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My Review:Title: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
Author: Sangu Mandanna
Published by: Berkley
Release Date: August 23, 2022
Format: eARC
Pages: 368
Genres: Contemporary Fantasy, Paranormal, Paranormal Romance
Source: NetGalley
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2022 COYER Summer, Lenoreo's 2022 Diversity Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2022 Netgalley and Edelweiss Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:
Blurb:A warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family—and a new love—changes the course of her life.
As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don’t mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she’s used to being alone and she follows the rules...with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos "pretending" to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.
But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and…Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he’s concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.
As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn't the only danger in the world, and when a threat comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn’t know she was looking for....
I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.
5 stars — Wow. I don’t think I knew I needed this book, but I 100% needed this book. It didn’t even have the most prominent romance, but what I got more than satisfied me! There was just something magical, in so many senses of the word, in this story and these characters. It made me feel HAPPY. Sure, lots of other emotions as well, but predominantly HAPPY.
If you know me and read my reviews, you know that I am all about the characters. I know people love reading for different reasons, and there are different elements that are most important to them. For me, it has to have characters I can connect with and love. And this book had them in spades. Which is not to say they need to be perfect — in fact, I prefer my characters flawed. It makes them more real, you know?
Mika was an eminently loveable heroine to follow. While there are chunks of the story in other POVs on occasion, the majority of the story is Mika’s to tell. She’s got this beautiful sunshiney exterior that covers up damage from a childhood of neglect and loneliness. She got to me. She was full of spunk and sass, she was quirky and odd, and she had a beautiful heart that she was afraid to let out of its cage. But seeing her fly? So worth it.
The girls were everything. The sass was so strong, I laughed out loud on more than one occasion. And probably snorted. And my heart ached for them. They were each so unique, and I loved them all.
Jamie was the perfect grumpy cinnamon roll hero. He had his moments of frustrating me, but his heart was always in the right place. And he had his own demons to fight.
Ian, Ken and Lucie were the perfect background secondary cast of characters that you just want to be real. They round out the story and take it from great to awesome. Primrose was a challenge, but I do love me a complicated character like her. And Circe was the goodest good dog.
I loved the magical world — I really enjoy these contemporary fantasies where I truly can believe that it’s real, and that magic is hiding in the world we live in. I also appreciated thinking about how it would work in our world, and the inherent dangers that would exist if it was real. I called one of the twists in the story, but it didn’t take away from it whatsoever.
Basically, I was hooked from start to finish, and sad that I couldn’t just gobble it up in one sitting.
COYER Community: I buddy read this book with Lark from The Bookwyrm’s Hoard, and she gave it 5 stars (her review coming soon). Well, I attempted to buddy read, but I fell really far behind. It was still delightful to discuss with her!
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