By Sangu Mandanna
Published August 2022
336 Pages
Happy October! Tis the season for witches of all stripes so in honor of Samhain (or Halloween if you prefer), I’m adding in a good amount of Witchlit to my reading pile this month. This is a great one to start off the month with because it also happens to be one of the best books I’ve read this year.
A quick blurb: There aren’t many witches in the world and the ones that are around gather very rarely. This is due to a group-cast spell gone wrong centuries ago; a spell that leaves witches orphaned young and convinced witches that the only way to stay safe is to keep separated. Mika Moon has always followed the rules, but she doesn’t like them. She’d love nothing more to find a place she belongs, a real home that she doesn’t have to move away from after a few months.
When she accepts a strange offer to teach three young witches at Nowhere House, Mika allows herself to believe she might have found that home. Not only is she doing good by helping her charges learn to control their powers, but she might have found a family that actually accepts her as she is. Until she learns they’ve been lying to her all along. Will her heart let her continue to help them, even though she might not be able to stay?
I’ve seen this book comped to Practical Magic x The House on the Cerulean Sea and I couldn’t have come up with better comparisons if I tried. This novel is, in a word, fabulous. Sweet, warm, uplifting, and funny but at times heart-wrenching. I loved the magickal world the author created, along with Mika’s yearning to overcome the rules for protection in order to belong without pretending. And I laughed. Oh, my goodness, did I laugh. I think I pegged this at five stars when the youngest witch uttered the line, “That’s some Mary Poppins sh*t.” It’s much funnier in context – I’m still chuckling about it a week after finishing the book.
This is going to be a shortish review because I have nothing, and I mean nothing, critical to say about this book. I hope this author has another book in the works because I am officially a fan.
If you haven’t read this one yet, pick it up immediately. Seriously, it’s that good.
5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Until next time, thank you for visiting.
Ann Dudzinski 