Her Majesty’s Royal Coven follows a group of witches—Helena, Leonie, Niamh and Elle—who grew up as childhood friends and became Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, a covert government department established by Queen Elizabeth I when they were teens. Now, decades later, the friends find themselves driven to reunite when a dreaded prophecy about a warlock of extraordinary capabilities seems to threaten the very existence of the HMRC. With conflicting beliefs over what’s the best course of action, the four friends must decide where their loyalties lie: with preserving tradition or doing what is right.

Talk about a gut punch of a novel. Her Majesty’s Royal Coven is sure to have readers who love witchy stories— and the queerer, the better—salivating from the very first page. Dawson invites readers into a provocative narrative by transporting them into a fantastical world that clearly echoes the societal and political issues of our own.

The characters are in huge part what made this story so intriguing. We have four friends who haven’t all been together in ages (for different reasons) and each of them is dealing with their own struggles. We have Niamh, a witch who has become a country vet who uses her powers to heal sick animals, Leonie, who defected to start her own more inclusive and intersectional coven, Diaspora, Elle who is trying to pretend she is a normal housewife with mediocre success and lastly Helena, the reigning High Priestess of the secret organisation. Through alternating POVs, we get to see the story unfold and learn what has brought these women together— and what has torn them apart in recent years. Here, Dawson manages to weave an intricate tale and introduce the characters through the conflicts they are facing and have created—for example the fact that Helena thinks Leonie has betrayed her by creating her own intersectional coven whereas Leonie just finally wanted a safe space to practice magic that wasn’t seemingly feminist but really upholding rigid and heteronormative traditions. It’s hard to summarise all of the different conflicts in this book in a few sentences but let me tell you, this book has more twists, betrayals and drama than a Desperate Housewives episode and I lived for that.

The highlight of this book for me was Theo. Getting to know this incredibly powerful and feared teenage warlock who is really a fluffy, scared and skittery teenager who’s trying to find her place in the world was so heartwrenching. And then to see her grow not only her powers but also feeling accepted in Niamh’s care and getting to meet a Latina trans woman was marvellous and showcased just how much representation—in fiction but also in real life—can mean when you’ve been brought up with antiquated rules about your identity.

And with Theo, we come of course to the main themes of the novel. Admittedly, while I wasn’t a huge fan of the somewhat dry writing style, I still found myself flipping the pages and that’s down to Dawson’s compelling exploration of gender, power and intersectional feminism in Her Majesty’s Royal Coven. Let me just say that the depiction of transphobia in perceived “feminist circles” in this book is devastatingly realistic. The reader spends quite a few chapters in Helena’s head and it’s as aggravating as it is terrifying to listen to the justifications this woman has for wanting to get rid of Theo just because she identifies as trans. If this reminds you of a certain British figure in the media, let me tell you that the parallels are staggering. Obviously, it’s absolutely no fun being in Helena’s head but you gotta give credit where credit’s due—Dawson deserves all the kudos for managing to write Helena’s TERF POV without wanting to burn stuff down because let me tell you, sitting on the other side as the reader, I was beginning to feel murderous because I couldn’t stop this woman myself—which, if you think about it, is an absolutely brilliant way of showing readers how powerless queer people can feel when our rights are taken away from us based on ancient, outdated traditions and institutions—and the people that preserve them time and again. It’s a clever allegory that must have cost the author a lot to explore and for that alone, this novel should be on your TBR.

While I won’t spoil too much about how the story goes—you can guess that friendships are bound to break and people will be facing off to protect Theo from Helena who’s so desperate to get her clutches on her to “preserve the order of things”—I will say that, since this is a first instalment in a trilogy, the cliffhanger is nothing short of brutal, so fair warning. You’ll itch to get your hands on the next instalment. As for me, I’m excited to see where things go from here—and whether certain people get what’s coming for them.

A provocative exploration of intersectional feminism, loyalty, gender and transphobia, Dawson’s Her Majesty’s Royal Coven is an immersive story about what it means to be a woman—and a witch—and invites readers into an intricately woven web of magic, friendship and power.

Her Majesty’s Royal coven is an urban fantasy novel, written about a group of witches who, upon learning by oracle that a young warlock will bring about the death and destruction of all witches, quickly try to come up with the best plan to change their prophesied doom. While some characters sympathize with young Theo, other witches do not, and these witches must decide whether the best way to prevent the prophecy from coming to fruition is by accepting and nurturing Theo, or arranging his eradication.

I really appreciated the parallels to modern family challenges. A large focus of this book is how Theo, a young warlock, reveals that he is transgender. Theo’s introduction to the storyline is heart breaking and was difficult to read, but it made the relationship she formed with Niamh and other characters so much better. While the protagonist in accepting and welcoming of Theo, the antagonist of the story is unwilling to be openminded, and refuses to accept Theo’s transition. The plot is representative of how a family can be irreparably torn apart by one’s bigotism, and makes this book not only an excellent Fantasy read, but an opportunity for insight into what LGBTQ members go through. This novel is written more from the perspective of the witches interacting with Theo, rather than from her perspective, Juno Dawson still did an incredible job of describing the trauma that she has gone though, and how difficult it is to be herself.

I thought that there were excess scenes throughout the novel, and then scenes lacking where they should have been. I felt that there should have been more character development, particularly for those who died. Following their death there were several pages dedicated to the grieving of other characters, and I wish I had been able to build an attachment to the late character, and grieve with the other characters. Even if the other characters had discussed more fun anecdotes from when the person was alive, I believe would have improved these parts of the novel. The fight scenes also seemed rushed, and the final conflict almost brushed over. The major conflict was about 90% characters running away, and 10% actual battle. I wish there would have been more depth to the fight scenes, and maybe more detail into how each witch utilized their own unique abilities.

All in all it was a good fantasy read, and I will definetly read the sequel when it is released, but I’m not counting down the days.

HMRC follows a group of witches after a civil war upturned their lives. With a new looming threat on the horizon, the group is torn apart and friendships put to the test.

I enjoyed this book, the first bit was a bit slow as you learn some more lore, but the action definitely picked up. A main focus is on queer and gender identity, and breaking outdated traditions. Niamh, Theo, Elle, Holly & Leonie were lovely to follow- I could have done without a POV from Helena but I understand the purpose she served in moving the plot forward. Overall a great, witchy read.

This book creatively uses the witches and the covens to speak to issue of transgender and acceptance. This should make for interesting discussions on a very current issue.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

A fun read with an interesting premise. The politics was well done but the way this book was written wasn't really up my alley. The execution of the idea behind this could be better. That said, I still did enjoy although my expectations weren't really met.

Full review to come!

I elected to read this one based solely on the title, so imagine my surprise when, where I was expecting witchy badassery with, idk, some james bond shit, I instead got a thorough yet simplified treatise on gender politics. That said, it does kind of work and was a fun read in any case.