Published By: Michael Joseph
Pages: 400
Released On: 23/07/2026
Anne Boleyn is going to die, and neither her cleverness nor her witchery can save her.
So when her late rival, Catalina de Aragón, miraculously appears in her cell at the Tower of London on the eve of her execution, very much alive and offering a daring escape plan, no one is more surprised than Anne.
Lina doesn’t have Anne’s magic—but she has just as much hate for England’s wretched king. Severed from her daughter and stripped of all her influence, Lina breathes only for the Hellebore Sisterhood, a clandestine and powerful society with a vested interest in keeping both queens alive…and using their particular skills to advance womankind.
Anne and Lina’s old rivalries pale in comparison to a common enemy. One by one, they capture their pawns, infiltrating the court, recruiting the new queens in Henry’s orbit, and eliminating the men who plotted against them. Always inching closer to their true target…
And they want his head.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Michael Joseph for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I’ve read a lot of Henry VIII-related books recently – I’ve even tentatively started working on my own – and it’s a theme I’m finding very enjoyable, but there is a risk of there being too many, but this one sounded fresh. And add a bit of magic and everyone’s happy.
As someone who lives in Hertfordshire, I love that Jillian has kept the historical element of Hatfield, a part of Tudor history that seems to get ignored.
There are footnotes and whilst they’re interesting, you wouldn’t be at a disadvantage if you didn’t read them.
The narration flits between Lina and Anna and whilst it does say at the start of each chapter whose POV it is, I only noticed it about half way through. It reads as if its own POV and so I don’t think it’s necessarily needed.
It’s written as if someone other than the characters is speaking to us. The whole book is like a story within another story inside this book….that’ll make sense once you read it.
It does get a little slow and repetitive about 30-35% of the way through. Not much happens, and what does happen, happens over and over again. Which is fine. It is needed in context of hte overall story. But it did get slightly boring in parts. I think it would have benefited by being a bit shorter. Make some scenes more concise and less repetitive because at 400 pages, it’s not especially long, but it was stretched a bit thing at times.
I liked the angle of this. Yes it gives us the female perspective, but she hasn’t just rehashed the original Henry VIII story from the women’s side. She has made them powerful and stars in their own right.
What is weird is that earlier I read The Beheading Game, which is another book about Anne surviving her execution, only to team up with other women in order to kill the King. Which in effect, is what this book is – with some magical details. That’s fine, ideas are bound to get repeated and I have no problems with that. The only problem is I LOVED The Beheading Game and whilst I try not to compare books in reviews, sometimes it’s difficult not to, especially when they’ve been read close together. And I have to say, whilst this was really good and I very much enjoyed it, it didn’t quite have the same spark as the other.
I believe this is Jillian’s debut novel, which is impressive as it is very good and promises a very good career.
The story is interesting, the characters well written, and the storytelling good. It does have pacing issues and is quite same at times, and unfortunately struggles under the weight of previous books read on the same topic. But it does hold a lot of promise. She’s managed to give us the true historical aspects, but weaved the fun, magic, and witchy stuff into it which elevated it above the same story we already know.
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