As I am eagerly awaiting the third book in the HMRC trilogy (Her Majesty's Royal Coven and The Shadow Cabinet were both great), I saw this sort of prequel narrative about Anne Boleyn, the OG witch, and her efforts to start a coven and grab some long-deserved power for women. That, like this whole world that Dawson has built, is so far up my alley that I cannot even handle it. I have been obsessed with Anne Boleyn since...forever ago, since childhood. I’ve always been drawn to the story of this treacherously charismatic woman of ambition, and the rumors of witchcraft that surrounded her. To mix that "history" with actual magic, and queer witches at that?! Yyyyaaasssssss, please.

This novella wasn't super deep on its own - it was too short for that, really - but it definitely added to the world Dawson has begun with HMRC in a way that I super enjoyed. This reframing of Anne Boleyn to actually have been a witch, but to have made the choice to die meekly to continue the greater work to set up witches, women, into a more protected and powerful and influential future, as they have always deserved and always lacked, is lovely. It gives her an agency in her own story in a way that it has never gotten in a "retelling" that I've read. And it provides a positive spin on her typically frowned upon ambition (a frowning that somehow is never applied equally to men with similar actions/wants). It's a harsh, but powerful, reclaiming. 

I also couldn't help but love the extra pieces, like the female friendships and queer storylines (three cheers for this Anne Boleyn who was only ever using Henry VIII to further her own ambitions, despite what his inflated ego had him thinking). Satisfying AF. And heartwarming in other ways. It was a light plot, but it had action and emotion and it did, as I said, add nicely to the origin story that we hear of in the HRMC series, but with it's own narrative voice now.   

Honestly, this is sort of a fluff spin off piece, but it maintains the quality queer and feminine strength of Dawson’s whole HMRC world. I read it in a single day and I recommend it as a solid entry in the cannon. 

“To live unafraid would be a luxury.”

“As it is now, if you name a woman a witch with enough conviction, she is a woman no more, let alone a lady. We should all be afeared.”

“Her hue was cornflower blue, an air witch. On a promising June morning, she was January skies.”