A review by renettereads
Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson

challenging informative fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

“It was 00.53. Still the Witching Hour, she thought ruefully. A common misconception; any hour’s grand for witching.”

After one of the most brutal magic wars, Helena Vance finds herself in charge of Her Majesty’s Royal Coven - a secret force tasked with the protection of the Queen’s safety against magic. When the prophesized Sullied Child is believed to be found, Helena finds herself on opposing sides with four witches she believed her sisters. 

I had originally given this book 3.5, but have since dropped it to a 3 star read because I sort of felt a little cheated by it. To me it seemed very much a story centred around magic and a magical coven who were about to come up against something evil. What I got was something where the majority of the main characters weren’t even involved in the organisation the book is literally named after. There wasn’t a tonne of magic and to be honest, a lot of this book read like a panel discussion on transphobia. I know Juno Dawson writes a lot of non-fiction and I could see that from the writing style here. There obviously isn’t anything wrong with it, and it perhaps suited this particular urban fantasy, but I personally like prose that feels subtle and lyrical instead of an opinion piece. 

In saying that, I can’t deny that the social issues discussed here are of great importance. I also felt as though making ignorance the main evil here was particularly clever, but I couldn’t get away from the fact that the token Black character felt super stereotypical and that there were quite a few body shaming issues that irritated me. 

Although gripped – and I admittedly will read the sequel because this book ended on a cliffhanger – I just felt as though I had wanted something really fun that turned out to be a bit of a slog. I did enjoy Theo’s story and Niamh was a great character, but everything else honestly felt a little meh to me. 
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