The Shadow Cabinet
A Novel
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4.5 • 19 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“This entrancing mix of feminism, queerness, magic and power-hungry villains makes for an intoxicating reading experience.” —Nerd Daily
In the second installment of Juno Dawson's "irresistible" fantasy trilogy (Lana Harper), a group of childhood friends and witches must choose between what is right and what is easy if they have any hope of keeping their coven--and their world--from tearing apart forever.
Niamh Kelly is dead. Her troubled twin, Ciara, now masquerades as the benevolent witch as Her Majesty's Royal Coven prepares to crown her High Preistess.
Suffering from amnesia, Ciara can't remember what she's done--but if she wants to survive, she must fool Niamh's adopted family and friends; the coven; and the murky Shadow Cabinet--a secret group of mundane civil servants who are already suspicious of witches. While she tries to rebuild her past, she realizes none of her past has forgotten her, including her former lover, renegade warlock Dabney Hale.
On the other end of the continent, Leonie Jackman is in search of Hale, rumored to be seeking a dark object of ultimate power somehow connected to the upper echelons of the British government. If the witches can't figure out Hale's machinations, and fast, all of witchkind will be in grave danger--along with the fate of all (wo)mankind.
Sharp, funny, provocative, and joyous, Juno Dawson's sequel reimagines everything you think you knew about her coven and her witches in a story that spans continents and dives deep into the roots of England and its witchcraft. Ciara, Leonie, Elle, and Theo are fierce, angry, sexy, warm--and absolutely unapologetic as they fight for what they believe in, all in the name of sisterhood.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The brilliant and fast-paced second contemporary political fantasy in Dawson's HMRC trilogy (after Her Majesty's Royal Coven) takes the series to new heights. Ciara Kelly wakes from a 10-year coma and steals the body of her twin sister, Niamh, just before Niamh is set to take the helm as HMRC's High Priestess. She struggles to navigate Niamh's interpersonal relationships without revealing her identity, all while piecing together her fragmented memories and battling her own (literal) demons. Leonie Jackman, the founder of an independent coven, races to locate her brother Radley, who left Britain to track down renegade warlock Dabney Hale. Along the way, she becomes entangled in a much larger plot involving a dangerous and powerful magical artifact. Meanwhile, underground witchfinders, in league with Hale, put into motion a plan that threatens all witchkind in the name of "warlock supremacy." Dawson handles the tricky middle book with aplomb, raising the stakes and deepening the rich worldbuilding without losing sight of the pathos that makes her characters shine. Magic seamlessly weaves with pop culture references, fun soap-operatic twists, and an incisive look at the psychology of violent misogyny. This is the work of a master storyteller.
