This is such a spot-on retelling of the history of King Henry VIII, right down to certain quotes from different characters. It’s not even just the girls and Henry that are reminiscent of people from Tudor history. It’s everyone.
Add to that the entertaining first-person narration from a snarky protagonist.

The only thing that didn’t quite work for me about this book is the way that people actually do die in this, even though it’s set during modern day, and it’s treated like a totally normal thing. That sort of took away from the story a little bit, because it was trying to be thriller-y but also...not.

I felt like THE DEAD QUEENS CLUB started slow, but in all, I give this 3.5 stars out of 5. This book is insanely unique. You will not forget it.

THINGS I LIKED
1. The twists. You'd think a book based on very well known history wouldn't be twisty, but there were enough surprises to keep me going. And even though I knew the history, some things truly surprised me when they occurred.
2. The funny historical references. At some point, Parker Rochford (based on Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford, who was George Boleyn's wife) tells Lina (based on Catherine of Aragon) "You and Henry dated for like, twenty five years!" It was cleverly done (most of the time).
3. Katie Howard. Poor Katie. And Katheryn Howard in general.

THINGS I DIDN'T LOVE
1. I couldn't quite get a read on Cleves or her humor.
2. I'm a journalist by nature so I always get a little cranky with journalism based plots that are so very obviously not following journalistic standards. Sorry, Cleves, but Cat Parr was right on that one.
3. So much backstory to begin with. I liked that Cleves hadn't grown up with all of these people and was an outsider, but goodness, it took a long time to get through all of that and camp with Henry to the GOOD STUFF. The first 50% of the book was slow, and I read the last 50% in one sitting.

Dead queens club is a book that people will be talking about for awhile! Thank you netgalley for the free arc in exchange for an honest review!

The Dead Queens Club by Hannah Capin is a young adult contemporary story that is a retelling of Henry VIII and his wives. In this case however the “wives” are all high school girlfriends of Henry, the charming homecoming king.

The story is told from the point of view of Annie Marck or “Cleves” as Henry likes to call her who is the high school equivalent of Anne of Cleves, Henry’s 4th wife. Cleves in this story met Henry at camp and became really good friends with Henry often getting talked into his mischievous adventures.

Cleves gets transferred to Lancaster High with Henry and already being the best of friends she finds herself diving right into his world. There’s some mystery to the previous girlfriends and drama with the current but what else can one expect from high school relationships?

Being well beyond the intended audience for this one I will admit that it took a little getting used to the high school world and thought maybe it would be one that would feel too young. However, once getting going and really noticing the real life Henry’s story being played out in this young adult environment I really began to enjoy it. I don’t think it’s necessary to know all the details of Henry VIII to enjoy and maybe this one might even make it easier to do so if you know nothing beforehand. I do think it’s worth giving it a try though if you enjoy real life retellings.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

The Dead Queens Club
by Hannah Capin
Harlequin TEEN (US & Canada)
Inkyard Press
Teens & YA
Pub Date 29 Jan 2019


I am reviewing a copy of The Dead Queen’s Club through Harlequin Teen and Netgalley:


You might be tempted to think that being the new girl in town might equate to one boring sen year. But that was far from the case for me, Annie Marc, also known as Cleeves because I was accidentally transformed into teenage royalty by walking into Lancaster High in the arm of the King himself.



Henry has it all, the jock, the genius, and the brooding bad boy all wrapped into one. It’s no wonder he’s on his sixth girlfriend in only two years.



What this does not explain is why two of us are dead!


My best friend believes it’s Henry’s fault but that’s ridiculous, right? My nemesis says we just shouldn‘t talk about it which is sketchy. As the new girl I’m determined to find out what happened to the dead queen’s before history repeats itself!


Five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

20%. That's where I should have DNF'ed this. I wouldn't have missed a thing.

Was there a point to this? I mean, there must have been because it's over 400 pages, but it was lost under page upon page of inane and tiresome high school drama I struggle to come to grips with. I think this was supposed to be a feminist positive story, but you've got to wade through a hell of a lot of slut-shaming to get to that conclusion.

