1st book in the Her Majesty’s Royal Coven series
58th book of 2022
If you look hard enough at old photographs, we’re there in the background: healers in the trenches; Suffragettes; Bletchley Park oracles; land girls and resistance fighters. Why is it we help in times of crisis? We have a gift. We are stronger than Mundanes, plain and simple.
At the dawn of their adolescence, on the eve of the summer solstice, four young girls–Helena, Leonie, Niamh and Elle–took the oath to join Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, established by Queen Elizabeth I as a covert government department. Now, decades later, the witch community is still reeling from a civil war and Helena is now the reigning High Priestess of the organization. Yet Helena is the only one of her friend group still enmeshed in the stale bureaucracy of HMRC.
Elle is trying to pretend she’s a normal housewife, and Niamh has become a country vet, using her powers to heal sick animals. In what Helena perceives as the deepest betrayal, Leonie has defected to start her own more inclusive and intersectional coven, Diaspora. And now Helena has a bigger problem. A young warlock of extraordinary capabilities has been captured by authorities and seems to threaten the very existence of HMRC. With conflicting beliefs over the best course of action, the four friends must decide where their loyalties lie: with preserving tradition, or doing what is right.
CW: transphobia, death, violence, racism
Rating
Review
Okay, I want book two right now; I loved this book.
The book is set mainly in Manchester and a countryside town, and I was happy to have these settings and not London as the principal place as the HMRC’s headquarters are in Manchester. The details you have when you enter there are impressive, so you have a good idea of how it is.
I like the sorority feeling in this story. Even if the group have their own lives and problems that are sometimes entirely opposed, they still talk to each other, and they know if they have a problem, they will help. Even in the end, they are here for each other after all the questionable decisions of one of them and all the events that happened due to that.
The political side of the story was fascinating. It was easy to dive into it as you have a ton of explanations of what happened before the book starts without being info-dumpy. You even have the history of witches, which was so interesting to read, but at the same time, you understand that the future will be complex.
The ending is insane, like how you can finish a book like that; it’s not fair for the reader. I wasn’t prepared to have that; it feels like the worst thing to happen. I hope it won’t change things too much (but knowing how authors work, I think it will jeopardise everything.)
Last, nobody touched Theo and Holly, my favourite characters in the book.
Liz.
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