Nils and Beth have another buddy read for you today, and this time they dove into Sangu Mandanna’s much anticipated A WITCH’S GUIDE TO MAGICLA INNKEEPING…

What if love is the best magic of all?

A witch has a second chance to get her magical powers – and her life back on track in this feel-good, whimsical new cosy fantasy from the author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches.

Once, Sera Swan was one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Then she resurrected her great-aunt Jasmine from the (very recently) dead, lost most of her powers, befriended a semi-villainous talking fox, and was exiled from her Guild. Now she helps Jasmine run an enchanted inn in Lancashire, where she deals with their quirky guests’ shenanigans and longs for a future that seems lost. Until she finds about an old spell that could restore her power . . .

Enter Luke Larsen, handsome magical historian, who might have the key to unlocking the spell’s secrets. Luke has no interest in the inn’s madcap goings-on, and is even less interested in letting a certain bewitching innkeeper past his walls. So no one is more surprised than he is when he agrees to help.

Running an inn, reclaiming lost power, and staying one step ahead of the watchful Guild is a lot for anyone, but Sera is about to discover she doesn’t have to do alone – and that love might be the best magic of all.

A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping is due for release 17th July – you can pre-order your copy HERE

What are your expectations starting this one?

Nils: The moment I started A Secret Society of Irregular Witches I was enveloped in this cosy found family story and completely swept away, it became one of my favourite reads and so my expectations for Sangu Mandanna’s next book were really high. 

Beth: Same here! My expectations for Innkeeping were entirely based on how much I’d loved Irregular Witches, which I read after you said how much you’d enjoyed it! 

Nils: You should always trust my recommendations!!

Beth: No argument here! 

Nils: Going into A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping, as it is set in the same world, I was expecting more witchy fun and another feel-good read, which is exactly what I got. 

What Mandanna does so well is create characters that are just a little bit quirky, they have a whimsical air about them and I don’t know whether this is the author using a little bit of magic on us but you just become attached to them right from the onset. So I absolutely couldn’t wait to meet the characters in this book.

Beth: I was exactly the same, it was the characters I was most looking forward to. I think I’d be hard pressed to remember the details of the plot of Irregular Witches, but the characters are firmly imprinted in my mind. I was also looking forward to what a magical inn would entail? Is she a witch who loses her powers and finds shelter in an inn? Like a version of Kiki’s Flying Delivery Service with alcohol?

First impressions?

Nils: Honestly, as soon as I began this novel I was chuckling away to myself. 

Beth: The whole book is funny, but the opening is especially so!

Nils: The premise starts with a death, Sera Swan’s aunt has suddenly passed away, and you would think because of this the tone would be really sombre yet somehow it’s still very lighthearted, there’s humour and banter. We learn that our main protagonist is a powerful witch, only one other matches her power and so she’s able to perform a resurrection spell to make things right. Only things don’t go according to plan and we quickly discover there are  consequences to using such powerful magic. This opening was a great start, one that really did hook me in because right off the bat we’re presented with the witchy fun that I was expecting but also there’s some peril with what will happen next to our main character. Beth, I know you were really hooked by this beginning too, weren’t you?

Beth: I really was, it sucked me right in! To begin with, I loved the dedication – Mandanna dedicates the book to herself, and I don’t think I’ve ever come across that before, it really made me smile.

Then we have the opening scene and I was just so swept up in the bizarre and unusual situation – I immediately wanted to know so much more about these characters: what’s going to happen to Sera for using an illegal spell? Why is Clemmie a fox? Why does she live with her aunt? And as Nils said above, it was so humorous, there was an absurdity to the situation that was just great. Jasmine’s reaction to dying and being resurrected was just brilliant! 

I was surprised that Sera was so young, it literally says on the cover about finding love, so I was relieved that it isn’t too long before we skip fifteen years into the future.

Nils: oh yes! I was glad she’s older after the opening too!

What do you make of the cast of characters? Who are your favourites?

Nils: Sera Swan is immediately likable, given that she’s lost most of her magic, this hasn’t changed her into a bitter self pitying character, instead she’s just determined to find a way to bring her magic back. She’s immensely kind and welcomes people with warmth and accepts them for who they are, this was the aspect that I loved about her the most. Sera runs the Batty Hole inn and with that she’s made a safe haven for an eclectic bunch of people who have ultimately been let down by the people who should love them.

