The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Mandanna Sangu. Very charming and uplifting read!

Synopsis

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….

Review

4 solid stars

When my friend Caro messaged me to tell me that “The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches” had a “House in the Cerulean Sea” feel, I requested the eGalley and. …I can tell that Caro was absolutely right!

So thank you to the publisher @hodderbooks for my copy because I had a great time reading this story!

Why the reference to “The House”?
Because that book has one of my favourite tropes: found family, supported by a charming cast of main and side characters all while happening in a universe where magic is real!
Cherry on top: you even have a grumpy (Jamie)/sunshine (Mika) romantic duo!

The setting of the story:
Mika Moon is a yoing witch of thirty years old who has been raised by Primrose, a very powerful and old witch.
Yet Primrose didn’t really raise the orphaned girl as a string of many nannies did the job. Leaving young Mika bereft of love and very lonely.
But in that world, people can’t know that witches are real so every time Mika had an outburst of magic, Primerose wipped the nanny’s memories clean and hired a new help.

Now an adult, Mika is moving all the time, never trusting anyone to love her back.

And there is also the rule of witches: never gather together, never talk together except once every three months for fear of drawing unwanted attention and endengering them all.

Mika survived but she never lived. And feels very lonely.

But Mika loves magic! And she longs to speak about it. That’s why she has the brilliant idea to playact a witch on instagram, preparing potions. No one will believe that she is a real witch on social media!
Or so she thinks.

Until one day, she gets a cryptic message asking to go somewhere.

Curious, and nudged by her magic, she will go to Norwhich, to Nowhere House and her life will change drastically!

Soon enough, Mika will help three little witches, hidden from everyone and from every other witches,to love and control their powers.

That story is utterly charming!
Filled with loveable main characters and adorable if quirky side characters, it will have you smile, shed a tear and swoon in no time!

The girls are adorable, Mika is very easy to connect with, Jamie is the handsome grumpy hero, Ian is the eccentric and buoyant eldest,…

You will be left with a smile on your face! 

Thanks for reading!

Sophie