#BookReview : Judgement Day (Seekers book 2 ) by Josie Jaffrey #BBNYA2021 #BlogTour

 

Two years back, I got a chance to read & review May Day ( Seekers#1)  and even though I liked the book, I had so many expectations from the sequel. Happy to report that the sequel totally delivered, and how! Judgement Day came to me on a week when I was really going through a phase of burnout from reading some average & pretty similar stories. And this was the exact reset I needed.

Jack Valentine finally has her shit together. She has a great job, great friends (well, one at least), and a girlfriend whom she loves, even if she can’t work up the courage to tell her that yet. Unfortunately, she also has an archnemesis who’s about to punish her crimes in the worst possible way: by making her spend time with him. Which she could cope with, maybe, if she didn’t have problems at work as well. When the body of a human judge is found in a locked library, there’s no denying that she was murdered by one of the Silver – by a vampire – and the evidence points worryingly close to home. If that wasn’t bad enough, some of Jack’s least favorite people are opening a new blood bar in Oxford with questionable motives. For Jack and her team, it’s becoming increasingly hard to separate allies from enemies. With conspiracies on every side, the simmering tensions in Silver society are about to come to a head. As usual, Jack intends to be right in the middle of it. She does like it when things get messy.

I had very few recollections from book#1 but, thankfully book#2 sets up the scene and old events well enough to follow the story. The book is in the first person from Jack's POV. Jack is the youngest, hot-headed & ever grumpy vampire detective working for Seekers. She would love to hate The Baron, Killian Drake but events keep throwing them together, mostly by Killian's manipulations and his interest in Jack. 

Picking from where the previous book ends, Judgement Day has a new mystery while a bigger conspiracy always looms on the horizon. The murder mystery and the new connections building in the city around the Blood Bar are intriguing and messy enough to keep the team occupied. But, what really kept me hooked in this sequel is the ever-evolving relationship between Jack & Killian. Theirs is set up as a fated, enemies-to-lovers relationship, so it was both fun & frustrating to see them do the dance. Jack especially, with her mistrust for everyone and fueled by some lies, makes a real good mess of the things before the truth comes out. 

Judgement Day is a really good police procedural fantasy fiction with a unique setup of the Vampire society, that seems to be on a brink of revolution wether they want it or not. The book sets the stage for the next book and the ending of the book leaves a lot to be wanting for Jack & Killian. I wish the next part of the story was already out. 

Rating : 4 star

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I received this book to read and review as part of the BBNYA 2021 tours organized by the TWR Tour team. All opinions are my own, unbiased and honest. 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 BBNYA competition, you can visit the official website http://www.bbnya.com or twitter @bbnya_official.

#BookReview: May Day by Josie Jaffrey

May Day by Josie Jaffrey
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars 

 
If the murderer you’re tracking is a vampire, then you want a vampire detective. Just maybe not this one. It’s not that Jack Valentine is bad at her job. The youngest member of Oxford’s Seekers has an impressive track record, but she also has an impressive grudge against the local baron, Killian Drake.

When a human turns up dead on May Morning, she’s determined to pin the murder on Drake. Instead, it leads Jack into a web of conspiracy involving the most powerful people in the country, people to whom Jack has no access. But she knows someone who does.

To get to the truth, Jack will have to partner up with her worst enemy. 

First thing first, I wanted to LOVE this book but it fell a little short for that. So I do like it, and I want more from the sequel already. 

Jack Valentine is more impulsive & hot-headed than her partners would like her to be, but a part of that makes her such a badass at her job.  But the one thing that will destroy her sooner is her unreasonable rage towards the local baron, Killian Drake.

Killian Drake, by his position & age is powerful, scheming and  loves to play games with Jack. He knows how she thinks , how she feels and he likes that about their relationship until it changes into a reluctant partnership and things start going out of control for both.

I loved these characters, but i could not feel the connect because I wanted more of their background and to some extent i did not find the justification for Jack's anger unless I have to assume she was totally acting like a brat [ which she might be considering she was 18 when she turned from human to vampire ]

The story starts with a human murder which clearly seems to be act of a vampire , so the seekers are involved. The case gets mixed with a bigger conspiracy unfolding in Oxford. It takes Jack to places that only Drake can get her into and because of this, they both see a change in their understand and want for each other. I could so relate to Jack's confusion about this desire, even if I did not agree to her decision to walk away from it in the end. 

Though the murder gets solved in the end, the other case does not gets it due closure as per Jack and that is what we will continue to read in the second book. All in all, its a really entertaining read and some fresh take on vampire culture. 

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Review: The Gilded King (Sovereign #1) by Josie Jaffrey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I always like a good vampire story with a strong female cast thrown in the mix. that was the only reason I was immediately interested in The Gilded King. And also, the cover is really pretty. There is a missing vampire, a dedicated friend focussed on finding her and then there is a fairytale legend that looks just another story but is more loaded than that, as one realizes in the end.

The book starts with introducing us to this new world - the city called Blue which is a safe place to live and anything beyond its boundaries is Red. But Blue is not where Julia wants to spend her life. She does not want to be a server to the Nobles but rather would like to walk out of the Blue and find a different life for herself if only she was sure she would survive in Red. That is till she is made attendant to Lucas, a very young Noble who believes in fairytales and just might convince Julia about them. Out in Red, Cameron searches for a lost queen for decades and refuses to rest till he brings her back to Blue. And this search earns him some enemies, who are ready to bring the war to Blue finally.

Up till almost one fourth if the book, you meet all the pieces on the board that would be shaping up the plot later. Though one can never be sure whom to like, whom to trust in this story, the events taking place in Julia & Cameron's world never seem to be dull or forced at any point.  Once the book picks pace it goes quite smoothly and is a lot of fun to read. There is a hint of romance in the plot times but it is woven in the story so subtly and beautifully. All the additional characters are interesting and well fleshed throughout. There is a hint of grey shades in most characters that keep things exciting. The Gilded King is a brilliant mix of dystopian, fantasy and adventure elements in a single story. It stands proud on the friendship, loyalty, and humanity established in the story. This was a really wonderful read and I look forward to the sequel now.

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