So yes, Mandanna once again creates a cast of lovable side characters. There’s Jasmine who was so caring, Clemmie the fox who may have had selfish reasons for sticking around Sera but actually loved everyone more than she let on, then there was Matilda who just wanted to be appreciated for the cabbages she grows, and the Knight Nicholas who was adorably chivalrous and was definitely one of my favourites, although Beth you weren’t too pleased with Nicholas, were are you?!

Beth: Ok I did like Nicholas, I thought to begin with he was going to be the love interest (blame my recent spate of T. Kingfisher reading). Although I did come to like these side characters a lot, I didn’t connect as strongly to these characters as I did with the ones in Irregular Witches, and I think it’s because we skip fifteen years into the future and suddenly, as well as Sera, Clemmie, and Jasmine, who we’d just been getting to know, we suddenly now have Theo, Matilda and Nicholas too. I struggled to fit Matilda and Nicholas into the story, I didn’t feel the connection to them that Sera does because we’d missed the forming of that connection. There is also a scene later on where Nicholas interrupts something and I did get very annoyed with him then 😂

Nils: I do agree that having this found family already established at the inn does make feeling a connection with them harder as it makes the reader feel detached. However, I was pleased to see that Mandanna included some child characters because I really loved that about the first book. Sera’s nephew Theo was great mischievous fun but it was Posy who I became really attached to. Posy is autistic and therefore a lot of people didn’t understand the way she behaved, but soon she finds her place in the inn and finds people who will just let her be herself and seeing that was so heartwarming.

Beth: Mandana is truly brilliant at writing child characters, she treats them with the same respect and consideration she does all her characters and as a result they’re not childish and unbelievable as some are usually portrayed. Theo and Posy have their fair share of difficult circumstances that have led them to being in the inn, just like everyone else who has found their way there. Like Nils says, Mandanna’s representation of autism through Poppy and Luke was brilliant, it was very well handled and relatable.

Nils: Lastly, there was swoony Luke, who perhaps is my overall favourite. Luke is Posy’s older brother and her main carer, given that he’s one to put his sister’s needs first and is always thinking about what is best for her. He’s never resentful towards Posy but he was definitely in desperate need of some happiness so he was a character that made me feel the most for. What did you think of Luke, Beth?

Beth: I loved his complexities and the gentle way we got to know him! It’s clear he has ASD symptoms, but has learned to mask them to such a degree that he pushes people away. You put it perfectly Nils, he was definitely in need of some happiness and kindness, so I utterly fell for his slow-burn romance with Sera, as they quietly learned how to let each other in and support each other. 

A favourite character of mine was Professor Verity, Luke’s boss from the Guild’s library. She was a very strong-willed character who put me in mind of Maggie Smith or Meryl Streep – that sort of woman who no longer has patience for things she needn’t be wasting her time on and will tell you so because, why on earth shouldn’t she? I’d love to see her come up in a future book from Mandanna!

Let’s talk about the magic system – does it make sense? What do you enjoy the most or least about it?

Nils: I loved how the inn held little sparks of magic, from  Sera’s spell which only allowed those in need to find the inn to the random ghosts of Sera’s past, the magic that kept unseasonal vegetables growing and the Apple Blossom tea that rained down in a certain room only on a Sunday. Spells may have not come easily to the inhabitants at the inn, but in a way it didn’t need to because the place had a magic all of its own and that sentiment was really well presented. 

Beth: The magic was definitely my favourite aspect of the book, it was brimming with magic spells, as Nils has outlined above. An element I particularly loved was Mandanna’s descriptions of how magic was different for each person; Sera’s magic was like a galaxy of stars unfurling before her, but her adversary Albert Grey’s magic was more violent, like lightning. Each individual’s magic presented differently to them, and Mandanna’s descriptions were so beautiful. I loved the inn itself so much. I was a little confused over the etymology, it was more of a bed and breakfast than an inn. I was expecting, basically, a pub; I was raised in a pub which was also a bed and breakfast (it was a coaching inn at one time), so I was looking forward to feeling some nostalgia of living in an inn and… it very much wasn’t like that at all. However, as I said, I did love Mandanna’s ‘inn’. Batty Hole has been brought to life by Sera’s spell, it reacts to her magic and sends her poignant messages through the ghost-like mirages of memories. There was something so melancholic about these ghosts. They’re like a sign of how much the inn cares for Sera, and like it’s trying to communicate with her, trying to reach out to her at times she needs comforting. 

Nils: I think the ghosts were also teaching her how strong Sera was, how much she had grown and how she longer needed to face everything alone. Like Beth said these moments were melancholic but they also showed hope. 

