This was very enjoyable, and not at all what I expected. That sounds as if I didn't expect it to be enjoyable, but that's not the case! From the blurb, which started off with the coven protecting the crown, I thought it was going to be a sort of fantasy/spy type thing, MI6 but with witches. It isn't that at all - while the coven in question does seem to be MI6 with witches, that role is firmly in the background here, as the coven splits over questions of identity. Basically, it's sensible people versus TERFs in the realms of witchcraft, which goes to show that even if you've got superpowers you can't always have nice things. 

Set thoroughly at the centre of this ideological conflict is a group of five women, childhood friends, who are connected by past experiences if not always by mutual liking and respect. The expectations of the coven - what it is, and what it should be - lie between them, and things get treacherous and then violent. Happily, the right side wins, although it's clear at the end that the conflict has seeped into the next generation. I want to feel sorry for Snow, as she's a product of her mother's bigotry and fate, but that girl is going to cause trouble in the future, I can tell. That seems organic, if depressing, but I wasn't prepared for the final cliffhanger, and I don't know that I enjoyed it much. I would rather, I think, have ended on a slightly more positive note, and saved the cliffhanger stuff for the next volume... which I will certainly be reading.