Six Wild Crowns by Holly Race
Published by Hachette UK
Age Group: Adult
Format: Fiction
Genres and Categories: Alternative Universe, Bisexual Characters, Black Characters, Brown Characters, Gay Characters, Lesbian Characters, British Authors, Diverse Representation, Magic Users, Royalty Characters, Divine Magic, Various Magic, Dragons, Sea Creatures, Historical Fantasy
Series: Queens of Elben #1
My Rating:
Published on: 10th June 2025
Pages: 416
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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.

A captivating epic fantasy filled with dragons, court politics and sapphic yearning, perfect for fans of The Priory of the Orange Tree and House of the Dragon.

This book was provided for free by NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Content Warnings:

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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. 

About Holly Race

Holly is a novelist and screenwriter. Her debut trilogy, the Midnight’s Twins series (Hot Key, 2020), reenvisions Arthurian legend within an urban fantasy setting. Her next trilogy, Six Wild Crowns (Orbit, 2025), is an historical fantasy retelling of the six wives of Henry VIII.

Prior to becoming a writer, Holly spent ten years as a script editor in film and television. She has worked for companies such as Red Planet Pictures, the Imaginarium Studios, Working Title Films and Aardman Animations and on series such as popular cosy crime drama Death in Paradise. She is currently a Royal Literary Fund fellow, attached to the Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge University.

Holly lives in Cambridge with her husband and daughter. When she isn’t writing, she can usually be found renovating their crumbling Regency era townhouse.

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