I was not expecting this one to be a 5 star, historical books can be very hit or miss for me and I only wanted to give this one a go because Henry VIII and his six wives is one of my favourite parts of history, especially when the story focuses more on the wives and has a fantastical twist to it. I thought this was really interesting and the way the actual history of the wives were shifted around a bit was so clever and worked really well and I'm really excited for the second book. There was also a hint of a possible sapphic romance and I'm hoping that's explored more in the next book.

DNF

As soon as I saw that this was available on Netgalley I applied for it, as I love finding more sapphic fantasy books. I ended up having to DNF it though as I found the characters very two dimensional.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you so much to Orbit Books for gifting me a review copy. I’d heard a lot about this so I was very excited to read it!

The King of Elben has to have six queens so that the kingdom can stay safe. Boleyn wants to establish herself as the favourite and give the king a son. Although Seymour spies on her, they later become allies and discover that their world’s history is not as they thought.

I did like how all of the characters came off as very distinct. This was especially true of Boleyn, who had the most focus. It was interesting to see how the mythology of the past became twisted over time, especially regarding the magic system.

The sapphic relationship between Boleyn and Seymour was a big draw for me. I definitely felt the tension between them and it was interesting to see things develop. I do think Henry was too present though and both of their actions towards him were so frustrating at times.

I think the combination of Tudor history and a fantasy world was a really interesting idea. My knowledge of Tudor history is most related to what I learned in school, so I’m not too knowledgeable about this period of history. Because this is fantasy, though, it felt accessible.

Saying that, it was a bit unnecessary. All of the names could have been changed and this could have just been a fully fantastical story. Similarly, the dragons played a way smaller part than I was expecting based on the marketing. This was a bit disappointing to be honest.

Overall, while I had a good time reading this in general, the reality was quite different from what I expected from how it was marketed. This wasn’t a bad book, but it did disappoint me, and I’m not really compelled to continue on.

I feel like this book has a fantastic premise, but I didn't love everything in the execution.
When I've seen the blurbs, I was super excited- I really like historical books set in England and to also have dragons? I thought it was going to be perfect.
When I think about it now, I feel like the magical theme was very underdeveloped- yes, we were getting the mentions of it regularly, but it was definitely far in the background. The historical inspiration was also pretty loose, so the overall setting felt off.

Most of all, this was a story about court and political machinations and about women finding themselves and learning to fend for themselves. And that was pretty enjoyable, also the romantic plot was good, but my main thought about this book is, unfortunately, a wasted potential.

Some of the names (not of the people) thrown in this book (for me) feel unnecessarily difficult, but it isn't a big ick that I stick to the very end. It's quite predictable yet there is one revelation nearing the end that gets me surprised still. Wouldn't say I enjoy it entirely because some characters annoy me but overall it's a good book and I actually will pick up the next one when it comes out.

Once you get your head around the premise and suspend what you already know about Henry 8th’s 6 wives this is a wild ride of a yarn. Turning the tables on history, giving these characters agency and a voice in the alternative world of Elben - where dragons are part of every aspect of daily life, made this fantasy a great read.

It is an epic story of female empowerment displaying a wide range of relationships including powerful friendships; functional and dysfunctional romantic and family connections; and a wide range of female sexualities.

The final cliffhanger has left me salivating for the next instalment.

The premise of this book was interesting, but unfortunately it didn’t live up to what it promised. I wish certain plot elements, characters and the relationships between them had been more expanded upon. That would have made the stakes feel higher and the story more emotional. As it was it sometimes felt flat and a bit slow. There were still some highlights in it which still made it enjoyable, but overall it was just an okay read for me.

Thank you, Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK | Orbit, for providing an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The first in a new series by Holly Race, this book stars the six queens of Henry VIII. With strong female leads and a political theme, this historical fantasy has a dual POV between Boleyn and Seymour.

