There is something formal about an André Alexis novel. The subject matter may be love and romance and hereditary blessings (or curses) set in a world of art, and poetry, and music, and fine cuisine, and legendary wealth. But there is a courtliness to the interactions between characters, to the things they say and most of the things they do, which can come across as stiff. Like Gwen and Tancred, or Olivier and Simone. (Maybe that only occurs when Alexis’ characters are meant to be flesh and blood human beings because I didn’t notice this in his earlier novel, Fifteen Dogs.) In short this is a love story, principally the fated love between Gwen and Tancred, but also by contrast the love between Olivier and Simone, Michael and Morgan, Nadia and Robbie, and that between Gwen’s mother, Helen, and Gwen’s father, Alun. And there is a magic ring involved.

I enjoyed following Gwen’s story even when though I found her predicaments, or what she thought of as predicaments, to be not very much at all. Falling in love at first sight (and vice versa) with someone who just happens to have half a billion dollars in the bank does pose challenges, I suppose. As does hobnobbing with the ultra rich in Toronto. (Curiously the ultra rich here are great supporters of poetry, literature, painting, and other fine arts, and they always pay their taxes — which flags this as fantasy, I guess.) However, although more than a third of the novel takes place before the magic ring comes on the scene, it still wasn’t enough time to get a sense of Gwen as a fully fledged person. And that’s surprising. Because Alexis is nothing if not a master wordsmith. So does he then intend for me to be thinking this? I just don’t know.

If you’ve read any of the other novels in Alexis’ Quincunx series (and I hope you will have read them all), then you’ll find this one riddled with characters and incidents that first appeared in earlier novels. The most significant of these, of course, is the character Tancred. Here, Tancred’s role is constrained to being “the rich guy that our heroine falls in love with.” He’s almost too nice for words. Alas, there isn’t much more to him on the evidence of this novel. Or maybe a passionate story of love between two really nice people will inevitably fall flat.

In any case, I’m still recommending this novel for everyone who has enjoyed earlier Alexis novels. But newcomers might better start with one of those. ( )