BBNYA Tour: The Gilded King by Josie Jaffrey

I received this book to read and review as part of BBNYA 2020 organised by the @The_WriteReads team. All opinions are my own, unbiased and honest. 

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A little bit of background for BBNYA and for anyone looking to get involved!

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 the 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.

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But now let’s get to what we’re really here for…

Coming in 4th place for BBNYA 2020 is The Gilded King by Josie Jaffrey!

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, who believes in fairytales that her 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.

Review:

If you’re in the market for a read that combines the glory of powerful vampires with something akin to Ancient Rome then allow me to recommend this beauty.

Set in a world where hierarchy is everything and serving the nobility is a coveted role, Julia longs for the freedom that doesn’t exist while living in the Blue. But the wilderness that exists outside the city’s walls is dangerous for mere humans – lucky for Cameron he’s much more than that.

After going through what was, admittedly, a very intense vampire phase, I thought I’d read it all. Then I came across Josie Jaffrey! Cross the bloody world of ancient immortals with a setting that feels like Ancient Rome and you’ve found my perfect type of historical fantasy. Combine that with a fantastic dose of lore and you’ve got this book in a nutshell – what more could you want?

I really loved that we got to read from two different points of view in this story as, not only did it keep things interesting, but you got to see events unfold from two very different perspectives (Red vs. Blue, immortal vs. human). This also works really well with the pacing of this story as there’s twice as many things for us as readers to discover. The characters were all well fleshed out and really show off how well Jaffrey writes different personalities. Julia was a particular favourite of mine as, while she didn’t want to conform to life in the Blue, she understood that she had no choice. She was the sort of heroine that was strong and tactical without being cocky or annoying and I loved that she also had a vulnerable side. This really helped to make her more believable while also adding another element to the story.

Overall, I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone who’s looking for a different kind of vampiric fantasy and especially for those who love a historical setting with their reads!

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Did you follow along with BBNYA 2020? Or maybe you’re excited for this year’s event? I’d love to know!

You can always find me over on Twitter if you’d like to discuss this book (or any others that I’ve featured) in more detail 😌