The Crimson Crown

by Cinda Williams Chima

Reviewed by Coral

Raisa has faced many obstacles to claim her birthright, the Grey Wolf Throne. Finally crowned Queen of the Fells, she now faces nearly as many obstacles in making sure she keeps it.

The hostility between the Clans and the wizards is growing. Worse, wizards are being murdered in the streets. The Commander of the army opposes her plan to get rid of the mercenaries in favour of raising an army of citizens. The Bayars are still plotting to marry her off to Micah or to kill her and replace her as queen.

It was a chore making it through this book.

I was only vaguely interested in the political machinations of the book and the only thing that kept me going was this small part of me that wanted to know how it would all end.

I think Micah could have been a truly tragic character, torn between his love and desire for Raisa and his family loyalties. But because we only really saw him through Raisa and Han’s eyes, I don’t think he ever lived up to the character he could have been.

This goes back to my last review and wishing that more time had been spent developing the minor characters.

I will say that in the end, I do think that the reveal of who was murdering the wizards made sense, but I still group that character in with the others as needing more development. Especially with the reveal of the other huge crime they committed previously.

It’s not like I didn’t know that they were building towards a Raisa and Han happy ending, I just find it odd how much time the book spent bringing up the fact they were very distantly related while moving them towards their couple-hood. I know it’s back countless generations but it was still an odd choice.

I wasn’t completely satisfied with the ending, though it did build from past books.

I did like that the book had Raisa’s father and grandmother make some questionable choices, so that they weren’t completely innocent in the clan versus wizard feud.

Grade: C