Review: The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows

The Orphan Queen #1

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Publication Date: March 10, 2015

Rating: 4 Stars

Source: Purchase

Pages: 391

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Summary (from Goodreads):

Wilhelmina has a hundred identities.

She is a princess. When the Indigo Kingdom conquered her homeland, Wilhelmina and other orphaned children of nobility were taken to Skyvale, the Indigo Kingdom’s capital. Ten years later, they are the Ospreys, experts at stealth and theft. With them, Wilhelmina means to take back her throne.

She is a spy. Wil and her best friend, Melanie, infiltrate Skyvale Palace to study their foes. They assume the identities of nobles from a wraith-fallen kingdom, but enemies fill the palace, and Melanie’s behavior grows suspicious. With Osprey missions becoming increasingly dangerous and their leader more unstable, Wil can’t trust anyone.

She is a threat. Wraith is the toxic by-product of magic, and for a century using magic has been forbidden. Still the wraith pours across the continent, reshaping the land and animals into fresh horrors. Soon it will reach the Indigo Kingdom. Wilhelmina’s magic might be the key to stopping the wraith, but if the vigilante Black Knife discovers Wil’s magic, she will vanish like all the others.

Jodi Meadows introduces a vivid new fantasy full of intrigue, romance, dangerous magic, and one girl’s battle to reclaim her place in the world.

Wilhelmina Korte is the rightful queen of Aecor, a kingdom conquered by the Indigo Kingdom when she was just a child. She is a member of a group of orphaned rebels called the Ospreys. Their mission is to reclaim Aecor and put Wil back on the vermillion throne. In their work, they often have to steal or commit other crimes to survive. Therefore, they have to avoid Black Knife, a masked vigilante who spends his nights capturing criminals and killing wraith beasts that make their way into the city of Skyvale. The last leg of their mission before returning to Aecor requires them to enter the castle so Wil and her best friend Melanie enter the castle, posing as survivors from the kingdom of Liadia which recently fell to the wraith. 

I think that when the Ospreys finally succeed in their mission to take back Aecor, Wil will be a WONDERFUL queen! I think that she is awesome! She takes a lot of risks for her people and her kingdom, such as entering Liadia in the wraithland to learn more about the wraith and rumors of a lake the wraith does not touch. She knows that if the wraith is not dealt with, there won't be an Aecor to reclaim for very long. Saving her kingdom and the people remaining in it under Indigo rule is her main priority, her free time is spent gallivanting through Skyvale at night with Black Knife, killing wraith beasts. I love Wil. She is brave and selfless and strong and wonderful!

I liked Black Knife, he catches Wil committing a crime and instead of handing her over to the police, he gives her a second chance because he believes that she has good intentions. He's mysterious and seems like a very good person.

There are lots of other wonderful characters in this book! Melanie is Wil's best friend who poses as a Liadian survivor with Wil to get into the castle and she helps snoop around for the information that they seek. She kind of acts untrustworthy for awhile in this book and I'm not 100% sure how I feel about her. Patrick is basically the leader of Ospreys. He saved Wil and the rest of them from an Indigo orphanage. He will do whatever it takes to reclaim Aecor, no matter the cost. The prince of the Indigo Kingdom seems to be a main character and he just doesn't seem impressed by anything. He doesn't seem like any fun, but he seems like he's not such a bad guy. There really isn't a character in this book that I found myself really disliking. There was one I disliked at the end, but even the awful king of the Indigo Kingdom grew on me. He's made to be so human, it's hard to not like him!

There is a romance in this book and I really liked it! There's not a triangle, it's FAR from instant. It's cute and I look forward to seeing how it plays out in The Mirror King!

The story never felt slow to me, even when the girls were in the castle doing all of their spy business. I was really interested in everything going on in this book and that dang cliffhanger has me DYING for The Mirror King!!!

I read this book in the car on a long road trip to Indiana to visit my mom so I honestly don't think that I got as much out of it as I could have, but writing this review, I feel like the reading experience went a lot better than I felt it did. I had to stop a lot and it was hard to concentrate with the conversation going on around me and the radio going, but this review was easier than I felt it would be. The ONLY complaint I have about this reading experience is that it took away from the shock of the cliffhanger. It didn't leave me feeling like I needed to join the support group I have heard things about for this book, but again, I think it was just the stuff going on around me that took away from that.

Overall, I loved this book! I would HIGHLY recommend this book if you like fantasy! It is fantastic! I will definitely be reading this book again before The Mirror King comes out so I can get the full experience of reading it and really FEELING that ending! WONDERFUL book!

This book takes the bingo square for a new to me author!!