A review by clovetra
Six Wild Crowns by Holly Race

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

thank you to netgalley and orbit publishing for providing me a copy of this audiobook in return for an honest review <3
i really had a good time with this one. usually i play a mobile game when listening to audiobooks, and this was so good i found myself trying to keep going with the game simply so i could listen to this. i defo think the audiobook format helped enhance my experience, as the mousey voice given to seymour made me latch onto her almost instantly, and the voice given to boyeln felt very realistic. usually in audiobooks i find there’s one or two voices i just can’t stand, but i didn’t have that issue here, and felt like everyone’s vocal characterisation aligned superbly with their dialogue, personality, actions, etc. 
now to the actual story — can i just say i fucking adore the fact that seymour and boyeln’s arcs are in reverse, and by the end of the book they both have swapped roles e.g. seymour’s end of book personality matches boyeln’s start of book personality and vice verse. ohhhh i love me thematic parallels. i loved how their arcs were interwoven with each other and how they bounced off each other! what i didn’t love about them was the blatant queer bating. OK OK OK put down your pitchforks. yes there is actually Gay Stuff, but the synopsis led me to believe boyeln and seymour were going to be lezzing it up by like 30% read. Nope. instead i just got subtext, wistful stares and slight horniness until the end of the book. bffr you can’t label your book as sapphic if the main pairing ONLY KISSES EACH OTHERS CHEEKS. i’m sorry that’s technically a spoiler but i feel like it’s fair enough for me not to tag that because idk the blurb led me to believe i’d be having full horn dog time and i didnt. and that defo affected my enjoyment of the book negatively, and is partially why this wasn’t a 5-star for me. i also think i was scammed out clarence time. i’m so sorry how are you going to have this universe have a whole other gender system and relegate the one character who follows said system to a background character. are you serious. i know it didn’t really fit into the plot but cmon now… i was so excited to explore that and then it just… didn’t happen. and yet again more sapphic bait as anything relating to clarence’s queerness happens off-page….. ur just playing with me now seriously. 
i do think the plot was strong, and i really liked the driving force of the story. i also think the textual climaxes didn’t feel cheap — every character faced repercussions in some way when they fucked around and found out and it affected them in the long-term. i also quite enjoyed the general atmosphere of the story, and this book has single-handedly made retellings of henry the eight’s wives a loved niche in media. i also was super invested in the characters, especially seymour and boyeln, as they were given such depth, lots of character motivations, flaws, space for them to grow, and more. i don’t think i can find a fault in any way which the characters themselves were written, except maybe that seymour’s helpless schtick dragged on for a tad too long, and she should’ve beat edward’s ass a lot sooner, but i don’t think that’s a big negative, just a nitpick. i will say though…. the reveal of who the spy was actually had me sit up, gasp, pause, and then had me pacing around the room in shock. i really was just here for the ride, and wasn’t trying to work out who exactly it was, but seriously that reveal gobsmacked me. maybe it would’ve been obvious if i was looking for it, but i wasn’t so 🤷 i also think that cliffhanger is evil evil evil (/pos). i don’t really like the fact that one of the characters is now permanently removed from the story, especially with how it was done, but i think that’s because i wanted to see more of them. also i don’t really understand why their removal happened…. like i don’t get the “benefit” even though it was explained in-text, so im a bit… confused? as to where the sequel will go. but i mean im defo sat. i have hope that there is a potential for the Gay to be full on sexy time rather than just characters sending letters to each other with cutesy little hearts next to their signature. i also have hope that i will love the second, as god this universe in the story is just so well-written. it feels so fleshed out and authentic tbh i forgot for a bit that the sunseena(? idk how to spell it babes i listened to the audiobook) isn’t a real thing NFKDKF. 
anyways, if you like tudor romances (is this tudor? i have no idea) and magical realism out the wazoo, with women overcoming their d-bag husband and realising their potential, boy do i have the book for you! if you’re coming for the sapphic romance thought…. maybe pick another book 🫢
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