The Pretender is a vivid, transporting feat of imagination and storytelling, so alive I felt Jo Harkin might be a time traveller

MAGGIE SHIPSTEAD

Wickedly funny ... The filthy, clever, immersive picaresque about a pretender to Henry VII's throne that you didn't know you needed

GUARDIAN, The best fiction of 2025

Clever and wildly entertaining

SUNDAY TIMES, Historical fiction book of the year

A gripping study of power steeped in both atmosphere and playful wit

i paper, Books of the Year

There's much fun to be had in Harkin's riotous, mischievous take on a thorny patch in English history ... Funny and furiously imaginative, this is a brilliant debut

DAILY MAIL, Best fiction books of 2025

The Pretender had me under its spell from the very first page. I read it with the dedicated fervour of a kid discovering literature for the first time - the magic of it, the way it transports you, the way you don't want to say goodbye to the pages as you turn them. I took it with me everywhere for months, I read it on trains and buses and laughed and cried in public many times. A genuinely brilliant voice. I will recommend this to everyone for years to come: to hear what they think, to enrich their lives, and so that they in turn can understand something about me that can only be communicated through the passing on of a good book

YAEL VAN DER WOUDEN