This is a lovely little confection of a novel, and a complete departure from the authors richly wild middle grade fantasy books.

Following the life of Mika Moon, a witch with an affinity for potions, we learn how solitary it is to be magical, with many rules in place to avoid power being in one place. Mika is a self imposed nomad - constantly moving to avoid forming bonds and wanting to reveal the existence of real magic, her only solace being her witchy, but fictional YouTube videos and her quarterly magical meeting.

All of that changes when she receives a mysterious message to come to a remote, magically warded country house. The people she finds there need her help, and she, it turns out needs them just as much.

The cast of characters are what makes this book so special, there are three children who while annoying in places, are supposed to be, and four squishy marshmallow characters who I just want to be my found family.

The peril is minimum, the drama is sedate, but the vibes are everything. There are a couple of twists and turns but this is a pretty straightforward romance and found family tale, that is like a lovely hug to read.

Think of someone putting a straight Cerulean Sea and Practical Magic in a blender and add a pinch of Her Majesty’s Royal Coven.

I really enjoyed my time with these characters and would happily watch the little found family grow together in a series of adventures. Mandanna is witty, heartfelt and able to infuse her characters with a sense of self in a very short space of time.
It feels breezy but there is some very heavy lifting done on magic systems and world building that is pretty seamless.

I had both digital and audio copies of this book and decided to listen to it. It was further down my list of audiobooks, but it managed to make its way up, and I heard it to the end in very few sittings, something I rarely end up doing (continuously, that is).
The first thing I ought to mention is that this book caught me by surprise. The cover and the blurb do not actually hint at the tone of the narrative that is within these pages. I have seen the idea of magical realism brought into romantic/chick lit. This is not that. It is a work of fantasy with the human element woven to make it a cozy read.
If not for some small things scattered across the book (one of them being regular swearing that was jarring in this otherwise restful book, even in tense moments), I would have rated it five full stars. In fact, I highly recommend it to fans of just plain good writing and emotional books with happy endings.
I have seen this author on the blogosphere a lot, and this is the first book of hers that I have had an opportunity to read. Given the uniqueness of the plot that I stumbled upon, I will keep a lookout for any others written by her.
This is the story of a lonely witch. She wants to have a life, a simple one where she shares her joys and sorrows truthfully with people. Unfortunately, being a witch in the world meant that she had to remain incognito and frequently move in order to ensure no suspicions were raised. She is not even allowed to name the coven of witches who meet ever so often to discuss their spells. The tone of these conversations made me think of this as an adult book in the style of those written by Eva Ibbotson for children.
Her future looks bleak until she is contacted by someone on social media offering her a job to train young witches. She takes the plunge and makes her way to an unknown house and lands up in a very chaotic plot which only gets more convoluted the deeper her heart is invested.
There is a love story wrapped within a tale of found family. This is sandwiched in the growth arc of our leading lady.
The bonds and people mentioned in this book have heartfelt interactions, making it a delightful read. The narrator did a great job in bringing the book and the conversations to life.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own listening experience.

It always helps if the narrator is good – and Samara MacLaren’s voice and reading style has become a solid favourite. So it was a bonus to discover her dulcet tones when I first tucked into this enjoyable offering.

Mika is a delightful protagonist. She’s had a tough time as a child. Due to a spell that went wrong several hundred years ago, all witches are orphaned early in their lives so are brought up by guardians instead of their parents. After the horrendous witch burnings of the 16th century, the community of witches scattered and now they only meet up very occasionally. For magic tends to gather around witches, making it easier for them to be discovered. So it’s deemed safer by formidable leaders like Primrose for witches to stay away from each other, making life lonely for adult witches who wish to continue to practise their magic. It would have been all too easy for Mika to have been portrayed as a classically tragic heroine – so I was very pleased to find her resolutely sunny-natured in all but the toughest situations.

