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Book: “Six Wild Crowns” by Holly Race
Publishing Info: Orbit, June 2025
Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!
Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound
Book Description: The king has been appointed by god to marry six queens. Those six queens are all that stand between the kingdom of Elben and ruin. Or so we have been told.
Each queen vies for attention. Clever, ambitious Boleyn is determined to be Henry’s favourite. And if she must incite a war to win Henry over? So be it.
Seymour acts as spy and assassin in a court teeming with dragons, backstabbing courtiers and strange magic. But when she and Boleyn become the unlikeliest of things – allies – the balance of power begins to shift. Together they will discover an ancient, rotting magic at Elben’s heart. A magic that their king will do anything to protect.
Review: There are a handful of periods of British history that I’m much more familiar with than others. Often, it comes down to my enjoyment of specific fictional books that took place during that time period. Obviously, as a lover of Jane Austen, Regency England is one of those time periods. But I also really loved Philippa Gregory’s “The Other Boleyn Girl” which set me on a course to learn quite a bit about the reign of Henry VIII. That being the case, I was incredibly excited to check out this new historical fantasy novel that is centered around many of the major players during that period of history.
Unfortunately, I’ll say that this may be one of those situations where the more informed you are about the place/people/period of time, the less you may enjoy this book. Even for those with only passing knowledge of this time period, there were so many questions raised or pieces that were changed as to leave me wondering whether there was any point in setting this book in a specific, real-world time period in the first place! I was much more often annoyed by the failures in its historical representations than I was enamored by the creativity of blending fantasy and history in this way. There are plenty of books that have pulled it off, but this wasn’t one of them.
Instead, I think it would have read much better as a straight fantasy novel. The fantasy elements were strong throughout (part of problem here was that these elements called into question many of the events pulled from history), and, had the character not been connected to real-life individuals, I could have gotten behind Boleyn and Seymour more as well.
But they are pulling from real life people! And the more you know about these two women, the less satisfying this portrayal is! Anne Boleyn is a pretty well-known historical figure, even by those with only a basic knowledge of this time period. And there are some assumptions that one makes about her: that she was incredibly savvy and politically dexterous, charming, and able to wrap a King around her finger, at least for a period of time. The character we had here did not line up at all with that! At times, she was incredibly naive and taken in by the very obviously nefarious King. I know less about Jane Seymour, other than the fact that she was said to be more quiet and reserved. Picturing her as an assassin is also a bit difficult. I also found her incredibly fickle, which was frustrating at times.
I also felt like the themes of feminism and patriarchy fell a bit flat. There was nothing overtly wrong here, but it all felt very surface level, having very little new to say on either topic. Had this book been written 20 years ago, perhaps it would have felt more revolutionary. But as it is, there are quite a few fantasy books out there covering these themes, and this one didn’t seem to have much new to offer.
Overall, this was a rather underwhelming book. I won’t say it’s bad, but it’s definitely one of those rare examples where the more you know about the history side of things, the less you’ll enjoy it. I think I used this word above as well, but “distracting” is the term that comes to mind when I think about the incorporation of the historical elements. Instead, it would have perhaps been more successful as a straight fantasy novel. Even there, though, it didn’t seem to have much to add with regards to its themes and characters.
Rating 7: The real-world historical elements hurt it much more than they helped, unfortunately.
Reader’s Advisory:
“Six Wild Crowns” can be found on this Goodreads list: queer releases june 2025.
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