This is Practical Magic (the movie version) with a bit of T.J. Klune to it. Imagine Ian McKellan and his cute husband hire a witch to nanny their wild magical witch children. Mandanna takes on English nationalism and weaves it into a part of the experiences characters have with the magical and mortal world. If you like T.J. Klune, Terry Pratchett, or Travis Baldree i.e. you love cozy fantasy with just a bit of gentle romance and quirky magic, you would love this. It honestly is one of my absolute favorite things.

This is a cozy fantasy with great writing, it was very whimsical which I appreciated. However I found myself not falling the plot because it never held my interest for long. I wasn’t invested in any of the characters.

Mika Moon, the protagonist of Sangu Mandanna’s The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, was orphaned at a young age (as all witches are) and has grown up with the certainty that she will always be alone. Witches mustn’t congregate, lest they create a magical surge that attracts the attention of normal people, which “witches have discovered time and time again over the centuries is dangerous.” For the most part, Mika plays by the rules. Her one rebellion is the YouTube channel where she posts videos of real magic that she pretends is fake magic, but that’s exactly what gets her into trouble when she’s contacted to teach magic to a household of three (!!) very young witches. Their home, Nowhere House, belongs to a witch named Lillian who spends most of her time overseas and leaves the day-to-day operations of Nowhere House and its orphan witches to her staff: housekeeper Lucie, groundskeeper Ken and his actor husband Ian, and Jamie, the hot, grumpy librarian. Mika knows she can’t belong with them forever, but oh, how she wants to.

If you keep an eye—and for your sake I hope you don’t—on fearmongering leftist thinkpieces of the type that Michael Hobbes thrives on debunking, you’ve probably seen at least one op-ed about how kids (read: adults) these days just cut their family members out of their lives at the drop of a hat and without a backward glance. For minor offenses! What next! It’s a slippery slope! And it’s the internet’s fault, probably!

Emily St. James notes that the idealization of nuclear and biological family is too often predicated on obligation, or lack of choice. Common wisdom holds that you can be as mean to your sister as you want because she’s stuck with you. When you have no choice but to go to your family for help, they have no choice but to take you in. I find it horribly grim, this vision of family relationship as hostage crisis. When I was being trained as a suicide intervention counselor, we were taught not to say have to at all because it erases choice and agency. We do not have to invite the lech uncle to every holiday. We do not have to keep the damaging family secrets. We choose not to talk about Bruno.

Although nobody asked, I will take this opportunity to share my opinion that While You Were Sleeping is the best rom-com ever made, and the reason this is true is that Lucy falls in love—she says so!—not just with Bill Pullman, whose furniture business I don’t think is sustainable anyway, but with his big, loud, weird Catholic family. (This resonates with me because I myself come from a big, loud, weird Catholic family that everyone, correctly, falls in love with.) There’s a moment at the family Christmas celebration, to which Lucy has been invited after saving the family’s eldest son from death by train, when someone puts a Christmas present in Lucy’s hands. We never find out what the gift is, because Lucy never unwraps it; she just sits there holding it, letting the family’s boisterous chatter wash over her, delight and wonder written all over her face.

The defining features of a romance novel are these: the story is centrally focused on the progression of a romance, and the characters who are having the romance end up happily partnered. While these requirements too often lead the genre to imply (or state outright) that the only type of love that matters is romantic love accompanied by sexual attraction, the genre at its best also celebrates the bonds of family and community, and the ability of its characters to find happiness and fulfillment within those contexts too.

Mika has grown up under the devastating weight of family secrecy and control. Primrose, the witch who raised her after her parents died, surrendered the bulk of her care to a series of nannies, all of whom were summarily dismissed and magically memory-wiped by Primrose when they had caught wind of what Mika could do. “They always knew I was different,” she confesses to Jamie, early in her stay at Nowhere House. “It took me years to work out how to behave like I was expected to.” It doesn’t occur to her—yet—that there was or could be an alternative to this rigidly enforced control, a version of her life in which she’s loved for who she is.

