Review: The Blood Prince (Sovereign, #3) by Josie Jaffrey

The Blood Prince by Josie Jaffrey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The price of freedom is always paid in blood.

The sovereigns of the Silver have awakened, but the Queen is a fractured shell of the woman Cam remembers. He hopes to put her back together by finding her son, the missing prince. At least, that’s what he tells his friends when he leaves for the Red.
Back in the Blue, Julia’s old tormentor Rufus is hounding her at every turn. She’s sick of feeling powerless, but she has a plan that will bring the Nobles to their knees.

All she needs is blood.

The Blood Prince is the final book in Josie Jaffrey’s Sovereign trilogy, set in a dystopian Europe where vampiric Nobles control the last remnants of the human race.

Warnings: violence and killing, body horror, enslavement, sexual assault

Things have changed in the Blue drastically over the course of the last book, so in this final book, the question is whether the Silver society should be sustained, especially when it comes at the cost of so many humans. Julia and Cam both believe that the Silvers should all be cured, so that there are no such powerful creatures to rule over mankind in such a way; however, for much of the first half they don’t know that they are working towards the same purpose. Julia believes she isn’t contaminated by the cure (because Lukas has survived), and so continues a life inside the Blue. Lukas want to turn her into a silver, but she doesn’t want any part of the system; even Rufus’ threat is not enough for her to let go of her humanity. Meanwhile, Cam is out to rustle up some new leads about Emily’s son, who should be a Silver like her and probably immune from the cure like both the King and the Queen.

I will admit I was frustrated in some part because the plot gives gratification a little late; it is obvious who is Emily’s son, right from the last book when there was such a big clue. And the other thing was Rufus – I can’t believe he survived so long, but I was especially itching for him to take a bite of Julia already (sorry, Julia) so that he can get some sweet revenge cure into his system. Now, both those reveals came but my patience was shot by that time, see? Also, I was so over that whole scent thing between Rufus and Julia, and was angry at Lukas about it was so close to victim-blaming tropes! I was so irritated with Rufus throughout most of the book, and more so, because he should have died in book 1 already!

Still, it can’t be argued that the book gave us some high stakes to work through. There was an army approaching from the Red to take out the Blue, and other human settlements over the continent. Within the Blue, power plays were being, well, played, so our characters had to work against that, too. And this all, while the threat of the zombies played out in the Red where Julia was just traipsing through again and again, like it is a garden! I had my heart in my hands every time she ventured; I can’t tell you how much I got attached to her during the course of the trilogy. And Cam and Felix – their story was played out so well, through its troubles, and Cam’s insecurities, and their mission and everything. I did feel at times that the loss of context from the prequel series was affecting my understanding of some characters’ dynamic, though. The ending wrapped stuff off well enough, giving us a satisfactory end, yet keeping some threads open.