The Silver Queen (Sovereign Book 2)
By Josie Jaffrey
Published October 17, 2018
Why I chose this book:
I could hardly wait for this after I read The Gilded King, which is the first book in the series. A review copy was provided by the author.
Review
(There will be some spoilers in the interest of being able to write sense.)
The Silver Queen picks up right where The Gilded King left off. The Blue, where nobles drink the blood of human servants, is in shambles; nobles fight each other in the street over the remaining humans with clean blood. Julia, our human heroine, remains in the Blue after her love interest and noble left. After near exsanguination, she resolves to escape to the Red, where terrors lurk and freedom lies. Having successfully escaped with the help of Sol, the awakened King, Julia ventures into the Red where she meets other humans and, eventually, Lucas. Their reunion is believably awkward, the relationship now tenuous. Meanwhile, Cam and a band of Invicti successfully rescue the captive queen, Emmy. Traumatized from her imprisonment, she is not the queen all were expecting, until the very end of the book, which is what made the strongest impression on me.
The humor, the believability, the excitement: Everything about Jaffrey's writing in The Silver Queen enveloped me with such a feeling of naturalness that the outside world would away. Julia and Lucas's relationship, Cam and Felix's relationship, the political upheaval, and Emmy's rescue are all woven together in a compelling and exciting narrative. If you liked The Gilded King, then you should absolutely read The Silver Queen. And if you haven't read The Gilded King, and you like dystopian adventures with a bit of romance and that happen to feature vampires, then I'm betting you will like this series!
Days after finishing this, the ending retains a strong hold on me, and not just because of the surprise cliffhanger twist. It's the realized mythology of Emmy and Sol's relationship that is still on my mind. In both books, the mythology that surrounds the carving of Sol is recounted. When the queen returns, the king will awake; the carving is really the sleeping king turned to gold. And once the queen returns, they will reign together. The people do not really believe this, but we learn at the conclusion of the first book that it is not just a myth. At the conclusion of the second, we see that Emmy is weak, almost dying, until she is in proximity to Sol. Then, without even interacting with him, she finds incredible strength and the ability to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. The clarity and truth of this final premise is impressed upon the reader: that we are able to face the hardest challenges when we have the support, even unspoken, of those we love and cherish.
Bonus:
The Gilded King is available for free download at present (November 20, 2018). Here's the link:
https://claims.prolificworks.
or on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Gilded-King-Sovereign-Book-ebook/dp/B07D3BZGR6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542764025&sr=8-1&keywords=the+gilded+king
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