She answers the summons to Nowhere House because of the desperation she can sense in the message from Ian. She’s prepared to be useful, but not to be wanted. Her version of Lucy tenderly cradling a Christmas gift comes when Mika asks the children’s guardians to weigh in on the safety of taking the oldest girl, Rosetta, into town to visit a bookshop. Ken is mildly opposed, while Lucie and Ian are in favor, and our hot librarian Jamie is inclined to say absolutely not. Ian points out that if Mika had raised the question after her two-week trial period had concluded, she’d have been able to break the tie with a vote of her own—a point that Mika has obviously never considered.

Mika continued to look stunned, like it had never occurred to her that she might be considered part of something, and Jamie found he violently hated it. He was livid that she was so surprised by such a simple gesture. Hadn’t she ever been treated as anything but an outsider?

The answer is no, she hasn’t. As we learn later in the book, the best she’s ever been able to expect from those closest to her has been the desire to use her powers for their own benefit. She reluctantly discloses the existence of a single serious ex-boyfriend, who learned that she was a witch and then began making demands. Cash bewitched out of an ATM machine. Answers magically provided to him during exams. Nor, she admits, was it the first time. When the nannies of her childhood learned what she could do, “I became something that could be used.”

As she gradually comes to learn from the denizens of Nowhere House, this isn’t the most a person can hope for—even a witch. Jamie, Ian, Lucie, and Ken, to say nothing of the girls, care about Mika. They include her and make space for her. She comes to Nowhere House with her own greenhouse, and she gardens with Ken. Jamie brings whiskey upstairs to her and helps with her spellwork. When she’s ill from a magical backlash, they take it in turns to sit by her bedside in case she wakes up and needs anything. It’s Mika’s first real experience of the quotidian miracle of being loved.

Particularly when a character comes to a chosen family from a deeply dysfunctional family of origin, there’s an inclination to idealize the new. Much as romance novel heroes are prone to knowing exactly what sorts of sex things their partner will enjoy without having to ask or making mistakes or sitting on the other person’s hair (shouts to Ruthie Knox, Courtney Milan, and Cecelia Grant for schooling me on the value of bad sex scenes in romance novels), fictional found families are prone to getting everything right on the first try. It’s a trap Mandanna doesn’t fall into, and indeed the third-act conflict of Irregular Witches arises between Mika and the whole family, rather than exclusively between herself and her love interest.

And it’s a serious one: She learns that Jamie, and Ian and Ken, and Lucie, have been lying to her all along. The girls’ witch guardian, Lillian, hasn’t gone unreachable on a long research trip to remote locations without cell services. She has died, and the four adults of Nowhere House are trying to keep that fact from her solicitor to ensure that they’ll retain custody of the girls, who have never known another home. It’s a shattering realization to Mika, as she looks back on every interaction she’s shared with them and sees ulterior motives where she had barely begun to allow herself to see trust. Heartbroken, she tells Jamie, “I can never know how much of it was real.”

There’s a remarkable power in realizing that you can choose the people with whom you share reciprocal relationships of care. When Mika makes the leap of faith to give Jamie and the others a second chance, she’s acting from a place of trust in the life she has built with them, rather than a place of fear that their failure of care for her will be repeated. We even see her begin to build a new relationship with Primrose, the witch who raised her, a choice she’s only able to make because her time at Nowhere House has taught her that she can be vulnerable enough to ask for what she needs, and strong enough to walk away from relationships with people who won’t meet her halfway.

The allure of found family is precisely that we are choose and are chosen by them. Mika does not have to go back to Jamie, Ken, Ian, and Lucie, any more than they have to take her back. They are not family by an accident of biology, or out of obligation to the dictates of a societal narrative. They’ll share interests and set boundaries and help one another when help is needed. To paraphrase the wonderful Gwendolyn Brooks, they are each other’s business, bound together by the choice to give and receive love.

