Set in an alternate England where magic is strongest in women and men with magic are second to them. The scene is set when we meet Helena, Elle, Leoinie, Niamh and Clara prior to their pledging to Gaia and Her Majesty's Royal Coven - a secret government department of witches. The department was founded by Anne Boleyn and they are charged with protecting the United Kingdom from evil whether is be magical or otherworldly.

We meet the group 25 years on and not everyone has fulfilled their potential.. The social backdrop is split and the book looks at class, race and gender inequality. with these issues explored during the narrative. The sullied child is part of a prophecy and the witches look to have found this child - but have they truly done so? I enjoyed the book but for me some elements felt contrived and the magic system not as fully grounded as I would have liked.
That being said it is a good read and can be found on the shelves of Kirklees Libraries.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are my own.

This was a brilliant read. I really didn't want it to end. This is a Britain where magic exists. Witches and warlocks live amongst us. And overseeing everything is HMRC, protecting crown and country from the forces of evil. At the centre of the story are five friends, who've known each other since childhood. We first meet them as they are about to be inducted into the Coven. The story then moves forward to their adult lives. The friends have been split up, a civil war amongst the magical community has brought suffering to some and although it is over, there is the constant danger of evil factions rising again. This was an exciting, fast-paced read, with a cliff-hanger ending that left me shouting "WHAT???". Bring on the second book!

I absolutely loved this book. Every part of it was unique and very much an original piece of work. The thoughts and fears explored throughout the narrative reflect the struggles of the LGBTQ+ community and explore ways in which we can all help to reduce prejudice and discrimination.
The relationships of the main characters were complex, and I liked the fact that they each had their own lives and had been allowed to grow beyond their initial friendship circle. Too many narratives have the characters stuck in one friendship group which I do not think is an accurate representation of life.
The difference between their past relationships with each other and their current ones makes the emotion of the book that much deeper. You feel the confusion and anger of the characters as they fully realise their differences.
I am very much looking forward to the second book!

This modern, witchy tale of sisterhood and pop culture, prophecies and gender inequality, terfs and transphobia was an absolute flippin’ delight from start to finish. What a cliffhanger. Bring on book 2!

First things first, I am going to need the sequel IMMEDIATELY, what an ending!

I absolutely adore Juno's writing and this book did not disappoint at all. I loved the way that the mythology and history of witches is weaved together with discussions about racism and transphobia. Each and every one of the witches at the heart of this story feels unique and distinct from one another which makes keeping the narratives clear in your head an absolute breeze.

This is a book unlike anything that I have read before and completely compelling.

According to the blurb this is about 4 friends coming together to feat a prophecy and prevent the apocalypse- only that's not what the book is about. What it's actually about, is the head of this coven goes insane and decides the only way to save the world is to murder a 15 year old trans girl because you can possibly have trans witches. Despite the fact there are other trans witches in this book.

To me, this isnt really a fantasy book. This is social commentary with a sprinkling of witches on top- and those witches are only there because the villain is a very thinly veiled JK Rowling.

I don't know if the author just tried to do too much, but none of this worked well for me. The social commentary aspect is characters going on reddit style rants about various topics, none of which really fit or advance the story. Supposedly the plot is about a demon but instead there are pages and pages of soap box style conversations where no one talks like an actual human being. None of it flows naturally- one character pronounces another is a white supremacist, despite nothing on the page indicating that and the 2 characters never even interacting.

It alternates point of view between each of the friends which doesn't help. The villain chapters are a very uncomfortable extreme TERF point of view, while another feels like she is there just to be the queer person of colour. All of her pov is about that, and nothing about the story - it could all be removed without impacting the book at all.

There are a lot of pop culture references which already feel dated. As a fellow millennial of an age with the characters I struggle to believe anyone is referencing the Spice Girls as much as they do.

The world building is largely non existent, and the plot is really just there to try and hang these conversations off of.

It was also uncomfortable that everything centres on the trans girl and yet she's treated more like an object than a character and has no voice of her own (quite literally).

The slang is odd and unnatural feeling. And I wasn't keen on the eleven of swearing (there's a lot of calling people C*** for something going for a kind of "girl power")

Not what I expected from the description, and not something I thought was well executed

This was so much FUN!!! Absolutely loved it from start to finish. Intricately plotted, perfect juxtaposition of the witchy realm with the mundane world, characters I went to befriend (well, most of them anyway!), and just the right gravitas in dealing with some serious issues of identity & prejudice. Just one complaint from me - that ending! How could you do that to us? However long I have to wait for book 2 will be far too long!

