I read HMRC before this book, though it could be easily read as a stand alone. I think HMRC sets up the world building and understanding of the witches and their powers that does add another layer to this book though.

With both books I couldn’t stop talking about how clever they are. They take history and rewrite it but it is done flawlessly. I cannot rave enough about them and I’m so excited to finish the series.

I truly enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone!

This novella is a fun prequel to the Her Majesty’s Royal Coven series by Juno Dawson, exploring “what if Anne Boleyn was a witch”. The focus is on other members of the coven before and after Anne’s death, rather than Anne herself. Great for fans of the series and historical fiction.

Great story with all the drama and rounded characters expected from Juno Dawson. Very different setting from other stories in this series but you can see the connecting thread being woven. Can't wait for the next Her Majesty's Coven

I love Juno Dawson's writing and in particular her HMRC series. It was a particular treat, whilst waiting for the next instalment to be given the origin story for the witches. Lively, compelling and fascinating. I loved the blending of the historical and fantasy genres. Smart writing that grips you and doesn't let up. My only sadness was that this was just a novella. I wanted to keep reading.

I will greedily gobble up anything and everything to do with Juno Dawson’s HMRC trilogy, so this novella was very much appreciated by me. Queen B is a prequel novella that adds to the lore of the fantastic world Dawson has crafted in the original series, and packed such a punch in less than 200 pages. Full of witches, subterfuge and sapphic pining, it has everything fans of HMRC could ever ask for, set to a Royal Tudor backdrop. With multiple references to Anne Boleyn and her coven in the OG series, I’m really glad we got to find out more and it was fascinating to see the parallels to the witches in the modern day. It has made me even more excited for Book 3.

Thank you to HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC. All opinions are my own.

Queen B. is the prequel to Her Majesty's Royal Coven series. The story is set in the 1500s and revolves around Anne Boleyn and her coven. It was a nice addition to the HMRC series. It was too quick for me and I like to learn more about the whole witchy storyline but I enjoyed it too. I can't wait to read the next installment. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an early copy. I'll post my review closer to the publication date.

Today we want to share a bookreview for Queen B by Juno Dawson!🖤
Queen B is a novella in the Her Majesty's Royal Coven series. It is actually a prequel set in 1536 following around Anne Boleyn.
We follow multiple perspecitives and multiple timings before and after her death as we see her form the coven, get close to the king and end up killed. Which is not a spoiler as the book opens with her death.
I am so in love with this witchy series, while the rest of the series is set in our time, I loved the historical settings and the athmosphere it added to this story.🙌
I dont want to say too much as it is only a novella but if you are on the fence please try this book or the first book in the series. I think you can totally dive into this blind. It is perfect for a witchy evening with tea and candles.🕯

Queen B was an interesting novella about the origin of Her Majesty’s royal coven, showcasing how the coven came to be from the dreams and ambitions of Anne Boleyn and how even after her death her legacy still lived on.

The historical part was actually pretty well done, with a clearly researched background and a general sense of a distant past, and as usual I really loved how Juno Dawson built her fascinating characters and their complex, messy and sometimes heartbreaking relationships.

My only issue with this novella is that it probably would have been way more enjoyable if it was a full-length novel instead: it was an entertaining story but often felt a bit rushed, both in terms of actual action and characters' interactions.

Still, it was a nice addition to the HMRC universe, and I definitely recommend the read to fans of the series.

Take a bow Juno Dawson! A great ending to a great series of books for young adult females! The cliffhangers were nicely resumed and it was good to see how their relationships have continued to grow and develop and having got to know the characters it was nice to be with them again! Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. Thank you Juno Dawson for dreaming this up and taking it out to the world

So glad to be back in the world of Juno Dawson! A fantastic prequel to HRMC! It was great to see how the world she has built was orginally come about from the Tudor times.

Juno Dawson never fails to amaze me with her books. I loved the first two books of "Her Majesty's Royal Coven" and now
"Queen B" takes us back to the original coven and what intrigues and challanges those brave women had to face. I could
barely put this book down, Juno Dawson has such a remarkeable talent for drawing the reader in immediately, also due to her
fascinating characters.

It’s 1536 and the Queen has been beheaded.
Lady Grace Fairfax, witch, knows that something foul is at play – that someone had betrayed Anne Boleyn and her coven. Wild with the loss of their leader – and her lover, a secret that if spilled could spell Grace’s own end – she will do anything in her power to track down the traitor. But there’s more at stake than revenge: it was one of their own, a witch, that betrayed them, and Grace isn’t the only one looking for her. King Henry VIII has sent witchfinders after them, and they’re organized like they’ve never been before under his new advisor, the impassioned Sir Ambrose Fulke, a cold man blinded by his faith. His cruel reign could mean the end of witchkind itself. If Grace wants to find her revenge and live, she will have to do more than disappear.
She will have to be reborn. Another compulsive read from an author who seems to do no wrong. I absolutely devoured this one… You will want to clear your afternoon to read this one straight through, so riveting are the twists and turns. Recommended

Why oh why was Queen B not 5 times longer. I absolutely adore anything Juno Dawson writes and the HMRC series is a particular favourite of mine. Queen B was a wonderfully magical novella with the same addictive prose as you’d expect but with the new twist of the period backdrop. Truly would read many many more books in the historical setting and cannot wait for whatever comes next for JD.

3.5 stars

QUEEN B is set five hundred years before HER MAJESTY'S ROYAL COVEN and reimagines a world where the accusations of witchcraft levelled at Anne Boleyn were real.

The book is told on two timelines - a chronological one after Anne's death as the coven reacts and tries to protect itself while hunting down the traitor who betrayed Anne, and a series of non-chronological chapters showing Anne's rise to power and her relationship with Grace.