Sometimes a book comes along at just the right moment in my life and is everything I need and more than I hoped it would be. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches was was exactly that read for me this past fall.

It is described on Goodreads as "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." It is the story of Mika Moon. She is part of secret society of witches with very strict rules about not exposing their magic to outsiders. And they must remain separate from one another so as not to draw attention to themselves. They meet very rarely as a group, and then only to check in. Mika, who was orphaned as a child, keeps to the rules--somewhat. She has her own vlog, positing videos in which she pretends to be a witch. No one takes those too seriously, after all. That is until she receives a message from a stranger offering her a job as a nanny for three young witches. Taking a chance, Mika travels to Nowhere House, in a remote part of the country. She is not sure what to expect, but knows full well she is breaking every rule. There she meets the children, along with a retired actor, the estate's caretakers, and the grumpy librarian, who makes it clear he does not want her there.

I liked Mika from the start. She's good hearted and independent minded, used to moving every few months to avoid getting too attached or close to anyone. When she gets the message from Ian, a retired actor now in his 80's, she is curious, but does not take it too seriously. She makes the drive out to Nowhere House fully anticipating to turn the job down. She does her best at first to deny the existence of magic, but it is clear early on that magic is not a well kept secret at Nowhere House. It was hard not to fall in love with all the residents of the house: Ian, of course, who is witty and charming, and his husband, Ken, who has is a gifted gardener; the housekeeper Lucie who is inviting and kind; Jamie who has his own set of charm but in a rough sort of way, and who is very protective of the girls; and then there are the three young witches, all orphans themselves who had been taken in by their absent guardian.

It's obvious the residents of Nowhere House are hiding something, but they are clear about one thing. They hope that Mika can teach the girls to control their magic in a short amount of time--at least before the guardian's lawyer arrives to pick up some papers. No one can find out they are witches, especially not the lawyer. Mika isn't sure she can manage it, but she reluctantly agrees to try.

This novel is funny and sweet with a dash of romance and mystery thrown in. Jamie may not trust Mika at first, but the two realize early on they have to come to some sort of an arrangement, if only for the girls' sakes. The characters had interesting backstories, and I liked the authors approach to the diversity of backgrounds of those characters. I enjoyed the funny moments and situations the characters would sometimes get into. Mika, who longed so much for connection and yet pushed it away at every turn, comes to really care for the Nowhere residents. She needs them as much as they need her.

When I first started reading The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches I was hoping for a novel that would leave me smiling--and I definitely got that. There were even some tears mixed in. This book has a lot of heart.

If I could give this book 10 stars I would!

THE VERY SECRET SOCIETY OF IRREGULAR WITCHES was the absolute perfect read for Fall, and it gave me the found family, and magical story I was craving right now. It's a warm, uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family and a new love changes the course of her life.

I couldn't put this adorable book down, and I thought the author wrote such complex, relatable characters, that fully immersed myself into the pages while reading. While there were tender moments, and emotions of being orphaned, with a sense of not feeling like belonging, there were funny moments too, which really rounded the story out.

*many thanks to Berkley for the gifted copy for review

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches was an absolute delight to read. It firmly falls into the cozy fantasy genre. And honestly, reading this one feels a bit like a hug. I loved seeing how Mika upended things at Nowhere House, and how the characters all dealt with the changes.

I know this review is short, but The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches has magic, found family, and a grumpy/sunshine romance - what more could you need? I’d recommend this one to anyone looking for an uplifting and fun fantasy novel (particularly those who liked The House in the Cerulean Sea)

I simply loved this book. It was perfect read for the fall, and would be excellent one to pick up during October/spooky season.
Although The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches is not a spooky book, it is still perfect to read for Halloween, as it’s protagonists are witches (and with witches comes magic).

