Overall I really enjoyed this Snow White villain origin story and am a huge fan of Heather Walter. The pacing of the first half was a little slow and it took me awhile to get through despite my excitement for this book. I did enjoy the plot and the characters a lot. Would definitely recommend!

For starters things I loved about this book;
-the magic system
-the lgbtq+ representation (main character is a lesbian)
-it was a Snow White retelling (the Evil Queen) but it wasn’t obvious so it felt unique
-main characters cat is a vibe
Things that I didn’t enjoy
-the love interest
-the repetitiveness (she mentioned her failed relationship a ton…)
-the pace. It starts off very slow but it picks up towards the end

Ayleth is a young witch, a Second to the Head of the Coven, who lives hidden from the rest of the world. The coven was instrumental in making and maintaining the separation between good and evil, called the Veil. It was forged from ancestral blood and fed over the many years. Witches perished to maintain this separation

The novel is an escape into the world of witchcraft, misogyny and murder. A time of religious burnings, where men smile in their piety as witches/women dance in hot iron shoes. The novel revolves around power, ancestral belief, courage and betrayal. I enjoyed the story but still felt that that the questions I have were not answered.

A highly imaginative, twisted, and dark retelling of one of the most famous fairy tales there is. I love villain origin stories and Heather has created such a clever one with Ayleth’s story. I’ve been looking forward to picking this up ever since she first talked about it years ago and I’m very happy I did.

It was interesting to see how she took so many elements of the original story and used them within her own. The Crimson Crown focuses on Ayleth leaving her witch coven to go to court in hopes of finding what she needs there and to prove herself. She has never been respected by her mother, the head of the coven, and wants to prove that she is worthy of being her mother’s second. Though she does not feel like she ever could be. Out in the mortal world, she encounters, Jacquetta, the woman who betrayed her and broke her heart so many years before.

When she eventually finds herself at the White Palace, she starts having to spend time around the royals. Some who will accept her with open arms and others who want to use her for their own needs. I loved the queen, Sybil and the princess, Blodwyn. They were so different than expected and were such enjoyable characters to follow throughout the novel. I loved every scene with Blodwyn, who was my favorite character in the novel. We also get the White King, Callen, who is despicable and uses the women around him for his own needs. Callen was balanced between his charismatic scenes and then the ones when we saw his true nature.

This was one of the best retellings I have ever read for “Snow White,” even if it was just the origin of the Evil Queen. It was very dark throughout, with the evil forces seeming to be following Ayleth around everywhere. I love where this story went and cannot wait to read the next book in this duology.

I wanted to love this book. Truly, I did! I loved Malice by Heather Walter and was expecting to devour this. But I just could not get into this book. I DNF at about 30% :( I'm so sad by this!

Supporting women’s rights and wrongs! I think this story was so well plotted, suspenseful, and just dark enough. Overall, I actually found myself wishing this wasn’t tied to the original Snow White story because it felt like it constrained characters’ development and relationship (esp. with the mother) felt created just to get Aleyth from point A to B. I wish more detail was given to court politics and the workings of the world.

Thank you NetGalley and Del Rey for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Crimson Crown is sort of a Snow White retelling—it’s about the story’s evil queen’s backstory. As a young girl, she was a witch living in hiding from the White King’s witch hunts, and circumstances lead her to his court. It’s not necessarily the type of thing I’m drawn to, but lesbians… villain origin stories… I’m very weak, okay?

Ultimately, I thought The Crimson Crown was… fine. The opening couple of chapters piqued my interest, but I ultimately didn’t care too much for the characters or plot, and there were multiple points where I was surprised to find out that I wasn’t nearing the end of the story and had quite a ways to go. The end was quite good, though, and while I did feel like I had been reading for quite some time, I found the end of the novel satisfying (or you know, satisfying for a first book in a series). As of right now, I’ll probably re-read this whenever the next book comes out just to see where things are going, though it won’t be on my priority list. I did find the world and magic to be neat and Walter’s writing is solid, I just… you know… felt a little whatever about it. The parts that were really good held my interest but those were few and far between. I think if I was more invested in reading about romances as a reader I’d maybe be left a little wanting, but on that front I was satisfied.

Not bad, just didn’t totally work for me.

Thank you net gallery for the advanced copy of this book. The first part of the book was an inner dialogue of self-loathing and regret. I almost put it down. It starts to get more interesting about a fourth of the way in. Still, lots of inner dialogue but it gets more positive. I would recommend.

Another sapphic fairytale retelling from Heather Walter!

I greatly enjoyed Malice and Misrule, so was excited for The Crimson Crown!

