I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

You’d think being the new girl in a tiny town would equal one very boring senior year. But if you’re me—Annie Marck, alias Cleves—and you accidentally transform into teenage royalty by entering Lancaster High on the arm of the king himself? Life becomes the exact opposite of boring.

Henry has it all: he’s the jock, the genius and the brooding bad boy all in one. Which sort of explains why he’s on his sixth girlfriend in two years.

What it doesn’t explain is why two of them—two of us—are dead.

My best friend thinks it’s Henry’s fault, which is obviously ridiculous. My nemesis says we shouldn’t talk about it, which is straight-up sketchy. But as the resident nosy new girl, I’m determined to find out what really happened to Lancaster’s dead queens…ideally before history repeats itself.

Short and Sweet

Everyone knows about the infamous King Henry VII and his six wives, but in this retelling we meet Annie aka Cleves girlfriend number four and Henry’s best friend. But things start to get suspicious when Henry is on his sixth girlfriend in six months and two of his exes are dead. Cleves’ best friend thinks Henry is behind it all and now all they have to do is prove it before his sixth girlfriend ends up dead too.

Characters

Annie (Cleves): Our main character and narrator. Cleves who got her nickname because she’s from Cleveland moves to Lancaster where she’s best friends with Henry which by association makes her popular. Cleves is pretty funny and sarcastic she knows what she wants and she wants the editor in chef position for the school paper. One thing Cleves doesn’t like is feeling like she’s being censored. One thing about Cleves is that she’s very indecisive and doesn’t know whether she should take Henry’s side or Parker’s.

Henry: Henry is a popular football player but he’s also a serial dater and for some reason he’s already on girlfriend number six in six months which he doesn’t find strange at all. Like the actually Henry VII I found this Henry very accurate considering that this book takes place during modern times. Henry was interesting he liked to pull pranks on his girlfriends and that was mainly because he thought that they were up to something. Henry is also dealing with a lot he has a leg injury which is holding him back and he feels like he’s not good enough in his fathers eyes.

Parker: Parker is one of Cleves’ best friends. She’s organized practical and hmm a little vengeful when she feels like someone is messing with her friends, she also has a lot of bite to her and she can be pretty mean. I actually liked Parkers character she isn’t what you’d expect she’s dealt with a lot after she lost her boyfriend George in the explosion (more on that later), now Parkers main goal is to keep those closest around her safe and while doing that she can come off as paranoid.

Romance

~ I have kindly listed each girlfriend in their respective order of 1-6

Henry and Lina: Lina is Henry’s first girlfriend and she is described as an overachiever, who also that she shows grace when put in pressure situations. When Henry first starts talking about Lina all he ever says is that she’s great and the most amazing person ever but eventually he ends up leaving her for Anna.

Henry and Anna: Anna is described as an overly ambitious Francophile and people weren’t the biggest fan of her because they thought she stole Henry away from Lina, and this was also a big thing in the book because people were either team Lina or team Anna. The big thing that happened in this relationship occurred at prom where there was an explosion that killed Anna and her brother George. Anna is blamed for this explosion and people consider her a murderer and say that her motive for causing the explosion was to cover up that she may have been cheating on Henry.

Henry and Jane: This one was an interesting relationship mainly because whenever Cleves talks about Jane all she can say is that Jane was boring and all she did was volunteer at the hospital but I don’t know how boring she could have been because Henry seemed to like her a lot.

Henry and Cleves: This is probably the shortest relationship of them all and because of that these two like to act like it never even happened. Henry and Cleves met at a summer camp and hit it off and became best friends and kept in touch so when she moved closer to him they were both happy about it. These two only start dating because someone told Henry he should ask Cleves out because they seemed like they would work, and even though they broke up they continued being best friends, and these two broke up because Henry started to like Katie.

Henry and Katie: Katie was a cheerleader Henry was a football player this was a match made in popular kid heaven. I liked Katie she was sweet and she’s dealt with a lot in the past and has a reputation for sleeping around. Katie was trying to work past her issues and I liked how she always tried to stay positive. Sadly, like her cousin Anna, Katie met her demise.

Henry and Cat: Cat is the editor in chief of the school paper and the Vice President of the debate club. This relationship was strange mainly because it seemed like Henry wouldn’t date someone like Cat which is exactly way she went for him, she knew he liked dating different kinds of girls. Cat was smart and at first I didn’t like her but she grew on me. Honestly she’s just really really really smart which you’ll notice when you read the book.

Quotes

~ “Cheating sets him off because it’s an insult and a betrayal. As long as I don’t cheat, I’m safe.”

My Thoughts

~ I’m going to be honest, the first half of this book was hard to get through. I don’t know if it was because of it going to the past and then back to the present but it just wasn’t good. And the plot doesn’t really take effect until the second half of the book anyway when Parker tells Cleves about her thoughts on Henry, the first half was mainly just about girlfriends 1-4 and Henry’s history with them.

~ I liked the girl power thing going on in this book I thought it was amazing how they all banded together because they realized no one else could get hurt.

~ What I loved the most was that the girlfriends and some of the things that happened to them corresponds to their historical counterparts. There were a lot of Easter eggs in this book and it was great.

~ I liked the mystery aspect of the book when we have to question if Anna and Katie’s deaths were accidents or if something sinister actually happened. So to figure this out and put up theories Cleves makes a blog called the Dead Queens Club.

~ For a retelling this book was very well written each character was their own person and it made me feel for each of them. Each character is so vivid and add something to the story.

~ The best part was the ending it was dramatic and tense but it was amazing and I loved it and I thought it ended perfectly.

Overall

I thought this book was great it was a good retelling and I liked how the history was weaved throughout. Capin did a great job giving each character their own personality and making each of them entertaining and captivating. The only thing that did bother me like I mentioned before was the first half of the book which I did find somewhat boring but after that everything was smooth sailing and I couldn’t put the book down. Definitely read this book if you like historical retellings with a sassy and snarky main character.