Many thanks to the publisher for the gifted advanced copy.

Have I found a favourite book of the year? Why yes, I could well have done. Perfectly tailored to my interests and cultural references this book was like witchy catnip!

Following four witches who have been friends since childhood but whose paths have branched apart following a magical civil war, this examines friendship and found family and the bonds we form.

A prophesied child, demonic threat and of course romantic entanglements ensue.

There is a huge amount of world building, layering in magic into our world - but being hidden.

I love the world @junodawson has created and felt settled within it, and it’s very clear there is more to come - even before you get to THAT ending.

This will be a polarising book, there’s a fascinating trans character introduced later in the book, and Dawson uses the characters situation to comprehensively dismantle transphobic TERF arguments - and it’s glorious, but there will be the usual, ‘I’m not transphobic but, it’s not my cup of tea’ or ‘I don’t get why fantasy novels have to be so issues based or woke’ or some bullshit. But they miss the point. It’s the job of genre fiction to challenge the past with a lens of the fantastical.

This has beats of The Craft, Buffy, and reads as if the teen heroes of one of these projects reached their thirties and settled down.

The writing is clear and crisp, but might not be for everyone as you can definitely tell that Dawson cut her teeth on the straightforward prose of YA - but I like that. For me, this was an excellent companion piece to A Marvellous Light.

I genuinely don't think Juno Dawson can write a bad fiction book. I adored this and can't wait for more.

Thank you to Netgalley and HaperCollins for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The concept of this book is what drew me in immediately and it didn't disappoint. There was a balance between fantasy, politics and romance which made me feel connected to the characters but also kept me wanting to read this book. However, I do think marketing this book as fantasy would be incorrect, it feels more contemporary with a few magical elements.

Women-centric dystopia books put me off, purely because they're often transphobic. This was the complete opposite and is how these dystopia books in the future should be written. The representation in this book was really good, although the same amount of on-page romance towards the LGBTQ+ romance and the straight romances, would have been nice to see.

What I can say, is that the sequel needs to come asap and I can't wait to see where this book goes as it leans more into the fantasy elements of this concept.

I was absolutely engrossed in this! I read it mostly on my break, and my colleague kept coming over to check on me because I had my head in my hands. I don't think Juno Dawson has ever disappointed a reader, and HMRC is absolutely fantastic. Dawson writes groups are friends that are so realistic and vivid, you almost forget they are real. This group of friends, as most of us in the same age know, are the childhood friends you probably wouldn't like if you met now. But their dynamic was wonderful, however painful it might seem.
This book is clearly very personal to Dawson, and I had the chance to hear her speak about the writing process a few weeks ago, and you can really feel that emotion in the book. All these characters carry pieces of who she wants to be, who she is, and who she wish she wasn't. I think it will be remarkably easy for all readers to see themselves in this set of characters as well, in their cowardice and bravery, their love, and hate.
I honestly don't quite know what to do with myself until the sequel comes, but I will be waiting as patiently as I can!

I liked the premise of this novel but unfortunately the execution didn't gel well with me. I struggled with the continuous pop culture reference, which for me dated the book and also made the main characters feel quite juvenile for 30+ year olds. I did think the writing was easy to read and the world building was easy enough to understand.

My Grandaughter and I read this book together and WOW it was great. The pacing, world building and characters were spot on . It was immersive and exciting. Please bring the next one out soon. We loved it, definitely just topped our books of the year list !

This was exactly what I needed! Growing up with Harry Potter, I've been WAITING for a witchy series to get invested in since JK and her terfy ways ruined her series for me. Political, moving and quite frankly just Fun, this was a joy to read. Great trans rep, great cast of characters, and female friendship at its core, I will absolutely be picking up the books 2 and 3 when they're out!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first Juno Dawson book, and I just had to get my hands on it as soon as I heard it was magical witches with spice girls references! (And I share a name with the main character which is a massively cool thing!)

HMRC is an incredibly addictive book that I devoured in a couple of hours on a train journey! Its gonna be quite difficult to give a review without giving too many spoilers but just know

- Magic lives among us
- Spice Girls references
- a book for the gays
- real and believable characters and decisions
- the villain is transphobia (
I'd add a TW for transphobia as the book does reflect the state of the world currently, especially Britain and the moral panics around trans people which is very raw. However, I feel Juno dealt with it very well,)

Genuinely an incredible book and I can't believe I have to wait for book 2 now after thAT CLIFFHANGER? EXCUSE ME MS. DAWSON? Rude :(


P.S. If I am not living Niamh's life in the next 25 years (but with my wife), I will cry

