Step back in time to the intrigue of Henry VIII’s court in Juno Dawson’s latest enchanting addition to the Her Majesty’s Royal Coven series. In 1536, following Anne Boleyn’s execution, Lady Grace Fairfax, a witch, is consumed by grief and suspicion. Convinced that someone within the coven betrayed Anne, Grace is determined to uncover the truth, even as witchfinders, led by the ruthless Sir Ambrose Fulke, threaten their existence.
As Grace navigates treacherous waters, she realises that revenge isn’t the only thing at stake—it’s the survival of witchkind itself. With King Henry’s witchfinders closing in and betrayal lurking within, Grace must not only vanish but undergo a profound transformation to ensure her survival and the future of her sisterhood.
Queen B is sure to be a huge hit with lovers of Her Majesty’s Royal Coven. We are transported back in time to the 1500s to the beginnings of the HMRC and let me tell you, it is a doozy. While this is following Anne Boleyn’s execution, the focus is really more on the people that were around her and how her death impacts them—not to mention the critical political situation and the constant threat of exposure. I enjoyed this twist on history and quite liked that—while speaking about characters we know already—it added a historical twist and served as a nice counterpart to the more modern setting the actual series’ books offer.
The revenge-driven Grace of the present in 1536 was also nicely balanced with flashbacks that showed a different side of her as she not only became part of court and the coven but also how and why she fell in love with Anne Boleyn. The themes of having to hide your identity is interestingly doubled here, with clear parallels between having to hide your sexual identity and the fact that you are quite literally magic. Additionally, Dawson’s talent to portray flawed characters in a way that makes you love them all the more for their flaws instead of in spite of them absolutely shines in this novel. Grace is by no means perfect and that makes her and the other witches all the more exciting to follow as they uncover secrets.
I really enjoyed the way Dawson combined actual historical figures with the magical elements from the Her Majesty’s Royal Coven series. While I don’t think you’ll get as much out of the novella if you haven’t read the first two books in the series, it still makes for the perfect addition to this magical universe and nicely bridges the wait until the third book releases. While there’s not as much of subtle political commentary in Queen B (which makes sense since this follows the very straightforward history of witches being persecuted and thus the politics that existed at that time can also be addressed more directly) as you might be from the Her Majesty’s Royal Coven series, that didn’t take away from my enjoyment and will surely still appeal to readers.
Weaving real history and magical elements together, Queen B is a new, fast-paced take on Anne Boleyn’s tragic demise and the woman willing to go to the ends of the earth to avenge her.
Queen B is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of July 23rd 2024.
Will you be picking up Queen B? Have you read it already? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
This next spellbinding installment of Juno’s “irresistible” fantasy series Her Majesty’s Royal Coven (Lana Harper) takes us back to the reign of Henry VIII and the origins of Her Majesty’s Royal Coven under the beautiful, the bewitching, Anne Boleyn.
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.
In this gripping, propulsive, sultry short novel, Juno Dawson takes us back to the bloody beginnings of Her Majesty’s Royal Coven to show us the strength, steel and sacrifice it takes to make a sisterhood.