I am actually glad books like this exist, because they do provide that Halloween mood to readers who aren’t into horrors and gory.

This book was just adorable. It was relaxing, witchy story that talked about family, friends and love, and what is the most important, the relationship one has with themselves.

The story follows Mika who takes a job to teach magic to three little children. There, in the Nowhere House, she finally learns how it feels to belong somewhere and what it’s like to have a family.

The story is written in third person following Mika’s POV, but there were also some parts that followed Jamie, the librarian.
As you can assume, Jamie is the love interest and when it comes to romance, this one include grumpy-sunshine trope.

I think the author pictured small circle (of people) vibes so well. It was so easy to get attached to all of the characters, main and the side ones. Holiday scenes in the story were like a warm hug from the author and her characters to us readers, that I appreciate the most.

I highly recommend it to everyone who’s looking for a warm, relaxing, witchy story.

“It’s not always enough to go looking for the place we belong, sometimes we need to make that place.”

Mika is a witch. Witches tend to be loners, as too many in one place can draw unwanted attention. When the caretakers of Nowhere house reach out to Mika, begging for her to teach their three young witch charges, Mika knows it’s against the rules. But something is drawing her to the house and the girls, and though she only intends to stay for a short while, Nowhere house might just become her home and it’s occupants her chosen family.

This is going to be one of my shortest reviews ever because this is just the cutest little witchy book and there isn’t much to not love in this book. I loved our main character, Miku. I loved the way she interacted with the girls. The romance was cute though the spice was light. & honestly, I’m a sucker for lighter witchy reads.

I’m used to reading cozy mystery stories, but if there is a cozy fantasy romance genre than Sangu Mandanna totally knocked it out of the park. I wouldn’t mind for this one to turn into a series. Definitely recommend if you’re looking for something lighthearted and warm.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches is out now! Huge thank you to Berkley Books for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof.books.

As cliche as it is to say, this book truly is a warm hug. I absolutely adored the relationships, the tone, and the balance between sweet and impactful. This is quintessential cozy fantasy, and I can't wait to read more from this author.

To say I loved this book would be an understatement - it was amazing. It's been a long time since I couldn't put a book down and this one is it! I know she's not real but I wish Mika Moon was here and guiding me in life. I love how she breaks the rules and embraces diversity.

This was a fun, quirky story filled with found family, romance, and magic. I really enjoyed getting lost in Mika's world and really wish this was part of a series. The romance was slow-burn, but with plenty of tension to keep you wanting more. The magic was really well plotted and described. I just wish there was more of Mika's potion-making, which seemed very interesting. The characters were fun and likable.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches is a romance, fantasy, and paranormal story that also deals with found family and new beginnings. Mika Moon is a witch living an isolated life in Britain, knowing she needs to keep her magic hidden. It is important not to mingle with other witches, as their powers will intensify and draw attention to them. She is an orphan, raised by strangers and now living alone. She has an online account, where she performs magic and "pretends to be a witch". No one will take her seriously, will they? When an unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to "Nowhere House" to teach three young witches how to control their magic, she breaks all of the rules and goes. Once there, she becomes involved in the life of the three young witches, and several others, including Jamie, the handsome and scowling librarian of Nowhere House who would do anything to protect the children. He doesn't want Mika there, but he finds her interesting and appealing.

This is a fun story, but it is also sad when you look at the underlying story of sadness, being orphaned at a young age, not belonging anywhere, and being afraid to be yourself. There was also humor, especially when dealing with the young witches, who do not have control over their powers. The characters in this story are delightful. I loved them all, with all their flaws, and foibles, especially the three girls. Eight-year-old Terracotta added a lot of humor as she plotted Mika's demise. Jamie and Mika had chemistry and as the story progressed, he thaws toward her and they begin to care very much about each other, actually having an intimate relationship. There are some issues along the way with a lawyer trying to find his missing client, but all in all, this is a fun read about found family and some romance, all wrapped up in a fantasy/paranormal story, that I recommend.

