Book Review | Blood Jade by Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle

Hey loves! Today’s review is a little late, so I want to apologise a lot for that because I had been SO excited for this book but genuinely it’s one of those times I’ll probably need to write an entire post to explain life recently, but that will not be this post because I purely want to talk about how much I adore the Phoenix Hoard world so far.

Blood Jade is everything that’s amazing about Ebony Gate but with a lot more added to it, both in terms of characters and the world itself. We have a lot of returning characters and though it starts in San Francisco again, we get a little trip to Japan thrown in where the world just expands more and more. A lot of stories can dip in the second book, but this series is just on a non-stop upwards trajectory and it’s a joy to read!

Full review below.

About the Book

Title: Blood Jade
Series: Phoenix Hoard #2
Author: Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: July 16th 2024
Pages: 448
Source: Advanced reading copy gifted by author Ken Bebelle (this in no way affects my review which is honest and unbiased) Finished copy purchased by myself
Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★

Synopsis

The follow-up to Ebony Gate , the critically acclaimed debut of Vee and Bebelle’s Phoenix Hoard series.

IT TAKES A KILLER TO CATCH A KILLER

Emiko Soong, newly minted Sentinel of San Francisco, just can’t catch a break. Just after she becomes the guardian for a sentient city, a murder strikes close to home. Called by the city and one of the most powerful clans to investigate, she traces the killer whose scent signature bears a haunting similarity to her mother’s talent.

The trail will lead her back to Tokyo where the thread she pulls threatens to unravel her whole world and bring dark family secrets to light.

Meanwhile, the General rises in the East and Emiko must fight the hidden enemies of his growing army who are amped up on Blood Jade, while keeping her promises to her brother Tatsuya as he prepares for his tourney.

Her duties as Sentinel and her loyalties collide when she must choose between hiding her deepest shame or stopping the General’s relentless march.

Review

Blood Jade continues fairly shortly after the events of Ebony Gate, with a very sweet opening where Emiko and Freddy are just minding their own business riding waves. Emiko isn’t allowed peace for long though, and events very quickly escalate into an all-out fight with a mystical being. Something exceptionally interesting happens to end the fight, and Emiko ends up being left very confused.

A couple more important events happen in San Francisco, and Emiko has her first face off with someone who seems to be very familiar and, for some reason, is trying to assassinate a friend of hers.

Around a quarter of the way in, Emiko and her friend end up in Tokyo, as most clans attend Lóng Yá if they can (mostly to essentially preen themselves by showing a display of power). Emiko is mostly there to support her brother, as it’s his time to compete, but is faced with side quests galore as the assassin follows them and seemingly has their target changed way too close to Emiko.

I loved the change of setting mostly because we got to see so much of Emiko’s family. Her brother, Tatsuya, is entirely endearing from the start, and it’s very easy to see why she gets along so well with Freddy Tran based off her interactions with her brother. Emiko’s father, on the other hand, is everything she ever described him like. He comes across as very cold and calculating, but the amount of times he does things that are so obviously for the better of his children is simultaneously easy to see; I couldn’t help but love him anyway.

Now whereas Ebony Gate ends with Emiko’s world being kind of on the small side, at least in terms of her overall abilities and where we saw her visit, Blood Jade expands everything drastically and we get more and more. Especially in terms of characters! We’re introduced to some mythical creatures who I am very excited to see more of in the future, the glimpses of them in Blood Jade make me sure I’ll love them, alongside some interesting new clans (most of which are just out to cause chaos/get revenge on Emiko, if she was real I’d definitely hug her after this instalment).

With all of the worldbuilding and the story, I would hands down LOVE to see this as a TV show. There’s so much to it and from the ending (not spoiling) it is so clear that the next book will be on an even higher level! And if you forgot any of the events of book one, don’t worry. There’s a very useful synopsis and Emiko does an excellent point of reminding us of key events through her first person narration.

So, in summary, if you have not started this series yet then now is absolutely the time to pick it up, because it just gets better and better.