Her three charges are funny without being too cute, unrealistically awful or revoltingly good – which is harder to achieve than Mandanna makes it look. There is also a rather sweet love story that unfolds in the middle of all the magical shenanigans, which I also enjoyed. However – there is a warning. The F-word is liberally sprinkled throughout, which didn’t really fit with the overall feel of the story. I certainly didn’t appreciate its use in front of the children, for instance. Apart from that one niggle, this is an enjoyable, often humorous and ultimately uplifting fantasy adventure with a dollop of romance with one steamy scene I fast-forwarded through. While I obtained an arc of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
8/10

I absolutely adored this book. The soft, witchy vibes with a loving found family, and diverse cast of characters was right up my street. Moody, Irish, Librarian love interest? Say no more. I also thought that the audio narration was lively and added to the overall storytelling. All of the side characters felt fully fleshed out and real, and although there were things at stake for the characters, it felt much more like a gentle and cosy fantasy. One of the best books I've listened to this year.

I liked all the characters and the narration is good. I love the way magic is described, gold dust shimmering around the witches, behaving like mischievous child. I was hoping for more antics with the kids, like I expected from the description, but this was more based on the romance between Mika and Jamie.

A warm cozy book that was hard to put down with loveable characters with found family feels.



Audio notes: Audio repeats itself chapter 1 - 06:45

Sound is sometimes muffled or has an echo.

AHH!

This book was LOVELY. This was so heartwarming, magical, and just lovely - there's no other way to describe it.
The narration was beautiful, with unique voices and non-bad accents for all the characters. Yes it was cheesy and predictable at times, but there was a few unexpected moments that surprised me! A lovely sunshine/grump with/librarian romance and I just LOVED it. Cannot wait to read it again closer to winter.

The witchy season is just around the corner and what better time then for this perfectly whimsical and magical new novel. Incredibly heartwarming and absolutely charming, this is a lighthearted and quirky story of chosen family and magic. Romance, wit, a great plot and clever characters - what more could you ask for?

This audio book was absolutely perfectly narrated, a joy to listen to and the whole story was brought to life. Superb.

Loved how super light hearted this one was

I’m a sucker for a witchy story and this one didn’t fail to get me hooked. Slightly predictable in places but not enough to put me off

This was one of the most sweet and cozy witchy romances I’ve ever read! This is a book I will most definetly recommend to everyone that wants to read a witchy story or a sweet romance!

Witches exist among us! We just have no idea because they are hiding their magic, keeping it a secret from us humans, so as not to suffer as the witches of the past have. Mika Moon is one of those witches. The 31 year old woman has been alone almost all her life. She is an orphan who was raised by Primrose Everly, or to be more precise, she was raised in Primrose’s house by an horde of nannies and tutors that were coming and going every time they understood that Mika was not your usual girl. When that was happening, when someone realized Mika had magic, Primrose would swipe away their memories. As a result, Mika has nobody from her childhood that remembers her or the time they spent together. She only has Primrose and the witches of the Secret Society of Witches. The Society has very strict rules, and Primrose always makes sure these rules are followed, for their own safety. However, they don’t meet very often, as too much magic concentrated in one place would only result to something bad.

Mika got used to being alone, to not getting too attached with people and to moving often so as to avoid exposure. She loved magic and her potion making and she decided to share a video on YouTube about magic. Everyone plays witch these days, so it would ne be a reason to expose true witches to the world. Or at least, that’s what she thought, for one day she got a message with the subject: “Witch Wanted”. It seems that someone might have been able to identify Mika as a true witch, or at least this is what she would try to find out. That video definitely broke the rules, Primrose made that very clear in their last meeting. Now, this message was one more reason to delete it! Mika decides to visit that remote and hard to find place, Nowhere House, and teach the three young witches that live there with a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, an always missing archaeologist and Jamie. Jamie is running Nowhere House Library and is also responsible for the three girls. He is over protective of the girls and is not convinced that bringing Mika is a good idea.

