Early Review: The Red King by Jenn Stark (Wilde Justice #1)

The Red King (Wilde Justice #1)
Jenn Stark
Published: Oct. 10, 2018 (Elewyn Publishing)
Purchase: Amazon
Review source: copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

Reviewed by: Amy

Average Rating (out of 5): 4 stars

Note: While this review will be spoiler free it will reference events from the previous Immortal Vegas series. If you haven’t started that one yet, check out VBC’s review of book 1, Getting Wilde.

The Red King starts off a new story arc for Sara Wilde. One that finds the former arcane artifact locator/tarot card reader ascending to the role of Justice of the Council, seeking out those who have done wrong and putting them in the sights of Judgement. But along with learning the ropes of her new job, Sara Wilde now has to contend with a new drug on the technoceutical market: Black Elixir.

When Sara and the Council triumphed on the war on magic, not only were demons set loose on the world, but the Connected community got a verifiable upgrade to their powers (at least most of them did). Now, someone going by the moniker of The Red King is behind the production of Black Elixir. In her efforts to find The Red King, Sara will head to Venice during Carnivale, a time of heightened magical presence in the city, and this time quite possibly death.

I love this new incarnation of Sara Wilde. Even though she’s heading into new territory, she still comes across as fierce and relatively confident (even if she’d never admit to it). I’d say that if you haven’t read the previous series and going back and reading 10 (and a half) books seems a little too overwhelming, The Red King is the perfect place to start. Jenn Stark does a great job of giving readers the basic rundown of how Sara got the job of Justice, and since her job is as new to us as it is to her, readers are learning about the ins and outs of Justice just as Sara is. Plus with new jobs, comes new characters and settings. I can’t wait to explore Sara’s veritable library full of cases that need a hand of Justice dealt to them.

The behind-the-scenes look we get at the Council is interesting. Previously Sara work for them, now she works with them. There’s definitely a different dynamic than what we’ve seen before, and I can’t wait to explore that more in future books.

I just loved the murder mystery turn this series is taking. Each case makes it feel more contained. Whereas Sara learning about her role and her powers as Justice will have effects that run throughout the series which I like. There’s a lot of history associated with former Justices and the previous one, apparently, held quite the secrets.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Sara and the Magician. While there’s not much in the way of romance within the story, we still get little bits and pieces, and they’re sweet and delightful, but for the most part, Sara is flying solo (with the help of one Nikki Dawes of course). I kind of felt like Sara needs to be discovering the scope of her power and job on her own terms and not simply told what to expect, so I didn’t mind the Magicians non-involvement in that regard whatsoever.

Jenn Stark has hit the ground running with the start of this new series. I’m excited to see where Sara’s call for Justice will take her next.

Sexual content: none