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A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping
Sangu Mandanna
334 pages
Berkeley Publishing
July 25, 2025
This novel is a book that centers on one of the same characters as an earlier novel, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, Sera, who runs a magical inn in Lancaster, England. Now, I am very choosy about my fantasy novels, and am very partial to witches. That is what drew me to Mandanna’s first adult novel, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, and I was satisfied indeed. I was also drawn to the book cover, a theme that continued for this book which fooled me into believing it was a sequel. A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping, while incorporating a major character and setting as the first, has different events, which led to some confusion as I read. Nonetheless, when I judged the book on its own merits, I had a wonderful time. There is nothing like fantasy to take the reader out of the real world, and these days, that is very much appreciated.
The basic premise is that Sera, the protagonist, has lost her mojo—or much of her magic after resurrecting her aunt Jamine—and spends her time trying to get it back. There are other fantastical creatures, Clemmie, a witch in the form of a fox and Roo-Roo, a personified rooster, who is, perhaps, the most entertaining “person” in the book. There is also a love interest, Luke. All of this is wonderful. Where the novel may lose a little something (but only a little) is in the author’s attempt to explore larger themes such as family and community which may have been a tad too intentional for my taste. Mandanna more than makes up for this slight heavy handedness by setting and the interactions between the characters, both Sera and the supporting characters. I can honestly visualize this as a movie, for that reason, that I am not sure I could envision The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches.
I look forward to another novel with these same characters, though I will endeavor to remember that is not a sequel per se. I think that the author has built a world and a set of characters that can continue if she so chooses. As a writer of children’s books, Ms. Mandanna appears to be mastering the concept of fantasy for adults.
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