This was a fresh retelling of Henry VIII. It wasn't what I was expecting by the cover, but I enjoyed it whilst reading. It was a but confusing at first but once I got familiar with the characters, I was hooked!

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this E-book to review via Netgalley.

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Little, Brown Book Group UK in exchange for an honest review.

Don't be fooled by this cover, this is not a thriller. It is however an exceptionally good book! This is a retelling of the story of Henry VIII and his marriages, reimagined in the 1980s to modern day. I have a cursory knowledge of this part of history but I think one of the strengths of this book is you can enjoy it regardless of your historical knowledge. If you know the story, you can appreciate the amazing amount of work that has gone into researching this and how it is cleverly twisted to work in the modern day. If you know nothing, you can be surprised by the engaging plot and frankly very interesting life of the main character and his wives.

Another thing to be praised is what an easy read this is. The writing is so engaging and, despite it being a fairly long book for its genre, it never once dragged. In fact I read all of it in two days because I could not put it down. The character guides allow it to be more accessible for people who don't know their history, but it can be easily understood and followed without them. There are lots of characters but they are handled well and I never lost track of who anyone was. Henry is made very likeable despite his flaws and some artistic license is taken to make the plot flow better which I fully support. I even read the interview with the author at the end (which I almost never do) and I loved the explanations for why she made the changes she did. I can't see anyone but the strictest historian being bothered by them.

Overall, this is one of the best retellings I have ever read, if not the best. The source material is perfectly translated into modern day with what is clearly a lot of work from the author, and none of the writing style or enjoyment is sacrificed in order to make that happen. This is such an engaging book and it's clear to me that Hayfield is incredibly talented. If you want a fun way to digest history or just a really good adult contemporary book, I could not recommend this more.

Overall Rating: 4.5/5 stars

This was a fantastic modern day retelling of Henry VIII and all of his wives. I couldn't help but feel sorry for Harry Rose in the end though, even if he was an extreme philanderer and cheated on most of his wives, he deserved some happiness in his life which he seemed to have found with Clare - wife number 6! Can't wait to get started on the sequel.

A modern take on Henry VIII. Harry the modern day Henry is an adulterous rogue getting through wives quicker than you would change your car. Handsome and rich he may be but his behaviour is selfish and chauvinistic. He doesn't appreciate what he has till he has lost it. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

This was a retelling of Henry VIII, and his wives. It was a lot of fun to read and the writer pulled off a long list of wives quite well.
Very entertaining and original. Recommended.

Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

I got Wife After Wife by Olivia Hayfield free from Netgalley for a fair and honest review.


Wife after Wife, is a retelling of the story of Henry VIII king of England from 1509-1547, who is famous for having six wives, moved to a modern day, set around a businessman called Harry Rose, who is 27th on the Forbes rich list.

I decided to get Wife After Wife, after reading the synopsis, of the book, about a modern day business man’s life story being similar to that of a king, intrigued me, even more when it was one who had such an interesting life as Henry VIII.

The story was told from multiple perspectives, some times of the same scene but always on the same situation, which allows the reader to gain a greater perspective, on events and thus the story. All though as the main character, Harry’s perspective, was always there all the way through. The source of the other view was always from a different person, based on which character was involved with the story at that point, getting their view when it was needed to enhance the story.

What I really enjoyed about this story was the way that the life of Harry Rose mirrored, the real life of Henry VIII, from the death of his older brother Art and his first wife being a former girlfriend of his brother, in fact what enhanced the story for me was seeing the connections between the this book and the real history.

Their are times when you see a book that that has a good idea, but the execution of that fails, either through the story not living up to the idea, or the writing distracting from the the whole thing. What I am glad to say in this case Olivia Hayfield has written a story in a style that matches the expectations of the idea.

So if you like stories with a strong arc for the main character, want to find the connections that link to the real history and this story together. Or you just want a good read then Wife after Wife is for you.

This book is absolutely amazing.. its scandalous and rich! Definitely worth adding to the summer read list!

Wife After Wife is a fresh and imaginative retelling of the story of Henry VIII and his wives. I wasn’t sure how such an expansive story would work when whittled down to one book, but Olivia Hayfield manages it wonderfully, getting the spirit of the real life inspiration and events right while modernizing the story. Spanning from the 1980s to 2018, Wife After Wife is by turns entertaining and tragic.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book.

I absolutely thoroughly enjoyed this modern day story based on Henry VIII and his wives. Such a brilliant idea and I loved the fact that all the names of the characters were based on history too - you get a full list at the start of the book in case you get confused/lost.

In the end you couldn't help feeling for poor Harry (Henry).

Someone else has said that its a mix of Philippa Gregory and Jackie Collins and I totally agree.

Definitely recommend.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. Not sure what to write in my review for this book, it was okay, not great and I personally found the characters unlikeable.

Wife after wife is a modern day retelling of the life and loves of Henry VIII, reimagined as media mogul Harry Rose. I found it an imaginative and smart take on a well-known period of history.

Of course, as a modern interpretation it doesn’t stick strictly to history, beheading ones wife is not quite as acceptable now as it was in the Tudor times, but all the key events and characters are there in some form! The variations from history were well thought out and intriguing to follow, Hayfield has succeeded in fleshing out quite a full picture of an alternative reality.

I did find the book a little on the long side and certain characters/wives were less developed than others. But then, there is an awful lot of content to cover.

This is an ideal summer read and I’d definitely be interested in reading more from Hayfield in this universe.

This is a modern day retelling of Tudor King Henry VIII and his six wives which is set into the context of nearly four decades from the mid 1980’s to 2018 bringing it up to date with the #MeToo movement. Harry Rose is the CEO of the Rose Corporation and has been since he was a young man and under his leadership it is now a huge company. He’s well connected, rich, charismatic and very powerful. The story is told from multiple points of view and makes for one heck of a saga as is the original version.

Much of the book is very entertaining and as you can imagine with the source of inspiration for this novel it is full of drama and has all the essential ingredients of the historical version. There’s womanising and serial cheating (of course), blame and betrayal, so many secrets and lies, tragedy which is overlaid with oodles of glamour. I like how the author has cleverly set the story into the context of the decades which gives it an authentic feel. I love the pop culture references which starts in 1985 with Live Aid. I like too, how much like Henry VIII, Harry has to react to events of the time and make important decisions because both face serious issues in Harrys case one example is the 2008 financial crisis. . The author cleverly interprets what becomes of Harry’s wives since unlike the tyrannical king he cannot imprison them in the Tower of London and execute them as Henry did with two of his. The characters are well portrayed although the focus is principally on Harry. He is easy to dislike but very complex just like the Tudor King and once he makes his mind up he races on much like a runaway train with equally devastating consequences.

However, this book is very long and the pace is uneven and so I found my attention wandering in those places. There are a lot of characters to get your head around and multiple points of view and thus it definitely helps to know the historical background.

Overall, despite the above reservations this is a well written book which is based on one of my favourite periods of history. It is enjoyable, intelligent and creatively interprets the Tudor characters giving it a fresh and modern spin for which I congratulate the author.

With thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Group for the ARC.

Wife After Wife is an absolutely genius book. It's a modern and deliciously addictive take on Henry viii and his wives. It's very very hard to put down once you start it and virtually impossible not to love it.

This was a delightful current take on the historical tale of the wife-killing king. History is depicted in a bonkbuster manner, and makes it an unforgettable read.