Having read this book billed as being "A Discovery of Witches meets The Craft," I knew it was one I needed to read. It's a bit like MI6 but with witches - definitely an interesting concept. Strong marks for the queer and POC rep, but some of the plot points were a bit meandering.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

Book read like a bad version of Good Omens (teenage boy is the end of the world, witches named Anathema Device/Annie Device). Filled with bland characters who I could only tell apart by which Spice Girl they "played", and well in the end it didn't matter. Middle of the story was filled with a personal essay on Trans politics (which I fully support, but this wasn't the place nor was it done well). And the end was a Marvel Avengers-like battle.

Still that Avengers battle scene will get me every time.
2.5 rounded up

I enjoyed this! It's very much a response to JKR - which makes sense giving the author. I really loved the trans rep in the story and how Niamh and her friends rallied against Theo. I will definitely be picking up the sequel.

Remember how I said I was enamored with teen 90s movies? One of those movies is a classic friendship movie like Stand By Me, but instead of a dead body, the teenagers in Now & Then (two played by Thora Birch and Christina Ricci) hunt ghostly secrets. I’ve never read it compared to another book. Until now. Her Majesty’s Royal Coven was also compared to A Discovery of Witches, an epic, amazing witchy love series and so I know I need this book and you need it too.

The best part of this book is the great cast of women - cis and trans - from all races and the kind of bonds they share and the solidarity that they show during tough times. Helen is obviously the one character very hard to follow along coz she is a TERF and being in her head while she is being so bigoted and prejudiced is not an easy task. But I liked the themes the author explored, especially about how it is not right to put women in boxes and define them so narrowly based on body parts. The book ends on a particularly high note and I can't wait to read what happens next.

I don't read much witch fiction, but this was pretty good. It was an interesting premise and had a few twists. There's also some good trans representation and discussion.

Her Majesty's Royal Coven is an urban fantasy book which I absolutely adored! The story itself, the characters , everything so well developed ! I love the idea of Queen Elizabeth years ago gathering witches to form a royal coven. There are a lot of social issues addressed ! It’s unique and omg what a ride! Definitely a book you should add on your tbr!

Her Majesty’s Royal Coven may not be publicly acknowledged by the government, but everyone knows that the gifts witches have can benefit mundanes, as long as they don’t scare them too much in the process.

The book starts when the girls are just friends, scared of growing up, and more than a little nervous to soon join Her Majesty’s Royal Coven (HMRC). They’re the offspring of witches who are already members, and really don’t know any other path, but they do know it’s a lot of responsibility too.

The story then moves on to adulthood. While some of the original witches have chosen not to stay with HMRC, there has been a major war of the witchy variety. While the mundanes (non-witches) may have noticed a bit of it, most of the fighting and losses involved the witches.

Overall, the characters were unique, memorable, and believable (at least if you love magical realism). I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars and can’t wait for the next book in the trilogy. The end was a fantastic cliffhanger and I need to know what happens next!

The author captivated my interest from just the description alone, I was invested in the story from start to finish and I can not wait for the other books in the series to be released.

A moving and engaging look at the way fear and hatred can destroy even the strongest foundation, and the way power corrupts even the most well-meaning. Five girls are introduced on the eve of taking an oath to use their magic to protect their country. Decades later, after a witch civil war, Elle is a housewife wanting nothing to do with magic, Leonnie is the founder of a breakaway coven for witches of color, Niamh is a vet using her powers to help animals, Helena is the head of Her Majesty's Royal Coven, powerful and important - and Ciara is in a coma, put there in the aftermath of the war. A child with unusually strong powers brings the women back together, with devastating consequences. A very British book, the current struggle between the white, straight, cis power structure and the people who just want to live as themselves is reflected in the story. TERF Helena is willing to destroy the world to make it conform to her ideals, while Leonnie is too willing to walk away from the problems of the coven because she feels disempowered and unable to make change. A great read!