In the kingdom of Elben the king has been appointed by god to marry six queens, six queens that stand between the kingdom and ruin. Or so they have been told. Boleyn and Seymour become the most unlikeliest allies as the balance of power begins to shift. They discover an ancient, rotter magic at Elben's heart. A magic that their king will do anything to protect.

It is a story inspired by Henry VIII and his six wives, but in no way historically accurate, which is unclear when you first start reading the book. It is loosely based on the six wives in names and character, but in no other way. However, despite this little point of attention, Holly tells a good plot, and it reads quite pleasantly. I enjoyed the story, and the cliffhanger at the end sets up in a nice way for a second book.

2.5 ⭐ Rounded Up.

This was such a disappointment for me, I adore the Tudors and even just the concept of all Henry's queens alive at the same time and what those interactions would look like? Super interesting. Then you add in magic and dragons? This should be an easy 5 stars. Unfortunately, the execution really doesn't match how this book is marketed, and even the Tudor stuff feels lacking.

First, don't go into this book expecting epic dragon battles and magic systems. The fantasy elements of this book are severely underbaked, with the dragons just mentioned as essentially lap dogs or "hunting dragons" (although we never actually see them properly in action). The magic system is so underbaked it's raw; there are mentions of the "Boarweal" and Henry having magic, but it's never really expanded on, and although it becomes a major plot point, I still felt like I had no grasp on how the magic actually works; it's just sort of there. This is not a fantasy-rich tale; it's a much slower-paced book focused primarily on Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour's relationship and character development as they begin to realise that Henry is maybe not the hero they think he is.

Now this is not necessarily a bad thing for me, like I say, the Tudor aspect is far more interesting to me anyway, and Boelyn and Seymour are fine characters, they could do with a bit more oomph, but they're fine. But I was also disappointed in how little we actually see the queens interact, especially the lesser-known queens like Katherine Howard or Catherine Parr. There was so much potential here, and again, it's barely present; the bits we do see are nice, I loved the way Anne of Cleves was portrayed and Katherine Howard and Anne Boleyn meeting as tragically as I expected, as Anne realises this girl is a child. I just needed way more of it; it's such a minor part of the book when that's the main appeal.

As I said, the main focus is the relationship between Boleyn and Seymour, and there's some sapphic yearning there, mostly from Seymour. I didn't really feel anything for their relationship if I'm honest, Seymour had a dose of insta love basically as soon as she gets to Boleyn's castle, and she's so devoted to her it comes across as slightly creepy tbh because Anne, whilst somewhat curious, is nowhere near as into Seymour. If this were a man who was calling a woman the love of his life, whilst the woman was just not into it we'd call him a creep, so too is Seymour IMO.

This is such a cool concept with sprinkles of greatness. I loved the different palaces and how they reflect the Queens. Some of the characteristics of the Queen's were great, but there was so little of that and so much else lacking that I can't rate it higher.

Thank you, NetGalley, for this ARC! As a long-time Tudor fan — especially when it comes to the six wives of Henry VIII — I absolutely had to read this book, and let’s just say I was not disappointed.

Six Wild Crowns is a dazzling, inventive reimagining of the Tudor queens, and it completely swept me away. Holly Race has taken figures we think we know — Anne, Jane, Katherine, and the others — and breathed new, vivid life into them, presenting their stories in a way that feels both refreshingly original and deeply respectful of their historical weight. The result is a book that is as bold as it is beautiful, one that lingers in the mind long after the final page.

The writing is stunning: lyrical yet sharp, full of emotion without sacrificing narrative drive. Race’s prose captures the tension, ambition, and humanity of these women, and she refuses to flatten them into stereotypes. Each queen comes across as layered, flawed, and utterly compelling. I loved how she wove myth, history, and imagination together into a narrative that felt both fantastical and true to the spirit of its subjects.

What stood out most for me was how the novel reframed the queens not as accessories to Henry VIII’s reign, but as powerful figures in their own right. Their voices felt strong, clear, and unapologetic, and the book’s thematic exploration of power, survival, and female agency was both moving and inspiring. The world-building has a lush, almost mythic quality to it, yet it is always anchored in the emotional realities of the characters.

