I’m not sure if I’m supposed to giggle so much. But I laughed at the most inappropriate of moments. There were so many unpredictable moments and so many moments unforgettable moments.

Persephone is my favorite! She says the funniest things like she’s been waiting on her letter from Hogwarts. (I’m done. 🤣)

The Witches of Moonshyne Manor is the Golden Girls meets Witches of East End and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. I inhaled this book!

Thank you Harper Audio and Netgalley for the gifted ALC.

THE WITCHES OF MOONSHYNE MANOR reminds me a little of the witches from Hocus Pocus. Their dedication to the protection of each other and their home is seen throughout the book. I love the characters and their development. I especially liked how each was introduced at the beginning of the story. The use of the date and time helped to keep up with the timeline, which is vital to the story.

I really enjoyed listening to the audio version of the book. The narrator was fabulous and made the story easy to listen to and follow the characters along the way.

I love the website recommended (https://www.biancamarais.com/), especially the activity to find out which witch from the book you most resemble. (I'm most like Queenie, and yes, I agree).

I enjoyed Amy Landon's narration of this novel. She did a good job of making each character's voice distinct even though they are all in their later years. I would listen to more books narrated by Amy Landon in the future.

I loved the ending of this book and I hope that this becomes a duology, I would love to know what happens in the future to a few of these characters. This group of women was great and I loved the author's note at the end of the book. It is true, I find our GAFF decreases proportionately with age. Looking forward to reading more of Bianca's books in the future.

This is a beautiful story about womanhood. I think if you liked Circe, you’ll like this.

Six witches all taken under the wing of their essentially adoptive mother find themselves under fire from the patriarchy only for a teenage girl to come to their rescue.

This story is very timely with focuses on consent, what it means to be a woman/mother, and family function and dysfunction all while being incredibly funny.

Highly recommend as a cozy Fall/witchy read.

3.5 but rounding up to 4!

I enjoyed the heck out of this story for the most part! The witches who are all 80+ in age, the young TikToker that joins them and creating an unlikely friendship, the representation, the conversations surrounding identity, feminism, and power, it was all so good! Add in the intrigue of a magical heist, the looming threat of danger, and the natural and magical hiccups that come with aging and this book really stands out as a unique read!

Some humor wasn’t quite to my taste, but totally makes sense given the characters and the lack of filters that come with age and experience, and the book dragged a bit for me pacing wise as a whole, but overall I truly enjoyed this read!

The audio was fantastically well narrated! Definitely one I’d recommend!

An interesting story sure to please those that like tales of witches. I found it a little difficult to follow each individuals story, but overall a nice novel!

Although the concept of this story—a group of ancient witches seeking assistance from a young Tiktoker in their struggle against patriarchal culture intriguing, I was utterly disinterested in it. It switches back and forth between all the numerous witches, making it somewhat difficult for me to remember who was who. The narration for all POVs felt like it came from the same person at times and was a little corny and goofy. Just the opening alone replicates the same morning via each POV. Although I believe many other people would enjoy it, I personally didn't enjoy the eccentricity.

The Witches of Moonshyne Manor

Publication date: August, 23 2022

Thank you to @netgalley and @_mira_books_ for both the audio and EARC of this novel!

QOTD: Do you have a favorite fictional witch? Who are they? If not, what’s your favorite type of soup?

This book was marketed as Practical Magic meets The Golden Girls, and I cannot think of a more apt way of describing this book. This novel follows five octogenarian witches and residents of Moonshyne Manor. These wacky ladies run a distillery and sell to the locals in town. We have Queenie, the leader of the pack who love experimentation. We have the Sarah Sanderson/Blanche Deveraux sexy one of the group, Jezebel. Clairvoyant Ursula, Tabby who can communicate with animals, and geeen thumb Ivy round out this group.

The main story of the book is that the women are at risk of losing Moonshyne Manor after being behind on multiple mortgage payments. The women perform a series of comedic stunts, unravel mysteries and even join forces with a TikTok star hellebent on smashing the patriarchy to safe their home.

This book is full of magic, laughs, and wonder all while managing to tackle harder issues Ageism and sexism are among a couple of the issues tackled throughout this book. I highly recommend this novel for fans of witchy stories and a celebration of diversity.

It was just slow moving to start that it left me mostly uninterested. I finished it and it was good, but it felt like a chore.

I'm obsessed with this book. The witches need to save their manor from a mob of angry men. They are old, amazing, feisty, and a part of an amazing sisterhood. I love persephone and the way she brings them life. I recommend this book for some fun feminist spooky reading. The ending of this book is amazing!!!

“Words have power which is exactly why you need to reclaim them. When you take something that was meant to demean you and you turn it into a term of endearment or a badge of honor, you take all the sting out of it. And that means you win.”

