The Ring and the Crown

“It was a story they could tell their children, something out of a fairy tale. How their mother had not known who he was when she accepted him, and the frog turned out to be a prince. But the princess had been unwilling to kiss the frog, the prince remained warty and unloved, and now there was no adventure to be had.”

3.25 STARS

Hmm, where to begin? Well, I suppose I should state that this is my first Melissa de la Cruz book, so I'm not used to her writing and I don't have any bias for or against her. Now saying that, I think that this story was interesting, but it had a lot of flaws with it to the point that I have to go with a lower rating. The story centers on five main characters (and we get to see the world from each of their points of view): Marie-Victoria (the princess of Britain), Aelwyn (a mage, father of the Merlin, a sort of advisor to the Queen), Ronan (a broke New York socialite hoping to find a husband to renew the family's wealth), Wolf (the younger prince of Prussia), and Isabelle (the ex-fiancee to the elder prince of Prussia). I liked that we got to know each of these characters, seeing the world through each of their perceptions, but because we had to bounce through so many POV's I feel like the story dragged a bit. The main story begins with Marie's engagement to Prince Leopold of Prussia, a marriage that will bring peace to their nations that had been at war for many centuries. The other characters come in to play intricate roles within this marriage, with Aelwyn's magic disguising Marie's ailments, Wolf as the brother to Leopold, Isabelle refusing to give up her love, and Ronan hoping to gain favor with the Crown. As the story unfolds, we see that things are not as they seem in the castle and that something dangerous is lurking around every corner. The Writing I think overall, the writing was fair. It wasn't spectacular, but it wasn't awful either. In most books you find a special line or phrase that sticks with you throughout the novel, but I didn't really find anything like that in here. The book seemed to focus more on the story of the characters than in the craft of writing. I think that might be one of the flaws for me in this book: because the writing was so simplistic, based on action and plot rather than the intricacy of words, I often fell out of it because I wasn't as engaged with the flow of an author's thoughts. But that could just be me. The Characters I have to say that Aelwyn is certainly my favorite character, but I would like to know a lot more about her. I feel like because there were so many perspectives and thereby so little time, often I wanted to know more details about a character but then was left empty with more of a silhouette in my mind than a fully formed person. This especially bothered me with Isabelle. I couldn't even picture her till about halfway through the book, and after that I still felt very disconnected from her. We understand the most personality from Marie, but I still was craving more from her and especially Aelwyn and Wolf. Both seemed very interesting characters, but I couldn't really connect with them (Aelwyn had the most form for me). The Story The thing that saved this book for me was the atmosphere. I loved the historical feel, but I liked that it was an alternate universe, with everyone bending to Britain and her court of mages. I really enjoyed Ronan and Wolf's trip on the Saturnina which felt very much like a Titanic Jack and Rose relationship, only in reverse. At points I wish I knew more about the world, but I was happy enough to settle into the political machinations of Prussia and Britain that I was satisfied. It was interesting that we got to see from the different interpretations of the world from the different characters, but I almost wish we could have seen from someone suffering from poverty, which would have brought more realism and a darker cast to the novel. All in all, it wasn't a bad book, it just felt kind of flat and especially rushed at the end, as if it needed another thirty pages to even everything out. Share your thoughts!