Pacing was excellent throughout — every chapter kept me engaged, eager to see how Race would spin the next piece of history into something unexpected and new. The balance between historical grounding and imaginative reworking was handled with impressive skill.

This was a five-star read for me — a book that not only reimagines history but also reclaims it in a way that feels urgent and empowering. I’d recommend it without hesitation to readers who love historical fiction, mythological retellings, and stories that spotlight women’s voices with creativity and heart.

Six Wild Crowns by Holly Race arrives on the promise of Tudor court drama transposed into a high-magic realm, and in many ways it delivers: the bordweal itself – an ancient barrier woven by six queens – feels both grand and intimately tied to each woman’s fate. Race’s prose sparkles when she’s describing court ceremonies or the hiss of dragon wings overhead, painting Elben as a place where regal ritual and raw elemental power collide.

Yet despite its vivid worldbuilding, the novel often buckles under its own ambitions. Juggling six queens (three with the same name; now who would believe that?) distracts more than it intrigues, and the middle stretches sag with lengthy expositions on magic and history. Moments of genuine emotional charge, like Boleyn and Seymour’s reluctant alliance, shine through the clutter but are just all too rare.

Where the book truly succeeds is in its feminist undercurrent: women forced into rivalries by a patriarchal king who views them as nothing more than magic conduits. Seeing these queens forge secret pacts, whisper shared songs into the sunscína network, and dare to imagine a world beyond Henry’s whims is exhilarating. But the novel never fully balances that emotional core against its sprawling court politics, leaving the narrative weighty yet somehow hollow.

In the end, Six Wild Crowns isn’t the story for me; not because it lacks imagination, but because its scale and focus pulled me out of the very intimacy it strives to create. Fans of layered historical fantasy and dragon-filled intrigues will find plenty to savour here. I, however, craved a tighter lens on fewer characters, a deeper dive into fewer hearts, and a pace that let the magic of Elben breathe rather than bustle.

the blurb was CALLING to me and i'm glad that it didn't disappoint! sapphics, dragons, and tudors?? absolutely my cup of tea. it was a bit slow in the beginning for me to get through but it was worth it to keep reading. can't wait to read the next installments

I tried really really hard, but I just couldn’t get into the story. I may try again at some stage, but for now I’ve stopped reading and shelved the book

As someone who went through a huge Tudor queens hyperfixation in high school (Anne Boleyn was THE figure I could never get enough of), I was beyond excited when I heard about Six Wild Crowns. A fantasy retelling of Henry VIII’s six wives, with dragons on top of that? It felt like this book was written for me.

Unfortunately, while the concept is brilliant, the execution fell a little short. The setting of Elben is imaginative, but the worldbuilding didn’t feel strong enough to carry the weight of such a high-stakes idea. The fact that it isn’t really set in Tudor England but rather in a vaguely Tudor-inspired fantasy world left me a bit disoriented. The cultural norms didn’t quite fit together, and instead of immersing me, it sometimes pulled me out of the story.

Dragons were another disappointment. For a story marketed with dragons as a key selling point, they had surprisingly little presence. They weren’t threatening or powerful, just sort of… pets???

The much-advertised sapphic romance between Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour also lacked emotional weight. Seymour especially was frustrating to follow, constantly downplaying herself while still being positioned as a capable assassin and spy didn’t ring true.

Part of me wanted this book to lean harder into the darkness of Tudor politics, but the story kept slipping away from that potential.

What stood out most was how little Henry actually mattered on the page. Rather than being the ruthless figure driving the tension, he lingered at the margins, a threat spoken of more than felt.

Still, I appreciated Anne’s sharpness and ambition, which echoed the historical figure I’ve always been drawn to.

In the end, Six Wild Crowns is full of potential but doesn’t fully deliver on it. I liked the concept and enjoyed parts of the story, but the mismatch between premise and execution left me underwhelmed.

