Review: The Gilded King

The Gilded King by Josie Jaffrey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Gilded King is the first book in Josie Jaffrey’s Sovereign series, and it sets the standard for the rest of this series extremely high. Honestly, I was addicted from the very first page and I cannot wait to dive into the future books in this series. In fact, the Sovereign series is a spin-off of Josie Jaffrey’s Solis Invicti series, and I’m rather desperate to go and grab those books now, too.

Being a spin-off series, I was somewhat tentative about going into the Sovereign series. Although it was advertised as working alone, I’m always nervous that I will miss links. There have been many occasions where I have picked up spin-off series and have missed many details as it wasn’t quite the standalone it was advertised as. The Gilded King does work fine as a standalone introduction to a new series, but I do feel as though readers of the Solis Invicti series will understand certain things better. There were many times when events were spoken of, and explained, which I thought were obvious references to the Solis Invicti series. As someone who is now desperate to grab A Bargain in Silver, The Price of Silver, Bound in Silver, and The Silver Bullet, I feel as though I know what to expect with some of the details. Therefore, I would suggest, if you’re someone who likes to know everything, read the Solis Invicti series first. If you’re happy events explained rather than reading the way the events unfold, then dive straight into The Gilded King – it really is a great read.

I’m a big fan of dystopian worlds when they are mixed with the paranormal we known so well from urban fantasy, and in this case it was vampires. Not our usual kind, though. With The Gilded King we come to understand a different vampire world to what we are accustomed to, we get to see a new way of vampirism. As a lover of vampire novels and dystopian novels, this book was exactly what I could hope for from a combination of the two.

We follow two stories throughout, that come to overlap towards the end of the book. Both were very different kinds of stories, but both were wonderful. Sometimes when there are multiple stories being told within a single book, I find myself wishing we were given the stories individually, but not with The Gilded King. I really enjoyed the back and forth, I enjoyed watching the way it slowly brought the different aspects of the world to life for me. I cannot pick which of the two stories were my favourite, as I enjoyed the characters and the events in both so much. I’m so excited to see where both stories take us next, and I’m really hoping the two will cross over some more in the future.

Honestly, this book had so much. There was action, there was drama, there was romance, there were twists and turns, and so many other things. Once I started this book I could not put it down, I found myself turning the pages at a rapid pace, desperate to see how everything came together. Upon reaching the end, with the information given to us and the way we’re left lingering with questions, I found myself desperate for book two in the series. Without a doubt, I’ll be grabbing it as soon as I can.

Overall, this was a wonderful read. In fact, this was one of those cases where my inability to hand out five-star ratings like the rest of the population resulted in a four-point-five-star read being rounded down. I honestly believe, though, after just one book, that Josie Jaffrey is more than capable of pulling a five-star rating from me, and I’ll certainly be reading more of her work in the hope I find another of those hidden gems of a five-star read.

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