The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches - Sangu Mandanna

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Author: Sangu Mandanna

Genre: Fantasy Romance
Rating: 4.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: This is the sweetest and the cutest and the loveliest book I’ve read in ages. Imagine sunbeams and moonlight strewn together in a magical combo! Go for it without a doubt.

Story Synopsis:
Thirty-one year old Mika Moon has lived a life of solitude. As a witch, she knows that she cannot let the dangerous world know about her magical abilities. With no family or friends, lonely Mika resorts to posting “fake” witchy videos to an online account, just so that she can talk about her favourite topic – magic. She is sure no one will notice. She is wrong.
When she receives an anonymous message summoning her to a remote place called “Nowhere House” to teach magic to three young witches, she feels uncertain but goes there anyway. What follows is a cute, funny and sometimes dangerous adventure with Mika, her three young wards and their three not-so-young caretakers. Oh, and there’s Jamie too, who hates strangers. How will Mika adjust from being a loner to this sudden flurry of people in her life? Will she finally be able to settle in a place and call it home?


Where the book worked for me:
😍 The characters. Each and every character, including the surly ones. Their detailing is so precise that you can’t help understand their actions. Mika, her three little wards, the three caretakers, Jamie, and Circe the dog – all will cast a spell on you. The best are Mika and Jamie. With each of them using a different modus operandi to deal with the blows life has dealt them, their personalities are a study in contrasts. It’s very easy to love Mika, but try having a grumpy, anti-social hero who loves to spend more time with books and kids than with adults! Team Jamie FTW.

😍 I loved all the “magicky” things in the book. It was a wonderful experience to see an almost personified version of magic throughout the story. It never went over the top. Ditto for the representation of witches.

😍 The characters come from a variety of racial backgrounds – Indian, Irish, British (white and Black), Palestinian, Vietnamese – but none of the ethnicities are thrown at your face. This might have been just to ensure multiracial representation, but the characters are written as regular characters with no needless stress on their diversity. For instance, there’s no shoehorned “chai tea” or yoga making an appearance simply to justify Mika’s Indian roots. I loved seeing this normal portrayal of multicultural characters – it’s exactly how representation should be in this global world. (There’s LGBTQ+ rep also in the form of a gay married couple, and I bet you won’t find a cuter couple in contemporary fiction!)

😍 This novel nails the ‘found family’ trope. With such loveable yet quirky characters, the journey was anyway going to be exciting, but the way the author brought out the feeling of oneness amid these disparate individuals was just beautiful. None of the characters feel unidimensional.

😍 The Mika-Jamie link is quite guessable. (Not complaining – the book is a Fantasy-Romance after all.) But what I loved was how naturally it developed. There’s no insta-lust but a friendship turning into attraction turning into something greater. Romances are always so much better when written in slow-burn style. Also, I hate it when there’s steam for the sake of it. This one has those scenes when they make sense in the narrative flow.

😍 The writing is very quick and easy-going.


Where the book could have worked better for me:
😢 Why did the story have to get over so soon? There's no cliffhanger but I demand a sequel ASAP! I want to know what happens about a certain something that has been in existence since hundreds of years. Will Mika be able to modify/overthrow it?


Do you see the skew of my feedback? No surprise then that this book will get the highest rating I ever give to contemporary adult fiction. Recommended to anyone looking for a light and cosy and quick and soul-satisfying read. This was fantastic in every sense of the word. I am going to keep an eye out for all future Sangu Mandanna releases.

(Note: It does have a lot of cuss words. If you don’t like seeing the F word thrown around casually and regularly, this won’t work for you.)

My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Comments

  1. Kathy S.30 August 2022 at 19:41

    This sounds great!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rosh30 August 2022 at 22:23

      It was outstanding, Kathy. One of my top favourite reads of this year. :)

      Delete

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