Honestly, I only carried on to the end because someone whose reviews I trust said it rewards you. Yeah, no. This was unbelievably dull and annoying to read. The drama that supposedly was the centre of the story is a mess, and the writing doesn't help that along much. I think there was a mystery being solved, but who the hell knows. It's one of those books that tries to have a relatable voice and be funny and personable. I say tries because good lord did it ever. Another thing that made me exhausted of the whole thing before I'm even a quarter of the way in.

I don't know if it was the formatting of my e-ARC, but I couldn't follow this. 90% of this story was just dialogue. Swaths and swaths of people talking in teenage slang that I had a very hard time believing (do people seriously still do the talk to the hand thing?) Not to mention I had no idea who was talking half the time because everyone sounded exactly the same and the dialogue tags were non-existent.

Overall, just another book that steers me away from the contemporary genre. I really don't have much positive to say, and it pains me to say so.

I absolutely enjoyed this reimagining of Henry the VIII in modern day. I went into this book knowing a bit about ol' Henry, but some things struck me, so as I hit up Google while reading certain sections, it was really cool seeing how much truth was incorporated into this tale. Very tense moments and a tense ending that had me stressed till the very end. Great book!

I am a hardcore history buff and a sucker for Tudor England. So when I found our about this re-telling of Henry VIII and his wives set in a modern high school, I said sign me up! Unfortunately I had a hard time staying interested and the length of the book didn't help. If it were about 100 or so pages shorter I probably could have kept pushing but I found the narrator to be annoying and the story confusing. It makes me very sad as I was looking very much forward to reading this book. Concept was awesome the execution not so much.

3.5

I finished this last night but had to sleep on it. When you read a 450+ page book in one day it kind of attacks your brain like a hoard of little termites causing you to think of little else. Thankfully the termites were gone when I woke up so now I'm going to try to bang out a coherent review.

I liked this book more than my starring suggests, but - a big ol' but - I had some problems with it that I felt a higher rating would be a stretch. So, yes. I enjoyed it. But.

But why on earth were these teenagers <i>so</i> quick-witted? God knows I was an annoyingly quick-witted teenager - hello, sixteen year old kayla, have you met your un-biological twin sister Cleves? - but these kids never <i>stopped</i>. In real life at some point someone would have run out of dry, witty, and/or sarcastic remarks, wouldn't they? So, yeah, it got to a point where the writing changed from Really Fun and Snappy and Unlike Anything I've Read Recently, to How Do These Children Have So Many Funny Thoughts [insert fourteen question marks here]. Breaking: they don't. (If you've read it you know why that's funny - or <i>not</i> funny depending on many times your brain can handle reading the word <b>breaking</b> before imploding.)

Cleves being introduced as Cleveland to adults and teachers <i>calling</i> her Cleves instead of Annie is just borderline ridiculous, but I supposed it's not the most ridiculous thing in a retelling of Henry VIII and all his wives. To be perfectly frank I don't know much about dear ol' Henry. I two (2) history classes in university and one was The 10 Days That Shaped The World or something which is, like, odd, because we definitely learned more than 10 events? I think. I dropped it before the last exam because This Girl Couldn't Be Bothered! The other class was an ancient history class that was full of BORING FACTS. Why did we need two months on pottery? On urns? Why was there almost no exciting information??? The second I could leave that exam I did and guess what, readers? I PASSED! And stayed bitter about how boring the class was to this day ~7~ years later. BUT I DIGRESS.

So I don't know much about Henry VIII. Lots of wives, some dead, etc. I never watched the Tudors or read <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/187905-the-plantagenet-and-tudor-novels">The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels Series</a> (I will read them one day seeing as I own a bunch). I was hoping THE DEAD QUEENS CLUB could teach me a little bit - and it did. Kind of. Maybe? Not sure because as I said, 458 pages in one day is A Lot. The writing just pulled me in despite nothing happening for a good chunk of the first half; one hundred pages could have been cut from the middle and not one thing would have to be changed.

