The Gilded King (Sovereign Book 1) by Josie Jaffrey – Blog Tour

I received this book to read and review as part of the BBNYA 2020 competition and/or the BBNYA tours organised by the @The_WriteReads tours team. All opinions are my own, unbiased and honest (or insert your own standard version of the same). 

BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors. 

If you are an author and wish to learn more about the 2021 BBNYA competition, you can visit the official website (https://www.bbnya.com/) or our Twitter account, @BBNYA_Official. If you would like to sign-up and enter your book, you can find the BBNYA 2021 AUTHOR SIGN UP FORM HERE. Please make sure to carefully read our terms and conditions before entering. 

If you are a book blogger or reviewer, you can apply to be part of BBNYA 2021 by filling out this form (also remember to read the terms and conditions before signing up)! 

BBNYA is brought to you in association with the Folio Society (If you love beautiful books you NEED to check out their website!) And the book blogger support group TheWriteReads.

Synopsis

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.

My Thoughts

I’ve said it before but for anyone who hasn’t been around – Josie writes superb fantasy books that are detailed and highly engaging whilst being great for anyone new to fantasy novels.  They are packed full of adventure but remain easy to follow.

The writing style of The Gilded King fully engages the reader and immerses you into the story.  I loved the setting description and I’d personally describe it as having a futuristic but medieval vibe about it and they complimented each other perfectly.  Despite being so far removed from our lives as we know it – it was totally believable and felt very real.

The plot is told from the perspective of two main characters and moves seamlessly between the stories of Julia and Cam.  Julia (a human) lives in the blue, where the remaining, uncontaminated humans are used to serve the nobles/silver (vampires) by allowing them to drink their blood.  Julia is very reluctant but her ‘master’ does not fit the stories she has grown up listening too and the lines become blurred.  Cam is from the red (Silver) and is searching the red for a lost queen.  The red is where humans whose blood can kill Silvers are living along with some interesting other creatures.

The plot has a little of everything.  While we accompany Julia and Cam on their very different journeys we experience love, betrayal, loyalty and a whole lot of drama.

I cannot wait to get stuck into book 2 – The Silver Queen to find out what happens next.              

Author Bio – Josie Jaffrey

I have always written stories, but it wasn’t until I started the first book in the Solis Invicti series in 2014 that I really became obsessed with writing. I love to read, particularly where the escapism of the story is enhanced with an element of fantasy or science fiction. For me, writing is simply an extension of that journey, but I get to decide what happens next (though it’s amazing how often the characters seem to decide for themselves what I’m going to write!).

I love to hear from readers, so please do get in touch through my website or via Twitter.

Thank you for reading!