Early Review – Henry Tudor Must Die by Jillian Laine (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 368 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: July 21, 2026
ASIN: B0FX849753
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 4/5 stars

“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. And they’re not alone. Anna von Kleve, Kat Howard, and even Catherine Parr all have their own bones to pick with the king. One by one, they capture their pawns, infiltrating the court and eliminating the men who plotted against them. Always inching closer to their true target . . .

And they want his head.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got this on ebook for review from NetGalley.

Thoughts: I enjoyed this historical fantasy about all of Henry the VIII’s wives. This is an alternate history set in England during Henry’s reign, where magic is real. I found the characters engaging and enjoyed their unique voices. However, this does jump around a lot between characters, which disrupted the flow of the story. There are also a lot of footnotes which really took you out of the story (especially when reading on Kindle and having to click a link and then go back to the main story).

This follows the stories of Henry’s displaced (secluded, beheaded, etc) ex-wives. On the night before her beheading, we find out that Anne Boleyn is part of a secret society aimed at making the lives of women throughout Europe better. She is rescued by Catalina de Aragon (Lina), who is also part of this society. As time goes on, it is decided by the society that Henry must die; he is doing too much damage to both Europe and England.

This story jumps around a lot. At first, we hear mainly from Anne and Lina, but then other ex-wives of Henry and some other European rulers are drawn into the mix. I did enjoy that each woman whose POV we read from has a very distinct voice (I think my favorite character was Catharine Parr). However, the way the story is put together holds the reader at a bit of a distance from each woman we read about.

This does a great job of looking at the chaos of Henry the VIII’s reign and how much that damaged the lives of the people around him. This is a timely book because it parallels what we are seeing in the current American government; one unstable person in power can cause so much chaos.

This book has a lot of footnotes; they are both informative and snarky comments from the French queen (Marguerite). The French queen is heading up the secret society that Lina and Anne work for. I appreciated the informative ones and thought the snarky ones were unnecessary. Having to click a link to go to a footnote, read it, and then click back to the story was very disruptive to the story. I found these footnotes more annoying than anything.

Some of the magical things included felt a bit jarring as well. Anne’s magic is never well explained, and it is odd that she is really the only one we see a lot of magic from. One of the other characters is a seer, and this felt a bit weird as well. It was like these magical bits were thrown into the story to make it work rather than being an organic part of this world.

I did enjoy this alternate historical look at King Henry’s reign but I found the flow of the story to be a big off because of all the character POVs and the footnotes.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I am happy I read this; it was entertaining and engaging and an interesting re-imagining of this time in history. I did struggle a bit with the flow of the story because of the POV changes and footnotes. I also thought the world-building was a bit clumsy; the way things like magic and seer abilities were included just felt contrived. While I probably won’t immediately pick up new books by Laine, I will definitely give them a look. This was decently done if you are looking for a historical retelling of Henry’s reign with a feminist bent to it and some magic.