#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.

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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#BookReview: A Violet Fire [Vampires of Avignon#1 ]by Kelsey Quick

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I came across A Violet Fire through a review post on Leah's blog. Luckily the book was still available on NetGalley for requesting an ARC and I picked it immediately.


In the Vampire Stratocracy of Cain, human blood is scarce. For centuries, councils have sought to assuage the blood shortage by enslaving and breeding humans, turning them into profitable supply units for the rich and the abled.

Today, eighteen-year-old Wavorly Sterling is officially a supply unit, bound to serve her blood willingly to her master for the rest of her life. One of only few humans that was not bred in Cain, Wavorly knows freedom better than anyone, and she is determined to escape the clutches of her oppressors, even if by the hands of death.

But surprises lay beyond every certainty, and within every doubt. Where Wavorly's hatred for both vampires and her enslavement once flowed free as blood, it merely trickles as she grows to admire her reserved, yet receptive master and savior, Anton Zein.

Set in a richly detailed world of fantasy, A Violet Fire is a gripping journey filled with passion, betrayal, lies, and the encouragement we all need to take a stand for our freedom--no matter the cost.


I had started to believe I was over the vampire tales when I finished the House of Night series in 2011 [ damn! that's ancient history it seems ] but then I read AFV. And I read like there is no tomorrow
Two nights of sleeping (very) late and I finished it within 60ish hours. This is not a typical vampire movie with clear wars and petty drama. This is a well-established world of Vampire as the ruling class with their own rules and needs and how humans are enslaved for their cause. 

The book starts with Wavorly's attempt to escape her destiny and failing that, we see her anger and her tendency to speak her mind without caring for the consequences - including her own death. Though this does not change much, it is the very reason that adds such freshness to the plot and the dialogues as the story moves. Though I do not have much love for Wavorly for her exhausting dilemma and struggle, there was something about the story that kept me engrossed and by the end, I was totally invested to know the future of Wavorly and Lord Zein.  

Lord Zein - without being over the top cheesy or brooding, there was enough to like his character and at times take his side too. The other casts were also well developed and used efficiently in the world-building and to move the story at a good pace in the direction it had to. I loved the story and writing so much that when I realized that there is a sequel to the book, I was kind of sad closing the book at a cliffhanger! SO. NOT.DONE !

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The Passage - Justin Cronin

THE PASSAGE 

Book 1 of "The Passage"

ISBN : 9780345504968
FIRST PUBLISHED : 2010
PAGES : 766 (Hardcover)
GENRE : Sci Fi/Horror
PUBLISHER : Ballantine

AUTHOR - Justin Cronin

SYNOPSIS - An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy—abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape—but he can’t stop society’s collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only she has the power to save the ruined world.

QUOTES - 

• We live, we die. Somewhere along the way, if we're lucky, we may find someone to help lighten the load.

• So perhaps the greatest worry of all was that one day you would realize that all the worries of your life amounted to one thing: the desire to just stop worrying.

• It's different being afraid when there's the hope it will amount to something.

• He breathed once more, holding the air in his chest, as if it were not air but something more--a sweet taste of freedom, of all cares lifted, everything over and done.

FL Speak - Oh boy, this was long pending.

Welcome to the end of the world. As the world explores immortality, life fucks you back.

I'm not a big fan of post-apocalyptic books but this one hit where it hurts. The Passage brings out the horror in a realistic model of the current world. Amy, a child of a thousand years is probably the answer to everything that went horribly wrong.

The book started with intrigue, continued with boredom and ended with the question "there's more?" What was supposed to be an uber secret mission to extract super bat DNA to make soldiers turned out to be the key to doomsday. Trust the armed forces to fuck things up. Fast forward to the future and there's no technology and a lot of vamps/virals roaming the world, hunting for game, breeding to continue existence and probably pod in pod with the girl you once slept with.

The first half set the ball rolling, the second half struggled to keep up and the climax was over before I could pull out. I'm fucking glad that this wasn't a "shoot-you-in-the-head" vampire story. I was expecting them to become smart as the years progressed and am glad that they did. There wasn't a vamp as classy as Count Drac but some of them were pretty neat sans the fashion sense.

I just read the synopsis of the second book and saw none of the characters from book 1. Well except Amy and god knows what she's becoming.

Should I continue this series? Hmmm... 

Oh yes, worth the bullshit midway. 

RATING - 4/5