It is an interesting take on the situation and I did like that the focus was on the aftermath not the build up to Anne's death. That's a commonly taken approach so this felt pleasantly different and let the coven dynamics be explored when contending with grief as well (though the "then" chapters let you see the tensions seeded much earlier.)

There are several historical inaccuracies, changing relationships to fit the narrative of a coven hiding in England. Also this book trots out the whole "corsets are oppressive and so rejected by feminists" nonsense (corsets don't exist at this point either - we are only at the very beginning of stays.)

The novella tries to marry the witches into the (effectively still) (Early Modern) Catholic mindset, though it's not always convincing. It feels accurate from the witch hunter's perspective but the women's discussions of it and their approach to balancing the two beliefs felt rather jarring. Margaret de la Pole's brief appearance felt very much like a shoehorn approach to marrying the two.

In all, it was entertaining and different to the rest of the series, but it felt like a bit more care could have gone into the world building.

I loved reading Her Majesty’s Royal Coven so I was very excited to read Queen B, the wickedness, danger and secrets was so compelling and had me gripped.

Another great book from Juno Dawson.

Mixing her witch story with historical fiction, we follow the brief reign of Anne Boleyn as both the wife of Henry VIII and head of the Royal Court coven.

With love, betrayal, jealousy and the mastering of skills, this is another excellent LBGTQ, fantasy tale with some historical fiction thrown in for good measure.

Thank you to NetGalley for accepting my request for this! Totally didn't expect to be chosen to read it with it being part of such an immense series.

I absolutely LOVED Juno Dawson's first two books in the Her Majesty's Royal Coven series, and this prequel novella didn't miss the mark either!

Now, admittedly, my Tudor history is a little rusty, but Juno's writing is so perfectly done that the character building and relationships were perfectly explained. So even if you have no prior knowledge of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII and all that jazz, this book will still be easy enough to get into.

Really hoping that Juno Dawson surprises us with more short novella additions to this series along the course of history! This was an amazing read and can't wait to add it to my shelf alongside the other two installments!

Queen B is a novella that serves as a prequel to the Her Majesty's Royal Coven series, as its origins during the reign of Henry VIII are explored. Lady Grace Fairfax is a witch and part of court during the reign of Henry VIII, where Anne Boleyn rule a coven until she is betrayed and executed. Grace needs to find out what happened to her leader (and lover), but there's witchfinders afoot and the fate of all of the witches in court rests on what happens next.

This historical fantasy novella jumps between the present day of 1536 and flashbacks to the past, as Grace becomes part of court and part of the coven, and falls in love with Anne Boleyn. It combines real historical figures and the magical world of the series, whilst also exploring hidden love between women and hidden witchcraft. At first, it can be confusing to work out who everyone is and what is going on, but once you get into it, this is a fast-paced novella that offers a slightly different version of what has come before in the other books. The narrative is quite simplistic and due to the length as a novella, there's not much space to explore many characters, unlike the main series, but it is a fun way to tell a different story in the world. It does lack the political commentary and comparisons of the first two books, as it is much more straightforwardly 'witches are persecuted' due to the setting and actual history of Anne Boleyn as accused of witchcraft.

As someone who isn't a huge fan of historical fiction (or fantasy, when its not set in the real present day), I did find this one harder to get into than the main books in the series, even with the queer love triangle between witches as a selling point. It's a quick, fun read and I think that a lot of people will like how it weaves real history into the narrative of the series, but I just prefer the modern day setting.

Having loved HMRC and The Shadow Cabinet and with a good knowledge of the Tudor period, I was excited to read this novella based on Anne Boleyn. Already knowing the fates of the characters didn’t affect my enjoyment of this well-written short story, I only wish it could’ve been longer! I very much look forward to the last in the trilogy but hope there will be more novellas and spin-offs to come!

⚠️All opinions are my own⚠️

Flawless.

What does it talk about?
Well... What if... Anne Boleyn were the leader of a Coven of witches?

I read and loved both of the previous HMRC's books: the second one in particular, is one of my very favourite reads of 2023.
I had access to this copy thanks to #Netgalley; I didn't expect to be accepted so I was amazed by the notification. I looked forward to reading this new installment.

I initially expected this to be a sequel to "The Shadow Cabinet" (which I am also very much looking for), so you can guess my surprise when I saw that it was a prequel, set during the age of King Henry VIII.
There is a reason for this: I don't always like to read plots before opening a book, especially if it's by an author I already read and enjoyed very much, as not to ruin my feeling of surprise. This was especially useful in this case: I was very much delighted by this change of setting, it was a breath of fresh air before the next sequel in series.

The plot develops in a very original, interesting and mature way. It is serious, not light-hearted, engaging, not superficial: all the characters are very well described and excellently brought to life. The worldbuilding is good as well: I could see the scenery in front of my eyes as the story unfolded.

It was very much emotional, gripping, intriguing, and never boring for me. Many topics were touched, with care and authenticity.

Juno Dawson's style is very recognizable: as usual it is clear, direct, polished and a bit sophisticated.
As with the previous books in series, I don't consider this a Young Adult series but instead, an Adult one despite not including sp1cy, s3x or expl1cit scenes.

This was only my 3rd read by Juno Dawson, so I wasn't sure I would have liked this one.
Well, I've now officially become a fan of Juno Dawson's writing, I now would like to read her other works (and I absolutely want to read the third book of "Her Majesty's Royal Coven" 😍❤️).

I thank the publisher, author and Netgalley very much for this opportunity ❤️

I give this 4.7 out of 5⭐. Have I already said I look forward to reading the follow up novel? ❤️