Burnt Silver

by H.A. Titus

Josh MacAllister has seen too much. He knows there are monsters out there. And he swore to his dying friend that he would stop the evil seeking to overtake Earth.

Eliaster Tyrone struggles to fully trust his human friend's abilities, especially as Josh battles crippling flashbacks and nightmares. And now his own mistakes rise from the past, seeking to pull him down a path he swore to never walk again.

Unlikely allies appear in two half-fae who want to make a deal–information in exchange for sanctuary. Their tip leads Josh and Eliaster into the dark underbelly of the fae world, chasing black market relic dealers and Unseelie lords.

But not everything is as it seems, and even friend can become foe when relics are in play.

Genres: Urban Fantasy

338 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 13, 2019

About the author

H. A. Titus is usually found with her nose in a book or spinning story-worlds in her head. She first fell in love with fantasy when she was twelve and her dad handed her The Lord of the Rings. She lives on the shores of Lake Superior with her meteorologist husband and young son, who do their best to ensure she occasionally emerges into the real world, usually for some kind of adventure. When she's not writing, she can be found rock-climbing, mountain biking, or skiing.
She can be found at hatitus.com and is active on Twitter (@HATitusWriting), and Instagram (instagram.com/hatitus), with an occasional foray into Facebook (/HATitusAuthor).

Reviews

[Selina Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still enjoyable on reread! Maybe knocked down to 4.25, 4 stars, due to noticing some continuity errors that had me flipping back and forth in confusion and some (honestly not terrible) editing mistakes that I missed last time, probably due to being caught up in the story. But I'm not changing my star rating, since 4.5 rounded up is how I felt on first read, and it's still an enjoyable, fun, clean-ish urban fantasy with characters I love. But I just want moooooooooore. I neeeeeeeds it. Gotta find out what is up with Josh! And I want more of a new character. Do you think the author will write the next book if I send her a small mountain of chocolate? 😉😆

4.5 stars
Highly enjoyable, quick read. Still loving the world and the characters, especially Eliaster (all the love for Eliaster). Some intriguing new characters were introduced as well. I kept thinking about these books after reading them. If this series was a TV show with several seasons, I would have binged the entire thing straight through. XD Maybe it's just that I haven't read much urban fantasy (really, Forged Steel was the first UF book I read), so it was refreshingly different from what I'm used to, and perhaps that's why these books captured me so much. There's a few places were pacing felt off, or something was a little confusing, and overall, and there's some things about the bad guys I don't fully understand. But overall, The Crucible books are just fun to read. There were several laugh-out-loud moments and some intense moments. I do wish it was longer--but mostly just because I want more of this world and these characters.

[C.S. Wachter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still reeling from the events at the end of Forged Steel, Josh MacAllister and Eliaster Tyrone continue their campaign to seek out and destroy the path stones, thereby saving the world from a looming disaster that threatens both humans and fae. A tip leads the two to a black-market relic dealer reputed to know the whereabouts of one of the path stones. Along the way, they meet some unexpected new friends and enemies.

I personally disliked the first-person POV switching between the two main characters. The two characters are too similar and at places I needed to keep reminding myself which character was the “I” at this point. Though first person is supposed to pull the reader deeper into the story, I thought close third would have served this story better. But that is indeed just my opinion.

Other than the comments above, I found the story engaging, fast-paced, exciting, and enjoyable and will certainly read the next installment as soon as it is available. I love the feel of the fae world beneath and filtered through the human world. Titus does an excellent job making it believable and unique.

[Britt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought I had already written this!! But here we go. I was delighted to see this story -- the second in the series -- make it's appearance on my Kindle. I had the enormous privilege of getting to read this as a beta reader. I really enjoyed getting to see Josh and Eliaster put in the position of working together again, and I felt that the flow from first to second book was excellent.

I like that this story deals with some hard things, like trust and past stress and anxiety, and it doesn't sugar coat it. And the adventure doesn't stop in this story. New fun characters and new challenges await. Go read it!!