow but steady introduction to various characters, the kingdom culture, and magic, but when I got to the last few chapters, I didn’t want to put it down, and I already want to reread to try and pick out more hints from the first half of the book about the later external conflict!

The narrative distance isn’t as close as I personally prefer, but characters’ emotions and thoughts are distinct, and the growth is easy to follow. As well, there are regular, short passages of lovely descriptions and delightful metaphors that I enjoyed, and unhurried, light hints of future romance. Friend and family relationships remain wholesome and strong even through ups and downs and fears and growth, and Keira thankfully doesn’t have to sacrifice much but her own fearfulness in pursuit of self-mastery.

All in all a wonderful story, and I cheerfully await Book 2!

[Bente · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel focuses on a young woman, Keira, who has been hiding her magic all her life. Now she must learn to use her magic as hiding it is no longer an option for her.
This story as a whole is very wholesome and sweet, however there are some real and serious stakes as the story progresses. The story did start out a bit on the slower side, which does provide a good worldbuilding foundation, however as we get deeper into the story the pacing does pick up and the story keeps moving, enough for me to even lose track of time as I was reading.

Showing Silver, to me, was a magical adventure, coming into your own, and learning to embrace yourself and your strengths. Keira went from wanting to hide her magic to learning to use it to its full potential, and perhaps to an even higher potential than she could have imagined. At times, especially in the beginning, Keira came off innocent and she depended more on other people, however as the story progressed she grew into her powers and confidence and found her own voice and it felt as though she had started to trust herself and her own judgement a lot more.

There was a romance side plot to this story, which was very wholesome and sweet and in some ways reminiscent of regency times to me. Still, it was wonderful to see Keira blossom and grow in that as well.

The writing in this book was very pleasant, which made for a great reading experience. Some of my favourite phrases were ‘resting dragon face’ (that one made me cackle out loud) and ‘tea solves most problems’ (which is very much a true statement to me).

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I think you will too if you love a sweet fantasy about growing into your magic and yourself. I am very much looking forward to its sequel.

[Vivian · Rating 4 out of 5]

On my personal rating scale, I'd rate it a 3.5-4 out of 5, as a book that I enjoyed reading, and I would read the sequel if I'm in the mood.

This is a quick, cozy, light-hearted fantasy. The story follows a 19-year-old girl, Keira, who recently moves into a castle with her parents, and tries, at first, to hide her growing powers. But like all good stories, it's impossible to do for long, and she starts training to use her magic in the art of healing (three cheers for magical healers!).

You'll like this if you like slow to medium pacing, young untrained mages learning to use their immense powers, encouraging and non-jealous tutors, female friendships, a side of sweet romance/courtship, supportive parents, magical healing, quests that require travel, and happy endings.

I appreciate the variety of personalities in the story. There are those who love magic and those who fear it. I'm willing to accept that kind of fear even though it hurts Keira emotionally (but how dare you! So unfair!!), as it adds different viewpoints to the world and makes it more real. Plus, they kind of redeem themselves in the end. There's something heartwarming about making an effort to overcome your fears for the sake of your friends. The characters all have some level of depth to them, and I liked the hints that we get about Declan as well as Keira's parents.

Speaking of her parents, can I just say that it's rare for me to read a story with supporting parents who are present in the story when the heroine starts her magical journey? Keira's parents are a breath of fresh air.

It's nice that I had time in the beginning to get to know those characters first before the main event started. The story picks up near the middle, where things start to happen, and the characters you've met earlier come together to go on their quest. It carries through steadily to the end. Those are definitely my favourite sections of the book, though I also like seeing how the magic is explained in the beginning, and what things Keira's teacher has her do with it. It helps you see how different Keira is from other mages.

Part of me wished that the conflict was introduced/hinted more strongly a little earlier in the story, to accompany the build-up of the world and to match Keira's level of concern for certain things. It does become pretty well-matched once we start seeing hints of the conflict. Without spoiling the ending too much, I'll say that I enjoy seeing how much Keira has grown since the start of the story. She becomes much more willing to speak her mind and trust in her magic, and it's something nice to read. The ending hints at the expanding world of this story that should (hopefully) be revealed in book 2!