I would've liked the switch from past to present to in-between to be a little more obvious as the narrative jumped <i>a lot</i>. The plot was messy. I have to say it. I don't know if that was purposeful due to the insanity that Henry's life was or if it was because it was an arc, but god. I was told so much? But nothing? Do I even know what happened in this book? Whom knows.

Why on earth was Cleves so wishy-washy? She was so strong and opinionated for everything in her life that wasn't Henry. I understand the crush aspect - who hasn't had a crush one someone that you think hung the moon? - but when she is being given HEAPS on HEAPS of evidence why does she push back it so much BUT ALSO BELIEVE IT but also push back and Oh My God, No, He Couldn't Have Done That except what if he did? It was, like, five straight chapters of this. Just pick a side and take a nap, girl, honestly.

The chapter titles were very funny and I wish I had saved my favourite ones, but alas. I was hurtling towards the end trying to guess how it would end - remember, all I really know about Henry VIII is that he's dead 'cause he's ancient, so. - and forgot to tab the funniest ones. But I really enjoyed them.

So despite my average rating, it was enjoyable. But messy. BUT I am very excited to read Capin's next novel at some point - it comes out in 2020 but these greedy girl is going to try and get her hands on an arc - because it's a retelling of Macbeth.


Big thanks to Harlequin TEEN & Inkyard Press for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I requested this book because I love history and am interested in the Henry VII and his life and so a modern YA retelling sounded liked a slam dunk to me. Unfortunately, I could not finish this book. I got very confused and it seemed to be a little all over the place. I guess trying to compare a crazy king who had many of his wives beheaded doesn't translate well to high school drama.

One of the things that made this the hardest to read was the formatting. I know it is an ARC and the formatting will changed when it is published but it was pretty unreadable.

The Dead Queens Club was on my list for most anticipated book for 2019. However, this was really kind of a mess. The plot was SO hard to follow. I had to keep re-reading to figure out what was going on. I really struggled to finish this book, which rarely happens to me. It was just almost impossible to figure out what was happening and to whom. If you can make it to the ending, then you'll appreciate it. The humor was good at points but sometimes it just felt forced. I normally love snark but this didn't feel natural. Overall, this book is okay, if you can make it the end you'll probably enjoy it.

~2.75
Firstly, I will admit that I know next to nothing about history, let alone about Henry VIII, so I'm sure someone who actually knows the history about him will probably enjoy this more than I did if this was a good modern retelling.

Now, about the actual book. In general, I did not find any of the characters particularly likable, especially Cleves. I find her personality to be quite grating. It's as if the author tried a bit too hard in attempting to make her a relatable girl by making her quirky and the "not the typical girl" kind of gal. Probably the "best" character out of the lot of characters is Cat, but she didn't grow on me until like 3/4 into the book, which is also when she actually shows her true colors. This is unfortunate since it would have made the story much more interesting if she had done that earlier.

I would also like to comment on the pacing of the story. Firstly, I found the first half of the book kind of boring and a bit unnecessary to the plot since nothing important really happened. In fact, the story itself does not start to move until halfway through the book and approximately 3/4 way in the action really starts to happen. Maybe it was just me, but I found that the placing of the flashbacks was not done that well, as the jumping from the past to the present got confusing at times as it was not consistent, or maybe it was and I just never noticed (if that's the case then just disregard this comment).

Lastly, I would also like to say that the ending wasn't bad, but it could've ended better, as I felt a bit unsatisfied. Perhaps an epilogue could have fixed this problem, as it would be nice to know what happened in the aftermath of the whole incident and what happened to the girls because admittedly, they were an awesome group that worked well together.

Overall, I thought this was okay. Nothing outstanding, so don't be surprised if you're not entertained at first, but it does pick up later if you stick around for it.

Disclosures first: I received this book from NetGalley for review purposes. I also don't do spoilers in reviews so this may be very vague. I'm sorry now!

I'm going to be honest, I really didn't think this was my kind of book. I love YA and a bit of a history geek but I generally hate modern adaptations of historical events. I didn't hate this.

