Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - Her Majesty's Royal Coven

So nearly a five-star for me … if I had been a little less able to put it down in the evenings, it would have been. I had to pace myself because so much was happening and I needed to process before reading on. This is equal parts political thriller, modern-day witches, and everyday lives of 30/40-something women with all the messiness you can imagine. I’ve pre-ordered the fancy Waterstones edition of the sequel because I need to know what happens next.

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th18's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Heres a few points I noted down whilst reading:

Fast pace and seemed more YA than anything, too many modern references for me personally but each to their own.
This also felt like the second book of the series at the start there was just so much unexplained things thrown in.
Whilst the book did deal with modern topics such as race and trans rights, I wish it also talked a bit about harmful beauty standards due to Elle literally hiding her true self from her husband.
I feel like the amount of swear words was also unnneeded.
I love the idea of queer witches and empowered modern women but I feel like the talk about adulthood was very bleak
The writing and worldbuilding also felt quite underdeveloped which was disappointing
Finally the use of the d slur was completely unneeded

Although I've only mentioned the negatives, I did have an okay time reading this and it was quite engaging but it could definitely have been better.

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whitedaylilies's review

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

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rorikae's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

'Her Majesty's Royal Coven' by Juno Dawson is an emotional fantasy about a group of childhood friends who have felt their friendship tried in their adult lives.
Niamh, Helena, Elle, Leonie, and Ciara all grew up together as budding witches. As kids they were fast friends but as women in their mid-30s and after the fallout of a war, life has changed for all of them. Helena is head of Her Majesty's Royal Coven, Niamh is a veterinarian living in a small town, Elle is taking care of her two children, and Leonie has started her own coven dedicated to marginalized witches. Ciara is in a coma after the events of the war. When Theo, a teenager with incredible magical power is discovered, Helena fears that they are the prophesized Sullied Child that will destroy the witches. Niamh on the other hand just sees a young child with too much power who has never been shown care in their life. With differing views, tensions begin to rise as they each determine what is the appropriate step forward.
Dawson has written an adult fantasy that is hard to put down while dealing with a number of different subjects. It is clear that this book is in large part inspired by She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and her transphobia. Dawson delves into a number of different subjects while creating a cast of characters that it is easy to love. She also does a good job of showcasing how a belief in how things should be can escalate into full bigotry. There is a twist at the end of this first book that makes me excited and terrified for where this story is going next. Dawson's writing is straightforward but the plot and characters made this a story I had a hard time putting down. If you are looking for a fast paced fantasy set in our world and dealing with many of our current issues, 'Her Majesty's Royal Coven' is a great book to pick up.

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thisisris's review

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2.75

This summary for this book sounded really good… and then it really missed the mark.

The book is really slow paced and I often found myself getting bored. I listened to the audio book at 2x the speed just to try and speed things up.

The book included a lot of important social issues as plot points but it felt like they were crammed in there without any tact or thought.

Overall I was pretty disappointed because this concept had a lot of potential to be fantastic.

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