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.

Be sure to follow the rest of the Canadian The Orphan Queen blog tour!

March 2 - Emilie's Book World
March 3 - Hiver et Cafe
March 4 - Conversations of a Reading Addict
March 5 - Bookish Serendipity
March 6 - A Glass of Wine
March 9 - Stuck in YA Books
March 10 - Read My Breath Away
March 11 - More Than Just Magic
March 12 - Kelsey's Cluttered Bookshelf
March 13 - Lost at Midnight Reviews

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

Title: Incarnate (Newsoul #1)

Author: Jodi Meadows

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Release Date: January 31, 2012

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

NEWSOUL

Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.

NOSOUL

Even Ana's own mother thinks she's a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she'll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?

HEART

Sam believes Ana's new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only one, and will Ana's enemies--human and creature alike--let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else's life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all? 

Jodi Meadows expertly weaves soul-deep romance, fantasy, and danger into an extraordinary tale of new life.

Like many books in my house, Incarnate had been sitting unread on my shelves for a long time. But book club made it so I finally had to read it, and I found myself pleasantly surprised. Though I wasn't sold on the premise when I first started reading, but the end I was totally loving Incarnate.

Ana isn't like everyone else. She hasn't lived through hundreds of lifetimes and reincarnations. When Ana was born, a soul mysteriously disappeared, and no one really knows or understands how Ana came to be. Her whole life, people have been afraid of her, afraid of what her existence might mean for everyone else in Range. Determined to finally get some answers about who she is, Ana travels to the city of Heart. But there are some obstacles along the way, and there are many people who want to stop her. Sam, though, is willing to stand up for her, to do what it takes to convince everyone that Ana's soul is good. And with Sam by her side, Ana is ready to take on anything.

I'll admit I wasn't completely sold on the premise of Jodi Meadows' Incarnate, but after hearing a lot of positive things about the book I decided to buy a copy anyway. And then it sat on my self, unread, for the better part of the last two years because I pretty much forgot about it. But my book club chose it as one of our books and I was finally reading Incarnate. And the more I read, the more the premise grew on me, until I was completely engrossed in the story. The way Jodi Meadows tackled the topic of reincarnation was really interesting and I was fascinated. In this world, a finite set of souls keeps getting reincarnated over and over again, well at least until Ana comes along. That means that everyone has known each other and been together pretty much since the beginning of time. So basically, in one lifetime you might be paired off with the person who was your "parent" or your "child" in a previous lifetime. That aspect of it all really made me think and that's ultimately made me really like Incarnate. It got me thinking all philosophically about it all and I loved it. And the most interesting aspect was how Ana fit into all of this.

Ana was an interesting character on more than one level. On one level, Ana herself made me want to root for her. I wanted her to find out who she was an how she fit into Range. I wanted people to come around to her side, and I wanted her to get what she wanted as far as Sam was concerned. Because Sam was kinda perfect for Ana and in my opinion they just needed to be together. On a different level, Ana was interesting as a piece of the world she lived in. In the world of Incarnate, Ana is what upset the status quo. In a world that had been the same for thousands of years, Ana was unexpected and she altered the basic functioning of her society. Again, this was all just interesting to think about and made the story that much more engaging.

Had I known how much I would enjoy Jodi Meadows' Incarnate, I would have read it sooner. But as they say, hindsight is 20/20. This was s tory that had the kind of romance I love, and a world that fascinated me and had me thinking long after I was finished reading. If you haven't already given Incarnate a chance, I strongly urge you to do so.