Turning Henry VIII into the king of high school and his six wives into the six girlfriends of a serial monogamist was genius. Making Anne of Cleves, Henry's shortest marriage and the wife later referred to as his "beloved sister', the narrator was also a brilliant move.

Espionage, drama, murder mastery, girl gangs, and sarcastic feminism round out a humorous take on a historical reality. There's enough true history and artistic license that history buffs and history haters a like will enjoy this novel.

Join the Dead Queens Club now and enjoy the roller coaster.

As someone who loved learning about Henry VII and his wives (especially Anne Boleyn), this novel was right up my alley in terms of interest. I will say that the novel started out slow and I did not know if I would finish it, but when the action hits, it hits hard and it was hard to put down in the end. The girls are not playing any games when it came to justice! I really loved that this brought a new look to the Henry VIII story and made it extremely easy to relate to for teenagers and connect with the setting being high school and none of the girls being true royalty. I would recommend this book to students who are interested in historical fiction and want new twists or just want a more modern look at history.

Hello, I will be publishing this review to my Instagram, Goodreads, and blog on January 8th,2019. I will also publish it onto Amazon and Barnes & Noble on the publication date of January 29th, 2019. I will add the links to the reviews when they go public, thank you.


Title: The Dead Queens Club
Author: Hannah Capin
Publication Date: January 29th, 2019
Rating: 3 stars
eARC provided by publisher through NetGalley

The Dead Queens Club is a retelling of Henry VIII with high school girlfriends instead of wives. It is told in the PoV of his close friend Annie Marck aka Cleve who is a school journalist. She tries to find out the truth of what happened to his exes before another one bites the dust.

When I started this I didn't know what to expect. Sometimes retellings are great while others fall short. With this one, the high school setting really fits because sometimes high school can feel like a royal court. There is always drama no matter what. I also liked it being about girlfriends because it makes it more relatable. Now a days, there has been a lot of talk about women empowerment and women coming together  to support one another. The author does a great job building up the relationships between the girls all the way up until the end. The titles for the chapters were interesting because they were meant to be like news headlines.

The reason I'm  not sure about it is because there was a lot going on. It was like the movie Mean Girls but on steroids and it was just a little too much for me at times. I also wasn't a fan of the writing style. I did end up reading it in one sitting because I just wanted to know where it was going so obviously it wasn't all bad!

If you want to go on a crazy ride of high school drama, mean girls, and deadly relationships this book is for you!

I received a copy of the Dead Queens Club from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked the idea of this novel and maybe I wasn't in the right mood for this one when I tried reading it. I just couldn't connect with any of the characters and the timeline was a little jumbled which left me feeling disconnected from the book. I might revisit this book at a later date because a book that has a high school setting and is a retelling of Henry VIII is so genius that I want to love this one.

I received a copy of the Dead Queens Club from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.It's really lovely to read a book by someone who loves history as much as you do. I really liked the attention to detail and how lively the characters were. There were a few parts that made me cry.
I really liked Annie Marck. This book is not just a historical retelling but a rumination on toxic friendships and internalized misogyny.
Long live the Queens.

An intriguing reinvention of the wives of Henry VIII, down to Henry the magnetic jock's football jersey number being 8. Some of the parallels were fairly obvious, some had me itching to google details (but alas, I was reading this on a plane and so my phone was stuck on airplane mode right along with me). This modern take is only slightly less deadly, but thankfully comes with a healthy helping of feminism just robust enough to be vocally against slut-shaming. For those who enjoy drama, there is plenty of it, and I really wasn't quite sure where the plot was going multiple times. It certainly ended up in a place different than I had originally expected, although I am thankful for how it went.

I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Dead Queens Club was pitched as Mean Girls meets The Tudors and as a modern retelling of Henry VIII and his six wives, except Henry is now a high school senior and it’s his six girlfriends.

There will definitely be readers that love this one. Unfortunately, I did not. The book struggled with two main things: characterization and pacing.

