Today, the lover Josie Jaffrey brings us a look at her 4 book Solis Invicti series.  You can also check out a wonderful review she did with Smashwords – find out a few of her firsts ( 😉 ), as well as her five favorite books and a little about what keeps her going.

*****

The Solis Invicti series is set in London, in a world in which the human population has been decimated by a blood-borne virus.  In the wake of the zombie apocalypse that follows, a vampiric race called the Silver seizes control.  Without the protection of the Silver, humanity will soon cease to exist, and without uninfected human blood, the Silver will perish.  A necessary symbiosis is the result, but the power of the two races could not be more unevenly balanced.

The protagonist of the series is Emilia, a twenty-something barmaid with an insubordinate and reckless approach to the new order.  In the first days following the collapse, she struggles to accept that her life has changed irrevocably and that she is powerless to reclaim it.  That recalcitrance brings her face to face with the highest ranks of the Silver.

The series is targeted at adults and mature young adults.  The books contain horror, profanity and sexual content.  This isn’t erotica, but there are some steamy scenes (only one or two per book).  There are love triangles, aggression and drama, but there is also an eventual HEA.

Series Info:

Books in series: 4

Genre: Paranormal Romance, Adult, Dystopian, Urban Fantasy

Series Page: https://www.josiejaffrey.com/solis-invicti

Author Interview:  https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JosieJaffrey

*****

A Bargain In Silver

Solis Invicti: Book I

by Josie Jaffrey

Publisher: Self-published

Author: Josie Jaffrey

Cover Art: Martin Beckett Art

Page Count: 356

Word Count: 102,000

ASIN (Amazon): B00RR2XM86

ISBN (Print): 978-1548138516

Release Date: 4 January 2015

Rating: 18+

Blurb:

If the price of safety is slavery, would you bargain your life?

A deadly infection threatens to wipe out humanity. The only people who can stem its advance are the Silver, a vampiric race who offer a simple exchange: protection in return for blood and subservience. It’s not a deal that Emmy’s willing to make, but as her world burns around her she finds herself in the arms of the enemy and the line between oppressor and saviour begins to blur.

After an attack by the infected, Emmy is rescued by the handsome Drew who introduces her to the world of the Silver. Desperate to escape subjugation and confused by her attraction to him, she gathers what remains of her surrogate family and plans to make a break for freedom.

But despite her efforts to resist, she is drawn further into the intrigues of the mysterious Silver through the agency of their ruler, the Primus: Solomon. Emmy refuses to submit to the cold and detached Primus and an attempt on her life makes it clear that he is unable to protect her from the political machinations of his race.

As the connection between them deepens she must choose between her desire and her will to rebel, but can she trust his intentions when everyone is after her blood?

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Praise for A Bargain in Silver:

✭✭✭✭✭  Dystopian, post-apocalyptic and dark, very dark… Josie Jaffrey takes on the world of the paranormal with bold strokes and a personal touch. – Tome Tender

✭✭✭✭✭  I absolutely loved this book. I had the hardest time putting it down. I think I may have even growled at my family when they interrupted me. – Baroness Book Trove

✭✭✭✭  This is a powerful start to what I am sure will be an amazing series! – One Book Two

✭✭✭✭  This book had me hooked right from the very first page. A slightly different twist on the usual vampire romance, this is a well written and intriguing start to the series. – A British Bookworm’s Blog

*****

Excerpt:

His beautiful blue eyes bored into mine.

“What would you have me do?” he challenged. “Would you rather I lied? That I use clever arguments to convince you this is something you want? That I manipulate you into believing the reality of this arrangement to be other than it is?”

I looked down at the table.

“We have to drink blood to live,” he continued, “and it has to be human. There’s no way I can make that concept more palatable to you, if you’ll excuse the pun. Life as you knew it has changed, Emilia. We have always been here, moving amongst you, it was just that you weren’t conscious of our presence. Now, with the Weepers multiplying, consuming and replacing your kind, we can no longer hide.”

“Isn’t that a little disingenuous?” I said, remembering Jeff’s theory about the lead time that would have been required for the level of organisation the vampires had displayed. “Aren’t the Weepers just an excuse for you to act?”

