The Witch Queen Review (Heather Walter)

Verdict: A dark, women-centred Snow White villain story that lands its ending almost unanimously, held back by a 560-page middle that a good share of readers wanted cut.

Best for: Readers who finished The Crimson Crown wanting to know how the wicked queen ends, who want morally grey women and court intrigue first, and who can live with romance as a subplot.

Heat level: ★★★☆☆ (2.5/5 — no romance.io band yet; book one sits at 3/5 “open door”)

Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.7/5 — a 4.00 Goodreads average with an ARC-heavy review base and one complaint that keeps coming back: length)

Tropes: Villain origin story, Snow White retelling, second-chance romance, witches, morally grey heroine, dual POV, magical trials, court intrigue, stepmother versus stepdaughter, found family.

The Witch Queen by Heather Walter is the second and final book of the Crimson Crown duology, published by Del Rey in August 2026: a dark sapphic fantasy retelling of Snow White in which Ayleth, the witch who took the throne in book one, finally has the crown she wanted. Then Princess Blodwyn, the heir she pushed aside, comes home to take it back.

It has a 4.00 average across 218 Goodreads ratings, a higher score than book one’s 3.82. Only 3% of those ratings are one or two stars. That reads as broad satisfaction, but roughly a third of the visible written reviews come from advance-copy readers, and the three-star reviews all say much the same thing. Both of those are worth understanding before you start.

What Is The Witch Queen About?

The Witch Queen is adult fairy-tale fantasy before it is romance, and Goodreads readers shelve it that way. Fantasy, Lesbian and Retellings top its genre list, and Romance doesn’t appear among them, unlike book one. Amazon files it under LGBTQ+ fantasy, folklore and fairy tales. Retelling Snow White from the queen’s side means palace politics, a magic mirror, a poisoned inheritance and a stepdaughter, and Walter uses all of them. The tone is dark: StoryGraph readers tag it adventurous, dark, emotional and tense.

Ayleth begins the book with everything except security. She has the throne, the king trapped in her mirror and the coven that rejected her at a distance, but she has lost Jacquetta, the witch she loved, who betrayed her. Blodwyn, at sixteen, has only her claim to the crown and an aunt who sees her as a playing piece. This time the story alternates between Ayleth and Blodwyn, which is the structural change readers mention most. Seeing the queen through her rival’s eyes makes her choices land harder.

What Makes This Sapphic Dark Fairy Tale Retelling Work

The ending: The most consistent praise in the reviews. Readers describe a finale that ties up the whole duology, and at least one says the last act lifted the book to four stars.
A villain you root for: Ayleth’s moral greyness is the hook. Readers say they kept questioning whether to support her and supported her anyway, and the dark turn is what they came for.
The second POV: Adding Blodwyn’s chapters gives the queen an opponent with an inner life. Several readers say it makes Ayleth’s actions feel more consequential than they did in book one.
Women at the centre: Readers keep reaching for sisterhood, family and complicated women. One describes the book as a story of mending bonds more than a love story.
The trials: Blodwyn’s challenge for the throne runs as a series of contests, and readers credit that structure with keeping a sprawling cast and plot in order.

Book Synopsis

Three years after she took the crown, Ayleth rules alone. The king is a voice behind glass and the princess has been sent to the country. But power has not made her feel safe. She knows the witches of her old coven have not forgotten her, and that one discovery inside the palace could undo everything. She knows her own magic is turning darker than she intended. And she still thinks about Jacquetta, and the smell of juniper, far more than a queen should.

Then something red starts seeping through the walls of the mines, and nobody can say what it is. Soon after, Blodwyn returns to court with the king’s sister Margaret beside her. Margaret has found an old law that lets an heir prove herself through a series of trials of courage, wisdom and judgement, and if Blodwyn passes them, the throne is hers. Ayleth cannot refuse without exposing herself, and she cannot let the princess win.

Blodwyn, for her part, finds court nothing like the home she remembers. She cannot tell who is advising her and who is using her. Her aunt’s ambitions are not quite her own, and a fellow competitor is harder to dismiss than he should be. As the trials begin, both women have to decide what a crown is worth, and what they are willing to give up to keep it out of the other’s hands.

My Review

The best thing about The Witch Queen is that it remembers whose story this is. A villain-origin duology can easily lose its nerve in book two by redeeming the villain too neatly or turning her into a monster for the heroine to defeat. Walter does neither. Ayleth stays ambitious, frightened and quite willing to do terrible things, and readers keep rooting for her anyway. The ending pays that off. It is the most consistently praised part of the book, and it closes a two-book story about power, punishment and belonging without a loose thread a reader complains about.

