Her Majesty’s Royal Coven: The magical SUNDAY TIMES number 1 bestseller and spellbinding start to a new fantasy series: Book 1 (HMRC)

3 Reviews For This Product

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   03

   by Amazonian Customer October 17, 2023

   Set in a world where magic is real, Her Majesty’s Royal Coven centres on five friends. We first meet them as young girls the night before the summer solstice; the night before they swear the oath to HMRC and formally become witches.

   We then jump forward twenty-five years and one of the five, Helena, is now High Priestess of the coven. In the interim there has been a vicious civil war, and the remaining friends have all left HMRC and gone their separate ways. Elle is married, a mother and a homemaker who wants nothing to do with magic. Leonie has formed a separate coven for witches from minority backgrounds who are routinely ignored by the predominantly white HMRC. Niamh is back in their hometown of Hebden Bridge and uses her powers in her work as a vet, while her twin Ciara is comatose in a hospital.

   Things had seemed to be settling down in the aftermath of the war, but now a doom-filled prophecy may be coming to fruition. The coven think they have discovered the Sullied Child; a male child who will find a way to free the demon Leviathan from his earthly prison. Although she doesn’t care to admit it, Helen needs the help of her old friends and she is determined to make the hard decisions no-one else is prepared to take.

   Her Majesty’s Royal Coven is one of those books I couldn’t put down, and when I had to, I couldn’t wait to get back to it. It’s a character driven drama with added magic and plenty going on to keep those pages turning. Can’t wait to read The Shadow Cabinet now.

2. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   03

   by V. O’Regan October 17, 2023

   I listened to the unabridged audiobook edition of ‘Her Majesty’s Royal Coven’ by Juno Dawson, though had its ebook for reference as well. The audiobook is narrated by Irish actor, Nicola Coughlan.

   I have been excited for months about this novel with its premise of a royal sanctioned coven. However, it proved different to what I was expecting, which is a lesson in itself. My response was mixed. In some respects the writing felt very YA or Chicklit. I enjoyed this playfulness at times but other times it just didn’t work for me.

   ‘Her Majesty’s Royal Coven’ is the first in a series centred around a secret government agency tasked to use magic to protect Britain from various supernatural threats. The original coven was created by Queen Anne Boleyn and has continued down through the centuries to the present day.

   When they were young, five friends took the Oath and entered the HMRC. Twenty five years pass in the turning of a page. The eldest, Helena, has risen to be the organisation’s High Priestess. Leonie left the coven to found Disporia, an inclusive and intersectional coven. Elle left the magical world completely and is a housewife, though her daughter, Holly, is showing signs of magical powers so Mum might have to come out of the broom closet. Niamh is semi-retired and using her magical gifts as a country veterinarian. The fifth of the young witches, Ciara, Niamh’s twin, has been in a hospital for some years in a coma like state. Intriguing!

   All is well until a Minority Report style prophecy about a ‘sullied child’ who will summon the Leviathan and the end of witchkind and men resurfaces. A young warlock (the term Juno uses for male witches) has been captured after displaying remarkable powers. Helena begs Niamh to return to the HMRC to help ascertain whether this young warlock is dangerous …. Niamh does and makes a connection with Theo, the ‘boychild’. So, Theo is entrusted to her care.

   However, when Theo confides to Holly that she is not a boy but trans and Holly shares this with her Mum who shares it with… (you get the idea), it is panic time – well at least for Helena. She is seriously triggered, ‘end of the world as we know it’ style. I won’t say more to avoid spoilers but yeah. Still, the majority of characters are supportive of Theo, who certainly seems innocent enough even if her powers are in need of training.

   In parts this novel was quite good though I did have some issues. I am not a fan of magic and witchcraft in fiction that involves teleportation and these kind of physical feats and pyrotechnics. It’s okay in fluffy witchy fantasies but I had expected this to be more grounded in historical witchcraft and magic.

   Also, while I appreciated that Dawson wanted to address issues associated with identity, it felt as though this quickly dominated the plot. It just felt far too political for my taste. Also, Helena morphs into such a cartoon baddie: sent bonkers by the idea of a young transwoman being admitted to ‘her’ coven. It seemed to be a wasted opportunity to demonstrate that people can get over their limited world-views.

   Also, Juno Dawson has created a magical world that is very polarised by gender. In the real world covens are made up of both women and men, so the idea of a witch getting the vapours over seeing male bits was just bizarre. How much Dawson was informed by the occult and witchcraft community was unclear to me. There have been ‘women only’ covens arising from the feminist movement and these may be closer to her vision for HMRC.

   I did enjoy the use of pop culture throughout the novel and fun dialogue between the characters.

   With respect to the audiobook, full marks to Nicola Coughlan. I have adored her work in Derry Girls and Bridgerton. (Team Penelope!) She was a splendid narrator, handling a variety of accents with ease and her timing was excellent. Please may she narrate the series!

   Overall, while I found ‘Her Majesty’s Royal Coven’ heavy-handed on gender identity politics (and don’t get me started on the ending!) it will be interesting to see how the plot unfolds and characters develop in the next book.

   In terms of rating, the novel on its own was an ‘it’s okay’ 3 stars for me; yet Nicola Coughlan’s narration was so good that my rating is higher for the audiobook and so 4 stars.

3. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   03

   by Kizzia Mildmay November 5, 2023

   There are so many things to like in this book and yet when I finished the last page I was out of sorts and unsettled. Part of that is down to the obvious set up for further books in the series but it also, I think, stems from the setting and world building that grounds the book. If you want a magical romp that takes you out of the utter mess of our current political climate then this is absolutely not the book for you.

   I really appreciated how the various issues it dealt with were handled but, like the real world, there were no easy solutions to the hatred and fear it highlighted. Right now that feels like an honest place for a fictional story to go but if you are queer and fiction is currently your escape from the issues our community is facing this may be one to keep on the tbr pile for a little while longer.

   It is a really good book though. The writing is wonderful, the characters vivid and engaging (even the awful ones) and the way the magic is built into and around the real world works very well indeed. Whether or not the characters that I love will eventually get a break I do not know but I am looking forward to getting my hands on the second book in the series to see where Juno takes them next.