The Ring and the Crown by Melissa de la Cruz

The Ring and The Crown by Melissa de la Cruz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Disney Hyperion for this advance ebook! The Ring and the Crown is a grand sweep of magic, nobility, power, love, death, and lots of longing. Even though the book is chiefly about two childhood friends, one a princess and one a daughter of the Queen’s Merlin, it revolves around a the London season where a grand ball takes place deciding many lives and which empires will come together to live in peace. There is a very large cast of characters and there were so many dramas taking place behind closed doors and in plain sight. Since nobility and riches reign, the stories of have new wealth, old wealth, and families looking rich but are almost poor, make for salacious reading. Princess Marie doesn’t want to rule or marry Prussian Prince Leopold but wants to run away with her guard. Aelwyn, her best friend and like a sister to Marie, has just returned to London and will join an order of mages and practice magic for the rest of her life, like her father, the Queen’s Merlin. When Marie entreats Aelwyn to help her like she has her whole life, Aelwyn can’t say no to her friend. Does Marie know what she is asking of Aelwyn? The brothers, Leopold and Wolf, are princes from Prussia. Marie is to marry Leopold so their kingdoms can forge peace, but Marie has never liked Leopold since childhood; she has always been better friends with Wolf. And it is Wolf who meets Ronan Astor on a ship sailing from New York to England and they become very close indeed, without ever revealing their names to each other. Ronan is coming to England to find a wealthy husband and save her family from becoming paupers back in New York. There is so much depth to this book, the pages just keep turning as the London Season bursts forth with secrets, trysts, and devious machinations in the castle and hidden dungeons of the royal monarchy. I can’t wait for the next book in this series; I want to know more about the characters, their world and the future that magic will play in their worlds.


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