The Gilded King by Josie Jaffrey

BOOK REVIEW: The Gilded King by Josie Jaffrey

(Sovereign Book 1)

Release Date: June 25th, 2018

Genre: YA, Dystopian, Fantasy

292 pages

Published by Josie Jaffrey

Available at Amazon

I rated  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  on Goodreads

THE BLURB:

"In the Blue, the world’s last city, all is not well.

Julia is stuck within its walls. She serves the nobility from a distance until she meets Lucas, a boy who believes in fairytales that Julia’s world can’t accommodate. The Blue is her prison, not her castle, and she’d escape into the trees if she didn’t know that contamination and death awaited humanity outside.

But not everyone in the Blue is human, and not everyone can be contained.
Beyond the city’s boundaries, in the wild forests of the Red, Cameron has precious little humanity left to lose. As he searches for a lost queen, he finds an enemy rising that he thought long dead. An enemy that the humans have forgotten how to fight.

One way or another, the walls of the Blue are going to come down. The only question is what side you’ll be on when they do."


THE BOOK TRAILER:





MY THOUGHTS:

I'm a sucker for Vampire stories, so when the Author contacted me and asked me if I would like a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review, I jumped right in!

I really enjoyed The Gilded King and I'm actually looking forward to the next book, The Silver Queen, which will be available on October 17th.

What made this book so different from other vampire stories?  We all know vampires need blood, but what if some of the blood is contaminated?  What if all humanity is on the blink of extinction?  Vampires can rule the world, but they still need humans...uncontaminated humans.  This dystopian world, built on fallen European cities made this book so irresistible.  Add a touch of romance with a hint of fairytale and we got a winning page-turner!

I was so intrigued by the 2 worlds - Red / Blue.  I wanted to know more.  We get bits and pieces of hows and whys the 2 worlds got separated, which at times were a bit confusing, with all the different names, but overall, the story was easy to follow.  A lot of times, I dislike when authors give way more details than I feel are necessary, and in this book I felt were just right.


THE CHARACTERS:

Lucas and Julia's romance felt a bit rushed and there were so many questions left unanswered, which I do hope the next book will address.
Why is Lucas different from the other Nobles (vampires aka Silver)?
What happened between Lucas and Rufus?

Julia always wanted to know what life looked like beyond the walls surrounding The Blue and she might have a chance to find out soon enough.

My favorite character was Cameron.  He just felt so genuine, even though he seemed a bit naive for someone who has lived for centuries and trained as Solis Invicti. I also loved how he doubted his own immortality and questioned his way of living.  His perpetual quest to find his friend Emmy leads him to deep forests in the Red, where he meets Felix.  I found Felix an interesting character from the beginning, and the mystery around him and the things he knew (red flag) made me even more curious.

I'm still trying to guess which one of these characters will be the savior of the 2 worlds.  Or will they have to work together to save both humans and Silver?

I will totally recommend this book.  It's very well-written and a quick read.

Content Warning:
The book contains profanity, horror and both F/M and M/M romance (suitable for ages 14+).


And what about that cover? 
I won't spoil it, but it all makes sense in the final chapter...