The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows

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.

Rating: 4 stars

I’ve had this book on my TBR since it first came out and I just now got the chance to read it. Why did I wait this long to read it?? I am absolutely in love with the world and characters created by Jodi Meadows. While parts of the book were very predictable, there were quite a few twists and turns that completely took me by surprise, especially the ending. The only good thing about waiting this long to read The Orphan Queen is that now I can dive right into The Mirror King and not have to endure a torturous waiting period, because that cliffhanger was brutal.

Wilhelmina, once the princess of Aecor, is an orphan living secretly, with other orphaned children of Aecor, as a refugee in Skyvale, the capital of the Indigo Kingdom, which is responsible for conquering and killing the people of Aecor ten years ago. The orphaned gang (the Ospreyes) is determined to get their home back from the Indigo Kingdom so they send Wil to infiltrate the palace. Soon Wil’s mission inside the palace becomes complicated; not only is she pretending to be someone else, but also by her secret ability to perform magic, which is forbidden, and her new strange relationship with Black Knife, a vigilante who always looks out for the less fortunate people of Skyvale.

There are so many different relationships built in this book. I absolutely loved the friendship between Wil and her best friend, Melanie. It had just the right amount of conflict, bickering, and loyalty to make it feel real in ways that sometimes other books fall short. I also loved the relationship between Wil and Black Knife. Meadows took her time to build the relationship, adding more layers as the chapters went by, making it a very well developed and natural transition from somewhat enemies to friends that fight together for those less fortunate.

Jodi Meadows created a very unique magic system that will grasp your attention from the very beginning. It is a fresh take on magic where the use of magic created the Wraith, a toxic side effect, which is destroying everything in its path. Meadows provided many unexpected twists and turns, and just when you think you have the story all figured out she pulls the rug from under you, leaving you in complete shock.

The Orphan Queen was a bit slow in the beginning, but once the story picked up it became a fast-paced, exciting read that kept me captivated until the very last sentence. This book had it all: adventure, action, magic, romance, and mystery. It was a great read with an amazing cast of characters that I am fully invested in and cannot wait to learn more about. The world building and character development Meadows delivered in this book far surpassed my expectations. This duology will become, without a doubt, a favorite.