I was very keen to read The King's Witches by Kate Foster. I had read her earlier book The White Maiden, which was such an engaging and fascinating read.

The King’s Witches is set in 1589 and unfolds from the perspective of three women: Princess Anna of Denmark; Kirsten Sorenson; and Jura.

Princess Anna has been betrothed to King James VI of Scotland and must travel to Scotland with members of the Danish Royal Court including her Lady-In-Waiting, Kirsten Sorenson. Before they depart, they witness a witch being burned on the beach. Both women are appalled by the burning, and Princess Anna is convinced that the witch has cursed her.

On their sea voyage to Scotland the ship carrying Anna and Kirsten is severely damaged in a storm and only just manages to limp to Norway for repairs.

King James VI travels to Norway and brings back his betrothed to Scotland. Whilst in Norway, King James becomes fascinated by the tales of witchcraft and the trials and burnings in Europe and becomes determined that Scotland rids itself of witches.

1589 is a very dangerous time to be a woman for sure. Kirsten is older and wiser and advises Princess Anna on how to act in order to protect herself from being labelled a witch in the royal court. Jura’s story unfolds showing the hysteria and fear held by common Scottish folk. All three women in the book are really compelling and all have their journey and the book becomes unputdownable as their stories entwine.

The historical notes at the end of the book are a must-read and are fascinating and put into context the witch trials in Scotland at that time.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Pan Macmillan, for making the e-ARC available to me to read in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This book has been the most surprising one for me this year. The story is compelling, and the female characters are strong and complex even in death. The whole fiction is well-developed and feels real, especially the trials. However, I must warn that some parts of the book may be a bit too graphic and grotesque for sensitive readers, The plot is exciting with the perspective of three women from different times and countries. I found it interesting to read about a woman's of the past and since this is about witch trials I enjoy it lots . This is a great read for anyone who enjoys historical fiction. I would like to thank the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book

This was compulsive reading-I loved it!Set between the Danish and Scottish court in the sixteenth century it tells the tale of how three women get caught up in the witch-hunts led by King James of Scotland.
Anna is to leave the Danish court to marry King James.She travels to Scotland with her loyal but ,secretive, lady in waiting,Kirsten. Meanwhile, young Jura Craig is sent to be a maid to a wealthy Scottish family. Fear and witchcraft bring the woman together.
I liked that so much of this is based on real events. An excellent read.
Thank you to NetGalley for this Arc.

I have read significantly on this subject matter both in fiction and non-fiction. I found the concept of historical accuracy with additional fictional characters interesting.

The multiple viewpoint narration worked fine overall. I did find myself skimming over the Jura chapters as I found the dialect somewhat offputting. Whilst it did convey her social standing somewhat, I did find it slightly annoying to read after a while.

I missed the richness of the prose and descriptions that I have come to associate with historical fiction. I didn’t always feel the sense of urgency, and felt the development of Anna and Henry’s relationship underdeveloped in its infancy.

It was a pleasant, easy read. I would read others by the author in the future, and would perhaps be more pleased with them knowing what to expect.

I don’t often read historical fiction and after this masterpiece for Kate Foster I wonder why not! This book had me hooked and as per usual I devoured it in 24 hours.

This book has multiple points of views from strong female characters showing the prejudice women faced in Europe at this time. However, as heavy as that topic is this book was easy to read and digest and the interwoven stories were perfect. It did make me chuckle what was seen as witchcraft and the troubles these women faced.

Being from Newcastle I found the Scottish sections with their dialect so easy to read but I am interested to see how others found that as I could sound this in my head easily.

This is now a go to author for me and I need to get The Maiden and read this as the concept of that book sounds great. I recommend getting this book when it comes out in June!

The story follows the relationships of 3 key women...

Princess Anna of Denmark - handfasted to King James V of Scotland.... but in love with one of his courtiers Henry

Kristen - Princess Anna's ladies maid

Jura Craig - a young scottish girl accused of being a witch.

King James is obsessed with witches and is convinced with his cousin they are trying to remove the scottish throne from him.
The torture of those accused was very graphic and quite horrifying to what they went through.

A good read, with some twists and turns.

