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A review by wordsofclover
Queen B by Juno Dawson
adventurous
informative
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Queen B is a really fun side story related to Juno Dawson's HMRC trilogy and in this we go all the way back to the 1500s and the time of Anne Boleyn who we know from the main trilogy was a witch. We follow Grace Fairfax, a young woman in court and part of Anne Boleyn'c coven reeling from the devastating execution of Anne and the growing threat of witch hunters.
This was fun as a fan of both HMRC trilogy and also a big fan of Tudor history. I do think a prior knowledge of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII and his wives etc would be best going into this book and really understanding some of the tensions and the threats and also as a way of appreciating how Juno Dawson fine tuned history to fit in with her witchy story.
I would have liked this to be a longer, full-scale novel as I don't really feel; I truly got to know who the characters were. I feel like we didn't have enough to really understand Grace's affection for Anne, and in turn Cecelia's affection for Grace. I feel like the relationships were suppose to be integral to the story but we barely got to skim the surface of them, and because it was novella we missed out on some of the slower paced building up of these relationships.
I'm all here for more HMRC novellas though and would love more in Queen Elizabeth's time as well - and even more interesting would be some set in the time of King James and the English Witch Trials of the time.
This was fun as a fan of both HMRC trilogy and also a big fan of Tudor history. I do think a prior knowledge of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII and his wives etc would be best going into this book and really understanding some of the tensions and the threats and also as a way of appreciating how Juno Dawson fine tuned history to fit in with her witchy story.
I would have liked this to be a longer, full-scale novel as I don't really feel; I truly got to know who the characters were. I feel like we didn't have enough to really understand Grace's affection for Anne, and in turn Cecelia's affection for Grace. I feel like the relationships were suppose to be integral to the story but we barely got to skim the surface of them, and because it was novella we missed out on some of the slower paced building up of these relationships.
I'm all here for more HMRC novellas though and would love more in Queen Elizabeth's time as well - and even more interesting would be some set in the time of King James and the English Witch Trials of the time.