I totally loved Mika’s personality! She is very relatable! A person easy to like and hang out with, at all times, It is so easy for everyone to get attached to her, as she is so kind and all she wants is to help the three girls, to teach them all she can about magic, all that she learned the hard way, be it magic or real life. As soon as she saw them, she realized she didn’t want them to go through what she has. She doesn’t want them to be alone all their lives, but to have at least each other and a few more people they could call family.

But Mika was not the only loveable character in the book! The girls where too. Each one of them had her own personality with, Rosette, the eldest one, being the most friendly of all. Terracotta, who was the middle child, was the most worried one. She didn’t want intruders in their life and Mika felt like one to her, so she sabotaged her on every possible occasion. And Altamira, the youngest one being the sweetest of all!

Jamie on the other hand is the stiff, difficult man that doesn’t like strangers. His personality alongside Mika’s was the best one to build a slow burning romance, that started as kind of a friendship and evolved into romance. I really enjoyed this part of the story, as well as the part that magic played in all that building. I loved that Jamie was Irish and that the narrator made the effort to sound like an Irishman. It’s the kind of British rom-com that I like, sprayed with tons of magic and that really worked for me. I just couldn’t stop listening! It was such heartwarming!

Thank you to NetGalley & Hodder & Stoughton Audio, Hodder & Stoughton for an advance copy of this book. The views expressed are my personal and honest opinion.

Full review will be posted soonish and I'll add links to blog as well.

I would like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Such a lovely book and in my top five reads this year. An amazing story with a host of characters I loved and twists I did not expect. For an adorable witchy romance pick this book up now!

I listened to the audiobook version of this book and it was so good. Honestly, they could not have chosen a better narrator. It was interesting but felt a lot like a bedtime story too, in a good way!

I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK! I got ALL the feels! I really resonated with Mika, her story was both sad and honest. Jamie was just a little hunk of Irish in my head, I loved the developing relationship they shared.

Those kids... My heart! Could it be on the verge of combustion? I really enjoyed their little - BIG personalities and would have loved to have got to know them more. What a diverse, beautiful, found family.

I think I just fell in love with the whole plot, the Broomstick, Nowhere House and even the members of the 'Society' we met along the way. I loved the descriptions of Mika's tea's and potions, loved the way the magic was described as mischievous.

What a book to kick of my Autumn reading season! There's some EPIC quotes in there too! It was very well written and I think I'd re-read again next year to give me autumn warm-fuzzies. Absolutely recommend!

The audiobook was narrated REALLY well in my opinion, especially when it came to the children.

Took me a while to get around to this but I am so very glad I did. What a wonderful story.

I listened to the audio version and enjoyed it - I found it added an extra layer to the characters.

It centres around Mika - a witch who has felt very lonely most of her life and doesn’t hang around anywhere long, until she gets a mysterious invite to Nowhere House to teach some younger witches.

I loved the character development of Mika - watching her slowly learn to love and trust and realise that being kept on her own wasn’t for her own good. She learns a whole different life of being a witch and how having others can help her. You watch her develop relationships with those at Nowhere House and understand secrets and mysteries.

Mika’s love interest Jamie also has fantastic character development from being the stand offish one to the one Mika can rely on…well until we learn the secret.

I must admit it wasn’t a twist I saw coming in any way shape or form but I think really made sense and I felt like I should have seen it.

I loved the way this book explores companionship, I loved the descriptions of magic and I loved the love story.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches is the sweetest witch romance I have ever read. This book is like a hug from an old friend and is the perfect seasonal read (witches and magic, autumn/winter settings and a cosy vibe).
This isn't the sort of book you read for the plot, its heavily character focused and I wouldn't have it any other way but that's not to say I didn't enjoy every second of the story that Sangu Mandanna told!
Mika's relationships with all of the other characters are charming and sweet in their own way and Mandanna manages to still create depth and sincerity in these characters and relationships without changing the tone of the book.
I highly recommend this for those who enjoy light hearted romance and are looking for a seasonal read.
Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the audio ARC of this book (and the idea to name a dog Circe- I will be stealing that!)

„The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches“ is a magical story about found family that will melt your heart.

