The Gilded King by Josie Jaffrey

I received an ARC or review copy of this book from the author/publisher. All opinions are my own.

Title: The Gilded King
Author: Josie Jaffrey
Series: Book 01 of the Sovereign Series
Publish Date: Expected Publication June25, 2018
Genre: YA Paranormal Fantasy
Source: Provided by Author

Publisher’s Description: 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 coming down. The only question is what side you’ll be on when they do.

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Luna Lovebooks says…

‘Of course. You want to hear the fairytale, don’t you?’

Ms. Jaffrey quickly became one of my favorite authors when I read her Solis Invicti Series. I, of course, jumped at the chance when she asked me if I would be interested in reading the first book in a new series set in the same world, where the events of the Solis Invicti are mere legends and fairy tales. Hey, all fairy tales have a seed of truth right?

Two stories are brilliantly melded into one without shortchanging the other. We read of Julia in the Blue. A world of humans ruled by Nobility in the last city on Earth. Julia is well written in her struggle to keep with the status quo but also her wonder at what really lies beyond the walls of the Blue. This internal battle continues even after she is assigned to be an Attendant for a young Silver named Lucas, who also questions their world.

But we also get to catch up with an old acquaintance, Cam, in the Red – a wasteland filled with death (or so the humans of the Blue believe). Cam searches for Emmy and it is through this search that we learn about the events that happened in between the two series. We also learn that the Red really is a dangerous place as the monsters of the previous series have grown in numbers – but for a horrifying reason.

This tale is told through Julia and Cam’s alternating point of views and when the Red starts to bleed into the Blue and world collide, it is explosive. We get both Cam and Julia’s emotions and insecurities and hopes and maybe even budding romances.

Characters and world are both well written. The only issue I had is that while these are two separate stories, I feel like you really should read the Solis Invicti series before this one. It is not necessary, but I feel like you will get more out of the secondary characters if you have their background and the history behind the fairy tale. Overall I enjoyed this promising new start but I didn’t devour it the way I did the prequel series. I give it 4 silver studs.

Other recommendations…

Solis Invicti Series by Josie Jaffrey, The Lux Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Secret Keepers Series by Jaymin Eve

I received an ARC or review copy of this book from the author/publisher. All opinions are my own.