This is a very lengthy debut for a contemporary: 464 pages. If a YA contemporary is going to be this length, it needs to have excellent pacing. This story did not. At times, the story dragged out, and the death alluded to in the summary doesn’t happen until more than a third of the way through the book. When this character dies, it was treated as an “oh well, that happened” by the main character Cleves even though Cleves called that character one of her two best friends. The only exploration of grief from the loss of a friend is from Parker, Cleves’ friend. Parker is far more interesting and more hellbent on revenge, convinced that Henry was responsible for that death as well as two previous deaths, and that’s what drives the rest of the story.

As for the main character Annie “Cleves,” this is where characterization seems to be a particular struggle. In a throwaway line, we learn that Cleves was adopted and is Chinese. She has a sister who is mentioned only a few times and is almost never seen on page despite living together. Cleves is infatuated with Henry and is unsure of what she wants to do for college. She also is very much into breaking down the different standards for the female gender. And that’s about it. Her character is very one-dimensional, and I felt very apathetic towards her because the author never gave me much of a reason to be rooting for her or to even care about her.

If I had not been approved for the eARC, I wouldn’t have finished this.

So much potential but fell flat.

3.5 stars

Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived.

Annie Marck aka Cleveland aka Cleves is certain of one thing—Henry is her best friend and she's his right hand man. No matter what girl he's dating. And he's dated quite a few.

But strange things keep happening to Henry's girlfriends, and Cleves might be at the center of it all...
~
Okay, so lemme tell you what I loved.

I absolutely adored the Henry VIII parallel into modern day high school.

It works so damn well.

Granted, there are a couple of tweaks (compressing the timeline, girlfriends instead of wives, how Anna Boleyn and Katie Howard die, what happened to Jane), but so much 16th century gossipy goodness is packed into this story and there's a healthy dose of Shakespeare that I was in historical hog heaven the entire time.

There are just so many easter eggs planted throughout the story!

The Tower Anna Boleyn dies in. Henry's fitness and then his horrible, never-ending leg injury that he got doing a stupid stunt that Anna and co. goaded him into trying. Catalina Tortuga of Archibald-Callaway. That so many of the place names in Lancaster, Indiana, correspond to actual locations in Henry VIII's England. Cleves being Henry's bestie/sister and pretending like the marriage/relationship never happened. Many of the secondary and tertiary characters named like members of Henry's court. And on and on and on. None of these goodies are spoilers, btw.

I loved Cleves' snark and her voice. She's smart, but unfocused (more to that later) and has no freaking clue what the hell she's going to do after high school, and is low-key freaking out about it since all her friends have high flying plans and she's got nothing (sooooo relatable) besides tagging along with whatever Henry does (not so relatable but I can see it). She's also definitely got a heavy streak of sarcasm and a very interesting sense of fashion, so even if you have literally no clue why the God King himself would want her as a bestie, you're entertained by her zippy remarks.

And I really liked the climatic last portion of the story. It was tense, thrilling and as much chaotic as you would expect given what happened.

So what I wasn't so thrilled about:

Like Hamlet, Cleves might be smart, but she is indecisive as fuck. She takes her sweet time making her decisions, and she jumps about here and there with her actions and thoughts and comments, making her one hell of an unreliable narrator because you're never exactly sure what side she's really on. She whines about not being editor and hating Cat Parr who is editor, but makes a gajillion crappy editorial decisions, undermines Cat's authority at every turn and exhibits very few qualities that would make me feel like she could even have gotten into Overachiever's Camp in the first place.

In short, you want to smack her across the face and yell at her to focus and actually be the objective investigative reporter she claims to be.

Plus, aside from the thrilling last 10%, the entire last half of the story bogs down with the weight of Cleves' indecision and waffling. I really feel like a solid 100 pages could have been snipped away as cleanly as Ann Boleyn's head and nothing would have been lost from the book.

So reasons to read this book:

1. A creative historical Henry VIII gossip fest in a high school setting and it works
2. Feminist history that puts things into perspective
3. (view spoiler)
4. Snarky heroine and found-friends girl gang.
5. Fluff with a nice dose of teen craziness and gore.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.