Have you ever read a book that you know intellectually isn’t very good, but you rather enjoy it anyway? That’s how The Ring and the Crown was for me. I don’t mean it’s not good in terms of content – often I’ll hear people say that romances or chicklit are their guilty pleasures, and that’s not what I mean at all. I mean the writing just isn’t great. It’s 90% exposition, full of telling, all of the fun stuff happens off the page, the pacing is poor. We’re told what characters are like instead of reading it in their words and actions. There’s a lot that’s not done well.

And yet, I was mostly entertained by it. Here’s the gist: It’s the early 20th century (in an alternate world where magic exists), and Marie-Victoria, princess and heir to the throne of England, has just been told by her mother, Queen Eleanor, that she is to wed Leopold, the prince and heir to the throne of Prussia. This royal marriage will put an end to the war that’s raged between the two countries for the past several years. Marie-Victoria is none too thrilled about it, as she’s in love with a soldier named Gill and rather detests Leopold, whom she finds spoiled and mean.

Marie-Victoria is probably what I would consider the main protagonist, but she’s actually only one of five points of view in the story. The others are: Aelwyn, the daughter of the Merlin (a title rather than a name), a magician who serves (and controls) the crown; Ronan, an American whose once-wealthy family now depends on her finding a rich husband in London in order to save them from insolvency; Wolfgang, the younger brother of Leopold; and Isabelle, Leopold’s former French fiancée. Each of the characters schemes about something, and their relationships with each other become increasingly entangled as the book progresses. Magic is present, but it’s more of a background feature.
 
Despite its problems, the book held my interest, and I may even read a sequel (if there is one). I think its success in that regard has a lot to do with the frequent POV shifts. Just as I thought I might be tiring of this particular character’s post-party reflections of a certain event (an event which happened off the page, of course), de la Cruz would switch to a different character, and my interest would re-engage. There are some faint hints that some things are not as they seem, as well, so I was interested to see what exactly would shake out by the end. Things do shake out eventually, but it happens all in a rush, and it’s a long time coming. It makes the first 90% of the book seem like set-up. There are very few people who relish reading a book that’s almost entirely exposition.

Readers looking for action-heavy historical fantasy more along the lines of The Burning Sky would do better to look elsewhere. There’s almost no action here, and what little there is takes place off the page. I don’t require action, but I do require stuff to happen, and I want to see it happening rather than be told about it after the fact. Even the climax is told instead of shown – one character tells another what he did rather than experiencing it for the reader. Too bad. In those few times when de la Cruz does show us things, rather than tell us about them as a sort of afterthought, the book verges on exciting.

Still, this will certainly hold appeal for some readers, perhaps those who have enjoyed the Downton Abbey-esque Cinders & Sapphires. There’s a large cast of aristocratic characters with their own POVs, relationships are messy, and much of the plot focuses on fancy society and its peculiar brand of rules and manners. Plus, it’s set during the Downton Abbey time frame. Alternate history junkies may also get a kick out of how de la Cruz’s world with magic differs from our own (the United States lost the Revolutionary War, for instance).


Finished copy received from the publisher. The Ring and the Crown is available now.