Six Wild Crowns by Holly Race

Six Wild Crowns by Holly Race

A Bold Fantasy Retelling That Challenges Everything We Think We Know

Genre:
Six Wild Crowns succeeds admirably in its ambitious goals, delivering both satisfying fantasy adventure and meaningful character development. While it occasionally stumbles under the weight of its complex plotting and extensive worldbuilding, the novel's emotional core remains strong throughout.
  • Publisher: Orbit
  • Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction
  • First Publication: 2025
  • Language: English
  • Series: Queens of Elben, Book #1

Holly Race’s debut fantasy novel Six Wild Crowns emerges as a stunning reimagining of the Tudor court, transformed into the mythical kingdom of Elben where dragons soar overhead and ancient magic pulses through the very foundations of power. This ambitious work succeeds brilliantly in its central mission: stripping away centuries of historical stereotypes to reveal the six wives of Henry VIII as complex, powerful women caught in an impossible web of politics, faith, and survival.

The World of Elben: Where Magic Meets Machination

Race constructs a meticulously detailed fantasy realm that feels both familiar and startlingly fresh. Elben’s magical infrastructure revolves around the bordweal, a protective barrier maintained by the mystical connection between the king and his six queens. The author’s worldbuilding shines particularly in her integration of this magical system with the political realities of court life. The sunscína – magical communication devices that allow the queens to speak across distances – serve as both plot device and powerful metaphor for the isolation these women experience.

The presence of dragons adds grandeur without overwhelming the human drama at the story’s core. These creatures serve ceremonial and practical purposes, from the hunting dragons that accompany royal expeditions to the magnificent beasts that dance overhead during the novel’s climactic ball scene. Race demonstrates remarkable restraint in her fantasy elements, using them to enhance rather than overshadow the deeply human conflicts that drive the narrative.

Boleyn and Seymour: A Love Story That Rewrites History

The novel’s greatest strength lies in its dual protagonists: Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour, reimagined as lovers rather than rivals. Race’s Boleyn emerges as a brilliant strategist whose fierce intelligence drives much of the plot. Far from the scheming seductress of popular imagination, this Boleyn is a woman of genuine conviction, uncovering ancient truths about the nature of power in Elben that threaten everything the kingdom believes about itself.

Seymour, traditionally portrayed as the meek and submissive third wife, transforms under Race’s pen into someone equally compelling but fundamentally different from Boleyn. Where Boleyn burns with righteous fury, Seymour’s strength lies in her capacity for growth and her fierce loyalty. The evolution of their relationship from political alliance to deep love provides the emotional backbone that elevates this beyond mere political fantasy.

Key Character Strengths:

  • Complex motivations that extend beyond historical stereotypes
  • Authentic emotional development throughout their dangerous partnership
  • Individual agency that never reduces them to their relationship
  • Distinct voices that make each perspective chapter feel essential

The Supporting Cast: Queens Given Voice

Race demonstrates particular skill in breathing life into the other queens, each given distinct personalities and motivations. Catherine of Aragon appears as a woman of dignity and political acumen, while Anna of Cleves emerges as perhaps the most cunning of all, having orchestrated her own unconsummated marriage to secure the castle of Cnothan for herself. Catherine Howard’s photographic memory becomes a crucial plot element, and Catherine Parr’s scholarly nature drives important revelations about Elben’s hidden history.

The king himself proves a more complex antagonist than expected. Rather than simply evil, Henry represents the corruption of a system that has convinced him of his own divinity. Race’s portrayal suggests a man who may once have been different but has been utterly corrupted by absolute power and the manipulation of those around him.

Ancient Mysteries and Religious Revolution

The novel’s exploration of religious themes proves both sophisticated and genuinely surprising. The revelation of Medren, an ancient goddess whose true role in Elben’s protection has been systematically erased and replaced with the masculine deity Cernunnos, provides a compelling foundation for the queens’ rebellion. Race handles this religious revisionism with remarkable nuance, never suggesting that the discovery of goddess worship automatically validates the queens’ actions, but rather exploring how the systematic suppression of women’s power has created the very system that now threatens to destroy them.

The Font of Cernunnos sequences and the discovery of the ancient sleeping queens beneath Brynd Castle create genuine moments of wonder and terror. Race’s description of these crystalline chambers and the voices of the long-dead queens manages to be both beautiful and deeply unsettling.

Prose Style: Tudor Elegance Meets Fantasy Grandeur

Race demonstrates a remarkable ability to adapt her prose style to match the grandeur of her setting while maintaining accessibility for modern readers. Her sentences often carry the cadence and formality of Tudor-era writing without becoming archaic or difficult to parse. The dialogue feels authentically period while remaining emotionally immediate.

Particularly effective are the intimate moments between characters, where Race’s writing becomes more fluid and contemporary, creating an appropriate contrast between public formality and private vulnerability. The author’s background in historical research shows in her attention to detail – from court ceremonies to the daily realities of castle life – without ever feeling like a history lesson disguised as fiction.

