Emilie's Book World: Blog Tour - The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows

Title: The Orphan Queen (The Orphan Queen #1)

Author: Jodi Meadows

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Release Date: March 10, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

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. Will 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, Will 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 hours. 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.

If you’ve been following me here on the blog or on social media for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed that I don’t tend to read much fantasy. Especially in recent months, I haven’t strayed too far away from contemporary. But every so often I will stray and find myself surprised by how much I’m enjoying a book that’s not contemporary. And most recently that happened with Jodi Meadows’s The Orphan Queen.

Ten years ago, Wilhelmina watched, helpless, as her parents were killed right in front of her. Now, she and the other One-Night War orphans are the Ospreys, determined to get their kingdom back with Wilhelmina rightfully in her place on the throne. But taking back the kingdom isn’t easy. Wil and her best friend, Melanie, have to sneak into Skyvale Palace and assume new identities in order to observe their enemies. Everything would be going according to plan if Wil didn’t continually cross paths with the mysterious Black Knife. Black Knife isn’t who Wil thought he was, but that doesn’t mean she can be honest with him about her identity. And she especially can’t let him, or anyone, know the truth about her magic.

Before I get into all the things I loved about The Orphan Queen, allow me to take a moment to explain why I so often struggle with fantasy. When I read, I am very much a character person. Sure I care about the plot and the world, but not as much as I do about characters. With fantasy, though, it tends to be about the world as much as it is about the characters. And it makes it harder for me to get into the story, especially since it tends to be told in third person. But The Orphan Queen was different. For starters, it was told in first person which meant I was able to get right into the story. Not only that, but it was relatively light on long-winded descriptions (which is usually where most fantasy reads lose me). It didn’t hurt that the story in The Orphan Queen was captivating and engrossing. It really didn’t take long for me to get dragged in. There were so many mysteries that needed solving and I was curious about all of them. I JUST HAD TO KNOW what was going on. I can’t help it, I’m a naturally curious person. And can we take a moment to talk about that ENDING. If the mysteries throughout the story weren’t enough, that ending has me pretty much begging for the next book. But what really kept me reading this story, what really drew me in, were the characters that Jodi Meadows introduced in this story.

Wil was a pretty badass character if you want to know the truth. I mean, this girl watched her parents be brutally murdered while she couldn’t do anything and has spent the decade since their death trying to get back the kingdom that was taken away from her. No matter how much she has had to go through, she doesn’t stop fighting for what she believes in and protecting the people she cares about. Granted there were times when I wanted to yell at her a little because I knew what she was doing wouldn’t end well. I couldn’t help it, I wanted her to be okay and to make it through everything alive. And sometimes things got really dicy. As awesome Wil was, the supporting characters were just as great. All of them felt fully fleshed out and lie real people while I was reading. And then there was Black Knife. For most of the book, I had no idea who he was. I mean, I had my theories, but because of other things happening my theories didn’t seem possible. Needless to say that I was a strong supporter of Black Knife and because of that there are some things that happened that did not make me happy and make me afraid of book two. And that’s all I’ll say on the matter.

Though I don’t normally read a lot of fantasy, Jodi Meadows’s The Orphan Queen was an absolutely fantastic (pun fully intended) read for me. It’s rare that I get this excited about fantasy and I honestly cannot wait to see where the story will go next.