How did you find the overall plot of the story? Was there a villain and if so how did you find them?

Nils: At first I was quite excited that we were going to get a magical school because it’s a trope I absolutely love. However, the British Guild of Sorcery, was quite an elitist establishment and if you were not part of the right family or bloodline then you were less readily welcomed there. 

Beth: This was an aspect we felt was a little belaboured, wasn’t it Nils? An elitist magic school is common enough fantasy fare (it reminded us of H. G. Parry’s The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door, and also M. L. Wang’s Blood Over Bright Haven), but it felt exaggerated almost to the point of caricature. I think that’s why I loved Verity so much, she worked at the Guild but was a welcome break from the rest of the school. Speaking of…

Nils: Yes I did struggle with how on the nose the prejudice of the Guild was presented. Albert Grey was the other sorcerer who was as powerful as Sera and once she had lost her magic he was unrivalled. His influence over the Guild was immense, he basically called all the shots and this meant that anyone he didn’t approve of wouldn’t get the magical education that they deserved. I know in dark academia this is a common theme, but here I have to say I found it a little bit unbelievable that one man would hold so much sway over an entire school. Beth you felt the same, didn’t you?

Beth: Definitely! He felt a bit of a cartoon villain, didn’t he? I kept trying to remind myself that this is a cosy fantasy and the stakes aren’t going to be too dramatic, but his absolute power felt so unrealistic that it was difficult to then accept the jeopardy that Mandanna was trying to instil through him. 

Nils: Despite the Guild being a disappointment, we of course, also had the plot of Sera trying to decipher a spell which could restore her magic and this was something that I really loved discussing with Beth because we had so many theories. 

Beth: Yes! Again, this was an aspect I had to shift my expectation of. Sera is trying to work out a riddle of a spell and decipher what ingredients she needs, which was an excellent puzzle for myself and Nils, we swapped loads of ideas – but we were thinking quite far outside the box, definitely influenced by the epic and grim fantasies we usually read. I had to rein myself in again and remind myself again that this story wasn’t trying to be that and I needed to think on a smaller scale! 

Quotes – All quotes used are taken from an early ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

Beth: 

“Magic was a funny thing… For Sera, it was a wild, joyous updraft that set her soaring into a night sky lit by thousands of tiny twinkling stars, each shining as brightly as suns.”

“Sera had never planned to run the inn. It creak, it leaked, an worst of all, it had people in it.”

“The thing a great many witches never understood about magic was its heart… what so many of those witches did not realise was that what it wanted was to be loved. It could be tender in one witch’s hands and violent in another’s, it could be vast or it could be small, it could be a night sky or teeth or lightning, but the one thing that never changed was that what it sought and what it repaid, above all else, was love.”

Nils: 

“There had been a young girl, once, who had loved magic with every bit of her heart, and so, when she had needed it, magic had repaid her with a spell. A spell that had transformed an inn into a flame in the dark, an outstretched hand to the ones falling over the edge and a warning to the ones pushing them.

No one could make sense of the spell. It wasn’t how spells were supposed to work.

And yet.”

“If you’re worried about her manners, don’t be.” Matilda added merrily. “No one here has any. It’s grand.” 

“The magical night sky was out of reach, but sometimes, for a stolen moment every now and then, the wild green land almost, almost, made up for it.

She let that feeling sit for a moment.

For a moment, the world was quiet and still.

For a moment, it was just Sera and the horizon and the few

valiant, twinkling stars of magic that had never left.”

Overall Thoughts

Nils: Mandanna has become an author who seamlessly delivers a hug in a book. A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping is a tale that will make you feel cosy, warm and comforted. It’s a story about finding people to love and accept you for who you are, it’s about finding happiness with others and within yourself, and ultimately it’s about finding that spark of magic that’s been hidden within you all along. There’s whimsy, there’s banter, and surprisingly of all there is such a bittersweet ending where I cried tears of sadness but also joy. 

Beth: This is a story which very much does as it says on the tin. It’s a cosy, easy read which isn’t trying to be anything more than that and I loved it for that. It packs in a great deal of heart and character growth, with plenty of exploration around the drive for power and the importance of acceptance. This is very much a character driven story, with a wonderful storyteller in Mandanna behind the wheel, taking us on a gentle drive through a magical landscape. I also cried at that ending, but I laughed so much along the way too. Mandana is lethal with the one liners! I can’t wait to read what she brings us next (especially if it features more of Verity!)

A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping is due for release 17th July – you can pre-order your copy HERE