The second strength is the decision to split the book with Blodwyn. In the fairy tale, Snow White exists to be innocent, and the queen exists to envy her. Here the princess is a stubborn sixteen-year-old with her own idea of what a good ruler looks like, and her chapters put Ayleth’s choices on trial too. The supporting cast pulls its weight: the scheming aunt Margaret and a returning Jacquetta both get named as additions that made the politics less predictable.

Where it struggles is length, and this is the complaint the three-star reviews share, not a personal gripe. The hardcover runs 560 pages, and readers repeatedly say they had to push through the first half before the story ramped up. More than one says the book only took hold past the midpoint. Others call it dense, overstuffed with subplots, or simply too long, and one Amazon reviewer thought a couple of hundred pages could go. Around that sit two smaller problems. A pair of readers guessed the twists early. A handful found Blodwyn hard to warm to, though just as many name her as the best part. Readers also note the lack of a recap: if you read book one in 2024, expect a slow re-entry.

One expectation to reset is the word “romantic”. The packaging sells a queer, witchy duology, and the queer part is real: Ayleth and Jacquetta’s love story is the emotional thread running through both books. But it is a fractured second-chance romance working around a succession plot, not the engine of the book. Readers who came for the romance found it underwhelming, and readers who came for the story were glad it didn’t take over. If romance is what drew you, calibrate. If you worried a fairy-tale fantasy would turn into a love story, relax.

My honest note: A satisfying finale for a villain worth following, in a book about a hundred pages heavier than it needed to be. If you loved The Crimson Crown, the ending is worth the middle. If you want a sapphic romance first and a fantasy second, this is the wrong shelf.

Element	In The Witch Queen
Central relationship	Ayleth & Jacquetta — a queen and the witch who betrayed her, second-chance romance as a subplot
Core tropes	Villain origin story, Snow White retelling, magical trials, court intrigue, dual POV, second chance
Setting	A fairy-tale kingdom ruled by a witch queen, its palace and mines, and the forest covens beyond
Heat level	2.5/5 — no romance.io band for this book; book one is 3/5 “open door”
Series	Crimson Crown duology book 2 of 2 — the finale; complete, no cliffhanger; read book one first
Content notes	Graphic death and violence, misogyny and sexism, blood, some sexual content, alcohol

How Dark and Spicy Is The Witch Queen?

Lightly spicy, and a 2.5/5 by my estimate rather than a measured band. romance.io lists The Witch Queen but has no steam rating for it yet. The Crimson Crown sits at 3 of 5 there, labelled “open door”. StoryGraph readers tag this book’s sexual content as moderate. None of the reviews I read mention the spice at all, as a draw or as a problem, which tells you how central it isn’t. Readers talk about the trials, the ending and Ayleth, not the bedroom.

The darkness is the bigger question, and it is real. StoryGraph’s crowd warnings list graphic death, violence and misogyny, with blood and sexism at a moderate level, and “dark” is the second most-tagged mood. Nobody I found flags torture or sexual violence. If you want a similar dark, atmosphere-first register elsewhere, Bone of My Bone keeps its heat low and its dread high.

Who Should Read This Book?

You’ll likely love it if: you finished The Crimson Crown and need the ending, you like your heroines morally grey and your villains sympathetic, you enjoy court politics and trial structures, and a closed, complete duology matters to you.

You may want to skip it if: you haven’t read book one and won’t, a slow first half costs you the book, you want the sapphic romance to drive the plot, or you have little patience for a teenage co-lead’s mistakes.

In short: a strong finale for readers invested in Ayleth, paid for with a long road to get there.

What Readers Are Actually Saying (October 2026)

There is no viral moment around this book, and I could find no organic BookTok or social footprint for it. My attempt to read Reddit failed, so I can’t report on discussion there. What it has is the machinery of a traditionally published sequel. Book one has more than 3,300 Goodreads ratings, roughly fifteen times this book’s 218, so most readers are arriving from the series. NetGalley seeded much of the early response: eleven of the first thirty Goodreads reviews mention an advance copy. They are not uniformly glowing (two are three-star), but they are a large share of the evidence. Trade coverage is thin and positive. Library Journal reviewed it, unstarred, calling it an “atmospheric tale of the costs of power and love”. I found no Kirkus or Publishers Weekly review. Note that every pull-quote in the Amazon editorial block praises The Crimson Crown, not this book. The audiobook came out the same day from Random House Audio, read by Rebecca Ho and Emily Woo Zeller across 20 hours and 50 minutes. I found no listener comments on the narration either way.

