Title: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

Title: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
Author: Sangu Mandanna
Source: My local library
Genre: Cozy fantasy
Trigger Warnings: None I can recall
Explicit? Nope
Summary: 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….

Mika feels so alone at the beginning of the book that it’s easy as a reader to empathize with her. She really is very sweet and I found myself comparing her to some of the favourite people that exist in my life. Jamie is a little off at first, but who doesn’t love a grumpy sunshine feel to their romance?

This book boasts a cast of characters who love so deeply, and care so much for each other that it’s easy to feel like you’re wrapped in their embrace as you flip through the pages of the book digitally or otherwise.

There is the threat of something hanging over their lives, and that threat could pull them all apart. Magic isn’t meant to be shared but rather hidden, and I found myself white knuckling my ereader as I hoped and prayed that it would all turn out okay.

All the people in this book are easy to care about but my particular faves were Ian and Ken, a gay couple who do everything they can to help out, sometimes in the most unhelpful of ways.

I do wish the story was a bit more expansive, or even a series, as I would love to spend more time with this cast of characters.