The Orphan Queen, Book Review

The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows

Rate: 3.5/5

Goodreads 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.

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.

Thoughts and Opinions:

          Before reading the series, I read all the novellas. I wanted to get a sense of how things started and how everything will play out. I was sort of confused with all the "wraith" talk and the things happening in the book. The novellas were about Black Knife and how his journey started. It gave me a background knowledge about The Nameless Girl as well. So when I finally read Orphan Queen, I couldn't help but feel like I'm part of a secret, a secret about knowing who Black Knife is and The Nameless Girl.
          To sum it up, this book is about a group of orphans who were trained with combat and the skills that you would want to have when living in the streets. Wil, the MC is trying to take back her kingdom and claim her rightful place as the Queen of Aecor, however, she and her Ospreys have a lot of groundwork laid out for them to do. As she spends more time in the Palace, she meets this vigilante named Black Knife. He goes out at night stopping glowmen ( people who are transformed by this drug called "firefly" or "shine" that temporarily make them feel what they want to feel, however, it is very addictive and it transforms them, thus creating glowmen). During her stay in the Palace and getting to know more behind the scenes of what's going on, Wil discovers that there's more to just simply reclaiming her kingdom, she has to take into account the wraith, a fog-like thing hovering over lands that cause destruction. The more magic is used, the more it attracts the wraith. Things get complicated and in the end, she has to make a decision that's different from what she was taught growing up. Thus creating more havoc and more action for us to find out.
          I loved loved loved this series. I've decided to start reading more sci-fi and adventure to expand my boundaries. I am glad I decided to choose this. Jodi Meadows did such an amazing job writing this book. The MC, Wilhelmina, in my opinion is a great character. She doesn't just sit and act pretty, she actually gets involved and do something. The story line is also quite interesting itself. It contains drama, romance and very cool magic abilities, it also doesn't hurt that it is hilarious and that the MCs have great sense of humour. It contains characters that you want to strangle because they make you mad, and there are moments where you're just like "I wonder what's happening in *insert character's name*'s mind". The ending, however is a cliff hanger, but that's a good thing the second book is out, because you would want to read it right away.

Who would I recommend it to?
          I would recommend it to anyone looking for a new sci-fi read. Like I said, this book has witty responses, banters, awkward moments and interesting things all in one.