PRINCE OF GLASS & MIDNIGHT

The latest hero’s backstory from the Disney universe stars Cinderella’s prince.

Although the king wants him to marry, Prince August clings to the memory of his first crush, Ella, who lives in Fresne. The two were close even though August, at his parents’ urging, kept his royal status secret, but Ella withdrew after her widowed father remarried and then died. Warned off by her stepmother, August reluctantly gave up trying to reach Ella. His friend Martin’s investigation of a series of strange occurrences in Fresne gives August the chance to return to his mother’s hometown. He finds Ella wary but happy to see him, and she joins their search to learn why several townspeople have forgotten someone close to them. Solving this mystery occupies much of the novel. Miller works to update the world of the original 1950 movie version, but the prince unfortunately remains a bland placeholder (he dances; he grapples with the mystery of the glass shoe). The French-inflected world includes LGBTQ+ characters who are woven naturally into the story. (Martin becomes smitten with a young man named Oliver, whom he meets in Fresne, and one of the amnesia victims, Blaise, uses they/them pronouns.) The leads are cued white; there’s some diversity in skin tone among the supporting cast.

An underwhelming spinoff that may satisfy avid Disney fans.