Political Intrigue That Actually Matters

Unlike many fantasy novels where political plotlines feel disconnected from character development, Race ensures that every political maneuver serves the dual purpose of advancing the plot and revealing character. Boleyn’s careful cultivation of allies among the other queens, Seymour’s navigation of her brother’s ambitions, and the various machinations of court advisors like Cromwell all feel organic to the world and essential to the story being told.

The novel’s climax, featuring the queens’ defiant dance at the Moon Ball, serves as both political statement and magical revelation. The scene where their combined power manifests visually while Henry’s divine authority literally drains away provides genuine catharsis while advancing the plot toward its inevitable confrontation.

Areas Where the Crown Slips

Despite its many strengths, Six Wild Crowns occasionally struggles under the weight of its own ambitions. The novel’s middle section, where various plotlines involving political intrigue, magical discovery, and relationship development all compete for attention, sometimes feels overcrowded. Certain secondary characters, particularly among the male courtiers, can blur together despite Race’s efforts to give them distinct voices.

The magic system, while generally well-integrated, occasionally raises questions that the novel doesn’t fully address. The exact mechanisms by which the queens’ connection to their castles maintains the bordweal could use more detailed explanation, particularly given how central this concept is to the plot’s resolution.

Some readers may find the novel’s pacing uneven, with intense action sequences followed by lengthy expository passages about Elben’s history and mythology. While these quieter moments often contain crucial information and character development, they can disrupt the narrative momentum that Race builds so effectively in her action sequences.

The Sapphic Romance: Love Amid Treason

The romantic relationship between Boleyn and Seymour develops with remarkable authenticity, avoiding many of the pitfalls that can plague queer romance in fantasy settings. Race never treats their love as either shocking or entirely accepted within their world, instead presenting it as one more dangerous secret in a court full of them. The physical and emotional intimacy between the characters feels genuine rather than performative, and their relationship deepens our understanding of both characters rather than simply serving as wish fulfillment.

Their final separation, with Seymour escaping to the Feorwa Isles while Boleyn remains to face the consequences of their rebellion, provides a bittersweet conclusion that feels earned rather than manipulative. The promise of future reunion gives hope without diminishing the very real costs of their choices.

Cultural Impact and Genre Significance

Six Wild Crowns arrives at a moment when readers are hungry for fantasy that doesn’t simply reproduce the power structures of historical patriarchy without comment. Race’s decision to center women’s agency and present a world where feminine power has been systematically suppressed but not entirely eliminated feels both timely and timeless.

The novel contributes meaningfully to the growing subgenre of historical fantasy that uses supernatural elements to explore real historical inequities rather than simply providing escapism. Race joins authors like Susanna Clarke and Alix E. Harrow in demonstrating how fantasy can illuminate historical truths rather than obscuring them.

Recommendations for Similar Reads

Readers who appreciate Six Wild Crowns will likely enjoy:

  1. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon – Epic fantasy with strong female characters and dragon mythology
  2. The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow – Historical fantasy exploring women’s power and sisterhood
  3. Circe by Madeline Miller – Mythological retelling that centers female perspective
  4. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab – Historical fantasy with themes of memory and power
  5. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid – Though not fantasy, explores themes of hidden queer relationships and women’s agency
  6. Red Queen by Philippa Gregory – Historical fiction focusing on women’s perspectives in the Wars of the Roses
  7. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden – Fantasy rooted in historical setting with focus on female protagonist

Final Verdict: A Crown Worth Claiming

Six Wild Crowns succeeds admirably in its ambitious goals, delivering both satisfying fantasy adventure and meaningful character development. While it occasionally stumbles under the weight of its complex plotting and extensive worldbuilding, the novel’s emotional core remains strong throughout. Race’s reimagining of the six wives as complex individuals rather than historical footnotes feels both respectful and revolutionary.

The novel works equally well as historical fantasy, queer romance, and political thriller, a rare achievement that speaks to Race’s skill as a storyteller. Readers seeking fantasy that engages with real-world issues while still providing the escapism and wonder that define the genre will find much to love here.

For fans of Tudor history, the novel offers a fresh perspective that honors the complexity of these historical figures while acknowledging the limitations of what we can truly know about their inner lives. For fantasy readers, it provides a magic system and world that feel both logical and mysterious, with conflicts that arise organically from the characters and their circumstances.

Six Wild Crowns establishes Holly Race as a significant new voice in historical fantasy, one capable of handling complex themes with both sensitivity and excitement. This is fantasy that trusts its readers to engage with difficult questions about power, faith, and love while delivering the emotional satisfaction that makes reading such a pleasure.

The crown fits perfectly – and these six queens were always meant to wear it together.


Six Wild Crowns is the first book in the Queens of Elben series. The sequel promises to continue exploring the aftermath of the queens’ rebellion and their efforts to reshape Elben’s future.

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  • Publisher: Orbit
  • Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction
  • First Publication: 2025
  • Language: English

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Six Wild Crowns succeeds admirably in its ambitious goals, delivering both satisfying fantasy adventure and meaningful character development. While it occasionally stumbles under the weight of its complex plotting and extensive worldbuilding, the novel's emotional core remains strong throughout.Six Wild Crowns by Holly Race