The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

By: Sangu Mandanna
Published Year: 2022
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 318

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): 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....

First Impressions

I saw this book a lot on TikTok and Instagram. I don’t know why but the cover didn’t appeal to me and everyone raving about it made me want to read it less. So not the best first impression. I didn’t end up even considering reading it until a year later when I was really wanting a witchy book after loving the Witchlore series.

What I thought

Ok. I get the hype now.

Mika Moon is a 31 year old witch living in London. The witch who raised her, Primrose, insists that witches need to stay separate so as not to attract attention and raise suspicion. Apparently, magic is attracted to more magic. When Mika receives an email asking if she would be willing to come to a house of three young witches and be their tutor, she is immediately intrigued as to how these girls have gotten away with living together for so long. Once there, she meets the adults who are raising the girls and falls for one of them. She will have to decide whether to new feeling of home is more important than the rules she was raised with.

This book gave me the feelings of a middle grade novel that I would have loved as a kid. Like I need to read this story from the perspective of the three little girls to fulfill that childhood joy this book brought back to life. Even though this is a romance, it’s not overly spicy or in your face. I feel like that helped to keep the magic the focal point of the story which is what made it so fun.

Jamie is perfectly grumpy but with a soft spot for the girls. I couldn’t put this book down, not because of the mystery or the romance, but because I wanted to see what Mika would teach the girls next, or how Jamie would interact with the girls. Ian, Lucie, and Ken were also fabulous side characters. I feel like this book wrapped up in a way that doesn’t need a sequel but I would kill for a sequel.

Mika was complex and broken in a way that was relatable but not annoying. She wasn’t grumpy because of what she went through, but she was hurt. It made sense why she was hurt and why she would react in certain ways. But it didn’t define her. I also loved how understanding all of the other adults were around her. Even though there was a small miscommunication trope towards the end, it wasn’t because someone got mad about her defense mechanisms.