I really wanted to be swept away by Six Wild Crowns, but unfortunately I was not. It has all these elements I would love, but I just wanted a bit more depth in certain areas. Keep reading this book review of Six Wild Crowns for my full thoughts.
Summary
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
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Six Wild Crowns has all the elements which should be catnip to me. It has historical fantasy, sapphic vibes, and women uniting to take down a king. But unfortunately I needed a bit more depth. First of all, I think this is a pretty faithful re-telling of history – except for the glaring obvious differences – and that threw me a bit. I was expecting more deviations considering some of the larger jumps – all the queens alive and the magic. But this stays pretty close in terms of the queens rise and rumors circling which could be a good or bad thing for you depending on what you’re expecting!
Coming to the characters, it’s focused only on Boleyn and Seymour and I wish it had a bit more expansive look at the queens. I realize that it’s mostly their story, but I wish we would have had more depth into the other queens. I know this is book one of a series, so there’s room for growth, but I had a hard time with both Boleyn and Seymour. First of all, the sapphic promises aren’t as strong as more pining with unrequited feels, which I think is a big difference to what you might be expecting when you hear sapphic. Secondly, I just felt like the lead up for the BIG movements were super slow. So you need to be invested in the characters pretty completely to make it there.
Overall,
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And I guess I felt like it was more the Boleyn show with a late game intrigue for Seymour which I wish had been reversed. The magic was a major selling point for me and unfortunately this was late game for Six Wild Crowns. As I said, this is book one, but it’s hard for me to be invested enough for book two when I feel a bit as if the rug was pulled out from me. A heavy hand in politics and court backstabbing could have redeemed me, but it overall felt a bit surface level in terms of what happened. Six Wild Crowns should have been really up my alley, but everything I liked I found I needed a bit more.
If you like the historical fiction element more than the fantasy, this could still be for you. But for me, I wanted a bit more of the fantastical earlier. Find Six Wild Crowns on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon(US)(UK), Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.