It’s worth a read if you’re curious, but not quite the Anne Boleyn fantasy retelling I had been waiting for.

DNF @ 65%

A Tudor retelling with dragons? Sign me up! Six Wild Crowns was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, but unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me. I was intrigued to see what the author would do with this epic premise, and I was excited that Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour were going to be the main characters and narrators. However, once I started reading, I realised that the plot just didn’t live up to what was promised in the synopsis.

Although this is advertised as a Tudor retelling, the story doesn’t take place in England, but instead a fantastical kingdom called Elben. The world building is pretty thin, and a lot of the cultural norms within Elben were antithetical to the world that the Tudors lived in. It felt like Race wanted to be progressive but didn’t know how to marry that with the historical setting, so the end result was stunted and discombobulated. In this story, all of the six wives are alive and in a polyamorous marriage with Henry the 8th and can have relationships (and even marriages) outside of their role in the King’s life. There are also characters who are nonbinary or have more fluid gender identities. These things don’t fit into the oppressive patriarchal society that Elben apparently has, and there’s no proper explanation of how all these things can be true at the same time.

The dragons were a massive part of why I was excited about this book, and I was disappointed that they hardly seem to feature at all, at least in any significant way. We’re told that they played a big part in past battles – which is really cool! – but this is never revisited, and every time we see dragons on the page, they have no more significance than a pet cat or dog would. I also would have liked for the book to go more in depth about how the King and Queens came to own dragons as pets in the first place.

The “sapphic yearning” also interested me, but both Boleyn and Seymour are such shallow characters that any moment of romance or tenderness between them is hollow and doesn’t invoke any emotion in the reader. Almost every time we read about Seymour, we’re being told that she’s timid and (by her own admission) “stupid”, but we’re somehow supposed to believe she is a capable spy and assassin. She does open up a little later in the book and starts coming into her own, but at that point I just didn’t care about her as a character. I thought Henry – this powerful and overbearing figure – would have a made a good villain, but beyond his and Boleyn’s wedding at the beginning, we hardly see him or hear from him.

Echoing what other reviewers have said, I think this would have been better as a completely fresh story with original characters, with no connection to the Tudor period. I had such high hopes for this book, but the actual plot was so far removed from what was promised in the synopsis that I had to check that I hadn’t downloaded the wrong book by accident. 2.5 stars.

Six Wild Queens by Holly Race is a fantasy retelling of the Tudor Dynasty, namely the life of King Henry VIII and his six wives. As a fan of this era of history, I was intrigued by Race’s reimagining. The book starts with Henry’s wedding to Anne Boleyn, and introduces the kingdom of Elben, where the King is required to take six wives. One wife for each Castle, sharing his magic with them to fuel the ancient magic protecting the kingdom.

Although the Queens match history in name, there are quite a few differences between their fictional counterparts and real life. Historically, Anne Boleyn was Henry’s second wife; however, she is his fifth in Six Wild Queens. Likewise, Jane Seymour is his final wife rather than his third. Temperament-wise, some of the characters echo their historical inspiration, some do not, and Race’s world is much more racially diverse, with some of the Queens identifying as queer.

I wanted to like this, and the world-building was solid. I particularly liked having Cernunnos as the main deity rather than the normal default Christian mythology. What I didn’t enjoy was the present-tense narration, which seemed to grate on my nerves constantly. I’m not a huge fan of present tense in general; however, with most books, I can overlook it. There is something about Race’s writing style that just didn’t work for me. I also found many of the characters rather lacklustre, and if I read Seymour calling herself ‘stupid’ one more time, I swear. There’s misogyny, and then there’s being overly repetitive.

Six Wild Queens has an intriguing ending; however, it felt like it took forever to get there. I also went into this book expecting “sapphic yearning” and got one main character yearning and the other not so much. As my usual readers are aware, nothing puts me off a book faster than a synopsis that doesn’t match the book itself. If you’re expecting sapphic romance of any kind, then this is not the book for you, and I’ll save you that disappointment right now.