All her life, Mika Moon has hidden her magic and kept her head down, because she knows that drawing attention to the magical folk might endager them all. Still, she is somehow found out and asked to travel to the Nowhere House in, ironically, the middle of nowhere, in order to teach three young witches. In over her head, but motivated nonetheless she agrees to do so and along the way finds something she never thought possible.

I cannot stress enough how much I loved this book. Sangu Mandanna has written a sweet and fun story about found family, a magical love story and an honest story about loss, grief and trauma all at once and thus created the perfect comfort book that’ll make you tear up as well as melt into a puddle and dissolve into giggles.
Each and every character in this book stands out – among others, there’s a grumpy librarian, an elderly gay couple that loves to meddle and a stern old witch that somehow kept reminding me of Minerva McGonagall. All of them are kind, whimsical and unique characters you cannot help falling in love with. It’s a treat to get to know them, see how much they care for one another and how readily they accept Mika into their family…well, most of them.
I recommend this book to readers who enjoy character-driven wholesome novels with lots of representation and a decent plot.

If you are looking for your new favorite comfort read, look no further, because „The Secret Society of Irregular Witches“ is exactly what you are looking for.

Perfect for Fans of „The House in the Cerulian Sea“

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna.
Narrated by Samara MacLaren.
As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon has lived her life by three rules: hide your magic, keep your head down, and stay away from other witches. An orphan raised by strangers from a young age, Mika is good at being alone, and she doesn't mind it . . . mostly.
I loved listening to this audio book. Witty. 5*.

Mika and her found family at Nowhere House are a bunch of magical eccentrics.
Witches are not allowed to live in groups because of the volatile nature of magic. Three children who don't have control of their magic are bound to cause problems.
I loved that the people at Nowhere House had such a strong family bond and they didn't want to have to separate the children. Having read about Mika's upbringing and how lonely it was I was hoping for a good outcome for the children.
Jamie doesn't want Mika there as he sees her as a threat to the secrets they are hiding at Nowhere House. However, his grumpiness is soon mellowed the more he gets to know Mika.
There was a surprising twist at the end of the novel that I did not see coming and ended the story in a very heartwarming and uplifting way.
I loved the narration of this book. The narrator does a wonderful job of the characters' voices and accents. I was particularly impressed with Jamie as his accent is difficult to get right and Samara MacLaren nails it. Perfect.

5*'s. This was wonderful. The comfort and coziness of a romance ft the fantastic grumpy/sunshine trope (grumpy Irish librarian with a heart of gold who just wants to save his family - I love Jamie so much) meets the whimsy and charm of an urban fantasy a la house in the cerulean sea style. Honestly loved this book so much, recommend the audio if you want to experience Jamie's Irish brogue! Cannot recommend this one enough for people who want cozy fantasy that will make you happy whilst also dealing with people's feelings of loneliness and isolation so please pick it up and give it a shot! Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy.

This was such a cute book. It had a cosy atmosphere that I love in romances. It was very enjoyable to read. I loved the family and their quirks, I loved the descriptions of Nowhere House and I loved the way that the magic was described and used.

Mika Moon, despite having a really stupid name, is a really great character. She is well rounded and her voice is funny, easy to read and completely right for the story. The narration added to this well and brought her and the other characters to life in a great way.

There were just a couple of things that bugged me. The first was the plot. It was all hinged around the fact that the girls would have to be at the house when the lawyer came and so their magic had to be kept in control. But during the book they leave the house! Rosetta goes to the bookshop, the other two are taken to the beach at the same time and all three girls go out foraging with Mika. There was no reason that they couldn't be taken out into the woods while the lawyer was there!

The other thing was explained and it made sense but was confusing for me through most of the book. Despite the witches being orphaned at an early age and it being stated at several times that they can't have siblings for that reason, a couple of witches are mentioned to have sisters!! It wasn't said out loud but it finally clicked why during the finale of the book, but it frustrated me a bit while reading. I think it would have been better if they'd explained earlier that it can happen.

All in all though, this was a good read and I really enjoyed it.