Review: The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows

Title: The Orphan Queen (The Orphan Queen #1)
Author: Jodi Meadows 
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release date: September 7th 2010

Rating: 3.5/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

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.

The Orphan Queen is an epic fantasy novel that has romance, friendship, intrigue, secrets, betrayal and some action.

Wilhelmina is a princess who lives along other teenagers from the royalty of the Kingdom of Aecor, which was conquered 10 years ago, now she and her small group live in the capital of the Kingdom of Indigo (the kingdom that conquered the Kingdom of Aecor, murderer all royalty, but let the children alive), there they live from stealing and small jobs while they prepare to regain their kingdom with Wilhelmina as their queen. To achieve this Wilhemina and her best friend Melanie infiltrate in Skyvale Palace posing as royalty of the Kingdom of Liadia, (a recently destroyed kingdom) where they will try to gather information that will help them regain their kingdom,

Wil live in a world where magic exists, but its use has a price, which is reflected in wraith, which is toxic magic that focuses on a place known as wraithland, the wraith changes everything it touches, whether is flora, fauna or human... lethally, (they become any monster imaginable) and over the years it has been moving and devouring realms, so the magic is prohibited in all the remaining kingdoms.

Wil's romantic interest is Black Knife, a vigilante young man, dressed in black, he always wear mask, so during most of story his identity is unknown.

Overall, I did enjoyed The Orphan Queen, it´s a good fantasy book, I liked the idea that magic create a toxic spectrum, since in both books and movies it has always been said that the use of a magic has a price and in this to some extent it´s something visible, something that it can be seen how it grows and how it threats their world.