For those of you who know the history of Henry’s wives (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived), you’ll know that neither Boleyn nor Seymour has a happy ending, and without giving too much away, this does follow a similar pattern. That’s the problem with historical novels: when you know the history, and I spent the whole book unable to connect with Boleyn because I knew what was coming.

I’m not sure if I will pick up the sequel to Six Wild Queens. It depends on which route Race chooses to take. If it’s a chronological sequel, then I think I’ll pass; however, if it skips to the future and focuses on the lives of Mary and Elizabeth Tudor, then that will be interesting. Historically, Mary was the first Queen of England, and according to the world-building, a King must sit on the throne and share his power with his Queens. I’m curious to see how that scenario will work in Race’s reimagining.

DNF @40%

I really wanted to love this book, but I wish it came with content warnings. There were a lot of graphic descriptions which, yes, are supposed to make you feel uncomfortable, but they felt too much and too often... almost gratuitous? I didn't find myself enjoying the reading experience and I kept putting it down and not wanting to pick it back up. Aspects of it were confusing and not well explained at the beginning - admittedly they might have gotten explained more further into the book, but I wasn't feeling the need to press through to find out. I might try it again in the future, but I'm keeping it as a DNF for now.

Holly Race’s Six Wild Crowns takes the bones of a classic royal succession story and dresses them in something far stranger and more alluring. Set in a fractured kingdom where six sisters compete for a single throne, the novel blends political intrigue with mythic undercurrents, resulting in a tale that feels both familiar and unsettling.

At the heart of the story is a contest that is as much about survival as it is about power. Each sister has her own claim, her own strengths, and her own vulnerabilities. Race draws them with enough individuality that none fade into the background, and yet they remain bound to each other through a complex web of grudges, loyalties, and shared history. The narrative moves between moments of sharp conflict and quiet reflection, giving readers time to sit with the weight of ambition and the cost of trust.

The world-building is one of the book’s great strengths. The kingdom feels ancient yet mutable, with traditions that seem as dangerous as they are sacred. The trials the sisters face are not merely tests of skill but explorations of character. There is a sense that the land itself is watching, that nature and myth are active participants in deciding who will rule. This gives the novel a constant hum of tension, even in its calmer scenes.

Race’s prose is vivid without becoming overwrought. She writes battles with a tactile immediacy and moments of sisterly interaction with equal care. There are flashes of unexpected tenderness between the rivals, moments that complicate the reader’s loyalties and prevent the story from becoming a simple good-versus-evil struggle.

The pacing can sometimes feel uneven, with certain subplots stretching longer than necessary, but the momentum always recovers. By the final chapters, the stakes feel fully earned, and the outcome, while decisive, leaves enough unanswered questions to linger in the reader’s mind.

Six Wild Crowns is not just a story about who wins the throne. It is about the shaping of identity under pressure, about the way ambition corrodes and yet sometimes clarifies what truly matters. For readers who enjoy court intrigue layered with myth, rivalry, and flashes of fragile sisterhood, Holly Race has created a world worth getting lost in.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Orbit for the digital ARC, it hasn't affected my honest review.

Six Wild Crowns was recommended for fans of Priory of the Orange Tree (one of my favourites) and as a fan of Tudor history, I thought this would be perfect for me. I struggled to connect to the characters and found the politics to be a bit more surface level than I would like, while my initial interest was made by the inclusion of a sapphic relationship. Unfortunately this was a DNF at 36%.

I have to start this review by saying I was incredibly confused from the start of the book, which kind of set up my entire reading experience of this book. All the names i could not remember of people and places made it really difficult to get into the story.

I do know this book was inspired by "The Tudors," so it might be the fact that I have not seen it, and that's why I was so confused.

I don't feel like the synopsis is really what we got in this book, the magic was bearly explored and i would have liked to see more of the dragons.

Overall, this was not the book for me, and I have read some heavy fantasy books with lots of names and had no problems before.

Thank you netgally for the e arc copy.