Review: If the Crown Fits

If the Crown Fits by Leané Giliomee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lara is a thief, she has been engaged to steal a necklace from the royal palace but is caught and the Prince Regent offers her a strange trade. She can walk away with her life if she pretends to be the reclusive Princess Eloisa and meets Eloisa's betrothed, Prince Cai of a neighbouring Kingdom. Their marriage was intended to cement an alliance, but the Prince has asked Lara to steal a magical item that Prince Cai will be carrying.

While both parties are travelling to the agreed meeting point of Eloisa's palace, Lara's group is set upon by bandits and she escapes only to run into Cai's group, travelling in disguise. With no clue as to the other's real identity there are lots of opportunities for confusion and for romance to blossom.

I quite enjoyed this. I don't read much fantasy these days and I have to say this ran along fairly standard lines, I wasn't at all surprised by the big reveal, and I also wouldn't be surprised if the Prince Regent didn't turn out to be not as bad as we think he is.

Probably my only complaint was that it felt like this was meant to be an epic fantasy novel but (maybe because of word constraints) got cut down so about halfway through the novel there seemed to be a lot of going to this manor house for a discussion and then going to another place for another meeting - which could have been (maybe) covered by a sentence or a paragraph saying over the next few days/weeks they criss-crossed the land meeting with lords likely to be sympathetic to their cause, or who they could blackmail into supporting them.

Overall, pleasant enough and I would be happy to read the next book.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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