There was a love plot, so if thats what you're looking for, you won't be disappointed. I also liked that there wasn't a love plot that completely took over the story and complicated things. She didn't have this giant ego or felt self-entitled which is what really made me like her as a character. She wasn't perfect, but she also wasn't so flawed that she would run every time trouble came running around the corner. Wil was always working towards a goal, and I really liked her attitude towards meeting that overall goal of taking back her kingdom. This is where the book starts to create its own unique identity. The second part of the book is when I really started to get sucked in.

I hate to compare books together, but it was just a little too close for my taste. This book reminded me a lot of Throne of Glass in the very beginning and it was a bit of a turn off. Though Black Knife's identity proves unsurprising, along with the outcomes of Wil's interpersonal relationships, Meadows (the Incarnate trilogy) delivers a powerful coming-of-age story as Wil discovers that there are 'lines will not cross, not even to take the vermillion throne.' A cliffhanger sets up the concluding volume. Wil increasingly finds herself disagreeing with her own leader, the ruthless Patrick, and coming to trust Black Knife. Wil's more mundane transgressions of the Indigo Kingdom's law are enough to attract the attention of a mysterious vigilante, Black Knife. A hypercompetent fighter, forger, and spy, 17-year-old Wil keeps her magical abilities secret, since magic has been banned as the cause of the relentless wave of Wraith that has destroyed neighboring kingdoms, turning harmless animals into devouring monsters and perverting nature wherever it spreads. First in a fantasy duology, this tale of a young royal fighting to retake her country from invaders intertwines espionage, secret identities, a debate on the ethics of violence, and the threat of Wraith, a supernatural force that seeks to overwhelm conquered and conquerors alike.

The orphan queen