The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows: Cliffhangers! that's rude

The Orphan Queen 

by 

Jodi Meadows

        Well I did not expect this?! Holy mother of cliffhangers that was just plain mean. Bye I’m cutting this review off early to go get Mirror King. (just kidding this is kind of my favorite part of reading so . . . ) Still I am officially surprised. There aren’t many books that can do that you know. And no I’m not talking about Black Knife’s identity.

Characters

Wilhelmina Korte 

Sassy main character with questionable taste in friends

 (just saying). 

And she’s a misplaced princess! I know, I know it’s a “terrible” trope that apparently should go die in a fire. I respectfully disagree. I love the lost princess trope (though I do like it better when the princess knows of her royal-ness but that’s kind of a preference). 

Wil was pretty cool but not overly unique. I don’t really have a problem with that because she felt like a perfectly rounded character with all the quirks and flaws needed but I have to admit that she never really surprised me. Still like her though! Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go practice forging people’s handwriting because Wil's forgery is inspiring.

Melanie

she’s that one friend character who was super important in the first hundred and fifty pages and then kind of fades out for the climax. Sorry Melanie I really liked you (made sure that Wil actually ate which is usually my role as a friend) but I can’t like you when you go MIA.

Black Knife

Vigilante! In a medieval fantasy book! 

See this is why superheroes are fun. You can stick them into practically any genre and they’re still awesome. This dude’s snark. I loved it. And I adored Wil’s way of poking fun at his name. I will forever call you Optimistic Knife.

Things I liked

A+ world building: I love magic worlds but I am fully aware that they are getting a bit on the stale side. Orphan Queen nailed it. The premise is that the world got so obsessed with their magic that they are now being slowly devoured by something called the Wraith. (which is kind of like ultra-deadly magic-produced fog that infects people and things and turns the landscape into something out of Alice in Wonderland.)

 Kind of weird for me after reading Crooked Kingdom but whatever. Anyway the whole twisted magic/corruption thing was so cool!

The Magic system: was equally unique. Though we really only got to hear about one kind of magic (animation) but there was hints of a healer. Still it was cool the way Wil kind of talked to things and made them do what she want. 

Though can we admit that if wanted to she could be very scary indeed.

Cliffhanger: that was all kinds of mean. So thanks Jodi Meadows I now have the bookish form of Stockholm syndrome. And after I got over the psychological abuse Rick Riordan caused too.

The romance: Really! I actually liked it! Sure it wasn’t like shriek and squeal kind of romance but it there was plenty of chemistry and a nice slow burn romance instead of the insta-love I’ve come to expect from YA. Color me very pleased. 

Did I mention there was a vigilante in here: because there’s a vigilante. And spying, and forging documents and a good bit of lying.

 Though I could have done with a bit less talking and finding bits of information and a bit more sneaking around or running on rooftops smacking bad guys.

Which unfortunately brings me to the things I didn’t like

The plot was . . . a bit slow. And I’m not overly fond of saying that because 50% of the time it’s by people who want to skip the buildup or the character development and get straight to the ‘good stuff’.

Still I stand by what I said. It was on the slow side.

That info dump:

 it was just really, really bad. In maybe the first thirty pages there was this ridiculous info dump trying to explain why magic was banned and . . . gosh it was so bad. Not that I can say anything really. I’m terrible when it comes to info dumps which is probably why I notice them so keenly.

Still I am so pleased with this book. It’s a really solid little romp with some really unique world building. Now if you’ll excuse me I really am going to go track down the Mirror King because that was terrible.