Uptown Oracle Reads… The Silver Queen

The Silver Queen
Josie Jaffrey

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The last city on Earth is contaminated. Now blood is the only thing that can wash it clean. Julia is trapped inside the Blue as the Nobles fight over the few humans who are still alive. When the dust settles and she finds herself shackled to a new master, she knows she must escape or die. Meanwhile, Cam has gathered a handful of comrades and is on his way into the Red to rescue his queen. But not all of his friends can be trusted, and not all of them will make it back alive. The Silver Queen is the second book in Josie Jaffrey’s Sovereign trilogy, set in a dystopian Europe where vampiric Nobles control the last remnants of the human race.

As with The Gilded King and her other books, Jaffrey continues writing her unique take on vampires and zombies. Her wonderfully written supernatural world expands on the lore and differences of these creatures to the ones we often see in media.

On top of this, she writes a dystopian that doesn’t feel ‘already done’ as many other dystopia do. After The Hunger Games – it was nice to read a dystopian that didn’t pick out different popular elements, and Jaffrey’s writing always seems to come directly from what she wants to write.
The two point of views and storylines we followed in The Gilded King continued into The Silver Queen. They even finally aligned with one another, and parts fell into place to show how they fit together.

Cam and Julia are very different characters, but I enjoyed both of their stories in this book. Julia really came into her own as she finally escapes the Blue. And Cam really grew into the person other people needed him to be for the war that’s about to come.

I found the relationships and the friendships in this book to be written particularly well. Whether it was Lucas and Julia or Felix and Cam – Jaffrey writes them in unique ways, with clear motivations, issues, and ways to move forward with the story that is being told.

I especially loved Cam’s friendships with the other Invicti in this book – and how each of them acted differently with him because of it. The inclusion of trust and the worry of that breaking also worked well to build up this team of people we didn’t really know much about from the first book.
Whilst all this was happening, the pace often slowed down q
uite a lot. This happens with many second books in a series – and was a good way to show the lead up towards the action nearer the end.

I had a few ‘this is going to happen’ moments, but Jaffrey has led me onto wanting the read the next book to find out if I’m right.

Positives

• Unique takes on tropes
• Friendships and relationships

Negatives

• Slow pace at times

I received The Silver Queen by Josie Jaffrey from the publisher via the Author. This is an unbiased and honest review