Review: Human Rites (Her Majesty’s Royal Coven #3)

Human Rites, Book 3 in the Her Majesty’s Royal Coven Trilogy by Juno Dawson

Published By: Harper Voyager
Publication Date: July 17, 2025
Date Read: July 25, 2025
Genre: Adult – Urban Fantasy
Source: ARC from Harper Voyager
Format: Paperback
Pages: 473

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With Her Majesty’s Royal Coven in shambles and the fate of the world hanging in the balance, the sisterhood of friends and witches must find a new way of putting together the pieces if (wo)mankind is to stand a chance, in this final chapter to Juno’s  “irresistible” series (Lana Harper)

Niamh, Ciara, Leonie, Elle and Theo. Five very different witches with one thing in they were unwittingly chosen by the dangerously charming Lucifer, the demon king of desire, to fulfil a dark Satanis will rise and the daughters of Gaia will fall.

The coven is reunited—but broken. Niamh is back from the dead…but she hasn’t come back alone. Elle mourns a son she never had. Ciara languishes in a prison for witches, and Leonie reels from a very unexpected surprise.

Meanwhile, Lucifer offers fledgling witch Theo a if she helps him, her coven—her family—will be spared. But the magic he asks for will take her out of London—out of time, entirely.

The final confrontation between good and evil in the spectacular conclusion to the saga of Her Majesty’s Royal Coven.

Warning: Spoilers for the previous two books of the series Her Majesty’s Royal Coven and The Shadow Cabinet will be present in this review. It is spoiler free for this instalment.

“Tradition is the worst reason to do anything. It’s not even a reason, it’s an excuse.”

I’ve been a huge fan of Juno Dawson ever since reading her YA gritty Contemporary novels and I was so excited when she went into fantasy with Her Majesty’s Royal Coven. Ever since reading the first book in this series I have been dying to see how it was all going to end for these raw and real witches. Both previous books in this series left me absolutely SHOOKETH with the cliffhanger endings… and cliffhangers don’t usually bother me at all! So despite the fact that I listened to the audiobooks of the previous 2 books, I read this final one physically as I was so excited to have an early copy sent to me to review.

Human Rites picks up right where The Shadow Cabinet left off, with Theo bringing Niamh back from the dead. And right from the very first page you are thrown straight back into all of the drama and danger of these British witches trying their best to prepare to save the world from Satanis. I really loved Juno’s take on ‘Satan’ being multiple separate entities that needed to join up to be all powerful world ending danger. It made the book very action packed and fast paced… and I literally could not put it down. This book is chunky… but I absolutely flew through it in just a couple of days. I don’t know what it is about Juno’s writing but it is so easy to just fall into and speed through. She truly has cast some magic on this phenomenal series.

One thing I adore about this entire series is just how realistic and quintessentially British it is. There were multiple times in this book where I was laughing out loud because of some of the phrases that the characters use, because they were very British… some very northern British which as someone from the north, I really appreciated. It often made me think of how international readers will interpret these phrases but personally I just love how real it is. In addition to the realistic British-ness of this series, I just love how Juno brings very real issues that are going on in the world into this magical version of Britain. For example, we have Theo who is a transgender witch, and there were many discussions and actions around this character that really show the reality of living as transgender is modern Britain. Honestly her representation in this whole series is phenomenal and one of the reasons this is a favourite series of mine.

Human Rites was a phenomenal ending to what has really been an incredible series. This series will forever be one of my favourites that I would read again and again and again. I truly love it so much, and Human Rites was a raw, real and gritty ending to the series. I can’t say I’m happy about how it ended for every character as some of the characters ending broke my heart in two… but everything was wrapped up so well. I honestly cannot praise this entire series enough. It really was just incredible from start to finish. I’m so sad that it is over, but I can’t wait to see what Juno does next. I will absolutely be picking whatever it is up!

If you’re a fantasy fan looking for a raw, gritty witchy read, this series in an absolute must-read. It balances fantastical otherworldly elements with real life, hard hitting issues that just makes it such a thought provoking read. I really recommend it to everyone!

“It’s just that regular women have more power than we’ve ever, ever been told we can have. What if the biggest lie there ever was was that women are weak? Why did men want us to believe that? So we’d think we needed them? So they could control us?”