A beautifully written novel telling the story of the North Berwick witch trials that took place in Scotland in the 17th century. The novel is told from the point of view of three women. The first is Anna, Princess of Denmark, who at the start is handfasted to James VI of Scotland. She will travel to Scotland and there spend a year on a trial period to ensure she is a good match before the marriage takes place. Travelling with her is Kirsten Sorenson, her lady’s maid, a pious woman with a history of her own in Scotland and a desire to return. Finally there is Jura, a young woman who has recently lost her mother and left her drunken father’s home to find work as a housemaid. She has inherited her mother’s skills as a healer but these are dangerous times as the craze over feared witchcraft spreads from Germany and Scandinavia to Scotland. Their paths will eventually cross as the trials and burnings begin to haunt Edinburgh.

I loved this book. I always enjoy stories about women that are centred very much on the women themselves and most prominently on their relationships with each other. The lack of agency of their own lives is clear (although there are very obvious limits on the men in the story too, whether by rank, society or religion) and the terrible fear of how fragile their lives are is well told. The threat of accusations of witchcraft (between 4000 and 6000 people were prosecuted in Scotland over the period, 4 times the European average and 75% of them women) hang over everything and the dangers of being close to James himself, so convinced of their existence, are evident. It’s a fascinating period of history and the author does a fantastic job of bringing it to life. A really interesting and thought provoking novel, highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the advance copy in return for an honest review.

Kate Foster is a new historical fiction author to me, but I have already ordered her previous novel, The Maiden. This was a fascinating, detailed account based on the North Berwick witch trials of which I previously knew nothing. Like the best historical novelists this story is based on true fact and this author really brought this episode of history to life. The injustices served upon women in this era who nowadays would be called herbalists or doctors (!) are perfectly depicted here. I was gripped from the first page and raced through this. Congratulations to Ms Foster on both and excellent novel and for bringing this important example of Scottish history to our attention. I will be looking out for this author’s future novels.

I thought Kate’s first book The Maiden was one of the best feminist historical fiction books I have read. But she has outdone herself with this new one.
Set in 1589, and again based on a historical fact, The King’s Witches follows the story of the young Princess Anna of Denmark who is about to marry the older King James VI of Scotland (later to become James I of England). It was a time of witchcraft mania and fear with countless witch trials and burnings. Anna’s lady in waiting is determined the marriage will go ahead so she can escape to Scotland for her own secretive reasons.
A thoroughly engrossing story which I highly recommend for lovers of historical fiction.

A truly beautiful, shocking and gripping retelling of this historical story based around the North Berwick witch trials of 1590. It was interesting to read the perspective of the three main characters and how their stories became entwined with each other. Jura my heart melted for you and all the other woman in reality at that time who, were persecuted, tortured and burned for being different. The author really captured the period of time and powerfully played on my emotions that made it a compelling and extremely interesting read , right to the last page, that left me wanting to know more…

Another haunting and captivating novel from Kate Foster, based on true historical events - the North Berwick witch trials and King James VI of Scotland involvement.
I loved this author’s previous book The Maiden, and was thrilled to receive her latest book to review. From the first paragraph, I was enthralled and engaged with the setting, the characters and the retelling of this historical event with fictional characters and events complementing this book. I loved it, couldn’t stop reading it and wholeheartedly recommend readers reserve a copy of the hardback on publication day as the cover is beautiful too! Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

This is a super interesting story and anyone who likes all the witchy stuff should go and read this one! The characters are great and the atmosphere super special. The book really drags you in and wants you to read it in one sitting.

Absolute favourite. Cannot wait to recommend this to customers. Hits you right were it should, and succeeds expectations.

It was an interesting novel about witches trials with a subplot I quite early on guessed at. The historical facts were accurate, while the subplot dealt with fictional characters. I found it really disturbing to read about how "witches" were forced to confess (though I did know about that!) under torture while this never seemed to bother their inquisitors! This was so horrible and unfair. But that's how it was. The subplot, though, did not engage me so much, probably because I guessed early what would be the problem. However, I did not guess the conclusion.
I received a digital copy of this novel from NetGalley and I am leaving voluntarily an honest review.

I found this outstanding. From the setting and atmosphere which were vivid but realistic to the characters, the emotions and the intrigue, this book had it all!
Having loved this authors previous book I was very excited to receive this arc and it did not let me down. This is even better than her previous book and I read it in two sittings as it was hard to put down
This is based on some very interesting characters and time periods in history with the Scottish witchcraft trials of which I’m very familiar and the author did a great job bringing the characters and settings to life

A new favourite author!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc