TL;DR: If you’re looking for a cosy, heartwarming, and touching story about discovering your place, finding a family, and creating a home, then this is absolutely the book for you. If you want your heart to burst with all the feel-goodness this has to offer and if you love to read about endearing characters with giant hearts, a couple of secrets, and their share of trauma to work through, this is it. It honestly felt like I was reading The House in the Cerulean Sea but make it more diverse, inclusive, whimsical, cheekily sexy and romantic! 😍 If you’re a fan of cosy witchy goodness then what are you waiting for? Read this ASAP!

I’M NOT CRYING, YOU’RE CRYING! 🥹

Everyone who knows my reading tastes told me that I was going to love it and what do you know? They were spot on! Cue the whole hamster wheel of me questioning why it took me so long to read this and kicking myself for putting it off but now that I’ve read it… I get the hype, people!!!

On a personal note: I have to say that it was a big, but wonderful, surprise to realise this was set in Norfolk cos I lived there too! Not like I’m the only one, obviously, but it just felt so nice to read about a place I knew so well. I loved that Mika went to UEA (cos same). I took a surprise trip down memory lane as they went into Norwich cos I knew where they were and although I’m not sure if the author was talking about a real bookstore there, it very much reminded me of one I used to frequent often in the city. 😍 Reading the lush descriptions of the seaside home, the broads and the dunes really took me back. I could easily picture the setting and this added such a cosy layer to my personal reading experience!

What made this book so special though were the characters and the found family of Nowhere House. How can anyone not love this trope after reading a book as soft and sweet as this? That’s not to say that Mandanna doesn’t tackle some tough topics though. Many of the characters in the story have personally experienced the death of a loved one(s), as well as traumatic childhood events that have deeply impacted their adult lives. But as much as it was heartbreaking to learn about their backstories, it was so very healing to see them confront their trauma (where it’s needed). Mandanna does a fantastic job striking a balance between whimsical magic, heartbreaking moments, and joyful bonding with a good dose of mischief, too.

Honestly, I wanted to dive into these pages and become friends with Mika Moon and Jamie Kelly (but mostly Mika)! I loved both of them so much. 🥹 Mika is a nurturing compassionate soul who radiates sunshine and optimism. She was so patient with (all) the girls and I loved how she thrived despite being so far out of her comfort zone. She’s a very talented potions maker and reading about her relationship with and understanding of magic literally filled me with such joy! Which I guess makes me quite similar to Jamie because that’s exactly how he felt about her too. He’s the grouchy librarian at Nowhere House who was initially adamant against having Mika there. He definitely has good reasons but what I loved was how much grace and empathy the characters gave each other to come to process their feelings. The author handles these hard subjects very well! There’s so much kindness in this story and in our reality that’s constantly ravaged by devastating news, reading this felt like the best of soothing balms.

Plus, every single one of the characters in this book jumped off the page at me. Even quiet, solemn Ken and level-headed nurturing Lucie. Ian was a whirlwind of campy goodness and the children? They were the most precious, most precocious and most alarmingly adorable three little witches that I’ve had the pleasure to read more recently. Even the tight-lipped and uppity Primrose grew on me by the end of this! I loved all the moments with this quirky and irregular group of characters who most certainly wound their way into my heart. 🥰

I can keep going on about this book and how much I loved it but I’m going to stop here cos I know you know that so many people have loved it and said amazing things about it. Just know, I feel exactly the same way and highly recommend it! This is being firmly placed in my list of new favourites of 2023 and I can’t wait to read more by this author.

Have you read The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches or is it on your TBR?

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