First thing first: I'm a fan of All Soul Trilogy and the only similarity is that it features witches.
That said this was one of my top low fantasy books for 2022 as the blurb sounded promising and I couldn't wait to read it.
Let's say there's a lot of potential and it is an interesting book as it's a fantasy book with heavy speculative fiction undertones. The idea of coven more or less inclusive is not new and there's a l
ot of discussions about coven thare are inclusive or not.
I loved Theo and loved what Theo represent. Had fun in reading the pop references and think that there's enough stuff on the world building side for a huge series
I also loved the different POVs and voices
What I didn't like:
- The book starts after a witches-warlocks war that left a lot of divisions and sufferance. We now it affected the characters but not there's not a lot of details. A short stories introducing us would be great, a prequel even better
- Some characters are introduced and the disappear
- The fantasy parts is often in the background to the political part
- There's a sort of manicheism: characters are saints or villains. Sometimes they become villain and their story arc is a bit forced
- The final part is very rushed and I'm not sure I understood what meant
I liked it, I think this could become a very interesting series. This one is a 3.5 * upped to 4 for me
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

In the world created by Juno Dawson, witches are real, reunited in a coven created by Queen Elizabeth I. Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, or HMRC, is a secret organization of witches (warlords have their own coven) and four best friends, Niamh, Elle, Leonie, and Helena joined when they were teenagers. Then came the civil war, some of them lost people they loved, and they went their separate ways. Niamh, who is still grieving the loss of her husband during the war, is a veterinarian living in solitude and trying to pretend she doesn’t have a huge crush on the guy who delivers her vegetables. Elle is trying to have a normal life with her family, even though her teenage daughter is showing the first signs of her own powers. Leonie, at the head of her own coven, Diaspora, which is more inclusive and accepting of minorities than HMRC, is figuring out if she is ready to have a child with her partner. And then there is Helena. The only one of them still at HMRC, she is the High Priestess. A prophetic vision of death and doom and the captureof a young warlock with great powers convinces Helena that Theo is responsible and she would do anything to stop it, but her friends don’t agree with her.

Besides Helena, which I really didn’t like as a character (her beliefs and her choices made my blood boil), the other three characters are very likable and well-developed, especially Niamh, who was my favorite character. The story is well-written, interesting, and compelling. The themes are difficult and thought-provoking and some scenes were hard to read (especially when it came to Helena’s perspective), but I was completely immersed in the story. Despite a few slow moments, I really enjoyed this novel and that shocking ending left me wanting for the sequel that I can’t wait to read.

Unfortunately I had to DNF this book on page 120. I’ve been trying to get into it but I’m just not loving it. It’s quite slow and there’s a lot of characters to remember. Because I’m not loving it, I keep forgetting who the characters are so I'm getting confused. This is the second book by Juno Dawson that I haven’t enjoyed, so I think this author just isn’t for me.

Although this started off as a bit of a slow burn for me, it soon had me gripped. Juno Dawson wonderfully combines the everyday lives of women with the magical rollercoaster of being a modern day witch. Dawson pulls in all those questions and decisions faced by women in their 30s (is now the right time to have a baby? Do I want to change career? What does it mean to be a woman in power?) that make these characters incredibly relatable, despite them throwing thunderbolts and breathing fire (yes, this book is THAT cool). These characters could step right off the streets of Hebden Bridge or London.

Dawson doesn’t shy away from the tough topics, she says the things that need to be said and it’s refreshing to read this book and for such important subjects (racism, transphobia, and more) to be addressed in such wonderful storytelling and with openness just makes this book even better.

The villain narrative progression was also so on point. It starts out subtle, there are hints if you’re looking in the right place, and then the momentum increases and a villain is revealed and I was on edge reading what monstrosities they would do next and by the end I was screaming! The sequel cannot come soon enough!

Wow! What a read! If, as I am, you’re a fan of magic, woo and witches then this is a must read. Her Majesty’s Royal Coven is a fast paced, well crafted page turner in which we get introduced to five friends who are witches - and ceremonially accorded their status when they’re tweens. Fast forward 20 or so years , Helena is head of the English coven, Niamh is a vet, Ellie a nurse, Leonie has formed her own coven and Ciara? Well no one talks about how Niamh’s twin went rogue. So when Helena asks Niamh to look after Theo (with budding magical - at times uncontrollable - traits) all goes well until Helena discovers unsettling prophecies which will bring about the apocalypse and means the witches are forced to act. It’s the first time I’ve read anything by Juno and I’m thrilled to discover her writing…am very much looking forward to HMRC 2 … oh and the ending of book 1!!!