REVIEW: To Touch a Silent Fury by R. A. Sandpiper
When I tell you that To Touch a Silent Fury had me in an absolute chokehold, I mean that I burned through 300+ pages in a single day, stayed up too late to finish it, and then (lovingly) cursed R.A. Sandpiper for the brutal emotional rollercoaster that she just put me through. This is just peak slow-burn, dark, epic romantic fantasy, and more than that, it’s exactly the type of book that makes me remember why I fell in love with reading in the first place.
“How much of a threat could one girl really be?”
Earlier this year, I had an absolute blast as I devoured the Amefyre trilogy, but as soon as I started To Touch a Silent Fury, I realised that Sandpiper had just stepped up her game in every way possible. Sure, it took me about 50 or so pages to find my footing and get a decent grasp on the intricate world building with its countries and magic inspired by the five senses of Touch, Taste, Sound, Sight and Scent, but the level of overwhelm was vastly outweighed by my sense of intrigue, awe, and dangerously addictive excitement.
More than that, I just instantly fell head over heels in love with Tani(dwen) and Lang(nadin), and I loved getting transported into this dark and mystical fantasy world through their eyes. She is an outcast among outcasts as the only woman in the Moontouched Brotherhood on the remote island of Eavenfold, he is an insubordinate Crown Prince bonded to one of the last dragons left in the world. Their paths never should have crossed, but when Tani is bestowed a Marriage Fate during her Fate Ceremony that forces her to marry the victor of the upcoming tournament, Lang decides he will do anything to prevent her from claiming her Fate and reaching her full Touch magic powers.
“I was flying towards my Fate, whether I liked it or not. And flying right along with me was the man I had to force to marry me somehow. It was unfathomable, all of it. And yet, soaring on dragonback, it all felt possible.”
And that, my friends, only covers the first of the four parts that make up To Touch a Silent Fury. This story just kept zigging whenever I expected it to zag, going places that I never saw coming, and I was so here for the entire wild ride. I mean, it definitely has some familiar tropes like a mind-link dragon bond à la Fourth Wing (I LOVE my babes Chaethor and Hanin), a hidden identity cat-and-mouse dynamic reminiscent of The Crimson Moth, and political/court intrigue and family drama on a House of the Dragon/ASOIAF level, but it’s all just executed in a really strong and refreshing way.
Not to mention the clever ways that Sandpiper plays around with the concept of destiny and fate, both on an individual level and on a romantic level with one of the most unique spins on a marriage of convenience/fated mates-esque dynamic. Both Tani and Lang are shackled by their duties and the expectations that society has placed upon them, but I really appreciated that they didn’t meekly follow the path carved out for them. In fact, they have to be some of the most complicated, determined, mature, intense (like, hello, my tortured man Lang has such a flair for the dramatic), vulnerable, messy, dangerously powerful and emotionally complex characters I have read in an epic romantic fantasy, and I only loved them more and more as their layers were slowly peeled back.
Also, THE TENSION BETWEEN THESE TWO!!! They (should) hate each other but they truly can’t deny that they secretly respect each other, and then they also desperately need each other for their own selfish ends and just can’t stop themselves from pushing each other’s buttons every time they interact even when they know oh so well that they are playing with fire… in other words, they really had me going through it, and I love them all the more for it. I mean, sometimes I didn’t know if they or I were more confused by their inexplicable contradictory feelings and actions, but somehow that made them and their dynamic all the more realistic, compelling and irresistibly entertaining to me.
““How could I forget a face like yours?” he asked. “Your beauty has haunted me for years. Did you think I would not know you in a breath, in a moment, at a glance?””
Now, I am sure that there are aspects of this story that you could nitpick or poke holes through if you wanted, but Tani and Lang’s strong first person perspectives combined with Sandpiper’s smooth and evocative prose had me SO deeply immersed and invested that I honestly did not see or care about any flaws if they were even there. And whereas the Amefyre series might have had some pacing issues and felt a bit rushed for me in places, I think To Touch a Silent Fury is just a perfectly executed slow-burn that just masterfully builds in stakes and tension with each new chapter.
My personal favourite parts were probably the survival vibes with Tani (and SHADOW!) in the treacherous forests of the Soundlands and all the ballroom/dance scenes and court intrigue at Lang’s home of the Sightlands’ royal court, but then there truly was not a single moment of this 500 page beauty of a book that didn’t have me on the edge of my seat. And do not get me started on the emotional whiplash of the last 100 pages, all building up to an absolute gut punch of an ending that just hurt oh so good.
“We stared at each other again, then. The Sightlander and the Touchlander. The Dragon Prince and the Moontouched Girl. The Prince and the Fugitive. We would always be on two different sides of this world, and I was a fool to think otherwise.”
If you like your epic romantic fantasy in the vein of Penn Cole’s Kindred’s Curse Saga, Rosaria Munda’s Aurelian Cyle or Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree, then To Touch a Silent Fury is the book for you. But heck, even if you think you don’t enjoy romance in your fantasy and just want a damn good dark fantasy adventure full of dragons, wyverns, schemes, intrigue, and bursts of pulse-pounding action, then this is also the book for you. The Bride of Eavenfold duology truly could not have started off stronger, and my desperate desire for the second book honestly burns hotter than dragon fire. Cue the book hangover…
Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. To Touch a Silent Fury is scheduled for release on September 5th, 2025.
Read To Touch a Silent Fury by R. A. SandpiperThe post REVIEW: To Touch a Silent Fury by R. A. Sandpiper appeared first on Grimdark Magazine.