Prefer audio? Listen to The Witch Queen on Libro.fm — the audiobook shop that supports independent bookstores.

Why readers love it (according to the discourse): The ending, first and by a distance. More than a dozen reviewers across Goodreads, Amazon and blogs call it satisfying, complete or the best part of the book, including several who were lukewarm on everything before it. “Complete” is the recurring word. Next comes Ayleth herself: readers enjoy a villain they can’t quite condemn, and the Amazon reviews are full of affectionate support for her bad decisions. The dual POV gets steady credit for deepening the story. The women-centred themes of sisterhood, family and forgiveness come up across positive reviews and blogs alike. A smaller group praises the writing as gorgeous and witchy. Notably, readers split on whether this beats book one, but the ratings favour the sequel by close to two-tenths of a star.

What readers argue about and complain about: Length, above everything. Readers call it too long, dense or overstuffed with subplots. They say the first half is disorganised or slow and that the story only takes off around the midpoint, and one Amazon three-star review says plainly that a couple of hundred pages could have gone. The Lily Café blog makes the same point about a bloated middle and too many villains. The downtime between trials is where readers feel it stall. Library Journal never mentions length, which is exactly the trade-versus-reader gap worth catching. The second theme is Blodwyn, and here readers genuinely divide. Some find her whiny or hard to connect with, and one nearly gave up because of her. Others say she won them over or call her their favourite. Third, and much quieter: predictability, with two readers saying they saw the twists coming. Single voices raise the rest. One says Ayleth’s slide into darkness felt like a different character. One blog objects that the book’s love-conquers-all message punishes Ayleth for wanting more than her station. And one reader called the central couple toxic.

The series question everyone should ask first: this is the final book, and it finishes the story. The Crimson Crown came out in August 2024 and sits at 3.82 on Goodreads. The Witch Queen concludes the duology at a higher 4.00, with no cliffhanger and nothing further announced in this world. It is not a standalone. Readers say it leans hard on book one and offers no recap, so start there. If you read book one a while ago, refresh yourself on it first.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does The Witch Queen end on a cliffhanger?

No. It is the final book of the Crimson Crown duology and it closes the story. Readers almost unanimously describe the ending as complete and satisfying.

Do I need to read The Crimson Crown first?

Yes. The Witch Queen picks up about three years after book one, with no recap. Several readers say they struggled to re-enter the story even having read book one.

Is The Witch Queen a sapphic romance?

It is sapphic fantasy with a romantic subplot. Ayleth’s second-chance love story with the witch Jacquetta runs through the book, but the succession plot and the trials drive it, and readers who wanted romance first found it underwhelming.

How spicy is The Witch Queen?

Mild to moderate, about 2.5/5 by our estimate. romance.io has no steam rating for it yet, book one sits at 3/5 open door, and StoryGraph readers tag the sexual content as moderate. No reviewer treats spice as a draw.

Is there an audiobook of The Witch Queen?

Yes. Random House Audio released it on 11 August 2026, narrated by Rebecca Ho and Emily Woo Zeller, with a running time of 20 hours 50 minutes. It is available on Libro.fm.

If You Loved The Witch Queen, Read These Next

If the magical trials were your favourite part, Her Spell That Binds Me builds a whole sapphic witch story around a contest, with far more heat. For another fairy-tale princess and curse told from an unexpected angle, The Secret World of Briar Rose reworks Sleeping Beauty for a younger audience. And if the darkness and the devotion between women held you more than the plot, Bone of My Bone offers sapphic folk horror in the same atmosphere-first register. For more in this vein, browse our guide to sapphic romantasy, our second-chance romance reviews, or the full Book Reviews collection.

The Bottom Line

The Witch Queen sets out to give Snow White’s stepmother a full story and a fitting end, and it mostly succeeds. The ending lands with nearly every reader, Ayleth stays compelling without being softened, and Blodwyn’s POV turns a villain’s monologue into a real contest. It is also too long, slow to find its footing, and lighter on romance than the queer packaging suggests. Readers who loved The Crimson Crown should read it. Readers looking for a sapphic love story first should start somewhere else. Check The Witch Queen on Amazon →

The Eikna Overall Ranking

On the Eikna scale, The Witch Queen ranks as a solid traditionally published sapphic fairy-tale finale — a villain worth following and an ending readers agree on, weighed down by its length, and best approached for Ayleth and the trials rather than the romance.