“We have been waiting for an opportunity for some time,” he acknowledged with a tilt of his head. “I know you want things to return to how they were,” he continued, “but that is not in my power to give. Your world is gone. You’re fighting for a life that no longer exists. There are difficult decisions to make, sacrifices, simply to save what little remains to us. I am trying to salvage an existence for your race, a new world for both of our races. There could be a place in that world for you, if you’re willing to look for it.

*****

The Price of Silver

Solis Invicti: Book II

by Josie Jaffrey

Publisher: Self-published

Author: Josie Jaffrey

Cover Art: Martin Beckett Art

Page Count: 406

Word Count: 118,000

ASIN (Amazon): B0175G70L8

ISBN (Print): 978-1548144050

Release Date: 25 October 2015

Rating: 18+

Blurb:

In the straits of necessity, sometimes there isn’t room for freedom.

The Price of Silver is the second book in Josie Jaffrey’s Solis Invicti paranormal romance series, set in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic London where a deadly infection threatens to wipe out humanity. The only people who can stem its advance are the Silver, a vampiric race who offer a simple exchange: protection in return for blood and subservience.

Emmy is fenced in by the city, the walls marking the edge of safety closing in around her and sealing her in with one vampire who loves her and another who wants her dead. As she struggles to keep herself and the people she cares about alive, her fellow humans chafe against their enforced submission, and it becomes clear that there are bigger schemes and greater deceptions in play than she had ever imagined.

All the while, the monsters wait outside the barricades for their moment. Of one thing she is certain: without the help of the Silver, the humans won’t be safe for long.

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Praise for The Price of Silver:

✭✭✭✭✭  Fabulously twisted, dark and intense, the lines between good and evil become gray smears as Josie Jaffrey plummets us into book two of the Solis Invicti series with The Price of Silver. – Tome Tender

✭✭✭✭  There are plenty of surprises and delicious twists to make readers want to continue reading. – One Book Two

✭✭✭✭  This is really a very strong sequel. I look forward to reading Book 3. – A British Bookworm’s Blog

*****

Excerpt:

I was pushed roughly into the door at the top of the stairs, used as a tool to open it wide. It cracked across my cheekbone and into my hip, sending agonising bursts of pain radiating out across my body. This man was brutal, and I wasn’t going to get any mercy from him.

We walked through the kitchen and I knew when we’d entered the dormitory because the breeze from the open window above what used to be my bed hit my bare thighs, chilling me to the bone. But it was too quiet, the normally omnipresent murmurs and snorts of sleeping people oddly absent. Where was everyone? I’d assumed that they were taking me to see Oliver or the other rebels, that they were going to try to beat information out of me about the Silver. Oliver had probably realised that I’d been holding back, and I thought he’d want to know what I knew.

But the room felt practically empty, as if the dormitory was unoccupied. There was a clanking, metallic sound by the window as I was marched in that direction.

“Is it true?” a male voice by the window asked. There was a movement from the man holding me, the motion sending a further jet of pain through my shoulder. He’d clearly made some sort of gesture, but I couldn’t guess what it might have been. There were a few footsteps towards me and then hands at the neck of my shirt, tearing the thin fabric open.

“See?” said the voice again, now right in front of me.

“Damn. He was right,” the man at my back replied.

“It’s going to make a fucking big statement, I’ll tell you that much,” came the response.

“Should never have taken that bribe, little girl,” another voice said from the direction of the window, female this time, as fingers stroked over the choker around my neck. The fingers were replaced by heavy metal that was draped around my throat in a loop. Chains, I thought.

“Too late now,” the man said, and I belatedly realised from the finality of his tone that they were going to kill me.

Dear god, they were going to kill me. Humans were going to kill me.

*****

Bound in Silver

Solis Invicti: Book III

by Josie Jaffrey

Publisher: Self-published

Author: Josie Jaffrey

Cover Art: Martin Beckett Art

Page Count: 306

Word Count: 95,000

ASIN (Amazon): B01G11DEMC

ISBN (Print): 978-1548145514

Release Date: 23 May 2016

Rating: 18+

Blurb:

Exiled from the city and from the affections of the vampire who had loved her, Emmy finds herself pushed into a captivity she never expected to experience. With the bond to her former protector broken, she knows that the chance to turn Silver is now a monstrous obligation rather than a glittering opportunity.

