The Orphan Queen

Author: Jodi Meadows

Series: The Orphan Queen #1

Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Dystopian

Release Date: March 10, 2015

Summary: 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.

Review: Where do I start with this one? This is my first experience with Jodi Meadows' work. I had the awesome opportunity to actually meet Jodi while she was working on this novel (which is one of the main reasons I picked it up). She was incredibly sweet and so invested into her writing that I just had to give it a try. Anyway, when I finally got my hands on a copy it ended up sitting on my book shelf for . . . days . . . and then weeks . . . needless to say, I was in a reading slump (dun dun dun dun!!) and a bad one at that!

Anyway, I managed to overcome said slump and finally picked The Orphan Queen up. If only I had done this sooner!!! This story is so unique and spell-binding! I was hooked from the beginning and had a hard time putting it down! Which ended with me reading late into the night!

Wil was such a likable main character for me. I enjoyed how capable she was. Strong heroine's are the bomb! The one problem I had was that she was sometimes too forgiving of those around her. I had an extremely difficult time with the relationship between her and Patrick.

I love love loved Black Knife! The way he and Wil's relationship bloomed and grew throughout the novel was perfect. I loved the mysteriousness involving Black Knife as well . . . although it was fairly easy for me to figure out the identity of the 'man behind the mask' well before it was stated in the book.

Overall, this was an incredible piece of work! I really enjoyed it and would definitely be interested in reading the next installment. If you're in to high fantasy/magic and great world-building add this novel to your must-read shelf immediately!!