Five girls gather in a treehouse in the opening scene of Juno Dawson’s debut adult novel. The following day, on the summer solstice, they will pledge their oaths to Gaia and Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, a top secret government department of witches founded by Anne Boleyn and charged with protecting the United Kingdom from magical forces and otherworldly evil. (The nifty acronyms continue: the US equivalent is the Coven Intelligence America.) Dawson may be best known as a young adult writer, but this is no witching coming-of-age story. In a playful twist on fantasy tropes, the action leaps forward 25 years. A magical civil war has been fought and won and our witches are now navigating life in their late 30s.
