Thank you to Netgalley and publishers for this eARC of Her Majesty's Royal Coven.

When I heard about this novel I was really intrigued to read it. It's an urban fantasy thrown in with queer politics and magic. The concept had potential and if done right it would have been a great novel. However it fell flat, the whole book felt like it was aimed at YA rather than Adult that it's pegged to be and the whole queer politics thing just felt like the author was jumping on the wagon and just using it for the sake of it.
The magic seemed like a thin veil too.
I would have enjoyed both the queer politics side and the magic side if it was done with a purpose, within fantasy land. After all this is supposed to be a fantasy novel.
Leonie's storyline seemed a bit pointless, she finally got a result and all of a sudden it was ignored, never to be mentioned again. It seemed like the foundation of the book got confused with the end product.

i loved this book with my entire heart ! i fell in love with the witchy atmosphere as well as the plot! i was so gripped i couldn’t put it down !!! the characters are so lifelike i don’t think i will be able to forget about them as they seem like my friends now!! i’ve recommended this book to everyone i know as it’s so amazing. !

Her Majesty's Royal Coven is a tale of witches living among us. When a prophecy highlights a teenager as a potential threat, old friends come together to try and make sense of what is going to happen.

The first half of the book was quite slow, although that was in part because of the world building taking place. The second half was much more interesting with much more of the magic I had expected! There is a lot of focus in the book on current social issues in the context of witchcraft, which was interesting to read. The ending was quite unexpected too - I'll be intrigued to see what happens next!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

To start off with - I really enjoyed reading Her Majesty's Royal Coven and I loved that it had a fresh take on the urban fantasy genre. The integration of witches, warlocks and magical society with our own mundane world was great and I think the worldbuilding was done really well. The characters had a lot of potential and for the most part felt realistic.

However, at times the integration of the magical world with the real, political issues the book covers is clumsy, coming across as patronising and simplistic - especially when it came to the characterisation of characters as good/bad (and the way other characters in the novel perceived them). I genuinely believe that this series has the potential to be great, once it has the opportunity to grow into itself and forge a strong narrative identity. Based off of the ending I'm looking forward to the second book.