Henry Tudor Must Die by Jillian Laine

Tracy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Standalone (?)

Release Date: July 21, 2026

Once King Henry VIII set eyes on Jane Seymour, Anne Boylen’s days as queen were numbered, but what Henry didn’t realize was that Anne wasn’t the weak woman he believed her to be. Anne was a powerful witch and a member of the Hellebore Sisterhood, but without her spellbooks and her bloodletting knife, she is powerless – or so she thought. While awaiting her execution, Anne is visited by the last person she ever expected to see, the late Queen Catherine of Aragon. But Catherine “Lina” is not dead as everyone believes, she was saved by the Hellebore Sisterhood and has been sent to save Anne.

After performing the magic necessary to convince the world that she was executed, Anne is weak and at the mercy of Lina – a woman who should want her dead. Everything in Lina rages against helping the woman who was responsible not only for her own downfall, but the reason her daughter Mary was no longer heir to the throne. But when Princess Marguerite d’Angouleme, the sister of the French King and the leader of the Hellebore Sisterhood saved her from a life of exile, she couldn’t say no when the Princess asked her to save Anne. After nursing Anne back to health, the women travel to Spain and spend the next few years working for the Princess. But the rage and hatred for Henry is always simmering under the surface, so when Anne’s young cousin Catherine Howard, catches Henry’s eye, Anne knows the time has come and that Henry Tudor Must Die…

I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I started this book, but I have to say, this was one of the better Anne Boylen fictional retellings that I have read. I loved the idea of Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boylen working together, I felt their pain, their anger and their rage, and rejoiced in their friendship and commitment to the sisterhood. For me, the story did drag in the middle, but the ending was great (although heartbreaking) and I loved the interactive “footnotes” throughout the story. Overall, it was an interesting fictional historical retelling with a magical twist, and I would definitely read another book by this author – in fact I have my fingers crossed for a story with Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth!

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher/author. All opinions in this review are my own. *