Ready to get ᭙ⅈ𝕥ᥴꫝꪗ?! 🧙🏻‍♀️

The Golden Girls (greatest show EVER) but make it witchy?! I mean come on. An auto request and *luckily* listen!

A magical heist gone wrong. A looming threat. Five octogenarian witches gather as an angry mob threatens to demolish Moonshyne Manor.

What a laugh out loud funny and absolutely perfect book to dive into the Fall and witchy reads! I am a Fall girl through and through…like my house is decorated in August #NoShame. So when I saw this book I couldn’t wait to jump start the season with its witchy fabulousness! I loved the witchy “recipes”sprinkled throughout the book, even if a lot of them were how to groom your lady bits. 🤣

The audiobook was sooo good and narrated so well. I loved it! The characters were given such spunk and life. I loved the aging women representation and that the narration reflected that!

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Harper Audio, and the author for this ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Lots of magic, fortune telling and a mystery surround a group of aging witches trying to save their beloved home. These witches act like sisters but are very different from each other in their personalities. With those differences come different strengths and powers that help them unravel a mystery and defend their home.

This was a cute story, I loved how their was such a great representation of age and how it included gender identity and a budding feminist! How could you not love a dog named RBG!!? The witches were quirky and fun. I enjoyed hearing the stories of their past antics and how they all ended up at the Manor but I just couldn’t get into the story. It fell a little flat. I wanted more character development and more levity. It had such funny scenes at the beginning that disappeared by the end when it became more serious.

I listened to the audiobook and felt the narrator was a little stiff at times and the recipes and spells that were included broke up the flow of the story. This may not be the case in the written version. It was cute just not my cup of tea!!

3 ⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley for the audio version in exchange for an honest review.

I was excited to go into this one, having read some of Marais' other work. The premise of octogenarian witches was really entertaining. The found family was great. I felt like ultimately the cast had too many members and the book could have been shorter. Once we did get into the action I enjoyed this a lot more but it took a while to get there. The narration by Amy Landon was great and she was able to make distinctions between characters.
Thank you Harper Audio and NetGalley for the ALC.

This book was so fun, a cross between practical magic and the golden girls! Sign me up! These ladies were strong and sassy!!

The Witches of Moonshyne Manor is one of my most anticipated reads of the year. And, as expected, it does not disappoint. This story about a coven of octogenarian witches is an ode to female friendships and chosen family, to individualism, to giving the finger to society’s norms and expectations and institutions, to bodily autonomy, to liberal thinking, to ageing disgracefully. It’s a wonderfully funny and entertaining read that I couldn’t get enough of.

True to her style of her previous books (also faves of mine), Bianca carefully and sensitively discusses questions of racism and sexism and looks at gender (non-)conformity in the most refreshing of ways. I can’t tell you which witch was my favourite as they’re all so wonderfully kooky and fabulous and memorable.

Whether you go for the audio or the printed version of this book, make sure you do go for it as you won’t regret it!

This book is perfect for fall! A mix of feminist witches out to save their home. It is perfect for fans of Hocus Pocus and Sabrina the Teenage Witch!

I rated this lower because I just feel like stories like this have been told 100x… there isn’t anything overly unique about it.

Nonetheless, it definitely gets you in the mood for fall!

I must say there are few things more in my niche than geriatric witches. I adored this audiobook. The narrator was perfect and the story felt like an old friend. I’ll be buying a physical copy as soon as I can and making sure to staff pick this book in my store.

What a fun read! This definitely feels like a Practical Magic meets Golden Girls and I absolutely loved it! Bianca Marais just writes a good story, no matter what the topic, and diving into the world of these octogenarian witches was so much fun! And the audiobook is fantastic!

I was surprised about how much I truly enjoyed this book.

I went in thinking it might be a heavy read, and was overjoyed that it was a fun light read. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I had the audio of the story, and the narrator Amy Landon was wonderful. I normally only listen to audiobooks with multiple narrators, but Ms. Landon brought Ms. Marais characters to life for me. I loved that the characters where older, and still respected the younger generation of women. This is what girl power and sisterhood should be in a story, it didn't feel forced which a lot do this days, and that made the story. The feminism, friendship, and sisterhood bond all felt so real and filled my heart through the story.

I listened to the audiobook and thought the narrator did a good job. I loved the idea of a bunch of 80 year old witches still winning the day. Unfortunately, I thought this book had a very slow start and it was not that suspenseful. I really enjoyed the scenes with Persephone in them. Their interactions had a lot of humor in them. Luckily she was in a lot of scenes. I thought this book could have been better with a more fleshed out ending. I’m not sure how the witches are going to survive next month. Unless this is going to be a series(I don’t think it is going to be). It also left us wandering what they were going to do with the villain. I also feel like we can have a feminist story without having to make all men in the story bad guys. There wasn’t a single man in town that they had even had a passing friendship with. In the end this was a 3 star book for me.