Book Review: The Fate of Crowns (The Fate of Crowns #1)

Author: Rebecca Garcia

With my brother’s death came the crown and all the trappings that accompany it. Now, my father–the most dangerous man in Magaelor–seeks to control my future.

But fate has other plans.

Thrown into mer-filled waters, I’m dragged into the rival kingdom of Berovia. Surrounded by those who murdered my brother and wished my entire family dead, I must find my way back to my kingdom. There, a marriage between myself and the dark fae prince could bring peace to a century’s old division between the fae and sorcerers. But dark revelations and deadly lies threaten to destroy my destiny. I must make the choice between my duty, family, and heart before it’s too late.
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Will I allow myself to become the Queen of everything? Or be reduced to a cautionary tale as the princess of nothing?

The Fate of Crowns is a YA epic fantasy adventure about a sheltered princess who travels between magical kingdoms, discovering a world different to what she’d believed.

The Fate of Crowns is the first novel in the series of the same name. There is a lot of betrayal, character development, and political intrigue to bring the story of one woman’s journey to life.  The story takes the reader through three separate kingdoms with lots of different types of magic and characters.  The story does end on a cliffhanger, so I will definitely be starting the next novel, The Princess of Nothing, right away!

The main character is Winter Mortis, the Princess of Magaelor. She is very sheltered and raised to believe the same as her father, King Amos. She starts the novel at fifteen (she is sixteen by the end). There were times where I wish she was older (maybe 17 or 18) as it felt more accurate to her character and other times her younger age made sense. Her father betroths her to Prince Blaise Lazarus, a Dark Fae from Neferum, the kingdom to the north of Magaelor. With her brother, Andre’s sudden passing after a battle with Berovia, the kingdom across the sea, she suddenly finds herself the heir to Magaelor. The more Winter is exposed to the world, the more she learns that the politics and beliefs she grew up with might not be in the best interest of everyone.

There are a lot of time jumps in this story, especially towards the beginning as it is setting up the rest of the story and series. At first, they were confusing as I wanted the details about what happened during those times, but it soon becomes apparent why it seems to be written this way when looking at the bigger picture at the end before the next story begins. I find myself not being bothered by the time jumps overall as I liked the author’s writing and I wanted to see how the events in the plot would play out. There is a lot of foreshadowing in this story, where there is some glimpses into destiny by the seers and plots that could come into play later in the series. One of these are the Objects of Kai (the Amulet of viribus, the Ring of immortalem, the Sword of impervious, and the Crown of discieti), where they are introduced, but the reader is not quite sure how important they are to the rest of the story.

The characters also seem to be mysterious as some come and go from the story, but there are hints that they have roles in the big picture. Morgana Emberlash, an excellent character, is a Luna (a spirit sorcerer) and seer. She advises Winter when she is in the palace in Magaelor. Cedric Evermist, a Light Fae, from Berovia is another character where he appears briefly and interacts with Winter, but his full role is not known. I really hope that he comes back later in the series as I loved him! There are tons more characters that follow this pattern that were all interesting and seemingly complex. I hope all of them appear in the later novels as I want to learn more about them and also see how their stories will play out.

Overall, this is a very interesting start to the series as there are many directions this story can go. Although Winter was not a very likeable character, I found myself getting attached to her and wanting her to have it all.  Blaise is another complex character where I could not decide fully if I loved him or hated him, but I did want to learn more about him. On the other hand, there were Cedric and Morgana that I loved immediately and hopefully they get some kind of happiness by the end. The most frustrating part about this novel is that it leaves you with more questions than answers as there are a lot of pieces in this puzzle that still need to be put together. I am definitely looking forward to starting the sequel to see what happens next!