I should have known this book was going to end on a cliffhanger but did it have to be so big? This is a story of resilience, sisterhood, embracing who you are, and knowing not everyone is on your side. There are no good or bad witches, just good and bad choices. I truly enjoyed this book and will be diving into the sequel soon. Perfect for the start of the ‘ber months ( )

I should have known this book was going to end on a cliffhanger but did it have to be so big? This is a story of resilience, sisterhood, embracing who you are, and knowing not everyone is on your side. There are no good or bad witches, just good and bad choices. I truly enjoyed this book and will be diving into the sequel soon. Perfect for the start of the ‘ber months. ( )

Every time I had a thought of "oh my lanta, it would be amazing if..." It came about. It was so well done and has skyrocketed to one of my favorite reads this year. I am so excited to read the rest of this series because it is literal *chefs kiss*. The Audiobook narrator, Aoife McMahon did a wonderful job at differentiating the voices and I was able to easily tell the difference between each character. I honestly recommend this series to anyone; it is so so good! ( )

Took a little time to really get into, but I ended up enjoying these characters. Wish I got to see more of what Theo was thinking. Maybe her story is expanded in future books. ( )

I'm honestly at a loss on how to best review this book. 3 stars feels too low for something I was genuinely invested in and enjoyed reading, but 4 stars feels too high for something I felt unsure about reading too many times. Settling on a 3.75 —

The book focuses on 5 witches (the blurb says 4, but there's a sister that's just kind of gone but she is part of the original group who are childhood friends but now adults. There was a civil war among witches 8 years before this book begins, witches who believe humans (mundanes) are beneath them and witches should be ruling the world fighting against witches who wanted to keep peace with mundanes.

If you put Buffy The Vampire Slayer (minus the vampires), Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Fort Salem: Motherhood in a blender, you'd get pretty close to Her Majesty's Royal Coven.

Things I liked: I thought it was really refreshing to read a fantasy (urban fantasy, but still) with main characters in their 30s. I loved the plot line with a trans witch being discovered and watching her journey - to the point where I almost wished she was the main character/protagonist. I would have loved to be inside her head for the events of the story, especially before the book started. I liked how each character was their own individual person, with different interests and beliefs. You really got a distinct feel for each voice.

Things I was in the middle about: I didn't love but didn't hate the political discourse throughout the story. The writing made it come across very heavy-handed where it almost felt forced, which made it almost cringey to read at times. There were a lot of valid points regarding misogyny, white feminism, transphobia, and racism - which I was happy to see in a book. But I also typically read fantasy in a move to avoid the miseries of reality, which brings me back to just not knowing exactly how to feel, LOL.

Things I didn't like: I really felt uncomfortable with the transphobic rants. This book rotates through multiple POVs and one of the characters is a raging TERF. Reading through her parts is HARD. The author is trans as well, but I do feel like it's important to note that those chapters could be potentially triggering to someone who identifies as trans.
Less intense, but I also didn't like that Ciara isn't looked into much. I get that she's likely going to be a bigger part of the second book, but it felt confusing for me to have her mentioned and have her character be this borderline villain locked away somewhere and then we never get to know more about her story/motives/etc.
Also the pettiest complaint I have - at one point Leonie gives Niamh a hug in public and she thinks "I wonder if people think we're a couple". HUH????? All you did was hug???? Wtf???? Why would you even think that Imao ( )