As warm and wonderful and comforting a read as one of Mika’s magical tea blends. This book is as lovely as has been advertised pretty much everywhere, but I wasn’t prepared for how deeply it explores the themes of true acceptance and fears around rejection — and what happens when someone trusts enough to open themselves up to the possibility of real family, even one they’ve stumbled into finding.

The denizens of Nowhere House are so charming, the romance was slow-burn but so worth it (loved Mika winning over a grumpy Irishman almost in spite of himself), and I could really picture like 5 more books set in this world. (Honestly, why not give us romances for each of the girls — Rosetta, Terracotta, and Altamira — all grown up and living their best witchy lives out in the real world beyond the wards?)

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is a fun and quirky book that I really enjoyed. It was exactly what I needed as an escape from the real world.

Book source ~ NetGalley

Mika Moon is a witch in Britain. A powerful witch. Who has to hide what she is so she ends up moving around a lot. When she gets a mysterious plea for help, she scopes it out and then leaps into a situation that could end up being a disaster or the best thing that ever happened to her.

This book is an absolute delight. I love it. All of it. The writing, the plot, and most of all, the characters. It just flows so smooth and quick that before I knew it I was done. I blew through it and didn’t want to put it down. Then I was sad. For a bit. I want more of this world. Will there be more? I don’t know. But in the meantime I know I’ll be revisiting this story over and over again in the years to come. Especially when I need a happy and fun read. Not that it is all puppies and rainbows (it brings all the feels to the table), but it’s one that is full of joy and hope. With magic. Here *shoves book* - read it!

I love a story that explores female relationships as well as romance. I devoured this book while waiting in line at Disney for a Star Wars ride (the wait was 80 minutes) and I'll be quite honest, it was the perfect pick! It has the grumpy man who falls for the sunshine that has her own dark secrets.

Mika Moon is a witch who was orphaned early, as are most witches, and raised by Primrose Everly, another witch. Mika is lonely because witches are supposed to be solitary creatures. When too many witches come together their power can be detected. Mika is contacted by a family living in Nowhere house to train 3 child witches. This is a good story of people helping others and sometimes bucking tradition to do so. There are a couple of twist and turns but in the end, witches come together to help each other and that's the stream of this book. I liked the characters and the way they grew as the book proceeded. Hope there is a sequel as the children grow.

Witches seem to be all the rage lately, and I've checked out a fair number of them over the last few months. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches is one of my favorites. This book is absolutely delightful. Don't get me wrong, it does have its moments when it tugs at the heartstrings, but Sangu Mandanna tempers the emotion with well-timed wit, humor, and adventure. This one is a romance, but it's so much more than that. The found family of Nowhere House is so much fun. Each character adds something to the story, and they're all just so lovable. There is a little bit of a mystery and some danger, but mostly, this one just kept me smiling. So, between quirky characters, an enemies-to-lovers romance, 3 precocious little witches, and a fun twist toward the end, Sangu Mandanna has penned one totally engaging story that I could and will read over and over.

I enjoyed this read so much! The story was fun and compelling and completely unique! It reminds me a little bit of practical magic which is probably why I loved it so much. The family dynamics were so entertaining and the general craziness kept me laughing throughout the whole thing!

This story is uplifting, focusing on love and human connection. Mika is a witch who has lived a lonely life. Always feeling “other”, she has moved a lot and never felt safe or loved, even though her guardian, Primrose, a very powerful witch, did care about her. When Mika answers an ad for a witch wanted, she is sure it will be something sinister, but it is actually an invitation to live in a house where three child witches needed guidance. Ian and Ken, a couple, along with the housekeeper Lucie and the tutor Jamie, take responsibility for the girls while their guardian is away. The growing relationship between Jamie and Mika, as well as between Mika and the girls, give hope that even if one is “other”, he or she can find a true family. I really enjoyed this one. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.