Published By: Harvill
Pages: 336
Released On: 26/03/2026
When Anne Boleyn wakes up after her execution she finds she is not yet ready for death. She has unfinished business with the king who had her murdered and is determined to secure the future of her daughter, Elizabeth. Discarded by Henry for failing to produce a male heir, reviled by the court for being too smart for her own good and beheaded on trumped-up charges, Anne has one last chance to turn her fate around. She escapes the tower, sews her head back on, and sets out on a quest for vengeance.
But Anne’s path to justice will not run smoothly as she encounters the dangers of London and the countryside, and rumours start to swirl about sightings of her ghost. Luckily for her, she will find help from a chance meeting with fenlander Alice, who offers her the possibility of a different future.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Harvill for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I am obsessed with the Henry VIII and his Six Wives story, and I love reading anything new about them, so this book certainly piqued my interest.
I was concerned beforehand about how she was going to write the scene of Anne’s resurrection without making it sound juvenile or whimsical. But the opening chapter is perfection. Not always pleasant – but the poor woman has just been decapitated so we’ll let her off if she’s not looking her best – but it was gruesome and with the right amount of gravitas, and yet it felt very real, like “of course she’s going to wake p and put her head back on”.
It is so inventive, so passionate and detailed and respectful to the history and truth of Anne’s story – even if it is now believed that she was innocent of the crimes she was killed for.
Anne Boleyn is not always particularly likeable in this. I understand she’s been killed and resurrected and so I’m sure any of us would be cranky in this situation. She flits from a scared but determined woman, to a high and mighty, look-down-at-everyone, to a kind and loving friend. But even in the moments where she is not likeable, I still really liked her.
One thing I particularly liked was the time Rebecca has given to all the other characters. Yes this is Anne Boleyn’s story and she was Queen so she should get the bigger billing etc. But this story is about so much more than just that, and she has given the same amount of time and depth to the secondary characters, the “lesser” characters as she has given to the royals.
Yes it’s a thriller and a fantasy and all that, but it only works so well because it’s firmly rooted in history. I don’t know what Rebecca’s background is, but there’s clearly knowledge of Anne Boleyn and the period and whatnot – in addition to copious amounts of research I assume – but it’s this grounding in reality that makes the fantasy elements feel so real.
It’s heavier on narrative and prose than it is in dialogue, which I enjoyed very much. It is all so absorbing, the London of the 1500s the smells and the noise and the dirt and the blood; it sounds horrendous but it is beautifully captured here.
I went to bed relatively early one night and thought I would just read a couple of chapters. And then before I knew it, it was two hours later and I was half way – the other half was read over breakfast. It’s just so addictive that I couldn’t tear myself away.
The ending was a little left-field for me, it sort of came out of nowhere. Not that it’s a negative, it doesn’t stop the book being one of the best I’ve read, it just came as a bit of a surprise.
I’ve had a slightly weird version of the Six Wives floating around in my head for a few years, and whilst it’s not quite as macabre and fantastical as this one is, just the fact that Rebecca has managed to make such a well-known story into her own, gives me belief that maybe I could.
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