Thank you Penguin Books and NetGalley for the advanced electronic review copy of this book. I really wanted to like this book and was expecting so much from it, but was left underwhelmed. The writing felt underdeveloped, the first half of the book felt very drawn out (perhaps due to setting up the world-building and plot for what is to come in the following volumes of the trilogy), and I was struggling to feel connected to the characters.

Her Majesty’s Royal Coven was established by Queen Elizabeth I to protect her. Now, centuries later, Helena is the High Priestess, leader of the coven. Her friends are: Niamh, a vet who uses her powers to heal animals, Elle, a housewife leading a secret life as a witch, and Leona, who left to create her own intersectional coven. After Helena discovers a young warlock with extraordinary powers they’ve never seen before, she brings him to be trained and examined by Niamh. However, the warlock holds a lot of secrets which threaten to turn the coven upside down.

As soon as I saw this title I knew I needed to read this book, but I went into the story without knowing what it was about. It was a fantastic witchy story that we need right now.

This story explores gender and gender stereotypes. This witch world was divided into female witches and male warlocks with nothing in between. However, when a transgender character entered the novel, it threw some of them off. There was a lot of transphobia which was disturbing to read, but that’s the point. The real world and fictional fantasy worlds have not been nice to transgender people, especially in recent years. This intersectional look at witches was such an important and powerful read.

The final few chapters of this book were completely shocking and unpredictable. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book.

Thank you Penguin Books for sending me a copy of this book.

Really enjoyed this fresh take on witches in our contemporary world. There were definitely some big twists and I appreciated how cinematic the writing was - I could see everything happening!

Though the premise of Her Majesty's Royal Coven has great appeal to a lover of witchy novels with a hint of spycraft, I found the writing of the characters quite dull and strained to even get 15% into the story. This boredom was not helped by the lack of a clear objective within the plot at this point in the story, thus I did not finish this novel.

hmmm i dont know... i don't remember why i requested this arc lmao. but thank you for it! the plot was interesting, but ultimately i couldn't get into the story? not too sure why. i still recommend to people to read it!

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I’m not going to lie. This book was so hard for me to get into. I really felt like it kept dragging on. I haven’t read a ton of urban fantasy so maybe that genre isn’t for me. I did like the aspect of an adult fantasy book with lgbtq representation. This book focuses a lot of politics. Racism and and trans issues. Societal issues and is a bit heavy in those regards. Once I got a bit of the way into it I did like it more. So push through the first bit of the book. I really enjoyed the plot twist in the end.

Respectfully, I have been thinking of this book non-stop since I finished it. Well, since I first heard of it really, but even more so since completing it. I have no idea how I am going to survive waiting for the subsequent sequels, but looking into the author's backlog may help me cope.

This was such an intriguing entry into a witches coven story. I loved the the aspects of government controlled and personally run covens. I found the family dynamics interesting and the plot speedy but good.

First off Juno Dawson, I finished your book, and how could you?! You can’t leave me hanging like this! I hope to God you have the second book pretty much finished cause I don’t want to wait two years for the sequel! Hello?!
Already a smash bestseller in London, four adolescent friends on the eve of summer solstice take an oath to join her majesty’s royal coven, which is a covert branch of government established by Elisabeth the first. Years later these four women are grown with varied lives and levels of involvement in the organization. But in all fantasy stories the good must be balanced with the bad, and here it’s taking the guise of a young warlock who, if prophesy comes true, will rain hellfire on earth.
I thought this book was really fun, and found that what could be a run of the mill supernatural story was elevated by the myriad of issues Dawson covers. We have racism, we have the male patriarchy, we have gender and sexuality, all revealed with a group of strong, feisty, kick ass women. It did take me a moment at the start to keep all the characters straight but that cleared up quickly and then it was smooth sailing. If you’re looking for a fun very modern Witch story this one would please your coven no end. Thanks to Penguin books for the #gifted copy.

This was an interesting story. It did take me a while to get into it but once the story started moved I didn't have a problem finish it. The characters were nice and the plot was different. It's different and entertaining story.