Tuesday, October 1, 2019

TWR Tour ~ The Gilded King




Book source ~ Tour
My review is voluntary and honest.
25 June 2018
Fantasy
293 Pages

My Rating ~ 3 bites

The Blue is the last city in the world where the Nobles can feed on uncontaminated humans. If a human goes out into the Red then they can never return to the Blue without running the risk of contaminating everyone. If the Nobles drink from a contaminated human then they lose their immortality. So they need to be sure no one wants to venture out into the Red willingly. Stories of how horrible it is out in the Red have grown with each decade that passes until the citizens of the Blue have no desire to brave it. But as with every long peace, there comes discontent.

This story is told mainly from two POVs. Julia who is a young woman low on the pecking order as a server who ends up becoming an Attendant to a Noble. An Attendant is someone who feeds the Noble. And by feed, I mean blood. Nobles are vampires who go by the name Silver in the Blue or Izcacus out in the Red.

The other POV is Cameron who is a Silver and part of the dwindling Solis Invicti, the elite military bodyguards for the ruling person/family. He has spent tons of years, like 100s I think, out in the Red looking for someone called Emmy. Most of the book there’s no explanation about her, only that Cam is going nuts searching for her and most everyone else has given her up for dead. Since there’s virtually no backstory for Emmy (I think she might be the old Queen?) I find myself not caring about her- whether she’s alive or dead or if Cam even finds her.

While this story is a different kind of vampire story and should have been enthralling, the lack of oomph makes it only so-so for me. Julia is wishy-washy, her friend Claudia is at times a too silly nitwit, but at others she pulls up her big girl panties and becomes someone I could get behind. Cam is just a moron. Sorry, but that’s how I feel. For a being over a 1,000 years old he does some really stupid shit. In addition, I read the 1st half of the book in a constant state of confusion. I had no idea what was going on, so the world-building lacks for me. Maybe others are getting something out of this that I missed, but I’m not really interested in continuing with the series.

3 comments:

  1. Oh no! It's always frustrating when there is no backstory on a character, and with wish washy characters too, that doesn't help. Hope your next read is better for you.

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    1. It's possible the next book builds on this one, but it's already lost me. :(

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