In an unfamiliar place among unfamiliar people, Emmy feels deserted by those Silver she had thought of as friends, out of sight and out of mind. If only her enemies were equally forgetful.

Bound in Silver is the penultimate book in Josie Jaffrey’s Solis Invicti paranormal romance quadrilogy, set in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic London where a deadly infection threatens to wipe out humanity. The only people who can stem its advance are the Silver, a vampiric race who offer a simple exchange: protection in return for blood and subservience.

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Praise for Bound in Silver:

✭✭✭✭✭  Dark, emotionally taut and edge-of-your-seat riveting. Ms. Jaffrey’s take on Vampires, their world and their power has me awestruck! – Tome Tender

✭✭✭✭✭  I love the world. I love the premise. I love the characters! Jaffrey has quickly become a must read author with the crazy world of the Solis Invicti. – One Book Two

✭✭✭✭✭  In short, this book just works. And that ending? Bring on Book 4! – A British Bookworm’s Blog

*****

Excerpt:

He leaned away from me and gently released my left arm from the top before carefully pulling the material over my head and off my right hand, his eyes intent on his task until it was complete, but as soon as the top hit the floor he raked me with his gaze.

“You are so beautiful,” he said as he pushed my hair away from my face. “I think I’ve wanted you since the first time you called me an idiot.”

“To your face or behind your back?” I asked with a saccharine smile.

“Well, you might have some other names for me in about five minutes’ time. Ten tops.”

“Like ‘Quickfire’?” I asked.

“I was thinking more along the lines of ‘Jesus’ and ‘Oh, god’, but whatever works for you.”

*****

The Silver Bullet

Solis Invicti: Book IV

by Josie Jaffrey

Publisher: Self-published

Author: Josie Jaffrey

Cover Art: Martin Beckett Art

Page Count: 305

Word Count: 89,000

ASIN (Amazon): B073V5TCK4

ISBN (Print): 978-1544644035

Release Date: 4 August 2017

Rating: 18+

Blurb:

To think of death as a thing of beauty: that’s a threshold you can’t cross twice.

The truth is out, and Emmy is faced with a choice she dreads: surrender her mortality, or allow her frailty to threaten the nascent society the Silver are building. With exile the only reasonable alternative, she struggles with feelings she can’t define and a duty she’s reluctant to accept.

While the Silver city hangs in the balance, Emmy must remake herself to redeem it and save her friends. Her reinvention forces her to choose sides, threaten alliances and risk becoming like those she fears: inhuman.

The Silver Bullet is the final book in Josie Jaffrey’s Solis Invicti paranormal romance quadrilogy, set in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic London where a deadly infection threatens to wipe out humanity. The only people who can stem its advance are the Silver, a vampiric race who offer a simple exchange: protection in return for blood and subservience.

Amazon | Smashwords | Kobo | Print | Goodreads

Praise for The Silver Bullet:

✭✭✭✭✭  Absolutely riveting! This is NOT a quiet read. This is edge of your seat turmoil at its best as Josie Jaffrey brings her world to life once again. – Tome Tender

✭✭✭✭✭  An explosive ending to an amazing series! I will shout my love for this series from the rooftops! – One Book Two

✭✭✭✭✭  I think that this is a series which is an undiscovered gem. I really do. I have devoured each installment greedily, and this, the final book in the quadrilogy, was no different. Reading this series has been a real treat. – A British Bookworm’s Blog

*****

Excerpt:

I caught the thought as it sped through my brain. Now I was thinking of a human as an ‘it’. This was how it started, how a mind could creep from humanity to cruelty without missing a beat. But no, it wasn’t even cruelty; at least cruelty was deliberate. It was apathy. It was racial nihilism, closing your heart to an entire species until you cared about their lives as much as you cared for the life of a falling leaf: with intellectual or artistic curiosity, devoid of emotion.

To think of death as a thing of beauty: that’s a threshold you can’t cross twice.

*****

Author Info:

Josie lives in Oxford, England, with her husband and two cats.  When she’s not writing, she works as a lawyer, specialising in intellectual property and commercial law.  She also runs a video book review club, The Gin Book Club, through her website.

The first book in the Solis Invicti series (A Bargain in Silver) is Josie’s debut novel.

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For additional information, contact josiejaffrey@gmail.com