Hello, bookworms!
Happy Wednesday, what are you currently reading? At the moment, I am trying to finish my last March Read, Under Lock & Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian, which I am reading to fulfill the last Alphabetical Challenge prompt for 2023 (can you believe I'm already done?).
I have a lot of things to do, but I hope to finish it by the 31st. In the meantime, I am here to review a book I buddy read with Cloud, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna, a cozy fantasy romance we had high hopes for.
Without any further ado, let's get this review started!
Disclaimer
I received an e-ARC of this book (which is now available in its final and corrected form) from the publisher in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley; this does not affect my rating nor my opinions in any way. Everything you'll find in this review is what I actually think and it wasn't influenced by anyone. Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read and review this book.
About the book
Title: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
Author: Sangu Mandanna
Publisher: Berkley Books
Publication date: August 23, 2022
Pages: 336
Plot, as stated on Goodreads
A warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family--and a new love--changes the course of her life. 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…
My rating: 1 out of 5 stars
Review
I am so sad I ended up hating this book, because I honestly thought it was going to be a super cozy and super wholesome read and that I'd fall in love with the characters.
What I got instead was a mediocre book, which was trying to enforce tropes by telling and not showing them. I do not care how many times you tell me the heroine is a sunshine girl and the hero a grump, or that the heroine had never had a family before meeting the characters, I will not buy it, if you are only going to tell me that, and not actually show it.
I did not like any of the characters, because they did not have a personality. They were walking stereotypes and it bothered me to no end. The were flat, uninteresting and boring. I do think they had some potential in them, but it was not used as it could have.
The romance was also not it. The two main characters had no chemistry whatsoever, and only ended up together because there had to be romance in this book. I mean, without the romance there wouldn't have been anything else, I guess, but still…
Which leads us to the plot. There was a tag on an Italian fanfiction site called "pwp", meaning "plot what plot" or "porn without plot", which indicated erotic stories without any real plot. I am going to borrow the "plot what plot" definition, but in this case there wasn't even the porn. There was nothing at all in this freaking three hundred pages book. I'm mad.
In the last few pages the author did actually try to make something happen, but let's just say it was so absurd I eye-rolled in real life and I am not even kidding. There's a fine line between cozy fantasy and bad writing, I believe, and this author did not have the right balance.
Now, onto the writing style we go. What can I say? It was bad. I am sorry, but it really was. The author was constantly trying to be funny, but it only resulted in me cringing every other page. Moreover, it read like both a middle grade and an adult book at the same time, but not in a good way. I have no idea what the editor was doing, but they surely weren't editing.
Overall, I hated everything about this book. I would not recommend it to anyone, honestly, because if you are looking for a cozy fantasy you'll be disappointed, and if you are looking for a romance, there was none in here to speak of. On the other hand, it was a Goodreads Choice Awards nominee and people have been raving about it, so maybe it's just that I did not understand how wonderful this book actually was (if I sound sarcastic, it's because I am). Every year, I am more and more baffled by Goodreads nominations, but I digress.
That is going to be all for today, thank you so much for reading. I will talk to you soon with the Daisy Jones & The Six review that should have been up today (oopsy daisy).
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