I liked learning about the coven and it's mechanisms, though I was not as invested in the relationship between Ayleth and Jacquetta as I wanted to be. The pacing was a bit slow, but wow that last part and the ending made me hungry for the next book!

A solid fairytale retelling of the Wicked Queen from snow white!

4.25 stars This was a great way of showing how the evil queen came to be the evil queen. if one likes to see someone who wants to be a hero (while not being a hero) fall into the villain role Heather Walter makes that come true.

I felt like this was a let down for me. The writing wasn’t bad but the storytelling wasn’t there. I am still interesting in reading what this author has previously written but this definitely wasn’t for me.

This is an epic villain origin story! And Ayleth tried so so hard not to go evil. But when she did, it was because she had REASONS. And I’m fully supportive of her villain era. I can’t wait for the next book to see her in all her villain glory!

For two thirds of the book I doubted that Ayleth was really our future villain. Almost everyone around her was evil in some way and she was trying SO HARD not to give in to the evil impulses. The side characters were relatable and enjoyable and I can’t wait to hear more about them too.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for an ARC of this book! This is my honest review.

Despite owning Walter's other book, this is my first time stepping into one of her worlds.

Admittedly, I'm not a big fan of fairytale retellings--especially Snow White. That said, I thought this was fun! While it wasn't anything groundbreaking, I can always appreciate a villain origin story. I just wish that it had a faster pace. I thought it was way too slow at times and that that caused me to almost feel like reading it was a chore. Overall, I've heard better things about the Malice duology so I think that I may give that one a shot instead!

This was pretty solid! The beginning was a bit of a struggle for me since I couldn't really develop any strong feelings towards the characters (and so the stakes weren't super high during my reading experience). The ending however !!! Definitely changed my opinion and my interest in a sequel.

Heather Walter is becoming an author whose works I automatically buy without knowing anything about the title other than she wrote it. She has an amazing story and I love how she takes well known tales and flips them in their head and makes them new and refreshing.

Thanks to Del Rey and Netgalley for the ARC.

4.5/5
"Six crows bring ill luck,
But seven worse,
For they carry a secret, mystery or curse."

Give me all the villain origin stories, I will consume them with glee. Have been of fan of Heather's stories since reading Malice and will certainly continue to pick up her books to read. This Snow White retelling shows how Ayleth came into her powers and chose the path that she does in part one of this duology. Set in the kingdom of Riven which is ruled by the White family, witchcraft has been outlawed and the remaining covens do what they must to survive undetected. Ayleth's coven has chosen to outwardly dress and behave as the sisters of Meira to remain alive. After a falling out with her mother, Ayleth journeys to the White Palace to do what she can to protect all witches and ends up in the middle of court politics, assassination attempts and her own struggle to find her powers.

"My child will be born. Not a son, but a daughter. The king will hate me for her. Let him. This realm has enough of greedy, grasping kings. What it needs now is a queen to forge a new age."

I very much enjoyed this retelling and the last 25% really made it hard to put down the book as I needed to find out how this was going to end!!! The world was full of interesting characters, and I liked Ayleth's relationship with Blodwyn, Joan and of course with Roland, who is fantastic, and I hope we see more of him in the next book. Plus, any good witch story needs its animal familiars and Nettle is delightful and I sure hope Fitz will be taken care of, sweet thing. There was one major reveal which I sure didn't see coming, and I thought the story ended at a place which should set up a terrific conclusion, which I am so excited for!! If you are a fan of Heather's prior works or novels like One Dark Window, I think you will enjoy this retelling also!

Yeah this ended up being just ok. There were points where I felt like it wavered from ok to good and then back to ok. There were glimmers of places the lore and relationships could have been shown to us at a deeper level, but it never got there. Pretty disappointing.

🥀The Crimson Crown - Heather Walter🥀

Thank you so much to @ for this arc of an absolute masterpiece💞this book is for fans of queer gothic fantasy, and if you’re like me, you’ll absolutely devour this story!

I was immediately hooked by the first sentence. Heather Walter has a near perfect way of storytelling.

This beautiful story includes romance, twists, lore, and a powerful story behind the Evil Queen.

In conclusion, this book is mesmerizing! I highly recommend reading🫶

4.75⭐️

Just like in Malice, the author creates a very deeply lived in world and history for this retelling. So much so that you frequently forget it's a retelling and that's one of my favorite kinds -- one that doesn't feel derivative but has a very original flavor with well fleshed out character arcs and motivations. But also like Malice, wish it had been paced better so as not to stretch over to another book.

I might try to read this one later, but I got about 25% in and I just struggled to maintain focus. A shame because I loved the author's other works!

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the chance to review.